U.S. Should Face Justice for its Crimes of War and Massacre

 

The U.S. is facing criticism from the international society as it is issuing an annual report on “human rights situation” of other countries.

This year, too, the U.S.is said to have contained in its report an analysis of and advice to human rights situations of more than 200 countries, according to American-style “democracy” and “values”.

If so, we come to this question. Is the U.S. qualified to do so even though it abuses human right standard and jurisdiction which were not codified in any law, and proclaims itself as “human rights judge of the world”?

The answer to this question can be found easily in just a few facts which tell the U.S. crimes of war and massacre among the numerous U.S. criminal human rights record.

An American historian pointed out that the history of the U.S. is full of war and expansion, and a war is Americans’ way of life. He also said that it was only 16 years when there was no war in its 240-year-long history. Among 248 wars waged between 1945 and 2001, 201 wars were ignited by the U.S. One of them is the Korean War which broke out on June 25, 1950.

During the 3-year-long Korean War, the U.S. had committed crimes of slaughtering 2.47millions of innocent civilians. And it occupied south Korea illegally and has inflicted miseries and pains of national division on our nation for more than half a century.

 As we entered the 21st century, the U.S. killed more than 800,000 people by launching “counter-terrorism”. In consequence, as many as tens of millions of refugees were made.

The U.S. used not only bloody wars, but also an indirect war weapon termed economic “sanctions” against sovereign states, depriving the countless people of their rights to life and existence.

Owing to the U.S. sanctions, 1 million innocent people lost their lives in Iraq from 1991 to 2003, and a tragic incident occurred in Venezuela where 40,000 people were killed in 2018.

It is a universally recognized principle of the international law to criminalize and punish war provocation and massacre. There also exist not a few international treaties that stipulate thereon.

Sanctions against sovereign countries are also condemned as massacre by the international society as they are clear violation of international law such as the UN Charter and human rights conventions. Recently, resolutions were adopted in the international arena, including UNGA and UNHRC, calling for a withdrawal of the coercive and unilateral U.S. sanctions.

However, like a guilty party filing a lawsuit first, the U.S. poses as a “judge” to dispute with other countries over their human rights issues. This is a disgrace to and a mockery of the international society.

There is no legal basis stipulating that the American “democracy” and “values” could be applied as international human rights standard. Moreover, the U.S. has never been qualified for a “human rights judge of the world”.

The U.S. should examine itself before the international society not as a “human rights judge” but as a criminal of war and massacre, and it should be brought to justice of the world.

Ri Song Hui

Researcher of Korean Lawyers Committee