PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
MOSCOW
[1] Translated from the Russian
by Oleg Sbtifelman
Designed by Alexander Smirnov
Contributors:
Professor Alexander Galkin, D. Sc. (Hist.), an expert in the history of Germany; Professor. Robert Ivanov, D. Sc. (Hist.), an expert in the history of the USA and international relations;
Konstantin Telyatnikov, a writer, publicist, historian;
Inna Cherkasova, Cand. Sc. (Econ.), a specialist in Southern African problems; Edgar Cbeporov, a journalist, political commentator, former newspaper correspondent in Britain;
Ilya Bulycbov, a historian, specialist in Latin America; Vsevolod Sofinsky, a diplomat, member of the UN Human Rights Commission's Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, member of the ECOSOC Working Group of Governmental Experts on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Valentin Shubin, a lawyer, Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, an observer from the Association of Soviet Lawyers at the Phnom Penh trial over the Pol Pot-Ieng Sari clique; Victor Menzbinsky, D. Sc. (Law)
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© «riporpecc», 1985
English translation © Progress Publishers 1985
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
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[2] CONTENTS Preface FASCIST GERMANY: FROM RACIAL DISCRIMINATION TO DEATHDOCUMENTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO ISRAELI CRIMES AGAINST THE LEBANESE AND PALESTINIAN PEOPLES..............................191
Findings and Conclusions of the International Commission of Inquiry into Israeli Crimes Against the Lebanese and Palestinian Peoples, August 15--16, 1982, Nicosia, Cyprus
.
(Excerpts)
............191
Findings and' Conclusions of the international Commission
of Inquiry into Israeli Crimes Against the Lebanese and
Palestinian Peoples, February 27--28, 1983, Geneva,
Switzerland (Abridged)...........................202
Findings and Conclusions of the Medical Subcommittee
of the International Commission of Inquiry into Israeli
Crimes Against the Lebanese and Palestinian Peoples,
November 20--21, 1982, Athens, Greece (Abridged).....213
DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ON THE
CASE OF IRELAND vs. THE UNITED KINGDOM.........216
POLICIES OF APARTHEID OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH
AFRICA ................................-224
SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS
IN EL SALVADOR............................231
SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS
IN GUATEMALA.............................236
JUDGEMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL IN
PHNOM PENH (Excerpts) ........................239
[4]
__ALPHA_LVL1__
Preface
__NOTE__ Extra large indent; note " ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ " and
"
" combination.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ It is human nature to forget the
bad things in life. To some extent the same applies to
mankind as a whole whose memory, in terms of history, leaves
much to be desired. There is a sad aphorism attributed to
George Bernard Shaw which goes something like this:
``The only lesson learned from history is that no lessons are
learned.'' It stands to reason that this aphorism should not
be taken at face value. Mankind does derive lessons from
past experience, although perhaps not as successfully as one
would like at times. For this reason it is useful to look back,
from time to time, into the distant and not too distant past.
This helps people to preserve human experience
accumulated over the centuries and, hence, to avoid the traps laid by
those who stake on ignorance, forgetfulness or flippancy.
All the above-mentioned is fully applicable to the subject matter of this book. The concept of genocide, i.e. the wholesale annihilation of nations, is a relatively new category of international law. It became current after World War II as a result of the universal shock to which civilized mankind was exposed when it learned of the millions of victims of the German and other fascists who were captured and shot or put to death in concentration camps and other death centres. However, genocide had been practised as a real policy long before it was morally branded and juridically condemned by the world community.
5There is no need to turn the pages of history as far back as primitive society, with its cannibalism and head hunting. Neither do we have to look into the conquests of Alexander the Great, Hannibal or the Roman legions. Vivid examples of genocide are found much nearer to our time.
Genocide was common practice at the time the United States of America was founded. The colonists from Europe arriving in the New World subjected the indigenous population to methodical annihilation. Many of the American Indians were driven from their ancestral lands. The entire history of colonization of the North American continent drips with blood so that the civilization of which presentday US apologists boast so much has been literally built on flesh and bone.
The Spanish conquista of Central and South America proceeded very much along the same lines.
In Europe itself, things were not much better off. The introduction of Christianity into the eastern part of the continent, inhabited by Slavonic and Baltic tribes, resulted in either their complete extermination or sharp reduction of the population which was then assimilated. Suffice it to recall the destiny of the Pomeranians, the Prussians and the Sorbs.
Within the Ottoman empire, which established its rule over the greater part of South-East Europe, there was a continuous extermination of Bulgarians, Serbians and other peoples. At times, there flared up such paroxysms as mass slaughters of Greeks and Armenians which were practised under the Sultans and their successors.
The entire colonial policy of the European powers in the second half of the 19th century was hallmarked with genocide. The European metropolies, which imagined themselves to be bulwarks of civilization and enlightenment, created empires, not only appropriating foreign land but also destroying the local inhabitants whenever they refused 6 to bow to foreign yoke. Testimony to this is found in the history of British rule in India, German colonial policy in South-West Africa, the French conquests of the Magrib, Indo-China and other places.
The advocates of a pessimistic and negative approach to human history often justify the practice of genocide in the past. They assert that violence and a desire to mutual destruction are deeply engrained in the biology of man, that in this connection the development of human society allegedly envisages the inevitable and mutual massacre to one degree or another. Some of the more ardent supporters of this theory go to the extent of asserting that such carnages, within certain limits, are even desirable since they perform sanitary functions: the weak ones perish while the strong ones survive and thus improve the progeny.
Fascist theoreticians upheld such principles in public. In good unison with the fascists there resound today belligerent statements by the ``hawks'' in the US administration who profess the doctrine of permissibility of a limited and even all-out thermonuclear war.
In reality, the lesson to be derived from history is very different. Genocide is not a natural and objective form of relations between nations, not an integral phenomenon of human history, but a hideous deviation born of decrepit and outdated social relations. As humanity advances in its development, it becomes less and less tolerant to the practice of genocide, even if that policy is realized indirectly.
Civilized human values incorporate the fundamental principles of humaneness which have been developed over millennia, summarized and formulated by leading Renaissance philosophers, adopted and further developed in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These principles recognize the uniqueness and supreme value of human life, clemency with regard to the sick and weak, to women and children, denunciation of reprisals with regard to the 7 innocent, etc. Genocide flagrantly scorns this set of values, and hence tramples the very concept of moral principles inherent in the human personality of our day, the feeling of human dignity, justice and decency.
It is very important to bear in mind that, in the long run, genocide never achieves the results to which strive the forces which resort to this vile practice. On the contrary, genocide has a backlash effect. Without going back deep into history, let us merely recall some of the facts of this century.
The colonial empires created, among other things, with the help of genocide have crumbled. But there still is very much alive the hatred of the liberated peoples to those former metropolies which were particularly zealous in practising genocide.
The Armenian massacres have left a deep imprint in European history and.created an almost insurmountable wall of animosity between the .nations concerned. The consequences of these events are felt to this day through the numerous incidents in European and non-European capitals.
Nazi Germany adopted genocide as its basic policy on occupied, territories and thus deserved the hatred of the world community. This, in its turn, promoted the rallying of anti-fascist forces and, eventually, the complete rout of the aggressive fascist bloc.
In the sixties, the United States took advantage of its enormous military superiority to launch a deliberate campaign of exterminating millions of Vietnamese in an attempt to gain a foothold in Indo-China by force of arms. The Americans were planning to make Vietnam their military and political bridgehead in South-East Asia. They also wanted to intimidate and subjugate die other countries of the region and thus consolidate their global positions as the leading imperialist 'power. As a result the United States plunged into one of the bloodiest wars in its history and suffered a shameful defeat. The majority of the world 8 identified the United States as a belligerent state always inclined to use force, as a power that believes that the end always justifies the means, resorts to the most barbaric means of warfare, makes no distinction between military detachments and the civil population, encourages all and every form of brutality and violence.
Israel resorted to genocide against the Arab population of Palestine and later practised it against the neighbouring Arab countries. The purpose of this policy was to clear the indigenous population from the coveted lands, to settle Jewish emigrants and thus realize the long-nurtured chauvinistic idea of a uni-national "great Zionist state''. Here again, the results were not what was expected. Israel is bogged down in a continuous war with the Palestinian Arabs, faces the unbending hostility of the Arab world, economic instability inside the country, and a profound public hostility even in those countries which initially supported the newly-independent state of Israel that came into being in the struggle against British colonial rule.
Examples of this kind could be cited ad infinitum.
Genocide is rejected by the world community also because its extreme violence and scorning of international law are mainly responsible for the growing instability of the world, provoke further aggravation of tension between states and fan the so-called "hot spots" which are potential seats of war. It is not accidental that, although the policy of genocide runs counter to universally accepted norms of law and moral principles, it finds supporters in the ranks of those who welcome military and political confrontations of the great powers, who strive to maintain the arms race, to preserve the danger of another world war. These quarters take under their patronage the organizers and executors of mass reprisals and thus give the green light to the policy of extermination in Chile, Grenada, Lebanon. Thus, the United States whips up the deadly arms race, prepares for 9 unleashing a world nuclear missile war and thus creates the material and psychological prerequisites for genocide with regard to the whole of mankind.
It is worth recalling that Hitler and his gang had admirers who interpreted the wholesale extermination of Slavonic pebples and Jews on occupied territory as an "objective necessity'', aimed at clearing and consolidating the German rear in what they believed to be the mortal combat between the "SS crusaders'', on the one hand, and "Asian Bolshevism'', on the other.
The killing of millions of Vietnamese is, to this day, extolled -as a struggle of the "champions of democracy" against ``barbarians'' who, for some reason, had refused to accept the rule of foreign invaders. The cut-throats of the Kampuchean dictator Pol Pot, who had put to death almost half of the country's population, are now in great favour with the United States ruling quarters and treated as allies.
It is very important to have a clear idea of genocide as it was practised in the past and what it is like today, to trace its links with other world events, to get down to the very bottom of this policy and its possible consequences both for the victims and for the other peoples. All this will promote the straggle against genocide, for the triumph of international order and a general improvement of the world situation.
This selection of articles which we offer to your kind attention pursues just these very goals.
[10] __ALPHA_LVL1__ FASCIST GERMANY: FROM
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ It was almost the end of World
War II and Soviet troops were liberating Polish territory
which had been under German occupation for over five
years. One detachment of Soviet troops approached
Os'wi^cim, a small town which hardly anyone outside
Poland ever heard of. Perhaps obscurity would have been its
better choice, but the world learned of Os'wi^cim and
shuddered in horror.
The beastly face of fascism was familiar to the Soviet soldiers who had covered thousands of kilometres in battle. There seemed to remain no crime which the fascist invaders had not committed: columns of refugees strafed by German planes, hospitals bombed to ruins, hundreds of villages razed to the ground, rows of gallows in city squares, common graves of starved POW's, mile-long trenches filled to the brim with the bodies of machine-gunned civilians.
O\'swi&ebigtail;im stands out even against the background of these horrors. It was a powerful complex for the industrial extermination of people with a well-planned production cycle---from the continuous delivery of the "initial material" (living people of various age groups, nationalities, sex) to the integrated utilization of all the " production waste" (clothing, footwear, dental crowns, hair, ashes).
Even in a nightmare a normal person could hardly imagine that anything of the sort was possible in the centre 11 of "civilized Europe'', which had given the world the greatest of humanists and had seemingly adopted their principles. But the facts were there and they brushed away all doubt. There were the spur tracks which received trainloads 'of victims brought in from all over the continent. There was the road of sorrow which millions of people trod on the way to oblivion. There were the false shower rooms, where the victims were gassed. There were crematoriums with unusually high capacity furnaces which reduced the corpses to ashes. There were the warehouses in which the belongings of the exterminated victims were graded and stored. There were the piles of human hair to be delivered to factories manufacturing mattresses. There were the footpaths seemingly sanded, yet displaying, at close scrutiny, the remnants of ground human bone.
The hair-raising stories of Os'wieeim, Majdanek, Treblinka and other nazi death camps reached the outside world. People asked themselves: how could all this happen? What was the inhuman and cruel force that engineered the destruction .of millions of human lives? How could this evil force turn other people into hangmen and executors of this plan? How could thousands if not millions of people, who suspected or knew about these crimes and condoned them in one way or another, reconcile their conscience to such atrocities?
In order to find the answer to these and other questions one must turn to the very source and consolidation of German fascism.
__b_b_b__Any crime, before it is committed, passes through the mind of the person who intends to do it. This, understandably, does not mean that crimes are never committed spontaneously, in a state of temporary insanity. Nevertheless, a crime, complicity in a crime or its condonation are inevitably preceded by a psychological predisposition 12 to such actions.
This predisposition to the planned and deliberate extermination of millions of people was created in Germany as a result of the inculcation of racist ideas into the minds of a substantial section of the population. Racism was preached in Germany long before the rise of the fascists to power. The country's ruling quarters pursued a colonial policy in the course of which they instilled in the minds of their citizens the absurd idea of white superiority over black and coloured people, thus substantiating their ``right'' to subjugate and enslave other peoples. The works of such zealous advocates of racism as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Ludwig Woltmann and Eugen Diihring were very popular in Kaiser Germany at the turn of this century.
Since their consolidation as a special political movement, the German fascists adopted this racialist legacy and transformed it into the cornerstone of their "world outlook''. The race theory was made into a master-key which could be used to explain everything under the sun. According to this theory mankind allegedly comprises two unequal parts: the selected, biologically elite minority (the superior race) and the majority of little value (the inferior races). The superior race, to which the Germans were referred first and foremost, possessed all the virtues, while the inferior racesall the vices.
It was also alleged that the race could be identified on the basis of features, mainly the shape of the skull ( roundshaped skull of inferior races, elongated skull of superior race), the colour of the skin, the hair, and the eyes, the shape of the nose, the carriage, etc. True, in cases of political necessity, there were certain deviations from the rule since some of the fascist leaders, Adolf Hitler first and foremost, did not conform with all the indices of the ``pure'' race. In these cases, special clarifications were made. In the middle of the thirties, when the German fascists formed an 13 alliance with the Japanese military, the Japanese were declared the supreme race in Asia. Thereafter the racist theoreticians made the necessary amendments to the appropriate indices.
The race theory, in its turn, gave rise to the concept "der Untermensch" (underman) as an extreme form of the lower race. Reich leader of the SS (guard troops) Heinrich Himmler was one of the most zealous exponents of this concept. He declared: "The underman, at first glance, is a creature that seems to be fully identical to man---it has hands, legs, a sort of brain, eyes, and mouth. But this is an entirely different and hideous creature. It is only the likeness of man, with anthropoid features, while spiritually it is even inferior to an animal. In the souls of these people reign a chaos of wild passions, an irresistible desire for destruction, primitive envy and unconcealed baseness. In a word, it is an underman. Thus, not everything that has human features is equal. Woe betide those who forget this!~"^^1^^
From' the above-mentioned it proceeded logically that the isolation of the ``underman'' or a multitude of `` undermen'', and even their eradication, did not violate the fundamental principles of society. Rather on the contrary, such actions allegedly facilitated the realization of society's goals, since they removed the obstacles to the normal existence of truly valuable humans.
The race factor was also declared to be the main driving force of human development. R. Walther Darre, a fascist functionary, wrote: "The race issue is the key to comprehension of world history.''^^2^^ Another notorious nazi Alfred Rosenberg advocated the view that the struggle of races _-_-_
~^^1^^ Quoted in: Joseph Wulf, Heinrich Himmler, Arami Verlag GmbH, Berlin-Griinewald, 1960, S. 23.
~^^2^^ R. Walther Darre, Urn Blut und Boden, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf., GmbH, Miinchen, 1940, S. 293.
14 constituted the main essence of world history and the history of culture.^^1^^Adolf Hitler, in his turn, resorted to the race theory in order to explain some of the world's ideological processes. In his speech on cultural matters delivered at the autumn 1933 congress of the NSDAP (the National Socialist Party), Hitler asserted that race purity was the sole prerequisite for a correct world outlook. The intellect, experience, knowledge, research---all this was regarded as secondary. The decisive factor in any nation comprising various race elements was, according to Hitler, which race element would take the upper hand in the ideological struggle. Hitler declared that national-socialism (fascism) "deserved great credit" for upholding the victory of a world outlook which corresponded to the instinctive requirements of German blood.~^^2^^
All the practical problems which the German people had to cope with at that time were treated in the light of the race theory. Germany suffered heavily from the consequences of its defeat in World War I. The fascists explained the defeat by a conspiracy of alien race elements inside and outside the country, on the one hand, and by loss of purity of the German race, on the other. The burden of post-war military reparations weighed heavily on the German people. These reparations were also held as a result of a conspiracy aimed at undermining the German race. Race hostility was attributed to the abuses practised by the monopolies (in particular by the proprietors of big department stores who ruined the smaller store-keepers), to the unscrupulous intrigues in Germany's political life and the endless scandals stemming from corruption.
The emphasis which the nazis made on racism from the very outset was necessitated not only by their ultimate _-_-_
^^1^^ Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte, April 1931, Heft 13, S. 147.
^^2^^ VolkischerBeobachter, 3/4. IX. 1933.
15 goals, but also by everyday political calculations. Racism is not merely a false theory---it is the quintessence of nationalism and chauvinism which are upheld by the pettybourgeois mass. The nazis staked on racism as a means of overcoming the "inferiority complex" of the petty bourgeois and, in general, those "average people" who reacted painfully to the instability of their social status, their inability to overcome the barriers separating them from a way of life which they longed for. For these groups of the population racism was a means of self-assertion, something which enabled even the lowliest of individuals to gain a feeling of superiority with regard to others who might be cleverer, more educated and more successful in life, but lacked the privilege of being born into a family belonging to a "more valuable" nationality or race.This fact largely helped the fascists to inculcate racism j into the minds of a substantial section of the German population whose everyday consciousness had been pretreated and was thus more receptive.
In order to have this feeling of superiority over other peoples develop into readiness to resort to their physical extermination, the preaching of racism was supplemented with the cult of violence. The dissemination of this cult was facilitated to a considerable extent by the popularity of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in German society. Many aspects in Nietzsche's teachings, particularly his inherent anti-democratism, contempt for the weak, his apologetics of aristocracy of the body and spirit, were instrumental in creating an atmosphere conducive to the establishment of fascist ideology. The fascists were particularly pleased with Nietzsche's myth of the ``superman'' who scorned humanism, tolerance and justice and who was prepared for bloodshed.
Nietzsche's ideas were streamlined by the German theoretician Oswald Spengler to meet the requirements of 16 fascist usage. The abstract and semi-Utopian ``superman'' of Nietzsche was given the earthly features of a modern Caesar and soldier of fortune who had the "historic mission" of bearing responsibility for the destinies of civilization in a "decadent Europe''. Spengler's writing gave practical meaning to Nietzsche's appeals to violence and denunciation of humanism.
``Man is a beast of prey,'' wrote Spengler. "I shall always assert this. All the virtuous bigots and preachers of social ethics who turn a blind eye on this fact are also predatory animals but with their fangs torn out. They hate others for aggressiveness from which they themselves prudently abstain... When I call man a beast of prey do I insult the man or the beast? Great predators are noble creatures of a perfect type, alien to false human morale which stems from weakness.''^^1^^
Spengler went further and made very practical and concrete deductions from these promulgations. "In the name of a healthier society" he recommended curtailing all social legislation and social charity. First of all, he said, it is necessary to liquidate social institutions which support the sick, the weak and the defective and thus hamper the natural process of delivery of society from "all that impedes its progress''.
Spengler urged his countrymen to resort to unrestricted violence in realizing their drive to power and superiority. He asserted: "Struggle is the basic source of life, it is life itself. Even the pitiful pacifists will never be able to remove from their own souls the urge to struggle.''^^2^^
Nazi propaganda disseminated all these deductions and appeals in various forms, beginning with the handbook of _-_-_
~^^1^^ O. Spengler, Jahre der Entscheidung, Erster Teil, C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Miinchen, 1933, S. 14.
~^^2^^ Ibid., S. 14.
__PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---1169 17 fascist ``wisdom''---Hitler's Mein Kampf. "It is common knowledge that there lies in store for the world bitter struggle for the existence of mankind. In the long run it is the drive for self-preservation that prevails. It brushes away humaneness, this mixture of stupidity, cowardice and arrogant presumption, just like the March sun melts the snow. Mankind has won greatness in permanent struggle. It may perish from permanent peace.''^^1^^Further on Hitler wrote: "Only children can count on meek behaviour and constant reiteration of peaceful disposition to win them a banana within the framework of 'peaceful competition of nations', something that is so beautifully described by sugary windbags who reject the necessity of taking to arms.''^^2^^
Alfred Rosenberg, who borrowed from Nietzsche and Spengler their pathological hatred for "Christian virtues"--- love, weakness, indecision, subordination---countered the latter with new "metaphysical and characterological" values, giving his own interpretation of such traits as honour, dignity, self-assertion and pride. The very concept of magnanimity aroused the rage of this ideologist of German fascism. From this point of view he exposed to sharp criticism even Nibelungenlied, the heroic epic which was so popular in German military quarters and was considered as instrumental in educating the youth in the martial spirit. The main character in this epic Siegfried was accused by Rosenberg of being ``too'' chivalrous because he was able to discern honesty and dignity in his opponent. Alfred Rosenberg insisted that magnanimity had been, time and again, the root cause of terrible disasters for the Germans. "The complete victory of humanism would have _-_-_
~^^1^^ Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf., Munchen, 1942, S. 148.
~^^2^^ Ibid., S. 156--57.
18 consequences equal to those of the victory of Central Asia over Athens and Rome,'' wrote Rosenberg.^^1^^The German youth were brainwashed in this spirit long before the advent of the nazis to power, because ever since the unification of Germany at the close of the nineteenth century the system of public education in the country was largely in the hands of the conservative and chauvinistic intelligentsia. With the establishment of the fascist dictatorship, the cult of violence, the cult of the wild beast dominated the education of the younger generation at all levels, in youth organizations, at industrial enterprises and in the armed forces.
The nazis directed the cult of violence against the Jews and Gipsies, on the one hand, and the Slavonic peoples, on the other. This was not accidental. After the November 1918 bourgeois-democratic revolution in Germany, the Jewish population received equal civil rights. At the time the nazis came to power, there was a substantial Jewish minority in the country. There was growing economic activity of the Jews in small-scale enterprise and commerce. A number of people of Jewish origin rose to high standing in culture, journalism and political life.
The conservatively-minded section of the German population, particularly those who refused to accept the 1918 revolution, eyed this process with increasing irritation. This feeling of displeasure revived everyday anti-Semitism, which had been implanted in the German minds since the Middle Ages. The social discontent which was typical of various strata of the population at that time blamed everything on a "Jewish conspiracy" and found an outlet in growing animosity towards their fellow countrymen of Judaic faith.
In this process the Gipsies were an appendage. There _-_-_
^^1^^ A. Rosenberg, Der My thus des 20. Jahrhunderts, HoheneichenVerlag, Munchen, 1942, S. 158.
19 were relatively few of them in Germany, but their special way of life, their stubborn resistance to assimilation engendered among the German petty bourgeoisie numerous superstitions which eventually were instrumental in classifying the Gipsies as "racially harmful elements''.The Jews and the Gipsies, who constituted a small but noticeable stratum of the population in Germany, were within easy reach and could be used to ``test'' the racist theories in practical terms. This inevitably led to racial clashes, personal conflicts, discrimination, pogroms, etc.
With the Slavs the situation was different. The Slavonic minority in Germany was negligible and the little that there was had been Germanized. The anti-Slavonic racist `` theories'' were directed not against this minority. While the antiJewish and anti-Gipsy campaigns of the nazis were' initially for domestic consumption, the anti-Slavonic slogans of the fascist regime were directed outward.
The Slavs, the eastern and south-eastern neighbours of Germany, inhabited lands which, according to the plans of the fascists and those standing behind them, were to become their first spoil. By proclaiming the Slavs an inferior race destined to manure the soil for the Germans, the fascists, on the one hand, aimed at providing the psychological basis for an attack on their eastern neighbours `` unworthy'' of their land while, on the other, created an atmosphere that would make possible not only a "march eastward'', but also the ``clearing'' of appropriated territories from the indigenous population.
The practical realization of nazi-sponswed racist projects was launched in January 1933, when the fascists came to power. Their initial stage was aimed at creating such conditions for the Jewish and Gipsy population in Germany which would force them out of the country. Various methods were applied to this end. State and party authorities inspired anti-Jewish incidents in which armed detachments 20 of the National Socialist Party, especially storm troops, played first fiddle. The beating up of Jews developed into full-scale pogroms with increasing numbers of victims. In accordance with orders coming down from the top, the country's state institutions and those public organisations that had not yet been disbanded began an all-out campaign of ``Aryanization'', i.e. the purging of racially ``inferior'' elements. A big number of Jews were arrested with the purpose of removing from political life all active and potential opponents of fascism.
The economic activities of the Jewish population were hampered to the utmost. Jewish enterprises were subjected to "special treatment" which undercut their competitive power. Storm-troop pickets outside Jewish-owned stores scared customers away. By means of intimidation and violence the Jews were compelled to hand over their possessions to nazi officials.
These discriminatory measures were backed up juridically: laws were passed limiting the rights of the Jewish minority; the Jews were barred from state employment, from participation in social organizations, from the professions generally. September 1935 saw the introduction of the so-called Nuremberg laws which practically deprived the country's Jewish population of all juridical protection. Under the new legislation the Jews were stripped of German citizenship. A ban was imposed on marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood. Intimate relations between Jews and ``Aryans'' were punishable by law.
This discrimination and persecutions resulted in a wave of emigration in the course of which many Jewish intellectuals fled Germany. There also began an exodus of the more well-to-do members of the Jewish community with capital investments abroad. In spite of the persecution, the majority of the Jewish population in Germany refused to leave the country which was their homeland and with which they 21 shared a community of language and culture.
In an attempt to achieve their goals, the fascist authorities intensified race terror. They used the attempt on the life of a German diplomat in Paris as a pretext. On the 9th and 10th of November 1938, a new wave of Jewish pogroms swept through the territory of Germany. The remaining Jewish enterprises were destroyed, sinagogues burned down and hundreds of people subjected to brutality. Some 30,000 of the best-known members of the Jewish community were thrown into concentration camps and a multi-million indemnity imposed upon the entire Jewish population.
This operation was conducted under the direct guidance of the SD, the fascist security service, to which Hitler entrusted full control of the "solution of the Jewish problem" back in 1935--36.
After the November 1938 events, the stream of Jewish emigrants from Germany increased, involving many average families, including the poorer sections of the Jewish population. However, it was at this period that there arose difficulties in leaving the country. The reason lay in the fact that the nazi leadership was nurturing an even more ominous plan for the realization of its racist ambitions.
The plan was prompted by the Anschluss of Austria, which had a traditionally large Jewish community. After the Austrian Republic was incorporated into the German Reich, it turned out that the number of Jews on the territory of the German empire had grown proportionately. The annexation of Austrian territory stimulated the fascist leadership of Germany to further conquests, first and foremost to the seizure of Polish and other eastern territories with a sizeable Jewish population. It became obvious that, with the capture of all this territory, the Jewish population falling under fascist rule would increase to such an extent that "the Jewish problem" would not be solved by even the most ruthless indirect measures.
22At this stage, the ruling quarters of nazi Germany, the SD in particular, began to develop projects for the forcible deportation of Jews from Germany. The programme was stepped up with the outbreak of World War II when Hitler's armies overran Poland.
The Jewish population in occupied Poland lived side by side with the Poles, whom the fascist authorities also wished to dispose of. That is why, with the occupation of Polish territory, the nazis associated the task of "getting rid" of the Jews with the task of "getting rid" of the Poles. The new programme for "the solution of the Jewish problem" provided for the forcible concentration of the Jewish population in the eastern regions of occupied Polish territory (in the so-called ``governor-generalship''). On September 21, 1939, i.e. less than a month after the attack on Poland, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the notorious Reich Security Main Office, called in Berlin a conference of chiefs of Einsatz groups which performed punitive functions on the territory of Poland. On the agenda of the conference was the problem of ways and means of resolving "the Jewish problem''. The "general plan" elaborated by the conference was later applied to the entire Jewish population under German yoke. This plan formulated not only the "ultimate goal" of German policy with regard to the Jews, but also such ``intermediary'' measures as, for example, "the concentration of Jews from the rural areas in towns which are railway junctions or, at least, in the proximity of railways".^^1^^
On October 30, 1939, Heinrich Himmler, Reich Commissar for the Strengthening of German Folkdom, issued a detailed order concerning the beginning, scale and schedule _-_-_
^^1^^ Faschismusforschung: Positionen, Probleme, Polemik, Hrsg. von D. Eichholtz und K. Gossweiler, Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, Koln, 1980, S. 193.
23 of deportation of Polish Jews. In accordance with this order, all people of Jewish nationality (as well as Poles " particularly hostile" to Germans) were to be deported within four months from the western and northern Polish provinces which had been declared part of the German empire. Their destination was to be the ``governor-generalship''.^^1^^ In this way, hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles were driven from their homes. The evacuation and settling of the Jewish population in special ghettos resulted in mass diseases and high mortality. Eventually, the entire Jewish population of Poland was driven into ghettos, where it was deprived of basic human conditions.On June 24, 1940, Heydrich wrote a letter to Joachim von Ribbentrop, Minister of Foreign Affairs of nazi Germany, informing him of the ``work'' done to develop another project for the "final solution" of the Jewish question. Heydrich wrote: "Today, within the sphere of German rule there are already some 31/4 million Jews. But this general problem will not be solved by emigration. A final territorial solution of the problem is essential.''^^2^^ What was termed as "final territorial solution" meant a plan born in the insane minds of the fascist racists aimed at the forcible deportation of European Jews to the island of Madagascar.
It was assumed that the difficult climate of Madagascar would quickly reduce the number of resettlers and thus ensure the natural fulfilment of the task set by the German racists. The "Madagascar Project" envisaged the annual shipping to the island of about one million people from countries occupied by Germany. It was hoped therefore that within four or five years the territory under nazi rule would be fully cleared from Jews. The plan also provided for the establishment of German police control over Madagascar to _-_-_
^^1^^ Faschismusforschung..., S. 194.
^^2^^ Ibid., S. 201.
24 ensure the required upkeep of the Jewish resettlers.The "Madagascar Project" was abandoned in view of the obvious impossibility of such a large-scale deportation of people across the ocean at the time of continued hostilities. The plan was fully wrecked when fascist Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 and, instead of the expected Blitzkrieg, was bogged down in a protracted war.
Under these circumstances other plans were given priority attention. One idea came from Hitler himself. In a confidential conversation with his associate Hermann Rauschning held before the onset of World War II Hitler outlined the following principles concerning Germany's future policy with regard to the enslaved "racially inferior peoples": "We are obliged to depopulate, as part of our mission of preserving the German population. We shall have to develop a technique of depopulation. If you ask me what I mean by depopulation, I mean the removal of entire racial units... If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the spilling of precious German blood, then surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin! And by `remove' I don't necessarily mean destroy; I shall simply take systematic measures to dam their great natural fertility. For example, I shall keep their men and women separated for years. Do you remember the falling birth-rate of the world war? Why should we not do quite consciously and through a number of years what was at that time merely the inevitable consequence of the long war? There are many ways, systematical and comparatively painless, or at any rate bloodless, of causing undesirable races to die out.''^^1^^
Later, Rauschning broke off with Hitler and published his utterances in the book The Voice of Destruction issued in _-_-_
^^1^^ Hermann Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction, G.P. Putman's Sons, New York, 1940, pp. 137--38.
25 New York in 1940. Excerpts from the book were cited in the bill of indictment at the Nuremberg Trial of Major War Criminals.Guided by this kind of reasoning, the nazi leadership, and SD command first and foremost, elaborated various options for "terminating reproduction" of Jews. Fascist ``research'' establishments were also enlisted into the solution of the problem. This is borne out from a report to Himmler of March 28, 1941 in which Viktor Brack, one of the chiefs of the nazi party office, wrote about the preliminary research results in the field of large-scale sterilization of "racially inferior" groups of people. Within the framework of this research special installations were developed to conduct such sterilization quickly and imperceptibly for those who would be subjected to sterilization. The report pointed out that the sterilization of the male Jewish population located within the sphere of German rule would necessitate the construction of 20 such installations, each capable of dealing with 3,000 to 4,000 people a day^^1^^.
Towards the middle of 1941, however, the nazi bosses decided on a much ``simpler'' idea, namely to discard all pretences and get down to outright and wholesale extermination of the Jewish population. In accordance with this idea Hermann Goring issued an additional instruction to Heydrich: "To take all measures---organizational, administrative and material---which would ensure the final solution of the Jewish question within the German sphere of influence in Europe. "^^2^^
A few days before Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, there was a "working conference" in Pretzsch of chiefs of Einsatz groups and Einsatzkommandos who were intended to "establish order" on the occupied territory of the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Faschismusforschung..., S. 204.
~^^2^^ Ibid., S. 205.
26 USSR. At this conference Bruno Streckenbach, Chief of Amt I of the Reich Security Main Office, handed down Himmler's and Heydrich's orders providing, among other things, for the general liquidation of the Jewish population of the USSR. Otto Ohlendorf, former Chief of Amt III of the Reich Security Main Office, testifying at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, recalled Himmler's meeting with the Einsatzkommandos in Nikolayev, at the end of the summer of 1941. "He assembled the leaders and men of the Einsatzkommandos, repeated to them the liquidation order, and pointed out that the leaders and men who were taking part in the liquidation bore no personal responsibility for the execution of this order.''^^1^^From that time on, genocide against the Jewish population on territories occupied by the Hitlerites developed into a planned and all-out campaign. It was realized with the help of inspired ``spontaneous'' pogroms, methodical shooting of Jews in the course of ``clearing'' occupied territories, sieges and destruction of Jewish ghettos, creation of permanent death centres.
Genocide against the Polish population, following the defeat of the Polish state, was different in form and scale. The Polish population was much more numerous than the Jewish community and the task of wholesale extermination of Poles was not feasible, at least in the foreseeable future. For this reason the measures taken against the Polish population were different and on a long-term basis. The official paper of the Polish government presented by the prosecution at the Nuremberg trial described practical instances of these systematic measures. One method was to deport the most politically active section of the Polish population from regions directly annexed by Germany. In October _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Military Tribunal. Trial of the Major War Criminals, Vol. IV, Nuremberg, 1947, p. 318.
27 1939, i.e. immediately after the defeat of Poland, all the Poles were deported from the vicinity of Orlowa. Then it was the turn of port Gdynia. In February 1940, 40,000 residents of Poznari were deported from the city. The same fate befell the residents of many other cities. A total of 200,000 Poles were deported from the region which the nazi invaders called ``Warthegau'' (Warthe province). By September 1940, the central districts of Lodz were ``cleared'' from 150,000 Poles.The ousted Polish families were allowed to take with them only the most essential personal effects. Their belongings and property were taken over by the German citizens who were settled on the "cleared territories''. Their number towards the beginning of 1941 exceeded 450,000.
Scores of thousands of Polish children between the age of 7 and 14 were torn from their parents and taken to Germany. According to nazi press reports it was planned to teach them German and educate them in the "German spirit" so as to use them later in consolidating German influence in the East.
Organized famine, which undermined the vital forces of the people, was a specific form of genocide against the Polish nation. Highly indicative in this sense was the admission made in a research paper drawn up by the nazi Upper Silesian Institute for Economic Research. The deductions stemmed from the necessity of ensuring continuous operation of the war industry, but nevertheless the contents of the document are highly explicit:
``Observations made in the factories prove that the present rations of the Polish workers do not allow them enough food to take with them to work. In many cases, the workers do not even have a piece of bread...; at the worst time, they did not even have this, but raw carrots, which were then roasted on a stove during work... On visiting the mines, it appeared that nearly ten percent of the Polish 28 workers went to work underground with only dry bread, or raw potatoes cut in slices... The difference between what Polish and German children from 10 to 14 receive is even more striking. The difference here is not less than 65 percent. The looks of these underfed youths already testify to this...''^^1^^
The situation was even worse for those Poles who were employed at enterprises in which the German military authorities had no interest. In the distribution of food resources produced on Polish territories, the civilian population was at the bottom of the supply list. Such a practice doomed the native population to famine and death. In accordance with the food plan drawn up at the end of 1942, a total of "two million people of non-German nationality on the territory of the Governor-Generalship" were to be denied food supply. In Warsaw alone, half a million people were taken off the rationing list.^^2^^
Initially, physical extermination was conducted on a selective basis. The prime target was the elite of the Polish intelligentsia---the professors, art and literature workers, political activists. With time, the purge embraced more and more people, involving all those who had some kind of education or whose behaviour seemed defiant or simply insufficiently loyal to the occupation authorities.
The purpose of all these actions was clearly expressed by Hans Frank, Governor-General of Poland, at a conference of police officers on May 30, 1940: "The men capable of leadership whom we have found to exist in Poland must be liquidated. Those following men must ... be eliminated in their turn.''^^3^^
The scale of physical extermination of Poles during the _-_-_
^^1^^ IMT Trial..., Vol. VIII, Nuremberg, 1947, pp. 245--46.
~^^2^^ IMT Trial..., Vol. XXIX, Nuremberg, 1948, pp. 562, 566.
~^^3^^ IMT Trial..., Vol. VII, Nuremberg, 1947, p. 469.
29 period of Hitler occupation may be illustrated by the speech made by Frank on March 18, 1944. Without even a shade of embarrassment he declared: "If I had gone to the Fiihrer and said, 'My Fiihrer, I have to report that I have destroyed a further 150,000 Poles,' he would say, 'All right, if it was necessary.'~''^^1^^With the purpose of stepping up genocide in Poland, the nazis abandoned the practice of setting up concentration camps for the lengthy detention of people. Although a concentration camp spelled almost sure death, the fascists regarded it as not efficient enough in Polish conditions.
In 1940, Frank made an entry in his diary: "As to the concentration camps, we know perfectly well that concentration camps in the true sense of the word are not going to be organized in the Governor-Generalship. Every suspected person must be immediately liquidated.'' And further, he wrote: "We have an entirely different method of treatment here and we must adhere to it. I must point out expressly that even if peace is concluded, this treatment will not be altered. Peace will mean only that as a world power we should continue more intensively the same general political operations... "^^2^^
The German fascists pursued a similar policy with regard to the Slav population in other occupied territories in East and South-East Europe, in Yugoslavia in particular.
When the German fascists invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, they already had considerable experience in genocide with regard to the Jews and the Poles. They applied this ``experience'' to the peoples of the USSR under temporary occupation.
The destiny which lay in store for these peoples may be illustrated by the text of the General Instructions for All _-_-_
~^^1^^ IMT Trial..., Vol. VII, p. 470.
^^2^^ Ibid., pp. 469--70.
30 Reich Commissioners in the Occupied Eastern Territories which were issued by A. Rosenberg, Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territory: "The national-socialist movement is entrusted with the fulfilment of the Fuhrer's political behest, as outlined in his book, to destroy once and for good the military and political threat from the East.``For this reason, this enormous territory is to be divided in accordance with historical and racial features into Reich commissariats, each with its own political predestination.
``For instance, the Reich commissariat `Ostland', which also includes Byelorussia, will pursue the task of establishing closer ties with Germany by means of its gradual transformation into a Germanized protectorate. The Ukraine will be an independent state allied with Germany, while the Caucasus and the adjoining northern territories will become a federal state with a German plenipotentiary representative...''^^1^^
The policy of Germanization of occupied territories incorporated a set of measures previously tested in Poland, but applied on a much broader scale. The entry of German troops was followed by mass extermination of all politically active citizens who had fallen in their hands.
The Extraordinary Commission, set up by the Soviet Government, which studied the directives and orders of the German government and military command concerning the extermination of Soviet citizens, established that even before their attack on the USSR the German authorities had compiled lists, index files and collected all possible data on leading Soviet officials who were marked for destruction. In this way were prepared "Special Index Files for the USSR'', "The German Index File'', "Lists for Establishing _-_-_
~^^1^^ IMT Trial..., Vol. XXVI, Nuremberg, 1947, Document 1030-PS, p. 577.
31 Domiciles" and other references which were to help the fascist punitive organs to destroy the most active section of the Soviet population.``However, the document entitled 'Appendix Number 2 to Operational Order Number 8 of the Chief of the Sipo and the SD, Berlin', dated July 17, 1941 and signed by Heydrich ... emphasizes the lack of such lists and index files and stresses the importance of not hampering the initiative of those who perpetrated the murders. The document states:
`` `There is no possibility of lending any assistance to the Kommandos for ihe realization of your plans. "The German Index File'', "Lists for Establishing Domiciles'', and " Special Index Files for the USSR" will only prove useful in a few cases. The "Special Index Files for the USSR" are therefore insufficient, as only an insignificant number of Soviet Russian nationals, considered as dangerous, have been entered in these files.' "^^1^^
The population in the occupied territories was deliberately deprived of all sources of food supply. This was part of a far-reaching policy of the nazi leaders as it appears from a speech made by Rosenberg on "the Eastern problem" on June 20, 1941: "The object of feeding the German people stands this year without a doubt at the top of the list of Germany's claims on the East, and there the southern territories and the northern Caucasus will have to serve as a balance for the feeding of the German people. We see absolutely no reason for any obligation on our part to feed also the Russian people with the products of that surplus territory. We know that this is a harsh necessity bare of any feelings. A very extensive evacuation will be necessary without any doubt and it is sure that the future will hold very hard years in store for the Russians."^^2^^
_-_-_~^^1^^IMT Trial.., VoL VII, pp. 485--86.
~^^2^^ IMT TriaL.,Vol. XIX, Nuremberg, 1948, p. 498.
32The fascist authorities also widely practised large-scale destruction of POWs. A Supreme Army Command Headquarters (OKW) directive provided for the shooting of all political instructors of the Red Army, Communists, and Jews as soon as they were taken prisoner.^^1^^ Mass shooting of POWs outside the above-mentioned group was also encouraged. As an example we may cite order No. 166/41 for the 60th German motorized infantry division which was presented by the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trial of Major War Criminals: "Russian soldiers and noncommissioned officers are very brave in battle. Even a small isolated unit will always attack. In this connection a humane attitude towards the prisoners is not permissible."^^2^^
The OKW issued the following directives for detachments escorting Soviet prisoners: "Firstly---ruthless action at the slightest sign of resistance or disobedience. Merciless use of firearms to break any resistance. Escaping prisoners to be shot at immediately, without challenge, with firm intent to hit.''^^3^^
In accordance with the given orders "the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war and other fatal accidents need no longer be reported by phone to the Prisoner of War Commander as an 'unusual occurrence' ''.^^4^^
Hundreds of thousands of POWs, who had avoided being shot, were starved to death at assembly points and in POW camps. This kind of treatment stemmed from a directive issued by General Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau, Commander-in-Chief, which said: "Feeding the inhabitants and prisoners of war ... is ... a mistaken humanity...''^^5^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ IMT Trial.., Vol. VII, p. 365.
^^2^^ Ibid., p. 367.
~^^3^^ IMT Trial..., VoL VIII, p. 265.
^^4^^ Ibid., p. 267.
~^^5^^ IMT Trial..., Vol. X, Nuremberg, 1947, p. 625.
__PRINTERS_P_33_COMMENT__ 3---1169 33The German command made use of Soviet war prisoners for clearing mine fields and for other hazardous work. Order No. 109 of October 20, 1941 to the 203rd Infantry Regiment states: "Apart from military operations, the search for mines and the clearing of mine fields be done by Russian prisoners, with a view to sparing German blood. This also refers to German mines.''^^1^^
That this was common practice is confirmed by order No. 665/41 of October 11, 1941 to the 76th Infantry Division, which said in part: "The German High Command ordered that Soviet war prisoners and Soviet citizens had to be used for clearing mine fields.''^^2^^
A special form of genocide was the mass extermination of civilians in residential centres and even whole districts where underground resistance groups and guerilla units were active. Within the framework of these "cleansing actions'', the nazis destroyed all housing and public buildings in the given area and shot the local population irrespective of sex or age. In the course of such ``actions'', scores of thousands of villages were razed on the occupied territory of the Soviet Union. Any forms of brutality with regard to the civilian population were encouraged by superiors. On May 13, 1941, Hitler issued a Decree Concerning the Exercise of Military Jurisdiction in the ``Barbarossa'' Area and Concerning Special Measures of the Troops, which said among other things: "With regard to offenses committed against enemy civilians by members of the Wehrmacht and its employees prosecution is not obligatory, even where the deed is at the same time a military crime or offense.''^^3^^
OKW Directive N IA/1388/42 of December 16, 1942 provided outright indulgence for uncontrolled destruction _-_-_
~^^1^^ IMT Trial.., Vol. VII, p. 356.
~^^2^^ IMT Trial.., Vol. IX, Nuremberg, 1947, p. 649.
~^^3^^ IMT 7>»a/..., Vol. IV, Nuremberg, 1947, p. 457.
34 of civilians: "The Fiihrer has been informed that certain members of the Wehrmacht who took part in the struggle against the guerilla bandits [i.e. against Soviet partisans--- Author] were later called to account for their behavior while fighting. In this connection the Fiihrer ordered: 'If the repression of the guerillas in the East, as well as in the Balkans, is not pursued with the most brutal means, it will not be long before the forces at our disposal will prove insufficient to exterminate this plague. The troops therefore have the right and the duty to use, in this struggle, any and unlimited means, even against women and children, if only conducive to success. No German participating in combat action against guerillas or their associates is to be held responsible for acts of violence either from a disciplinary or a judicial point of view.' "^^1^^In practical terms this meant that the only limiting factor to mass extermination was the physical capacity of its perpetrators.
__b_b_b__The defeat and capitulation of nazi Germany in May 1945 drew a line under the policy of genocide with regard to the Jewish, Slav and other peoples. It was then possible to estimate the losses which genocide inflicted upon the human community.
On the eve of World War II, there were something like 9,666,000 Jews living in that part of Europe which fell to fascist rule. About 6 million Jews fell victim to fascist genocide, including 4 million destroyed in the death camps of Os'wi^cim, Majdanek, Treblinka, etc., and 2 million killed by other means. Most of the Jews were shot on occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
The Slav peoples suffered tremendous losses in life. During World War II, the Soviet Union lost 20 million people, _-_-_
~^^1^^ IMT Trial.., Vol. VII, p. 489.
35 many of whom were civilians, primarily those deliberately destroyed by the fascist racists on occupied territory.During the war Poland lost 6 million people (22 per cent of the entire population), including 5,877,000 civilians who had been shot, tortured or starved to death. Half of the victims were Poles and the other half were Jews. Yugoslavia, which had a population of 15 million on the eve of the war, lost 1,685,000, including 1,275,000 civilians. The other European peoples also suffered great losses. Of the 6 million population of Greece 420,000 were destroyed (of these 400,000 were civilians).
The world community called the leaders of the nazi Reich to account. The names of the chief initiators of genocide---Hitler, Goring, Himmler, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner and the direct organizers of the extermination of peoples Heydrich, Mueller, Ohlendorf, Eichmann and othershave remained in the memory of the peoples as an epitome of social and moral degradation in the superlative degree.
The wrathful condemnation of genocide, as expressed in the sentence passed by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, provides the basis for recognizing it as one of the gravest crimes against humanity and to have such recognition formulated as an international law standard.
[36] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE UNITED STATES OF
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The history of the United States
is one of the humiliation and extermination of the
indigenous population. It is a history of genocide. Genocide
against the American Indians has been and remains a
governmental policy of the United States of America.
The development of the territory which is now the United States went hand in hand with the systematic extermination of the native population---the Indians. The prominent historian and public figure William Foster wrote in this connection: "It was one of the very worst of the monster bloodbaths that have accompanied the birth and establishment of the world capitalist system.''^^1^^
__b_b_b__At the time when the first Europeans landed in North America, the territory of what is now the United States had a population of between one and two million. There were up to 400 Indian tribes speaking 200 languages.
All historical sources testify to the cordial reception accorded the ``palefaces'' who had arrived in America. On their part, the settlers, in their relations with the American Indians, followed the well-known, though not the best, formula: "No good deed shall remain unpunished.'' The _-_-_
^^1^^ William Z. Foster, Outline Political History of the Americas, International Publishers, New York, 1951, p. 41.
37 colonialists launched a cold-blooded campaign of `` clearing'' the territory of America from its indigenous population, resorting to all possible means and methods. By the turn of this century, there remained in the United States something like 200,000 Indians.``The European conquest of the Americas has been termed one of the darkest chapters of human history,'' wrote Alvin Josephy, a prominent American historian. "No one will ever know how many Indians of how many tribes were enslaved, tortured, debauched, and killed.''^^1^^
The colonization of America is in fact a history of continuous wars against the indigenous population directed at their physical extermination and marked by unparalleled brutality. In the early period of American history, the Indians were driven from the Atlantic coast where the first Europeans settled, where they founded settlements and towns, laid out farms and plantations. Each colony practised its own methods against the Indians.
In some parts of the country Indian lands were appropriated by force. In response, the local population rose in arms and tried to drive the colonizers away (e.g. the 1644 uprising in what is now the state of Virginia was ruthlessly crushed and most of the Indians annihilated). In other parts the settlers resorted to "peaceful'' means: the land was purchased in exchange for trinkets or confiscated in compensation of alcohol ``debts''. In the New England colony the settlers pursued from the very beginning a policy of physical extermination of the native population. The New Englanders introduced the system of special rewards for Indian scalps and the price increased with the development of the colony. In 1703, the New England reward for an Indian scalp was 40 pounds sterling, whereas in 1720 it was _-_-_
~^^1^^ Alvin M. Josephy, The Indian Heritage of America, Jonathan Cape, London, 1972, p. 278.
38 already 100 pounds. In 1744, the payment fora male scalp was 100 pounds and 50 pounds for a female or child scalp. The American historian and Marxist Herbert Aptheker points out: "No method was too horrible for the accomplishment of the governmental policy of subjugation and extermination.''^^1^^The practice of ``clearing'' land from Indians was accompanied by the creation of special reservations for them. The Indian tribes inhabiting the territory of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and other parts of the south and southeast of the United States were given land in Oklahoma. In the north of the country too the Indians were also driven into reservations. "Trail of Tears" was the name given by the Indians to their westward path of death: of the 50,000 Indians who started on this trail, about half perished from hunger, cold and violence. Alexis de Tocqueville, an eyewitness of these events, wrote: "It was then the middle of winter, and the cold was unusually severe; the snow had frozen hard upon the ground, and the river was drifting huge masses of ice. The Indians had their families with them, and they brought in their train the wounded and the sick, with children newly bom and old men upon the verge of death. They possessed neither tents nor wagons, but only their arms and some provisions. "^^2^^
Capitalist expansion drove the colonists further westward. The wave of settlers swelled with the end of the Qvil War and reached an all-time high with the "gold rush" in California. Wagon-loads of colonists guarded by cavalry detachments followed roads that had been laid through the prairies. Forts with garrisons were then set up for the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Herbert Aptheker, A History of the A merican People. The Colonial Era,International Publishers, New York, 1959, p. 19.
^^2^^ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1945, p. 340.
39 protection of these routes. The bison hide trade which was started in the country resulted in the ruthless extermination of these animals. Crowds of gold-diggers, thirsty for loot, seized land and mercilessly killed the Indians. Of the 138,000 Indians inhabiting California in 1770, there remained only 15,850 by the year 1910.The punitive expeditions of the colonizers against the Indians resulted in unprecedented brutality. The bloody operations for ``clearing'' the West from Indians were led by such inveterate racists as General Sheridan, Connor, and Custer. Sheridan coined the phrase "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" which became a byword with the posse. Detachments hunting for Indians were instructed to kill them on sight. Whple settlements and camp sites, even those belonging to ``pacified'' tribes, were destroyed, and unarmed men, women, children and the aged were slaughtered or subjected to torture and brutality.
In 1871, the United States Congress enacted a bill reducing the American Indians to the status of internal, dependent nations and tribes under the wardship of the government. The US Federal Government was given the right to deal with all issues of economic, social and even family life of the Indians. This ``wardship'' was exercised by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, instituted by the same law.
Finally, in 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act (the Dawes Act), which practically ``cleared'' many more million acres of Indian land from their true owners. Under this act, the tribal lands in the reservations were split up into individual lots. The result was that the Indians were deprived of two-thirds of their territories.
The process of seizure of Indian land acquired catastrophic dimensions. In 1934, under President Franklin Roosevelt, the Dawes Act was abrogated, but nevertheless the total area of Indian lands, which stood at 138 million acres in 1887, dwindled to 43 million acres by the early 1970s.
40In 1924, the Indians at last received the right of citizenship. The realization of this right, however, encountered and continues to encounter all sorts of discriminatory obstacles. In a number of states the act on citizenship for the Indians is not recognized. But even in those places where it is officially recognized there are numerous legal and illegal tricks to keep the Indians away from the polls: property and educational qualifications, blackmail and intimidation.
The policy of forced assimilation, which has been conducted in the United States for many decades, is nothing less than cultural, spiritual and psychological forms of genocide.
The Relocation Act and the Termination Act adopted in the early 1950s provided for such economic and non-- economic coercion that would lead to social genocide of the Indians. The Federal Government moved most of the Indians from the reservations to the cities in an attempt to eliminate them as an ethnic unit, to finish with the " Indian problem" on a national scale. The termination of ``wardship'' of the Federal Government over the Indian community and their transfer under the legal powers of the states were based on the desire to ``dissolve'' the indigenous Indian population of the United States in the mass of the American people. This was actually a policy of forced assimilation conducted on a nation-wide scale: towards the end of the sixties, there remained in the reservations hardly 37 per cent of all the American Indians.
Urban life called for a radical psychological readjustment for the Indians and often resulted in a state of chronic stress. Their frustration was further aggravated by a feeling of instability, rejection of alien moral values and led to social degradation. As a result of all this, about a quarter of the urban Indians are alcoholics.
The Indians constitute the most needy section of the 41 American population. Indian reservations to this day remain seats of poverty with unemployment standing at 42 per cent on the average. In a number of reservations the unemployment figure is much higher: at one time 81 per cent of the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi had no jobs; 7 7 per cent of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and 72 per cent of the Blackfoot Indians in Montana were also unemployed.^^1^^
Almost half of the Indian population have an annual per capita income that is well below even the official poverty level.
The housing conditions and the medical services are even more depressing. Between 80 and 95 per cent of all the Indian dwellings are decrepit, lack the basic amenities and are terribly crowded.
The lack of medical doctors and nurses has resulted in the fact that infant mortality in Indian families is three times higher than the country's average, while life expectancy is 47 years. The occurrence rate of contagious intestinal diseases in the reservations is eight times higher than elsewhere. The TB rate among the Indians is five times higher and pneumonia---three times higher than on the average in the country.
The Indian population in the United States is subjected to sterilization on the basis of a planned programme. Over 70,OOQ Indian women were forcefully sterilized in the seventies. The authorities took advantage of the illiteracy of the woman patients or resorted to decei't and intimidation to gain their consent for the operation. It turned out later that 95 per cent of the sterilized women regretted the operation. This criminal policy of the United States government has deprived almost a quarter of the Indian women of the joy of motherhood. The genocide-minded medics have achieved their goal: since 1965, the birth rate in Indian reservations has been plunging. Today, the American Indians _-_-_
~^^1^^ S. Talbot, Roots of Oppression, New York, 1981, p. 6.
42 are none better off than at the time when they saw the ``palefaces'' drive the first spikes of the transcontinental railway which cut across their land. Today, the Indians are much weaker than they were in those distant days when chief Crazy Horse beat General Custer in the battle of Little Big Horn. They are almost as degraded as they were in 1890 when the 7th Cavalry Regiment butchered chief Big Foot's tribe at the Indian village of Wounded Knee. In the winter of 1973, forsaken by everyone in the country, the Indians took to the war-path again: they took over Wounded Knee and held it for a long period in an attempt to draw public attention to their plight.The former masters of the continent, they have been driven into reservations which occupy something like two per cent of the country's territory---the most barren two per cent.
The 200 years of the existence of the United States have been a period of direct and indirect extermination of the aboriginal population, and have marked 200 years of their heroic struggle.
Many Americans are of the opinion that such excesses as the policy of genocide are a thing of the distant past for the United States. But are they? The facts fully refute this point of view. Suffice it to turn to the history of aggression of American imperialism in Vietnam.
The United States waged a war of attrition against this South-East Asian country. The American medic William Pepper, who visited South Vietnam in 1966, wrote on his return that he had seen there children killed, wounded, maimed, burnt by napalm, children with legs and hands amputated. William Pepper reported seeing crowded and filthy children's hospitals and orphanages. During the last five years of the war in South Vietnam, there were at least 400,000 killed and one million wounded among the civilian population. Pepper stressed the fact that American troops 43 were to blame for the enormous casualties among the civilian population of South Vietnam.
Another American, Charles Mohr, wrote in 1965: "In a delta province there is a woman who has both arms burned off by napalm and her eyelids so badly burned that she cannot close them. When it is time for her to sleep her family puts a blanket over her head. The woman had two of her children killed in the air strike which maimed her...''^^1^^
The American military command adopted a deliberate course at destroying schools and hospitals. The French journalist Madelaine Riffaud, who visited the guerilla forces in South Vietnam, wrote a book which contains eye-witness accounts by Vietnamese. Here is one of them: "We built our school in an open space and put up on the fajade a big poster reading 'Communal School'. We were naive believing that the Americans would not risk making a mistake and bombing the children. Indeed, they made no mistake. The school was savagely bombed. Sixty children between the age of 5 and 7 hid under their desks struck by fear. The teacher then began to take them through the window: one pick-a-back and two more under the armpits. The teacher made a dozen sorties carrying out three children at a time under bullets and rocket fire. By this time, some of the children in the class had been killed or wounded and fhe rest were panicking. The teacher had succeeded in carrying out 45 children when he was wounded in the leg. Even then he carried three children. At this moment, the planes dropped napalm containers on what remained of the school and there were no more screams of children.
``The children who had been taken to safety by the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Crimes of War. A Legal, Political-Documentary, and Psychological Inquiry into the Responsibility of Leaders, Citizens, and Soldiers for Criminal Acts in Wars, ed. by Richard A. Falk, Gabriel Koike and Robert Jay Lifton, Vintage Books, New York, 1971, p. 281.
44 teacher jumped out of the bomb-shelter and ran home in fear. They were strafed from helicopters, hunted down like rabbits. The helicopters flew so low that we could clearly see American military uniforms.''^^1^^An American author, Daniel Berrigan, saw a documentary film depicting the bombing of medical establishments in North Vietnam by US planes. As a result of 248 air raids, the Americans destroyed 127 major medical establishments in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Recalling those hair-raising stills, Berrigan wrote: "I felt like a Nazi watching films of Dachau. On and on, a record of perfidy and extermination... The only conceivable purpose of the attacks is to maim and kill the patients, and to induce terror in the medical workers, in order that the entire society might be intimidated... The visiting team from the International Crimes Commission declared that they had never seen such destruction as has been wreaked upon the medical facilities of the North."^^2^^
During their air raids on Vietnamese territory, the American air force widely used napalm. Planes were fitted with wing tanks carrying between 300 and 630 kg of napalm. Each tank could burn out something like 2,000 square metres of territory. Quite often, the wing tanks with napalm were exploded in the air by special charges and this resulted in a deadly rain. Napalm cannot be scraped off the skin or extinguished. A person struck by napalm perishes in horrible pain.
In his book Rape of Vietnam Harry Slingsby of New Zealand wrote with full justification: "Napalm ... is solely and wholly a terror weapon.'' Describing one of the numerous cases when the Americans used napalm, Slingsby _-_-_
~^^1^^ Madelaine Riffaud, Dans les maquis ``Vietcong'', Rene Julliard, Paris, 1965, pp. 172--73.
~^^2^^ Daniel Berrigan, "The Gift'', in: Crimes of War...,p. 471.
45 wrote: "Napalm ... cascaded into the trenches where the children were. There were 63 children in the trenches and they were all set on fire. Screaming in agony and terror they fled out of the trenches and ran to their mothers in nearby huts, like so many little human torches. When their agonised mothers tried to help them, they, too, were set on fire as they touched the children.''^^1^^According to the Pentagon, the United States Air Force dropped over 100,000 tons of napalm bombs over North and South Vietnam from 1963 on. Commenting on this report, an Associated Press correspondent noted that the American army had made napalm into an effective weapon of mass annihilation.
In justifying the behaviour of US troops in Vietnam American propaganda asserts that US armed forces were allegedly made to defend themselves against the guerillas. In fact, even according to Western sources, for every guerilla killed in South Vietnam, there were at least six peaceful civilians killed.
On March 13, 1967, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam representation in Hanoi held a press conference. They presented a book published by the South Vietnam Committee for denunciation of the crimes of the US imperialists and their henchmen which contained welldocumented facts on atrocities by American occupation forces in South Vietnam. According to this book over one million civilians perished in concentration camps organized on American instructions during the period from 1959 to 1967.
`` `Burn all, destroy all, kill all'---these were the three hideous tasks pursued by the occupationists and the South Vietnam regime,'' the NLF spokesman told _-_-_
~^^1^^ H.G. Slingsby, Rape of Vietnam, Modern Books Press, Wellington, 1966, pp. 82,83.
46 the press conference.^^1^^Mass murder, looting, violence became part of everyday life. Here is one registered case: "In Hoa My village, U.S. troops had the inhabitants lined up and shot them; as a result, 47 persons, mostly old folks and children, were killed. Many women---including old ones---were raped, Tuyet, a 17-year-old girl, was raped many times till she lost consciousness. All houses, property and food were destroyed or burnt."^^2^^
Military and civilian Vietnamese captured by the Americans and their henchmen were subjected to mediaeval torture: gouging out eyes, carving off human flesh, burying alive, etc. Mass murders were conducted with various modem weapons, including toxic chemicals.^^3^^
It was the children, women and old people who were the first victims of genocide practised by the American military. The correspondent of the French monthly Le Monde diplomatique who had visited the Mekong delta during an American punitive expedition reported in March 1967: "It was almost unbearably hot in the hospital at Cantho. A fetid odour floated in the air. There were two children to each of the 25 cots in the room. Two children had both legs amputated to the knees.
``One of the medical personnel told me that American helicopters had shot them like rabbits. I could not take my eyes away from the blood-soaked bandages. I read the cards on the hospital cots: 'V6-Van-Mung, seven years', ' NguyenVan-N6ng, eleven years', 'Vanh-Minh, thirteen years', 'Nguyen-Van-Hot, ten years'. They had all been wounded _-_-_
~^^1^^ Komsomolskaya pravda, March 14, 1967.
~^^2^^ U.S. Imperialists' "Burn All, Destroy All, Kill All" Policy in South Vietnam, Giai Phong (Liberation) Editions, South Vietnam, 1967, p. 15.
~^^3^^ Ibid., pp. 39--40.
47 by gunfire from the air. Their only crime was that they were tending buffaloes which, in the opinion of the Americans, meant contact with the Vietcong.``The next ward was occupied by napalm victims. It was an unbearable sight. Pieces of flesh dropped off with the bandages at the time of dressing... Many victims had open wounds hardly covered with a piece of gauze.
``The grief-stricken mothers were at the bedside of their children making up for the lack of nurses. Day and night they fanned the little charred faces which will never regain human appearance. They could afford but a few hours' sleep on the floor at the bed of the child...''^^1^^
Sergeant Joseph Grant, a participant in the Vietnam war, testified: "The guys would cut the ears off the Vietnamese, dry them out and string them around their neck, wear them that way on a string, like a chain. They were, you know, souvenirs or something. Half the guys go crazy. Just take a dead body and run a knife through it or keep on shooting it or something.''^^2^^
Some people try to whitewash US policy by asserting that individual maniacs were responsible for the few `` excesses'' that had taken place during the Vietnam war. The harsh facts belie these explanations. Beyond the slightest doubt the extermination of Vietnamese was a governmental policy. American generals not only ordered the killings, but themselves killed people, thus stimulating the "service zeal" of their subordinates.
A Sunday Times correspondent reported one American general shooting like mad at two Vietnamese whom he had noticed when flying by helicopter over their village after _-_-_
^^1^^ Bernard Couret, "Au Vietnam'', Le Monde diplomatique, No. 156, March 1967, p. 14.
^^2^^ Mark Lane, Conversations with Americans, Simon and Schuster New York, 19 70, p. 193.
48 a raid. He shot at them until they were dead.The arrival of an American army detachment into a Vietnamese village more often than not spelled death for its inhabitants. This was the way nearly all the inhabitants of the tragically known My Lai village were massacred. In Vinhloc village 100 farmers were killed; another 62 were massacred in Phuok Binh; still another 57 in Ziankien, and scores of thousands more in other residential centres in Vietnam.
A Vietnam war veteran of the First Battalion, 27th Regiment recalled taking some North Vietnam Army suspects: "We had just gone through an operation that was---we lost a lot of people, and these men were, you know, mad and disgusted. They took the five suspects, and first they hung them, then they stabbed them, and then they shot them and threw them in this river outside of the village.
``There were cases where we would go on sweeps, operational sweeps, which is like a search and destroy. That's what the Marine Corps called it---a sweep---and we'd go through villages,... trampling the crops, killing the livestock, then throwing grenades in the family bunkers. The people were terrorized by the Marines. I mean they terrorized them to death, and the people were scared. They didn't know when to come out of their bunkers. Some jerk would yell in there, you know, come out, come out. The people wouldn't come out, so he just rolled a grenade in there and that would be it. It'd be sealed off and everybody would just forget about it and just keep moving on.
``Q: Did you see much of this?
``A: All the time...
``Q: Which villages?
``A: The villages all outside of Hue."^^1^^
The Mekong river delta, Vietnam's granary, became a _-_-_
^^1^^ Ibid.,pp. 210--11.
__PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---1169 49 ``zone of free killing''. Hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs, shells, napalm and other toxic chemicals were dropped on the heads of the six million Vietnamese living in the delta. American soldiers in the zone were given the right to shoot at sight any moving object.Robert Moragne of the US Navy who took part in the Vietnam war testified: "We went into the Mekong Delta through the river system. Here we were supporting the Navy and Army troops. We acted as a home base. We regularly fired at the shore, usually during the nighttime. Just as a matter of course. To make sure that there wasn't anything surviving.''^^1^^
By destroying the country's granary, the US command was bent on destroying the population by famine.
American armed forces in Vietnam widely used chemical weapons. The September 10, 1966 issue of The New York Times reported: "This year Operation Ranch Hand, using an average of six C-123 spray planes, has squirted 1,324,430 gallons of non-toxic herbicide... The United States military is taking steps to triple the capability of those efforts.''^^2^^ The paper also reported that chemicals were used not only for destroying crops, but also for poisoning the civilian population in South Vietnam and Laos.
In those regions of South Vietnam which were exposed to chemical warfare, 56 per cent of the population developed intestinal diseases as a result of consuming contaminated products. Some 70 per cent developed bronchitis. Breastfeeding mothers had no milk for the infants, pregnant women had miscarriages.
The US military command repeated time and again that the chemicals used in Vietnam were not lethal. However, in the summer of 1966 alone, these chemicals claimed the lives _-_-_
^^1^^ Mark Lane, op. cit., p. 103.
~^^2^^ The New York Times, September 10, 1966, p. 2.
50 of 80 American servicemen and another 124 were put out of action after being exposed to the chemicals.^^1^^United Press International reported in March 1967 that exposure to the chemicals killed civilians. In spite of this, the US Defense Department insisted that the chemicals were "non-toxic for people and animals'', turning a blind eye to the fact that the local population was doomed when crops were destroyed.
Another testimony by Joseph Grant:
``Q: Was gas ever used by American forces in Vietnam? "A: Yes... It was CS and we had this machine that pumped it into a tunnel complex. Sometimes the Cong was down there, sometimes people from the village, hiding if they knew we were coming. We'd put the gas down there. Later on, we just sealed up the tunnel with grenades. "Q: What happened to the people? "A: They would be killed. Couldn't get out.''^^2^^
An official report published in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam stressed: "For the first time in the history of mankind chemical warfare has been conducted on a large scale. Apart from napalm and phosphorus which cause terrible fires and burns, the chemicals used are mostly defoliants.''^^3^^
Chemicals contaminated millions of hectares of soil (10 per cent of the country's territory) and it will take anything between 30 and 50 years to return the land back to normal. The toxic chemicals affected fowl and fish. Women exposed to the chemicals continue to give birth to children suffering from severe diseases of the blood.
During World War I, the seven main warring powers used _-_-_
^^1^^ Mezhdunarodnaya zhizn, No. 2, 1967, p. 59.
~^^2^^ Mark Lane, op. cit., p. 194.
^^3^^ Viet Nam: Destruction War Damage, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Hanoi, 1977, p. 14.
51 about 110,000 tons of toxic chemicals. In Indo-China the United States during the period from 1965 to 1970 used 90,000 tons of toxic chemicals, including 78,000 tons of herbicides.The German gas attack at leper in 1915 poisoned 15,000 soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of people were poisoned in Vietnam.
An International War Crimes Tribunal for investigating US crimes in Vietnam was set up on the initiative of the progressive-minded world public. It was led by the prominent British philosopher Bertrand Russell. One of the documents adopted by the tribunal spoke of mass killings of the population in Vietnam by new types of weapons, such as steel-pellet bombs, phosphorus bombs, sodium bombs, magnium bombs, and napalm bombs. Steel-pellet bombs, above all, were intended to kill people, leaving structures intact. There were explosives in shells of steel pellets. When exploded the steel pellets were thrown out at enormous velocity killing everything within the radius of 50 metres.^^1^^
The Americans also used in Vietnam 105-mm howitzer shells of the so-called ``honeycomb'' type. These are in fact artillery versions of the steel-pellet bombs. Each such shell contains about 8,000 small steel arrows which are shoot out of the exploding shell killing and maiming people.
The bombing pattern was typical indeed. The first wave of bombers would drop high-explosive bombs, then the second wave would drop phosphorus bombs. Finally, in order to prevent the population from seeking refuge and to knock out the medical personnel, the planes dropped steelpellet bombs.
Lawrence Daly, Secretary and Treasurer to the National Union of Mineworkers, Scottish Area, who spent 24 days in North Vietnam with a. group of the International War _-_-_
~^^1^^ Pravda, February 23, 1967.
52 Crimes Tribunal, wrote in the New Statesman in March 1967: "...The bombing has been concentrated on houses, schools, churches, pagodas, hospitals and other targets of a non-military character. The US bombings have indeed been `selective' and they have quite clearly singled out these civilian establishments for their most prolonged and systematic attacks... Steel-pellet bombs ... often cause death ... or cripple their victims... We concluded that the United States is, in fact, conducting a genocidal war against North Vietnam. This may seem utterly incredible, but the evidence permits no other conclusion.''^^1^^At that time already, many unbiassed observers stated that Vietnam had fallen victim to real genocide. Professor Leo Matarasso of New York University, who was in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Cambodia from December 30, 1966 to January 20, 1967 with a commission of the International War Crimes Tribunal, gave a press conference in Paris on February 2, 1967. He enumerated the civilian targets hit by American bombers and pointed out that the weapons used and the targets hit testified to American plans of genocide in Vietnam.^^2^^
In January 1967, the New Statesman published an article by Mervyn Jones entitled "Dirty Hands''. Commenting on carpet bombing of North Vietnam by US planes, he wrote: "There is no more excuse for this slaughter than for what the Nazis did to villages such as Lidice and Oradour-- surGlane or, to be precise, the excuse is the same. Whether or not the rather nebulous word `genocide' is apposite, this is in plain English mass murder. Napalm, the customary method of killing, is so abominable that it would clearly be contrary to the laws of war, like poison gas and the dumdum _-_-_
~^^1^^ Lawrence Daly, "War Crimes: Collecting Evidence" in: New Statesman, Vol. 73, No. 1877, March 3, 1967, p. 286.
~^^2^^ L'Humanite, February 3, 1967, p. 3.
53 bullets, if those laws were not so absurdly out of date. In short, crimes on a large scale have been and continue to be committed. No tribunal is needed to prove this; the newspapers, including American newspapers, are enough.''~^^1^^American generals were given a free hand in bombing any target in North Vietnam without having to get the O.K. from anyone. They made wide use of this right and tried to reduce the Democratic Republic of Vietnam into desert land, something like a lunar landscape.
Strategic B-52 bombers, carrying up to 30 tons of bombs each, razed to the ground whole towns. Thousands of civilians perished under the ruins. The total weight of the bombs and shells dropped on Vietnam reached 14.5 million tons, which is seven times the total weight of all the bombs and shells used in World War II. The French newspaper Le Monde, estimated that the explosives used by the Americans in Vietnam were equivalent to 720 atomic bombs of the kind which destroyed Hiroshima. It is very indicative that the heavy B-52 bombers which are intended for carpet bombing were used against the civilian population, while special targets were hit with more accurate laser beam sights.
The civilian population were also destroyed in the course of attempts to crush the resistance of the urban population in South Vietnam to occupationist forces. A case in point is the South Vietnamese capital Saigon (currently Ho Chi Minh). Here are but a few news items by The New York Times Saigon correspondents:
``The fighting in Saigon yesterday and early today was concentrated in densely populated areas. In the suburban sections of Giadinh Province, circling helicopters attacked rows of houses with rockets and machine guns to get at the guerillas within.
_-_-_~^^1^^ New Statesman, VoL 73, No. 1872, January 27, 1967, p. 111.
54``Tanks and armored personnel carriers joined the attack, firing their 40-mm cannon and heavy machine guns at pointblank range.''
(The New York Times, February 3,1968, p. 9.)
``The Saigon suburb of Nhonxa, which lies less than a mile from the city airport, looked like Stalingrad with palm trees yesterday...
``Row after row of concrete houses have been destroyed by the battle...
``A United States Marine colonel who viewed the scene called the damage incredible and said the place was a shambles. It seemed likely that many Vietnamese civilians had died or been wounded...''
(Ibid., February 4, 1968, p. 2.)
``...In some places in the city and suburbs the destruction is almost total. Allied forces were resorting to bombing and shelling rather than risk the lives of troops in the streetto-street assaults.''
(Ibid., February 6, 1968, p. 14.)
According to a New York Times correspondent, the number of killed and wounded women, children and old folk ran into tens of thousands. The same was the fate of other residential centres in the country.
Throughout February 1968, the US Navy and Air Force ruthlessly bombarded the city of Hue which had been liberated by patriotic forces. In this ancient capital of Vietnam thousands of dwellings were destroyed, the city's citadel and its palace complex were turned to ruins.
A New York Times correspondent reported from Hue that he had seen with his own eyes American marines turning to rubble a city of 145,000 people.
American soldiers resorted to atrocities against the 55 defenceless civilian population and refused to recognize as combatants those who fought against them with arms in hand. The Americans humiliated all Vietnamese irrespective of their political affiliations. They called them ``gooks'' or ``slant-eyes''. Many Americans in Vietnam believed "that they [the Vietnamese---Ed.] were, you know, inferior people".^^1^^ Vietnamese prisoners were shot in cold blood, as a rule. Testimony to this we find in an interrogation record of Sergeant Harry Plimpton, squad leader in a Ranger battalion:
``Q: Do you know anything about the military treatment of prisoners?
``A: Military treatment of prisoners---well, sometimes you're given word 'no prisoners'. In other words if you find a man lying and you think hell die from wounds he's got, you leave him. If he won't die from the wounds he's got---by the time you walk off he should be dead.
``Q: What does that mean?
``A: You shot him.
``Q: Did you ever shoot a man under such circumstances?
``A: Yes, I did. I had to shoot a man with a 357
Magnum pistol once.
``Q: He was wounded and out of action?
``A: Yes, he was wounded. He was gut-shot.
``Q: Did you see other soldiers participating in the execution of the wounded?
``A: Yes, I did.
``Q: On how many occasions?
``A: You could see this practically every operation...
``Q: Did you ever see prisoners interrogated?
``A: Yes, I did.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Mark Lane, op. cit., p. 206.
56``Q: How did that work?
``A: We took five up in a helicopter once, started talking to one, he wouldn't talk. We threw him out of the helicopter.
``Q: What was your rank at the time?
``A: 1 was sergeant E-5. I was one of the prisoner guards at the time.
``Q: Who made the decision to throw the man out of the helicopter?
``A: The S-2 officer. A lieutenant.
``Q: Was just one thrown out?
``A: No, there was not. We had five prisoners. Four were thrown out of the helicopter.
``Q: What happened to the fifth man?
``4: The fifth one talked. Then he was sent to a POW compound.
``Q: How high was the helicopter when the men were thrown out?
``A: Approximately three thousand feet.
``Q: Were these five men soldiers?
``A: They were Vietcongs.
``Q: Were they soldiers?
``A: They were partisans.''^^1^^
James Adams of the US Marines testified that when he and other marines were trained in hand-to-hand combat, the instructor taught them: " 'If a rabbit should jump up in front of you throw a. round into it for good measure...' 'If you should pass an enemy soldier wounded, lying on the deck, you never leave any wounded that you know about lying around alive.'' You would just, like if you had fixed bayonets, reach down, and in the instructor's own words again, 'Cut his head off' or 'Pump a few rounds into him for good measure.' But anyhow, take care of him, but not stop. _-_-_
^^1^^ lbid., pp. 106--07.
57 Not stop to help him or stop to capture anything. Just kill him on the spot...''^^1^^All these instructions were meticulously followed by American servicemen. Gary Gianninoto, another Vietnam war participant, testified: ``They're very tiny people any way, and these guys would be huge Marines, and they'd tie their hands behind their back, bind their feet just enough so that they could walk, and they would taunt them, harass them, burn them with cigarettes, make them drink bottles of tabasco sauce. Kick them in the groin. One day when I stayed back with an operations sweep of the island that we were on for the Navy ... prisoners were coming back after hand grenades had been thrown at them and they had fragments of grenade. You know, just thrown far enough away so they just catch a little bit. Then another guy came in who was poisoned. They made him eat one of the heating tabs used to cook the C-rations. Several of the Marines had got him and forced his mouth open and pushed it down his throat, and they made him eat it."^^2^^
According to approximate estimates there were among the civilian population of South Vietnam alone "one million killed and two million injured during the period 1961 to 1970"^^3^^. The number of victims of American aggression continued to grow even after the fighting had stopped, since there remained 300,000 bombs, shells and mines in the soil that had not exploded.
The forced deportation of South Vietnamese civilians, particularly into so-called "strategic hamlets'', was conducted on a huge scale. In these crowded settlements, the _-_-_
~^^1^^ Mark Lane, op. cit., pp. 131--32.
~^^2^^ Ibid,, pp. 211--12.
^^3^^ E.Z. Hermann, Atrocities m Viet Nam. Myths and Realities, Pilgrim Press, Boston, 1970. Quoted in: Viet Nam: Destruction War Damage, p. 24.
58 villagers were doomed to famine and epidemics. During the period from 1965 to 1973, according to American sources, something like 10,469,700 people were thus resettled.In an attempt to undermine the food supplies of the Vietnamese people, and hence to make famine an ally in genocide, the American occupationists conducted a planned destruction of irrigation systems in Vietnam, in particular dams. Their meteorological war pursued the same goals. American forces in Vietnam sprayed silver iodide on cloudbanks and the crystals immediately produced drops. This process of condensation enveloped the entire cloud within minutes and the rain shower flooded and washed away whole villages. The French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur reported this was the way one of the top-secret climatological experiments of the CIA and the Pentagon in Laos ended. It was called Operation Pop Eye. Suffice it to say that the spraying of 10--20 grams of silver iodide in rain clouds can bring down up to a million cubic metres of water. The West German magazine Der Spiegel reported a case when a reagent-treated cloud "strayed off course" and shed rain over a US special forces base. Within two hours there were 200 mm of rainfall, which is a very impressive figure. It makes it possible to judge the ``potentials'' of artificial rain and its consequences in Vietnam.
Apart from committing war crimes in Vietnam, the United States used this long-suffering country as a giant laboratory for testing new weapons and other means of mass extermination of people. Millions of Vietnamese were used as guineapigs. All in all, over 15 million people in Vietnam were killed, wounded or maimed during the years of American aggression. The Vietnamese are well justified to declare: "No country has ever suffered so much and for such a long time.''^^1^^ The Soviet press stressed in _-_-_
^^1^^ Viet Nam: Destruction War Damage, p. 31.
59 connection with US aggression in Vietnam that numerous irrefutable facts proved the US armed forces guilty of the shameful and terrible crime of genocide. It stands to reason that responsibility for this policy is shared by the American aggressors with their South Vietnam puppets and those who joined the Americans in their intervention against the Vietnamese people. However, it is absolutely clear that the American interventionists were the sponsors, inspirers and main perpetrators of this criminal policy.The United States has used its "wealth of experience" in exterminating civilians in Vietnam to support and encourage the policy of genocide pursued by the terrorist regimes of Israel, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Republic of South Africa.
[60] __ALPHA_LVL1__ ISRAEL: GENOCIDE ZIONIST ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Over 30,000 Lebanese and
Palestinians, mainly women, children and old folk, have been
killed and some 70,000 wounded as a result of the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon that began in the summer of 1982.
The Zionist invaders ridiculed common sense by adopting
the operation code-name "Peace for Galilee''. Thousands
of people are reported missing, about one million have been
rendered homeless, 14 Palestinian refugee camps have been
destroyed. West Beirut is a mass of ruins, and devastation
has affected dozens of villages and three big towns in the
south of Lebanon---Tyre, Nabatiye and Sai'da.
The bloody crimes of Zionism in Lebanon are only comparable in their ruthlessness with the crimes of nazism in World War II and the atrocities of the American military in Vietnam. These actions can only be classified as genocide directed at the physical extermination of the Arab people of Palestine.
Having committed an unprecedented act of aggression against Lebanon, the Israeli military launched a deliberate and systematic destruction of civilians. Mass shooting, concentration camps and prisons, 61 torture and brutality at the slightest suspicion, bombing by aircraft and artillery fire using cluster, phosphorus, steel-- pellet, and vacuum bombs of US manufacture, destruction of hospitals with the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, termination of water, food, power and medical suppliessuch is the far from complete list of crimes committed by the Zionists in pursuance of their expansionist plans.
The Israeli military has reduced the western sector of Beirut to a mass of ruins. As a result of savage bombing raids over 10,500 buildings have been destroyed or badly damaged, including five United Nations buildings, 134 embassies and diplomatic residences, six hospitals or clinics, the Central Bank, five hotels, the Red Cross building, a mental institute, Lebanese and foreign media outlets. After surveying 55 separate areas hit by Israeli bombing the Canadian Ambassador, Theodore Arcand, said the destruction "would make Berlin of 1944 look like a tea party".^^1^^
The bloodbath continued for weeks on end, claiming the lives of hundreds of people who had been rendered homeless and deprived of water, food and elementary medical assistance. The newspaper Haaretz, in its issue of August 10, 1982 published a letter by an Israeli soldier saying, in part: "I would like to describe the dream of someone who returned from Beirut two days ago. Beirut, even in dreams, can be recognized by the smell it exudes. The stench of corpses even if you get used to it continues to pursue you everywhere. In Beirut the people of the Bible have fulfilled the vision of the Bible: 'And the mountains became valleys.' "~^^2^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ Quoted in: Indicted for Crimes. Documents of the International Commission of Inquiry into Israeli Crimes Against the Lebanese and Palestinian Peoples. August-November 1982, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1983, p. 109.
^^2^^ Ibid.,p. 85.
62The Canadian surgeon Dr. Chris Giannou told the International Commission of Inquiry into Israeli Crimes in Lebanon: "I feel a little like a character from Dante. I have seen hell and returned. Many others were not quite so fortunate.''^^1^^ Dr. Giannou witnessed suffering and death on such a scale that his memory produced surrealistic images.
Day and night the western sector of Beirut was bombed and shelled from air and sea. Day and night rescue teams removed from the shattered buildings burnt and maimed bodies. And how many people remained buried under the ruins because there was no time and no one to rescue them? One of the gravest and most disgraceful crimes has been the murder of hundreds of children, including infants. Israeli soldiers shot them pointblank from pistols and avjtomatic rifles, bombed schools and other children's establishments. Children perished under the ruins of buildings, from phosphorus, cluster, steel-pellet and various boobytrap bombs which the Israeli military received in ample amounts from their American allies. They even resorted to toy-bombs which either killed children or crippled them for life.
A group of Greek doctors and nurses who worked in Lebanon reported: "We repeatedly operated on patients pierced through with numerous bomb fragments and had to amputate arms and legs of small children. Very often the damage to soft tissues and bones was so great even in areas far from the primary lesion that we had to amputate whole limbs... We would like to express our indignation, revulsion and shock at the Israelis' use of toy-bombs, a fact which made it necessary for us on numerous occasions to amputate arms and legs of young children aged from four to ten."^^2^^
One of the medical workers at a Beirut hospital spoke _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., p. 25.
^^2^^ Ibid., p. 56.
63 of an infant wounded by a phosphorus bomb. The child died in agony and the wound continued to smoulder even after the body had been placed in a sealed container. The Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci had every grounds to declare wrathfully to General Sharon that she could bury him under piles of photos of Lebanese children killed and wounded in the war.^^1^^Victims of phosphorus bombs actually burned alive. Dr. Franklin Lamb, an American lawyer, recalled: "A patient will come in smouldering, literally smouldering. If you pour water on him---some doctors did that initially---the phosphorus will effervesce and it will be very difficult to stop the process. Sometimes doctors had to use s,and or dirt to stop it."^^2^^
Yet another eye-witness account published in the London newspaper The Sunday Times: "The effects of phosphorus burning are sickening to behold. Early last week, a man in his late 40's was carried into La Haut hospital, covered with small phosphorus burns... The burns were right through his skin and subcutaneous tissue down to the charred muscles in his arms and chest. His left leg dangled off the operating table. His face was burned off and the exposed cartilage was still smouldering. When his nose was pinched, puffs of smoke appeared from his lungs. He was burning inside for six hours."^^3^^
__b_b_b__Some 250 people found shelter from air raids and shelling in the basement of an eight-storey building in Beirut. A bomb pierced the building and the whole structure caved in. Rescue work continued four days but no one could be _-_-_
^^1^^ See: Zionism: Truth and Fabrications, Progress, Moscow, 1983, p. 34 (in Russian).
~^^2^^ Indicted For Crimes..., p. 100.
~^^3^^ The Sunday Times, August 8, 1982, p. 13.
64 saved. Dr. Franklin Lamb describes this tragic event: "We heard planes. A massive eight-storey building collapsed... We were led by some civil defence people down along the basement---they had removed some of the rubble so we could crawl. There were cries from two different directions, moans of people trapped in there, and we were advised that there was no way that they could be helped... Even neighbours and knowledgeable people, even military and nonmilitary who were close by did not hear the usual kind of tremendous blast preceding the destruction of this building, and it did not blow out, it caved in, it was in the nature of an implosion rather than an explosion. Some are calling it the vacuum bomb...''^^1^^The Israeli army has used Lebanon as a testing ground for the most brutal types of American-made weapons and waged war not against PLO units, as was alleged by Tel Aviv, but against the peaceful civilian population---the Palestinian and Lebanese women, children, and old people. The Israeli authorities cut off water and power supply to the western sector of Beirut, stopped lorries carrying food and medical supplies. The hospital personnel were forced to drink vaccines in order to save precious water for the wounded. Up to 90 per cent of all the casualties during the siege of Beirut were civilians.
Sabra and Shatila... Just like Khatyn, Lidice, Guernica, Oradour and My Lai, these two Palestinian refugee camps have become symbols of inhumanity and barbarity, refined _-_-_
^^1^^ Indicted for Crimes..., p. 106.
__PRINTERS_P_65_COMMENT__ 5---1169 65 brutality and all-out sadism. What happened there is beyond human perception. With the connivance of the Israeli military command, some 3,300 Palestinians were massacred in these camps. The murderers broke into houses mowing down all their inhabitants, even infants, with automatic fire. The survivors were then shot with pistols or stabbed to death.Not only the western sector of Beirut, not only Sabra and Shatila have developed into a giant hecatomb---the bloody emblem of Zionism. Along the entire Lebanese coastline from the Israeli frontier to Beirut there are ruins and scorched land. Air raids and naval bombardments have razed residential blocks, commercial centres, schools, hospitals. Palestinian refugee camps such as Ain El-Helweh have been levelled with the ground. By irony of fate Ain El-Helweh in Arabic means "the source of beauty''. Of its 40,000 inhabitants only a few thousand have survived the Israeli invasion. The houses were destroyed, some of them partially and many completely. Bulldozers have gone over what was left from the bombardments.
The Canadian surgeon Dr. Chris Giannou testified: "I have been a witness to the total, utter devastation of residential areas... All that remained were large blackened craters filled with rubble and debris, broken concrete slabs and twisted iron bars, and corpses. The topography of certain areas had been changed. Nature itself seemed to have been injured.''^^1^^
What the bulldozers had failed to clear was removed by children. Kiddies between three and five were forced to drag heavy sackloads of debris, all that remained of their homes.
In violation of the Geneva conventions categorically prohibiting mass arrests of civilians, the Israelis threw _-_-_
~^^1^^ Indicted for Crimes..., p. 25.
66 behind bars and into concentration camps of the type of Ansar thousands of people of different nationalities, mainly Lebanese and Palestinians.The few that have succeeded in escaping alive testify that the prisoners are beaten with sticks, furniture legs with nails sticking out, flexible metal rods about one metre long and two cm thick, long plastic tubes, rope slings with pieces of metal at the end, belts, rifle buts, or are simply kicked in the guts and the groin. Plastic rope is used to tie the hands of the prisoners. The flat bands with sharp edges cause unbearable pain and any attempt to undo the knots ties them even tighter. Sometimes the prisoners are kept tied hand and foot for 2-3 months.
The cells are made to kill people physically and morally. The concrete punishment cells are about one metre high and hardly half a metre wide with iron spikes protruding from the floor. There are prison cells 200 by 60 cm with a tiny opening for a window which is opened only at night. Other cells 120 by 120 cm have a narrow slot with a wire mesh. In such prison cells a filthy plastic bucket is used for water and sewage.
Apart from daily beatings, the prisoners are subjected to electric shock torture, are hung up by the legs, have dogs set on them, are tortured with needles, made to stand handcuffed in special concrete wells with a load on the shoulders for days on end. The mediaeval inquisition would die from envy at the sight of the refined cruelty of the Israeli military.
This cruelty has a rational political basis: the Zionists regard it as one of the means for "solving the Palestinian problem''. This is a deliberate cruelty based on cold-- blooded calculation and aimed not only at the physical extermination of the Palestinian people but also at preventing their possible revival in the future.
Lieutenant Avi Grabovsky of the Israeli army testified 67 before the Israeli investigation committee that had been set up under public pressure. He stated that from his base he saw five women and children being killed on the morning of September 17. He asked one of the murderers what the reasons for the massacre were. The reply was that "pregnant women here only give birth to terrorists''. This is so reminiscent of Golda Meir's notorious statement: "I cannot sleep whenever I imagine a new Palestinian birth.''^^1^^
Genocide and banishment of Palestinians from their land---this is the way the Zionists are resolving the Palestinian problem, fully disregarding generally accepted moral standards, international law, the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, and also world opinion. When asked about the policy towards the Palestinian refugees, at a meeting of Israeli officers, an Israeli government minister, Yaakov Meridor, replied: "They should be driven eastward, in the direction of Syria. Let them go there, but don't let them come back."^^2^^
What is left after steel-pellet, phosphorus and cluster bombs, after artillery shelling and automatic fire, after knives and torture is taken over by bulldozers which level with the ground the Palestinian refugee camps dooming millions of homeless people to slow death from hunger and privations.
Under special laws the Israeli authorities have confiscated something like 75 per cent of the land formerly held by the Arabs. After driving the indigenous population from their land and destroying their villages, they set up Israeli settlements. The prominent Israeli researcher in chemistry and public figure Professor Yeshaayahi Leibowitz, _-_-_
^^1^^ Sabra and Shatila: The Massacre, prepared by Asaad Abdul Hady, Palestine Liberation Organization, Department of Information and Culture, p. 34.
~^^2^^ Quoted in: Indicted for Crimes...,pp. 81--82.
68 addressing a press conference in London, said that the Israeli government pursued a Judeo-Nazi policy. He pointed out that Israel had accomplished about the same as Hitler had done after six years in power.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Israel has committed numerous
crimes against peace and humanity, violating such acts of
international law as the 1868 St. Petersburg Declaration
which allows hostilities only against enemy armed forces,
the Hague .Convention of 1907 which prohibits attacks on
or bombing of defenceless cities, villages, dwellings or
structures, the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal
Charter of 1945 which classifies destruction of towns and
villages as a war crime, the 1948 Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the 1949
Geneva Convention on the Protection of War Victims, the
Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions adopted on
June 9, 1977, Resolutions 2444 (Respect for Human Rights
in Armed Conflicts) and 2675 (Basic Principles for the
Protection of Civilian Populations in Armed Conflicts),
etc.
On July 30, 1982, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling upon the Israeli government to lift the blockade of Beirut immediately and permit relief and food supplies by the UN and other non-governmental organizations, including the Red Cross. However,. Israel ignored this Security Council demand.
The 38th session of the United Nations General Assembly (September 20-December 20, 1983) adopted several resolutions condemning violations of human rights by the Israeli military on annexed Arab lands. The basic document approved by delegations of 115 member countries points 69 out that the measures taken by Israel with the purpose of altering the demographic structure, composition and status of the occupied territories are invalid. The session also condemned the criminal practice of creating Zionist militarized settlements on Arab lands. Only the United States and Israel voted against these resolutions and thus demonstrated to the world their complete disregard for resolutions of the international community.
All the member countries of the United Nations are obliged to strictly adhere to the UN Charter, to reckon with the resolutions of the General Assembly and fulfil the decisions of the Security Council. This particularly applies to Israel---the only state which was set up under a special act of the United Nations Organization and received territory stipulated by this act. Israel was accepted into the United Nations under a resolution based on the assumption that the state of Israel would fully adhere to the UN Charter and take up obligations to observe all its principles.
The confidence of the military and civilian authorities in Israel that they can get away with impunity leads to gross violations of international law, which constitute grave criminal offences. Sooner or later, however, the criminals will be called to answer.
__b_b_b__The massacres in Sabra and Shatila aroused such a wave of public indignation throughout the world that the Zionist rulers in Israel made an attempt to avoid responsibility for this hideous action and for atrocities of the Israeli military in West Beirut. As mentioned earlier, the special committee was set up in Israel to investigate the mass murders. It clearly follows from the final report of this committee that the bloodbath in Sabra and Shatila and the massacres in West Beirut were perpetrated with the knowledge and connivance of Tel Aviv and Washington. Numerous testimonies by eye-witnesses provide sufficient proof of the 70 involvement of the Israeli government and its military command in those tragic events.
The committee report admits that from the early morning of Wednesday, September 15, 1982, Israeli Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan was at the advance command post on the roof of a five-storey building some 200 metres south-west of the Shatila camp. Israeli troops began their attack on West Beirut soon after 6 a.m. Defence Minister Sharon arrived at the command post between 8 and 9 a.m. He telephoned Prime Minister Menachem Begin and informed him that there was no resistance in Beirut and that the operation was proceeding smoothly. By this time, at the command post were Avi Dudai (assistant to the Defence Minister), General Amir Drori (Chief of the Army Intelligence), General Amos Yaron, General David Levi (head of the General Security Service and Deputy Chief of Staff).^^1^^
This means that at the beginning of the massacre, almost all the generals of the Israeli army were in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian refugee camps. Under these circumstances who will believe allegations that the Israeli government and Staff knew nothing of what was going on in the camps?
Further developments followed a prepared scenario. The US Marines, who had been brought to Beirut with the alleged purpose of ensuring security of Palestinian refugee camps, were suddenly pulled out and Israeli troops moved in. On September 16 began the massacres at Sabra and Shatila.
The Zionist leaders tried to lay the blame for the bloodbath on their henchmen---the Phalangists and Haddad's gangs, and insisted that they knew nothing of the imminent crime. But this is a brazen lie. The chief of Israel's military intelligence testified that on September 16 the Defence _-_-_
~^^1^^ See: Pravda, September 17, 1983.
71 Ministry issued an order according to which all military units in the vicinity of the Palestinian refugee camps were to be "placed under the command of the Israeli army and act in accordance with its instructions''.There is even more substantial evidence of the Zionists' direct interest and involvement in the punitive operations against the Palestinian refugee camps. Elie Hobeika, the head of the Phalangist intelligence services, and Fadi Afram, the commanding officer of the right-wing Christian Militia, testified before the Lebanese Committee for Investigation of the Sabra and Shatila massacre that Israel's Defence Minister Sharon had personally "asked the Phalangists to carry out a massacre in one of the Palestinian camps in south Lebanon at the beginning of July''. When Hobeika and Afram asked Sharon "to clarify the aim behind his request'', he replied that it was "to create terror and widespread emigration among Palestinians as took place in 1948".^^1^^
General Sharon told the Knesset that he had indeed given the Phalangists permission to enter Sabra and Shatila but on the grounds of their promise not to touch the civilian population of these camps, particularly the women, children and old people. In its issue of September 27, 1982, however, The Jerusalem Post reported that General Amir Drori had seen the cable sent on the evening of September 16 by the commander of the Phalangist detachments in Shatila to the Israeli leadership. It read: "The result of our operation has so far been the killing of 300 civilians and terrorists.''
When several of the ministers attending an Israeli government session protested at their not having been promptly informed of the Sabra and Shatila operations and Prime Minister Begin alleged that he himself had been taken unawares by the latest news, Communication Minister _-_-_
^^1^^ Sabra and Shatila: The Massacre, p. 57.
72 Mordechai Zippori then "embarrassed him by stating that he personally had informed Foreign Minister Shamir on Friday morning that a massacre had taken place the preceding night in Beirut".^^1^^There are numerous facts testifying beyond any doubt that Prime Minister Begin, Foreign Minister Shamir, Defence Minister Sharon and the Israeli army command not only had advance information of the planned massacre but were its sponsors and directly participated in the organization of this bloodbath.
The massacre began at 4 p.m. on September 16. In its issue dated September 28, 1982, The New York Times reported that General Amir Drori had contacted Defence Minister Ariel Sharon and informed him of the following: "Our comrades, the Phalangists, are moving into the camps. We have coordinated their entry together with their leadership.'' Ariel Sharon answered him simply by saying, "My regards! May it be a happy comradely operation.''
All the camps' exits were blocked by Israeli troops during the massacre while an Israeli artillery unit based in Beirut fired one flare every two minutes all throughout Thursday night from sunset to dawn lighting up the camp for the Phalangists. "Hundreds of Israeli soldiers stood and watched at the outskirts of Shatila camp.'' This was stated by Loren Jenkens, a Washington Post correspondent.^^2^^ Members of the right-wing militia had forbidden him to enter the camp. Soon after, the Israeli authorities expelled him from the country.
After the massacre in Sabra and Shatila, the Israeli command commended the Phalangists for their `` comradely'' criminal operation. General Yaron testified that _-_-_
^^1^^ Ibid.,p. 37.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 22.
73 Chief of Staff Eitan spoke to them appreciatively telling them "I congratulate you for having done a good and splendid piece of work".^^1^^The results of a public opinion poll published in the American magazine Newsweek show that 80 per cent of the Americans blamed Israel for the crime. Half of the people polled believed that the White House ought to have intervened to prevent the massacre.
The White House administration made an attempt to dissociate itself from Israeli aggression against Lebanon and the crimes of the Zionists on Lebanese soil. But this time refutation came from the Israeli Cabinet. Mordechai Zippori, for instance, declared at the height of Israeli aggression against Lebanon: "Never before has Israel enjoyed such support from the United States as now. "^^2^^
In his interview with the West German magazine Stern Israel's Defence Minister Sharon was even more outspoken. "For almost a year,'' he said, "i.e. since September 1981, I have been discussing with the Americans the possibility of such an operation. I discussed it many times with the then State Secretary Alexander Haig, I discussed it with Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger during my stay in Washington, I repeatedly discussed it with US envoy Philip Habib. I warned them: `Don't pretend to be shocked when we do it.' " The then Israeli Foreign Minister Shamir, who later became Prime Minister, said in an American radio interview that the attack on Lebanon had been undertaken with the full agreement and understanding of the United States.^^3^^
_-_-_^^1^^ Sabraand Shatila..., p. 25.
~^^2^^ Al-Hamishmar, July 11, 1982.
^^3^^ Zionism: Truth and Fabrications, p. 183.
74
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The crimes of the Israeli military
in Lebanon are not sporadic acts of cruelty and sadism by
an embittered soldiery. They constitute the logical practice
of the misanthropic ideology of Zionism and its propaganda
of ``the select" and ``permissiveness''.
The entire history of Zionism, just like the life stories of its leaders, comprises endless terroristic acts and is soaked in blood. At the end of the 1940s, the Zionists fully destroyed 190 Palestinian villages, appropriated the land of the Palestinians and forced them to flee. This is apart from the hundreds of houses in the towns and villages which had been demolished, their residents robbed and many thrown behind bars on the standard accusation of `` terrorism''.
It is the Zionists that have been conducting a policy of mass terror against the Arab people of Palestine. On April 10, 1948 occurred the Deir Yassin massacre in which all 300 persons present in the village at the time were murdered by a gang led by Shamir, a well-known figure in today's Israel. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who was leader of the Irgun terrorist gang even before the emergence of the state of Israel, commented on the massacre by saying: "The occupation of Deir Yassin was a strategically important act.'' When asked about his numerous acts of terror in a television interview many years later, Begin replied: "The use of such violent means was necessary in order to arrive at our political goals as quickly as possible.''^^1^^
Sharon, too, has a terrorist past, just like Begin and Shamir. Sharon was personally behind the Qibieh massacre in the West Bank of the Jordan in which 54 children _-_-_
~^^1^^ Sabra and Shatila..., p. 40.
75 were murdered.^^1^^In Kufr Qasim at 3:00 p.m. on October 29, 1956, commanding officer Shadmi told his soldiers two hours before the start of the massacre: "God have mercy on them---no emotions, arrests or wounded.'' The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported a few days later that the wages of the soldiers who had committed the crime were increased 50 per cent.^^2^^
On June 15, 1969, the London Sunday Times published a statement by Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir: "There was no such thing as Palestinians. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.''^^3^^
On June 8, 1982, two days after Israel invaded Lebanon, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, addressing the Knesset, referred to Palestinians as "two-legged animals".^^4^^ The deputy commander of the Judea military district testified that Ariel Sharon had instructed his officers to "tear off the balls" of Palestinian Arab ``rioters'' in the West Bank.^^5^^
__b_b_b__The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel condemned this policy: "Every day of the continuation of the Likud rule increases the danger of fascism and war and _-_-_
~^^1^^ Sabra and Shatila..., p. 41.
~^^2^^ Ibid.
~^^3^^ Sunday Times, June 15, 1969.
^^4^^ Haaretz, June 18, 1982. Quoted in: Judaism or Zionism: What Difference for the Middle East. A Conference for Understanding and Peace, 6-7 May 1983, Washington D.C., USA, p. 23.
^^5^^ Haaretz, December 29, 1982. Quoted in: Judaism or Zionism..., p. 23.
76 causes the deepening of the economic and social crisis.''^^1^^The physical extermination of the Palestinian Arabs or else their removal from land that had fallen under the jurisdiction of the Israeli administration or occupation authorities predetermine the development and entrenchment of a fascist ideology, or, as one of Israel's leading anti-Zionists Professor Israel Shahak put it, ``Judeo-Nazimentality''.^^2^^
The results of public opinion polls testify to the fascistization of not only state and judicial institutions, but also of Israeli social consciousness. The crimes on the occupied lands of the Arab people of Palestine and in Lebanon are committed by privates, officers and generals who are impregnated with the pernicious spirit of Zionist ideology. Analyzing the facts which testify to the fascistization of the Zionist state, the progressive Israeli public figure Uri Davis wrote: "The political situation inside Israel today is completely analogous to the political situation in Germany in the period 1933--39: after the rise of the National Socialist (Nazi) party to Government power in Germany and before the outbreak of World War 2. In this context I wish to make completely clear that I am not saying the Palestinian Arabs are being murdered in Israeli gas chambers. Nor am I saying that it is likely that Palestinian Arabs will be murdered in the future in Israeli gas chambers. What I am saying is that the situation of the Palestinian Arab population under Israeli rule today is completely analogous to the situation of the Jewish population under Nazi rule after proclamation of the 1935 Nuremberg Laws and prior to outbreak of WW2 in _-_-_
~^^1^^ For Unity in the Struggle Against Occupation and Fascism, for Just Peace and Democracy, for Equal Rights and Defence of Working People's Cause. Theses of the XIX Congress of the Communist Party of Israel, p. 89.
^^2^^ Yediot Aharonot, February 13, 1983. Quoted in: Judaism or Zionism..., p. 23.
77 1939... Almost one and a half million Palestinian Arab people live under Israeli military occupation since 1967 for over fifteen years. They are denied Israeli citizenship... They are subject to mass arrests in Israeli jails and detention centers. They are interned in the Ansar concentration camp, located in the most recently acquired Israeli occupied territory, South Lebanon. They are massacred in Sabra and Shatila.''^^1^^It must be admitted that Zionist propaganda, the systematic brainwashing of the population, education of the youth in the spirit of Judaic dogmas have ensured the Zionist rulers of Israel the support of a substantial part of the country's population, and this in turn stimulates the fascistization of the country.
Zionist doctrine lies at the root of all Israeli laws which deny the Arab people of Palestine all human rights---the right to have a homeland and statehood, the right to citizenship, land and property, and actually the right to life. It is this doctrine that determines the policy of genocide with regard to an entire people and it is this very same doctrine that has outlined the sphere of Israel's strategic interests which constitute a threat not only to the Middle East as a whole, but also to many other parts of Asia and Africa.
Israel's former Defence Minister General Sharon made no secret of his expansionist ambitions. In December 1981 he remarked candidly: "Our interests are not limited to the Arab countries of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. For the sake of ensuring security in the 80s they must also embrace such countries as Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, and also such regions as the Persian Gulf and Africa, in particular the countries of North and Central Africa.'' As regards the strategy for the realization of these expansionist plans, it has been formulated by Israel's former _-_-_
~^^1^^ Judaism or Zionism..., p. 23.
78 Prime Minister Menachem Begin when he said that Israel had no other alternative in ensuring its development but to resolve its territorial problems by force and beat the Arabs into complete submission.Just like the leaders of Hitler's Reich, the Zionists openly promulgate their expansionist goals and make no secret of the aggressive nature of their state. Back in 1956, Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, one of the country's leading ``hawks'', said virtually the following: "Who are we that we should argue against their hatred? For eight years now they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their very eyes, we turn into our homestead the land and the villages in which they and their forefathers have lived. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and the cannon we cannot plant a tree and build a home..."^^1^^ Admitting the piratical and terroristic nature of colonization of Arab lands, Moshe Dayan later said: "There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population...''^^2^^
One of the symptoms of Israel's transformation into a fascist state is the appearance of terrorist organizations of the fascist type which are sponsored by the civilian and military authorities, and also the existence of secret governmental and semi-governmental organizations which terrorize the population in Israel itself and on occupied territories.
There is particularly great danger entailed in the organization of armed units of settlers by extremist elements from the right-wing Gush Emunim and other fascist alliances. Israel's Army Chief of Staff General Eitan placed Gush Emunim officers in command of special paramilitary groups to deal with Palestinians. Israeli Communists were well _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., pp. 2--3.
^^2^^ Ibid., p. 3.
79 justified to adopt a resolution at the 18th Congress of their Party warning the country of the fascist danger.It is not only the Communists who recognize the danger of fascism in Israel. Warnings of the fascist danger are heard in various public circles. General Secretary of MAP AM (the United Workers' Party) V. Shem-Tov said that " conditions have been set for the formation of fascism in the state''. Haika Grossman, a MAP AM member of the Knesset, said: "The process of fascistization begun by the prime minister and the Likud ministers is threatening democracy in Israel.''^^1^^
S. Ehrlich and Y. Yadin, deputies of Prime Minister Begin, also expressed their concern over the growing fascist danger. S. Ehrlich warned that "the settlement minister A. Sharon is liable to set up concentration camps for his political opponents'', while Y. Yadin said that "the extreme right may cause civil war" if the Arabs get back even part of the occupied territories.^^2^^
These, however, are comments by individual politicians. When it came to opposing the anti-democratic bills, which paved the way to terror and reaction, only the Communists voted against. The Knesset passed the "law for the prevention of terror'', which defines as a criminal offence any expression of a pro-Palestinian opinion "whether in form of raising a flag, or in form of sounding an anthem or a slogan or in any other act''. An amendment was passed to the "law of citizenship'', enabling to administratively cancel the citizenship of any person who, in the opinion of the Minister of the Interior, is not loyal enough to the state.^^3^^ _-_-_
^^1^^ For Unity in the Struggle Against Occupation and Fascism... p. 91.
^^2^^ Ibid.,p. 92.
^^3^^ Ibid., pp. 92,93.
80 The Knesset also adopted the "law of privacy of the individual'', which essentially legalizes tapping the telephones and shadowing people who hold progressive views.The weakness of the opposition was also evident during Knesset debates in the summer of 1982 on the war in Lebanon. The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality headed by the Communists was the only parliamentary group to give a no confidence vote to the government; ten deputies from other parties abstained. The Zionist slogan "The maximum of land with the minimum of Arabs" is clearly still hypnotizing most political parties and a considerable part of the country's population. On June 26, 1982, however, 20,000 people responded to an appeal by the Committee Against the War in Lebanon and came out onto the streets of Tel Aviv demanding an immediate end to the aggression in that country. On July 3 the Peace Now political group organized a massive anti-war demonstration which involved 100,000 people coming from the most diverse strata of society, including soldiers, officers and some members of the United Workers' Party (MAPAM). Yet another powerful anti-war demonstration took place in Tel Aviv on September 25, in which 400,000 Israelis---young people, office employees, students, scientists and military men, who were outraged because of the bloodbath in Lebanon---demanded that the government put an end to the invasion of that country.
The war aggravated the deep social contradictions within the Zionist state, exposed its misanthropic nature and one way or another forced many people to think about the hopelessness of the aggressive policy being followed by the government, and in particular about its foreign policy activity.
What has happened in Israel testifies to the growing polarization of political forces. On the one hand, there is growing recruitment into the ranks of fighters for democracy, __PRINTERS_P_81_COMMENT__ 6---1169 81 against reaction, fascism and war. On the other hand, there is growing activity of the extremist, fascist, and antidemocratic organizations which strive to realize the aggressive plans of Zionism. It is the latter which continue to determine Israel's foreign and domestic policies and, with the full backing of big capital, American capital first and foremost, strive to transform the country into an instrument of control over the entire Middle East.
__b_b_b__Paraphrasing a well-known proverb with an eye to international relations: tell me who your allies are and I will tell you who you are. Here are some facts and figures by way of illustration: in 1980, 83 per cent of all the armaments imported by the El Salvador junta were purchased from Israel. Thousands of innocent women, children and old people were shot from Israeli-made Galil rifles and Uzi submachineguns. There is nothing surprising about it because the Salvadorian junta practises the same type of genocide with regard to its people as the Zionists do with regard to the Palestinians.
In the last year of Somoza's dictatorship in Nicaragua, Israel supplied 98 per cent of the country's imported weaponry. It was common knowledge that during its last two years in power alone, the Nicaraguan junta killed 50,000 people. The quarters of the city poor in Managua and other parts of the country were bombed and strafed by Israelimade Arava and Westwind aircraft.
At the end of 1982, President Reagan went on a tour of Latin American countries. No sooner had the President left Honduras, which the Pentagon and the CIA had transformed into an advance base for aggression against Nicaragua, than Israel's Defence Minister Sharon arrived in the country. The general and the Honduras military junta signed a secret agreement of free delivery of Israeli weapons. At the same time, Shamir, the then Israel's Foreign Minister, 82 called a meeting in Montevideo of Israeli ambassadors to Latin American countries. He informed them of the decision taken by the Israeli government to substantially increase deliveries of armaments to the reactionary regimes in Latin America. Menachem Begin, for his part, went to Washington, where he had a conference with representatives of a number of Central American states and told them of Israel's readiness to render support to aggression against Nicaragua.
Israel has become the main supplier of arms to Latin America. Tel Aviv delivers to the military-dictatorial regimes in the region not only Uzi submachine-guns and Galil rifles, but also armoured vehicles and troop carriers, rocket carriers, fighter-bombers, air-to-air and ship-to-ship missiles, and a wide range of electronic and communications equipment.
Israel is second only to the United States in arms deliveries to the Pinochet regime in Chile. Israeli specialists train Guatemalan, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan troops in antiguerilla warfare.
Israel maintains particularly close military and economic cooperation with the racist regime of the Republic of South Africa, which finances several major military projects of Tel Aviv. In return Israel delivers arms and military equipment. In 1980, South Africa accounted for 35 per cent of Israel's total arms export. The world community is particularly alarmed by the nuclear cooperation between Israel and South Africa.
The military and political cooperation between the Zionists in Israel and the racists in the Republic of South Africa jeopardizes the security of the peoples of Africa and the Middle East. This dangerous alliance enjoys the fullhearted support of American imperialism. It is a logical result of the common interests snared by the reactionary regimes.
83When the South African racists pursue their criminal policy of genocide against the country's African population and broaden their aggression against Angola, they use Israeli-made arms. Similarly the Israeli Zionists practise genocide against the Arab people of Palestine with the help of American weapons. This bears fresh testimony to the fact that genocide often goes beyond national frameworks and in global terms develops into an instrument of international reaction and monopoly capital.
Israel maintains active cooperation with the reactionary regimes in South-East Asia (Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea) and supplies them with arms. The butchers of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples nurture the idea of a "Great Israel" within the boundaries from the Nile to the Euphrates. At the same time, Israel has developed into a major manufacturer of arms and trades death wholesale and retail.
This is hardly surprising: although Israel is a small country with limited natural resources, its drawbacks are more than compensated by the generosity of the American monopolies and the military-industrial complex of the United States. Multi-billion dollar injections into the Israeli economy, the arms industry first md foremost, have ensured the extremely rapid development of the latter. This has been further promoted by the import from the United States of whole plants specializing in the manufacture of modern weapons and also the utilization of the latest American technology.
The reason for this generosity of the American monopolies is all too obvious: Israel has long since developed into an outpost for American strategic and financial interests in the Middle East. For the US military-industrial complex Israel is an accomplice in criminal tests on people of new types of weapons of mass annihilation.
Back in the thirties, American capital, acting contrary to the clauses of the Versailles Peace Treaty, helped to build 84 up the military power of the German nazis. Today, the same assistance is offered to the Israeli Zionists. In the thirties, leaders of the Western powers resorted to the dangerous game with the nazis in an attempt to set them against the Soviet Union. It is common knowledge that this political miscalculation spelled tragedy for many peoples in Europe and other parts of the world.
Under the Reagan administration Washington began to render unprecedented economic, military-strategic, and diplomatic support to Tel Aviv's criminal acts. Previous American presidents at least made a pretence of decency and from time to time reprimanded their Tel Aviv allies when they went too far. The current US administration has abandoned all camouflage.
The White House has embarked on the road of military settlement of international conflicts and is steadily building up an American military presence in the Middle East. The question no longer concerns deliveries of arms, which the Israeli military has used to shed blood on the long-suffering land of Lebanon. It is the Americans themselves who now pull the triggers killing innocent civilians and reducing to rubble whole towns and villages.
From the veiy outset of Israeli invasion of Lebanon it was clear that Washington not only provided the political cover-up for aggression, but actively encouraged it. One of the Israeli cabinet ministers, who was well aware of the undesirable consequences of the bloody adventure for Israel, remarked that the Americans had got his country into trouble. "They have driven us up a high tree from which it will be extremely difficult to climb down,"^^1^^ he said.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Quoted in: Zarubezhom (Moscow), No. 13, 1983, p. 18.
85Only recently, Washington tried to convince the world that there was no American-Israeli partnership in the war against Lebanon. It was also alleged that the US contingent in the so-called "multinational force" in Lebanon was absolutely neutral and performed a peace-keeping mission. The facts are, however, that under the flag of the " multinational force" which was sent to Lebanon with the alleged purpose, of reconciling the warring sides, Washington promoted its policy of state terrorism and made military intervention a day-by-day policy. President Reagan and Prime Minister Shamir, who replaced Begin as head of government, agreed to strengthen political, economic and military-strategic cooperation between Tel Aviv and Washington.
This criminal collusion between American imperialism and Israeli Zionism is directed not only against the Palestinian liberation movement, not only against the National Patriotic Forces of Lebanon, but also against all Arab peoples. This collusion immediately resulted in fresh crimes by the American and Israeli military in Lebanon.
In opposing the National Patriotic Forces of Lebanon Israel has placed its port facilities at the disposal of the American Sixth Fleet whose ships with 30,000 marines and 300 planes on board are stationed off the coast of Lebanon. American fighter-bombers based on the aircraft carriers Independence and John Kennedy have bombed Lebanese towns and villages. American warships, including the rocket carrier Ticonderoga and the battleship New Jersey, have shelled mountain areas of Lebanon, including the positions held by the Lebanese National Patriotic Forces and the Syrian contingent of the Arab League Forces. Washington has gradually turned from support of Israeli aggression in Lebanon to direct interference in the armed conflict. Under the pretext of "ensuring security" for its forces the White House is escalating the war against the Lebanese National 86 Patriotic Forces and the Lebanese people, as well as against the Syrian contingent of the Arab League peacekeeping forces in Lebanon.
Here are some of the main stages in the military escalation by the United States. The 1981 Memorandum of understanding on matters of strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel gave the green light to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. As a result of coordinated action between the Israeli Staff and the Pentagon, American marines were drawn out of Beirut in the nick of time. The Israeli army moved in immediately and the next day there was the massacre in Sabra and Shatila. The Israeli were redeployed to better positions under cover of American marines. Finally, the Washington ``peacemakers'' discarded all pretence of being unbiassed intermediaries in the armed conflict and openly sided with Israel. The salvoes of the New Jersey 12-inch guns made America's NATO and "multinational force" allies ponder over the bleak prospect of being drawn into the Middle East adventures of the White House.
Such is the overall picture of escalated aggression which was unleashed by the Israeli Zionists and taken up by Washington. Such is the true image of Zionism in all its manifestations.
Through its policy of genocide on Arab lands Zionism has exposed itself in the eyes of the world as an instrument of international reaction and those forces which are blinded by anti-comrnunist hatred and prepared at any moment to plunge the world into the holocaust of thermonuclear war.
[87] __ALPHA_LVL1__ SOUTH AFRICA: A REGIME
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Republic of South Africa
which lies in the south of the African continent is the
world's only state in which the principle of racial
inequality is the constitutional cornerstone, the official ideology
and the basis of the country's home policy. Racism has
impregnated all aspects of life in South Africa and it serves
as an instrument with the help of which the white minority
oppresses and virtually enslaves the non-white majority of
the population.
The essence of this policy has been cynically expressed by South African Premier Henrik F. Verwoerd when, speaking in the House of Assembly in 1963, he said: "Reduced to its simplest form the problem is nothing else than this: We want to keep South Africa White... 'Keeping it white' can mean only one thing, namely White domination, not `leadership', not `guidance', but `control', ' supremacy'.''^^1^^
The ideological foundation of this policy is apartheid--- a doctrine which rests of the racist myth of white superiority, on the allegedly special and God-given role of the white race.
_-_-_^^1^^ Apartheid. A Collection of Writings on South African Racism by South Africans, ed: by Alex la Guma, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1972, p. 28.
88``When we bury our dead we expect them, as all other people do, to rest in peace. We paid for our land and we wish to keep it. We will not own the new land to which we are supposed to move. We will merely be squatters, and who knows when someone else will decide to move us again? Why should we move? Because the government wants our land for their own purposes? For the minerals beneath the ground? Would they move white people in this way---by buses to ban-en land with no roads, no water, no schools, no shops, nothing?''^^1^^
These words filled with pain and wrath were addressed to the world community through The New York Times and belong to Saul Mkhize, a young South African. He was speaking on behalf of millions of desperate Africans who are victims of the misanthropic policy of the racist regime. The indigenous population of South Africa are hostages of the doctrine and practice of apartheid.
Saul Mkhize, calling for assistance on behalf of the 5,000 inhabitants of Driefontein who were being driven from land that had belonged to them for sixty years, focussed attention once again on the hideous practice of deliberate extermination of the country's native population which is conducted in accordance with the official policy of the South African authorities. This policy is directed at the separate development of national communities---the white population, the Africans, the ``coloured'' population, the Indians and other people of Asian origin.
The population of the Republic of South Africa is about 29 million with whites constituting the minority-^1.6 million. Nevertheless, they and only they enjoy all political and civil rights. The remaining 21 million Africans, 2.5 million ``coloured'' people and 700,000 Asians enjoy no suffrage on the territory of ``white'' South Africa and have _-_-_
~^^1^^ Quoted in: Cape Times, AprU 6, 1983.
89 no way of influencing the government, which decides their destiny by means of numerous legislative acts and regulations that embrace all and every (including intimate) aspects of their life. This political disfranchisement finds logical continuation in social and economic oppression.Apartheid in Afrikaans means ``isolation'', "separate existence''. This doctrine of the ruling Nationalist Party of South Africa is based on a racist interpretation of the Bible. The ideologists of apartheid claim that each race is predestined to lead its own special way of life and development. Any assimilation is regarded as violation of "purity of blood" and branded as a path jeopardizing the ``supreme'' white race. For the ``lower'' race, the Africans, exposure to European culture is allegedly harmful because deviation from the primitive way of life predestined by God would result in loss of their originality. For this very reason mixed marriages are classified as one of the gravest crimes in South Africa.
In reality the theory of apartheid is called upon to justify the ruthless exploitation and oppression of the non-white population on the basis of colour of the skin, ethnic and racial identity, and religion. Within the socio-economic framework of South Africa the theory and practice of apartheid have brought about the existence of two different societies in one state. The ``non-white'' society displays all the features of a ruthlessly exploited colony, while the ``white'' society has all the features of a monopoly-capitalist state.
The laws of apartheid strictly divide the ``white'' South Africa from the ``non-white'' South Africa. However, by virtue of economic factors and due to the fact that `` nonwhite'' South Africa must serve ``white'' South Africa, these very same laws bind them close to each other and thus promote the achievement of the basic aim of the racist state---maximum opportunities for the ruling class to exploit the entire non-white population. The Africans, who are the 90 indigenous population in South Africa, are the most oppressed in the country.
In 1913, South Africa adopted the Native Land Act according to which 87 per cent of the country's territory was given over to the white settlers and 13 per cent---to the Africans. This law became a cornerstone for the policy of apartheid. The juridical allotment of specific areas for specific categories of the population depending on their race was continued in 1950 by the adoption of a special law which determined residential boundaries for each race group. Under this law, millions of non-whites in South Africa were forcefully resettled, which resulted in innumerable human tragedies.
What is it then that makes genocide and apartheid so alike?
The official propaganda version of the South African authorities is that the apartheid policy gives each national group the right to self-determination and does not mean discrimination. The notorious leader of the South African racists Johannes Strijdom asserted in his time: "The purpose of the apartheid policy is that, by separating the races in every field in so far as it is practically possible, one can prevent clashes and friction between Whites and non-Whites. At the same time, in fairness to the non-Whites, they must be given the opportunity of developing in their own areas and in accordance with their own nature and abilities under the guardianship of the Whites; and in so far as they develop in accordance with the systems which are best adapted to their nature and traditions, to govern themselves there and serve their community at all the various levels of their national life.''^^1^^
How can friction and conflicts be avoided when 21 million Africans (80 per cent of the country's population) _-_-_
~^^1^^ Apartheid. A Collection of Writings..., pp. 25--26.
91 hold only 13 per cent of the land? What self-government of African communities can there be when the scheduled areas, the so-called homelands or bantustans, are economically unviable? They are not only overpopulated. These regions, as a rule, are located in the most unfertile zones with few or no minerals and practically no industry. In spite of all this, the forceful resettlement of Africans to these areas continues contrary to common sense. There is, of course, a certain logic in this policy---the logic of racism: to create for the Africans conditions which would lead to their gradual extinction.For what purpose and in the name of what principles do the South African authorities destroy the traditional way of life of the local population and deprive them of what is recognized as a tolerable standard of living according to South African standards? Why are the Africans doomed to existence in desert regions which have even no water, where they are faced with famine, diseases and gradual extinction and where all they get from the state are tents, and even those for temporary use?
It is quite clear that the resettlement of Africans on the basis of the Native Land Act and the Scheduled Areas Act is in line with the deliberate course of the South African authorities to eliminate the country's non-white population.
The bantustans where the Africans are resettled occupy but a small portion of South African territory but hold over half of the entire population. The racist authorities in Pretoria are planning to continue resettlement of Africans into bantustans so as to keep their number in ``white'' South Africa below two-thirds of the total population, and to remove "black spots" from the "white fabric" of South Africa.
The high density of the population in the bantustans results in abnormal living conditions for the Africans. The meagre land is further exhausted and no one displays any 92 interest in restoring its fertility. The absence of farm machinery, fertilizer and pesticides results in an acute food shortage. The population suffers from malnutrition, famine and diseases.
The RSA Constitution adopted in 1983 not only confirmed the lack of political rights for the Africans, but also denied them the basic human right---the right to a homeland. The South African authorities pretend to recognize the rights of the Africans to independent development in the bantustans, whereas in reality they consolidate the control of the whites over the major part of the country. Thus, Pretoria is actually imposing neo-colonialism with regard to the indigenous population of South Africa. The pseudo-independence of the bantustans not only denies the majority of the population equal rights and opportunities, but in effect, according to the RSA Constitution, deprives the Africans of citizenship in their own country. White foreigners emigrating to South Africa can become its citizens, while Africans born in South Africa can never have this opportunity.
The South African authorities, having turned the Africans into bantustan ``citizens'', drive them out of the ``white'' regions, breaking families and inflicting suffering upon hundreds of thousands of people. Those Africans who try to protest or offer resistance are dealt with accordingly. Saul Mkhize, who finally decided to write a letter to Prime Minister Pieter Botha, was murdered in April 1983, just two days after the letter had been mailed.
The transformation of Africans into bantustan ``citizens'' and their resettlement on these territories has caused tremendous overpopulation. During the last few years, something like 2.5 million more Africans have been moved to the bantustans and their population has reached 17 million. The Africans can make no subsistence on the barren plots of land and are forced to seek jobs in ``white'' South Africa 93 in order to feed their families. There is a constant migration of the able-bodied population (mostly men) into the cities, the mining centres and to the big farms and plantations. The outflow of the-best labour force from the bantustans dooms their economy to degradation. In Transkei, the male labour force in 1983 stood at 750,000. Of these some 200,000 had work in the bantustan, while the rest could not find permanent employment. In search of work they migrated to the western part of Cape Province, turned into vagrants and filled squatter camps. Men from Transkei account for about 25 per cent of the entire labour force in South African mines. True, of late they have been meeting growing competition from Africans who live closer to places of employment.
Over 70 per cent of the gainfully employed population in Boputatswana work in the Witwatersrand industrial district of ``white'' Pretoria. There is a constant influx of ``coloured'' workers and it is expected that by the year 2000 Pretoria alone will attract daily 175,000 workers from the "black spots''. Commuting to and from work over a distance of 40--50 km has become part of everyday life for the Africans. Every day, 800 buses each carrying between 90 and 100 Africans commute between Boputatswana and ``white'' places of employment.^^1^^
The African migrant (``commuter'') is subjected to ruthless exploitation by the white industrialists. One of the factors making possible this high level of exploitation is the existence in South Africa of a system of forced labour. Indeed, what other arguments but force can make a person work as a farm labourer or a servant---jobs that in South Africa are considered the worst form of employment?
Special employment offices recruit Africans for work in the economy of ``white'' South Africa. All Africans who _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Star (Johannesburg), January 1, 1983.
94 have reached the age of 16 and reside in rural areas or in bantustans are obliged to register. The employment office decides the kind of work the given African is to do. Rural residents are registered only as agricultural workers: they are not allowed to take up jobs in the cities, neither are they allowed to rent land from white farmers and maintain an independent homestead in the overpopulated bantustan. Their only plight is forced labour for the white farmer. Towards the beginning of the eighties, there were some 1.3 million Africans (including women and children) working in the agriculture of ``white'' South Africa. Another form of forced labour is the use of imprisoned Africans for work on land belonging to white farmers. Thousands of Africans are held in detention for violating laws on passes which are required to enter ``white'' districts. These prisoners constitute a source of cheap and disciplined labour. The domestic servants are in a still more pitiful situation. These are mainly African women and their number reached 700,000 at the beginning of the eighties.The incomes of the Africans, particularly those living in bantustans, give a good idea of the poverty which is rampant there. The Fiench monthly LeMonde diplomatique has reported that the average per capita income in Kwazulu bantustan stood at 100 rands per annum, which is 8.33 rands per month. University of Pretoria studies in such ``rich'' bantustans as Boputatswana and Siskei showed the maximum per capita income 35.83 rands per month.^^1^^ In order to give a better idea of what this means let us say that an 80-kg bag of maize flour (the staple food of the Africans) costs between 25 and 27.75 rands and that an African family rarely has less than five members.^^2^^
TB is a scourge in the African ghettos of Johannesburg, _-_-_
~^^1^^ Le Monde diplomatique, April 1983, p. 14.
^^2^^ Rand Daily Mail, February 10, 1983.
95 Durban, Cape Town and other major cities and claims annually up to 20,000 lives. According to statistical data of the Medical Faculty at Witwatersrand University, some ten million South Africans are affected by TB. Soweto, the enormous African suburb of South Africa's leading industrial centre Johannesburg, is a typical example. The township lies at an altitude of 2,000 metres above sea level and is exposed to cold winds. It has no electricity supply and scores of thousands of furnaces discharge into the atmosphere an enormous cloud of toxic smoke which envelops the city at night. Hence the high mortality rate of the non-white population, the Africans first and foremost.Diseases and epidemics are constant companions of the population in ``black'' South Africa. In 1981, tuberculosis, typhoid, plague, cholera and poliomyelitis took a toll of 80,000 lives. According to official data, there were 13,127 lethal cholera cases in South Africa in 1982. There is one physician for 91,000 Africans in the country.
There is an extremely high child mortality rate with famine as the main reason. The South African Institute of Race Relations conducted studies which showed that three children in South Africa died from hunger every hour. Professor Allie Moosa of the University of Natal believes that hunger is the reason of 96 child deaths every day (or 4 deaths every hour) and that two-thirds of the country's eight million non-white children suffer from malnutrition. According to Professor Moosa, about 45 per cent of the children's cases at the King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban are the result of malnutrition. Hospital statistics there confirm that every one in five child patients is doomed to die.^^1^^
In 1973, the British paper The Guardian tried to draw public attention to the inhuman nature of the policy of apartheid. The paper wrote that had the South African _-_-_
~^^1^^ Sunday Times (Johannesburg), January 30, 1983.
96 authorities shot daily 54 African children, there would have been a world outcry. But the situation was such that as many children perished from malnutrition and diseases and few people were aware of the fact. Child mortality in South Africa today is much higher than it was a decade ago. This is the direct result of the deliberately created inhuman conditions of life for the Africans as a result of the apartheid policy.Then what is all this if not genocide in a more refined form?
South Africa does not suffer from a shortage of food: it is produced in ample quantities by white farmers and the surplus is even exported. While the country has a surplus of maize, wheat, fruit, sugar and milk products, 50 per cent of black families have not enough to eat because they cannot afford to buy the products.^^1^^
The Republic of South Africa is sufficiently rich and developed to spare the majority of its population from the real threat of extinction. South African economists believe that 4 million rands would have been sufficient to render aid to the famine-stricken population of Gazankulu bantustan in 1982. This is chicken-feed compared with the millions of rands spent annually to finance the country's punitive organs and also compared with the country's GDP of about 100,000 million rands. However, the apartheid regime refused to allocate the required sum because it is interested in the survival of only those Africans whose labour is used at the enterprises of ``white'' South Africa.^^2^^ The remaining Africans are of no interest to the racists as they are potentially dangerous for the power and privileges of the racists. For this very reason the majority of the _-_-_
~^^1^^ ANC Weekly News Briefing, London, Vol. 7, No. 18, April 1983, p. 6.
~^^2^^ Rand Daily Mail, February 10, 1983.
__PRINTERS_P_97_COMMENT__ 7---1169 97 African population are deliberately doomed to extinction.It is increasingly difficult for the Africans to find employment in their own country. Unemployment among the Africans is a permanent phenomenon and does not disappear even in periods of economic boom. It is the result of the policy of apartheid or, to be more precise, the result of the policy of bantustanization, forced resettlement, the system of passes which restrict movement of Africans.
The Pass Laws constitute another supporting pillar of the apartheid regime. Africans are not allowed to move about the country, to choose places of residence and employment. Every step, every event in the life of the Africans is regulated. Africans are required to carry special passes and to present them on demand. The alternative is fines, jail sentences and deportation to bantustans. With the help of these laws the bantustans have accumulated an enormous reserve of cheap labour which makes it possible to shamelessly exploit the Africans. Unemployment is the trump card which the racist authorities can play at any time.
This is one of the reasons why control over movement of the population is becoming increasingly rigid in South Africa. In 1982, the number of cases examined by the Supreme Court in Johannesburg for violations of the Pass Laws increased by 72 per cent as against 1981, and the number of .persons convicted for this increased by 52 per cent. The number of Africans arrested in 1982 for violations of these laws was 90 per cent up on 1980.^^1^^
The over-all level of unemployment at the end of 1981 among the blacks was officially reported to be 12.4 per cent.
But this index is grossly understated because the `` independent'' bantustans are excluded from South African statistics. South African economists estimate total black _-_-_
~^^1^^ Le Monde diplomatique, April 1983.
98 unemployment at more than three million or 20--25 per cent.^^1^^ By 1983, as a result of the economic depression, total unemployment in South Africa ranged between 4 and 5 million, most of whom were blacks.The system of education in South Africa is aimed at preventing Africans from acquiring proper qualification and receiving better-paid jobs (even if the authorities give such permission). There is undisguised discrimination of Africans. Compulsory and free education is only for the whites. Terrible living conditions and malnutrition result in a high rate of drop-outs among the non-white children of school age. A third of all the children drop school after the first year of studies. After fifth grade, there remain at school only one out of three, and after eighth grade---only one out of six. Only 5.7 per cent of non-white pupils manage to finish school. This means that of the one million African children enrolled at school in 1982, only 57,000 will graduate. Another 670,000 children will barely satisfy the United Nations criterion of "functional literacy''.
January 1982 saw the introduction of fresh restrictions on African school enrolment: special permission is required to allow pupils over 20 to enter the last (tenth) grade and pupils over 18 to enter eighth grade. As a result of these new regulations, thousands of non-white pupils were not allowed to attend school.
There is a shortage of teaching personnel and school equipment and the schools themselves are overcrowded. The level of ``education'' may be illustrated by the following facts and figures: in 1981, there were 622,000 African dropouts from school and of these over half could neither read nor write correctly. Another 175,000 were totally illiterate _-_-_
^^1^^ International Labour Conference. 69 Session 1983. Special Report of the Director-General on the Application of the Declaration Concerning the Policy of Apartheid in South Africa, ILO, Geneva, 1983, pp. 27--29.
99 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1985/G243/20071130/199.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2007.11.30) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ and 160,000 children were semi-literate.The racist authorities explain the mass drop-out of African children by referring to the ``originality'' of the Africans and their culture, their alleged inaptitude for assimilating European civilization and the achievements of its. technology. Quite often the racists allege intellectual backwardness of the African peoples.
The real reasons, however, have nothing in common with these racist ravings. They lie in the socio-economic conditions of the country's indigenous population. The literacy level among the Africans is between 50 and 60 per cent and it. is very indicative that almost half of all the economically active Africans in the cities are illiterate.
The restrictions imposed in the sphere of education on the non-white population serve the purpose of perpetuating inequality and retaining the Africans as an easily available source of cheap labour. As a result, the majority of the South African population are doomed to live in poverty and to extinction. The existing system of education is but one of the many methods of maintaining the social order which permits 4.6 million whites to ``legally'' practise racial, political and economic exploitation and discrimination of the 24-million non-white population.
Ruthless exploitation, denial of all rights, extinction because of inhuman conditions of existence---such is the lot of the Africans as planned by the Pretorian authorities, such is the essence of apartheid as a form of genocide in a racist state.
The racist regime of South Africa is closely bound to a number of Western countries, the United States administration first and foremost, in crimes against its own people. American investments ensure the economic support for the South African racists. According to official information of the US State Department and the South African Reserve 100 Bank, private American investments in the RSA economy have reached 3,000 million rands and total capital investment by the United States is within the neighbourhood of 6,000 million rands. According to unofficial information published in the South African press, American financial involvement in 1983 was in excess of 14,600 million rands. The Reagan administration lifted restrictions on exports to South Africa three times during the 24 months from the start of 1981 to the end of 1982. In 1981, trade turnover between the two countries reached 5,300 million US dollars and the United States became the main trade partner of the apartheid regime.
The Second World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (August 1983, Geneva) stressed the fact that the system of apartheid in South Africa would have collapsed long ago and the racist regime would have never been able to maintain its aggressive course against the neighbouring African states and cynically ignore condemnation by the world community, had it not been for the steady and broad political, military, financial, economic and other assistance of a number of Western powers. Washington, London and Paris were named among those whose veto in the Security Council has blocked all-embracing sanctions against the RSA.
It is indicative that those speakers at the conference who represented American anti-racist organizations openly condemned the US government for its domestic policy of genocide with regard to the American blacks. They exposed the direct link between the wild outbursts of racism in the United States and the active support of the Reagan administration for the South African racists.
The conference also pointed to the similarity between the crimes of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the equally shameless racial policy of Israel. In this connection, world public attention was again drawn to the enormous 101 danger for the world entailed in joint South African and Israeli activities in the field of developing nuclear weapons.
``L. Vena. Bom 1 August 1981-died 14 April 1982''. A short inscription on the gravestone. One can imagine the grief of the parents who had lost their little one. Side by side with the grave are hundreds of others. This is the cemetery near Onverwacht---a camp where almost 120,000 Africans have been driven. Onverwacht was set up in June 1979 and since then 1,949 people have died there, including 1,025 children. They have perished from famine and associated diseases. They have perished but Onverwacht still has no waterworks, no sewerage system. Most of the dwellings are made up of pieces of old tin and clay. Two out of every five able-bodied men cannot find employment and their families starve.^^1^^
This is apartheid in action---a system of measures aimed at the methodical extermination of the non-white population in the Republic of South Africa.
_-_-_^^1^^ See: Sowetan (Johannesburg), April 26, 1982.
[102] __ALPHA_LVL1__ GREAT BRITAIN: SWORD
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In Belfast, Dublin and London
there were posters showing an outline of the British Isles
and a hand brandishing a sword. This symbolizes Britain's
threat to neighbouring Ireland.
The British sword had indeed cut deep into the history of Ireland and wounded many generations of Irish. This sword is now dropping on Ulster. For the last decade and a half, the Ulster crisis has marked a chronicle of terror by the British army and the Protestant right-wing extremists against the Catholic ghettos. There have been ^shooting of peaceful demonstrations, killings "on suspicion'', torture and brutality. All this has been reported in the press, radio and television.
The events in Northern Ireland are also brought to world attention by means of impartial statistics. The latest population census shows that during the period from 1971 to 1981, emigration from the province was higher than at any other time since 1860. During the latest decade alone, one out of ten of the Ulster population left the country. Statistics also tell us that the ratio of Catholics and Protestants remains 2:3 and is indeed permanent. It has not changed since the twenties, when Britain tore Ulster away from Ireland and the Catholic population of the province was made a discriminated minority.
The birth rate among the Ulster Catholics has always 103 been 50 per cent higher than that of the Protestants. However, there has been no demographic change there because the Catholics have been forced to leave the country: there has been no employment, no housing for them and they have been denied equal political rights with the Protestants. That is why Ulster demography has always reflected the consistent policy of discrimination in the province. Liam de Paor, a Dublin historian, has written that the higher Catholic birth rate has been, since the emergence of Northern Ireland, a constant subject of Unionist warnings to the Protestant population. The fear of being outbred has ever been present, and the Unionists have been able to call on the Protestant employers and workers alike to exert economic pressure to drive Catholics out of the area. According to the historian this undoubtedly is one of the chief functions served by the recurring riots and pogroms in Belfast: driving Catholics out, whenever the pressure of their numbers was felt, has been a feature of these.
In 1973, the British Parliament adopted the Northern Ireland Act providing that the province-would remain part of the United Kingdom as long as it would be the wish of the majority of its population. And what does this mean in actual terms? It means that London and the Ulster politicians will do everything to keep the Catholics in Northern Ireland a minority. The only way to counter the higher birth rate of the Catholics is to create intolerable conditions that would compel people to flee the country. The British press has noted a remarkable stability of population in Northern Ireland, whereas during the comparable 110-year period the population of Great Britain doubled.
What is so surprising about this population stability in Northern Ireland? Its sources can be easily traced to the present system of political and economic terror and the history of British conquest of Ireland. Sociologists estimate that the population of Ireland could have reached 34 104 million now. At the end of the 17th century, i.e. at the time of the bourgeois revolution, the population of England was about 13 million. Towards the beginning of the 1980s it has risen to 56 million.
The population of Ireland was in excess of 8 million at the end of the 17th century; today, however, the total figure for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is merely 4.5 million.
The British military and economic offensive against Ireland is a tragic sequence of mass reprisals, starvation and forced emigration. Frederick Engels noted in his time that "Ireland has been stunted in her development by the English invasion and thrown centuries back. And this ever since the 12th century...''^^1^^ It is a known fact that in 1317 the Irish tribal chiefs wrote to the Pope about the British conquerors who strove to exterminate the Irish people. Referring to the Anglo-Irish War of 1594--1603, Earl Mountjoy, Viceroy of the British Crown, reported to Queen Elizabeth that Her Majesty had no one to rule over in the country: there were only corpses and mounds of ashes. However, the Irish refused to bow to British rule and uprising followed after uprising. All forms of suppression were directed against the freedom-loving Irish people. James Ormond, commander of the British army in Ireland (1641), was instructed to inflict as much harm as possible, to kill, skin and destroy the insurgents by all means and methods.
The Cromwell wars marked a most bloody period for Ireland. The British economist Sir William Petty, who witnessed those events, wrote that during the eleven years from 1641 to 1652, a total of 504,000 Irish perished as a result of war, plague, famine, privation and banishment. In 1651, almost all the livestock in Ireland was destroyed and over 80 _-_-_
^^1^^ Marx, Engels, Ireland and the Irish Question, Progress Pub-. Ushers, Moscow, 1974, p. 286.
105 per~cent of the country's best land was laid bare and deserted. At that time, thousands of Irish were sold into slavery to work the sugar plantations in the West Indies.The metropolis continued to plunder its colony in the following centuries. In 1845, for instance, Britain took up from Ireland 3,250,000 quarters of wheat (1 quarter=12.7 kg). That same year, half a million Irish died from starvation. The famine of 1846--1847 left a deep imprint in the memory of the Irish people. That year, there was a poor potato crop throughout Europe, but it was only the Irish who starved. The amount of grain and cattle taken from Ireland to Britain was large enough to feed twice as many needy Irish. It was famine with abundance and people used to say: "God sends crop failure---Britain sends famine.''
At that time, the population of Ireland dropped from 8 to 4 million. Some were buried in common graves for starvation victims, other emigrated. It was then that Ireland became Europe's only country with a constantly dwindling population. Karl Marx pointed out that in 1801 Ireland had a population of 5,319,867. By 1841 it had grown to 8,222,664 and in 1866 had dropped to 5.5 million, i.e. to almost the level of 1801.^^1^^ This process continued in the ensuing decades and became part of the bitter history of the Irish people. Demography reflected the millions of Irish who were killed or tortured, who perished from starvation or fled the country. The reduction in population was further aggravated by the fact that millions of Irish were never to be born owing to the British policy. This was how genocide was practised against the Irish over the centuries.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1974, p. 652.
106After Ulster was torn from Ireland in 1921 and a police regime established in the province, the former genocide was transformed into a system of oppression of the Catholic minority in all spheres of life: political, economic, and social. The appearance of genocide has changed---there is no more of the mass extermination of the indigenous population in Ulster, as was the case during the British conquest of Ireland. But have the ultimate goals of British bourgeois policy changed? No, they have remained basically the same, just like the Ulster demographic situation. The policy of the British is to force the Irish Catholic minority in Ulster to emigrate. The provincial legislation and the practical actions of the authorities are all in line with this long-term strategy. This could not but spark off a major crisis which has been flaring in Ulster for the last decade and a half. Even the governmental Cameron Commission was compelled to state the unjust and humiliating status of most of the Catholic population, discrimination against them at all levels in local elections, and deliberate manipulation with constituency boundaries with the purpose of hampering Catholic influence.
In March 1922, the Parliament of Northern Ireland---the Stormont---passed the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act which gave the special ``B'' police and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUG) full control over the Catholics. The machinations with constituency boundaries have resulted in the Unionists, the party of the Protestant bourgeoisie, maintaining control over local government and the Stormont even in the predominantly Catholic districts. Besides, it is only houseowners that can vote in elections to local bodies of power.
__b_b_b__Ulster has always been in the grip of chronic unemployment. At the entrance to the small North Ireland town of Strabane there is a poster reading: "Drive carefully. There are 2,161 unemployed in the streets.'' I was there when 107 every second resident of Strabane was redundant and the figures on the poster were clearly outdated.
The social and economic factors of the Ulster tragedy cannot be hidden by statistical data which depict the socioeconomic indices for the whole of Britain. Northern Ireland is last on the list whenever it concerns development and tops the list whenever social trouble is cited. Northern Ireland holds the record in unemployment---22 per cent of the able-bodied population cannot find jobs. The province has the greatest number of orphans, the highest mortality rate (including infant and child mortality), the lowest life expectancy and the highest percentage of alcoholics. The residents of Northern Ireland have to pay seven times more for gas than people living in the metropolis. Electricity is three times more expensive and coal---50 per cent. A quarter of the families in Northern Ireland are below the official poverty level. All these hardships particularly affect the Catholic minority in Ulster. The ratio of employed Catholics and Protestants is 1 : 3, whereas in skilled labour the discrepancy is even more striking---one Catholic for nine Protestants. For decades the authorities have been investing money into the development of those branches of the economy which have the highest employment of Protestant workers. For this reason half of all the school leavers who fail to find jobs are Catholics. In some Catholic ghettos the unemployment rate is as high as 40 per cent.
With the surplus labour available the employers in Ulster can practise discrimination on religious grounds. I was shown an official document: the employment ministry in Northern Ireland assigned an unemployed Catholic worker to a job. The printed form signed by Mr. Stevenson of the employment ministry contained several questions and answers. In reply to one of the questions the employer wrote that he refused to accept the worker on religious grounds.
108At the Department of Social Studies of the Queen's University of Belfast I was given a bulky xerox-typed volume Ballymurphy. A Tale of Two Surveys. The book contains numerous facts and figures, diagrams and questionnaires filled by the residents of Ballymurphy, a Belfast district. All this depicts the drama of several generations.
During World War II German planes bombed Belfast and many houses were destroyed. The wartime army barracks have been used as a refuge by many Catholic families for many years. "Many of them had originally squatted in the hutments, and most were widely believed to be dirty, unable to manage properly their children, their money or their homes. The estate rapidly got a bad name with traders, police, publicans, and employers as well as with the rent collectors of the Estates Department itself. The tendency of the press to attribute to Ballymurphy the misbehaviour of residents of neighbouring estates did not help.''^^1^^
As a result of all this, residence in Ballymurphy was an obstacle when applying for employment or when its municipal establishments sought credit and assistance. At the end of the fifties, the district was turned into a Catholic ghetto of Belfast: the city authorities believed that Ballymurphy was "good enough" for ``bad'' Catholics.
Such was the situation in the fifties, as described by the first of the two surveys. Dorita Field, the author of the survey, wrote that the general appearance of the estate was most depressing. The grey terraces of houses; the roads and paths always strewn with paper, metal scrap and glass; no dustbins and no trees on the estate. Many large families and only one primary school. There were no playgrounds for young children. Most of the wage earners were unskilled or semi-skilled. Only half of the male population were _-_-_
~^^1^^ A. E. C. W. Spencer, Ballymurphy. A Tale of Two Surveys, the Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, 1973, p. 2.
109 working at the time of the survey.^^1^^Another survey points out that two decades later the only change in Ballymurphy were the broken street lamps and the upturned pavement blocks used for building barricades. The unemployment level had risen further and the residents of the estate were exposed to double discrimination: as Catholics and as residents of Ballymurphy. There was an extremely high level of chronic patients and invalids among adults, and many children were handicapped.
Flats in Ballymurphy were overcrowded. The banks of the river which runs between Ballymurphy and Springhill were littered and infested with rats. Unemployment and diseases were the main factors of social trouble in the ghetto. The survey says: "In most industrial countries there is one normal way of life for men under retirement age, i.e. work. This survey suggests that in Ballymurphy there are three normal ways of life: work, unemployment and ill-health. "^^2^^ And further: "Highest unemployment was among the unskilled workers, of whom only 53 per cent were working.''^^3^^ "In some the necessary skills are gradually lost, or the ability to adapt to the demands of the work situation; others lost the physical and mental capacity to work, or even the will to work.''^^4^^
__b_b_b__Columns of men wearing paramilitary uniform, sunglasses and hoods with slots. The roll of drums and high pitch of flutes. Thousands of voices chanting: "Protestant Ulster for ever! Death to the Catholics!" This is a march of ultra right-wing Protestants---a march aimed at intimidation, a psychological attack against the Catholic ghetto. At night, _-_-_
~^^1^^ A. E. C. W. Spencer, op. cit., p. 3.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 36.
^^3^^ Ibid., p. 32.
^^4^^ Ibid., p. 37.
110 these ultras take to explosives and submachine-guns.From the very outset of the Ulster crisis, the Protestant ultras have been playing a leading role. They assert their Protestant ``superiority'' and oppose any democratic transformations in Northern Ireland. The ultra-right resort to wholesale terror: people are murdered just, because they belong to another community. The Ulster Defence Association, a leading paramilitary organization of Protestants, publishes the UDA Bulletin. An anonymous Protestant woman wrote in her letter to the editors that she no longer had any compassion for any Catholic man, woman or child. She further wrote that she had arrived at the decision: it's them or us (Protestants or Catholics). Hardly had the appeal by this belligerent Protestant woman appeared in the-- bulletin when the Catholic couple Peter and Jenny McKearney were killed in Tyrone county. Jenny was mowed down by automatic fire as she opened the door and her husband was killed in the kitchen. The Ulster Volunteer Force battalion, which is the vanguard of the Ulster Defence Association, officially declared the murder a starting point in its campaign under the motto: "Innocent Catholics Shall Die.'' Note the ``innocent''.
The ultras assert that the murders are not murders butritual executions. When Catholic Thomas Madden was killed, the coroner counted 150 knife wounds on his body. These were not usual wounds with intent to kill. He was hanged, but before that the killers carved off pieces of flesh from his body, just like a sculptor carves stone to make a figure. And these ``executions'' take place in a ``civilized'' society at the close of the twentieth century.
The period of the crisis in Ulster has provided ample evidence of close ties between the Protestant extremists and the British army. They have a common target---the Catholic minority, the civil rights champions. At the time of its emergence the UDA warned its supporters that there 111 should be no clashes with the British army or the police, only "all-out war" against the Catholics. William Whitelaw, London's commissioner to Northern Ireland at that time, declared that he would not demand the surrender of firearms by the Protestants although the Protestant community possessed 100,000 officially registered firearms alone. Mr. Whitelaw explained that the government was not going to "deny people the right to self-defence''. This was stated at the time when the British soldiers were conducting a house-to-house search of Catholic quarters to remove all weapons.
In 1969, a year after the beginning of the crisis in Northern Ireland, the British army was sent to the province. And this was not because of London's concern over ultra Protestant attacks against Catholic ghettos, as was officially announced. British soldiers went to Ulster for the simple reason that the ruling quarters in London began to realize the danger to Britain's ``imperial'' interests. These interests were jeopardized by the inability of Ulster's traditional political institutions to cope with the movement for civil rights. These institutions tolerate no democratic transformations, no weakening of the power of the Protestant bourgeoisie. The army was called upon to restore political stability and this meant inevitable conflict with those who demanded reform, i.e. conflict with the Catholic minority in the province. And it was just this that happened: the soldiers joined the ultra-right gangs in ``pacifying'' the Catholic ghettos.
Now why is Britain clinging so stubbornly to the rebellious province? Why should it not recall the troops?
Due to its geographical location Northern Ireland is an important element in British and, consequently, in NATO military strategy. There are military bases and electronic surveillance centres in the province and Northern Ireland seaports are important factors too. London regards as 112 inconceivable the loss of Northern Ireland as an advance post in the Atlantic. "If we withdrew,'' noted the former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath, "there would be a Cuba on the fringe of Europe.''^^1^^ This reference to Cuba, understandably, is not accidental. Britain's rulers have been brandishing the scarecrow of "Soviet threat" and "Red intervention" in support of the ``terrorists'' and scaring themselves to death. It is a known fact that not a single of these cockand-bull stories has been confirmed. The years of the crisis have shown that there is no threat of "Red interference" in Ulster.
London is clearly alarmed by the prospect of the events in. Ulster spilling into the metropolis, which is troubled by its own internal contradictions and unemployment. One of London's representatives in Northern Ireland, Roy Mason, has pointed out: "We would be fooling ourselves if we thought that bloodletting that would follow from the precipitate withdrawal of troops would be confined to Northern Ireland. The undoubted violence would easily spread to the mainland (Britain) with its large Irish population.''^^2^^
In other words, London is afraid that any success of the Catholic minority in Ulster in its civil rights campaign would tempt the national minorities in Britain itself to join this campaign. There is also the fear that the British government would expose its inability to solve the protracted crisis by democratic means.
The desire to retain Northern Ireland stems from the imperial mentality of Britain's bourgeois leaders. The American historian Kevin Kelly notes: "Northern Ireland was unique. It was unlike any other British colony that had been fought over and eventually allowed to go its own _-_-_
~^^1^^ Kevin Kelly, The Longest War, Zed Press, London, 1982, p. 221.
^^2^^ Ibid., p. 222.
__PRINTERS_P_113_COMMENT__ 8---1169 113 way---the Six Counties were a part of the U.K. itself. A once-global Empire had crumbled, and now rot was setting in at the edges of the Realm. If the North were quite adrift, would Scotland and Wales not soon follow? A reunited Ireland meant the end of the United Kingdom, while subsequent nationalist revolts would produce the break-up of Great Britain as well. All that would be left then, after this domino theory had played itself out, was England---little England.''^^1^^The Ulster crisis has the same root cause which at the end of the sixties brought about a wave of demonstrations and strikes throughout Europe---the demand for social change. These events stimulated the powers that be to seek ways and means of suppressing broad popular discontent. Britain was one of the first to launch such ``quests''. The London Economist has admitted that the British armed forces used Northern Ireland as a testing ground where the soldiers gain confidence and develop rapid reaction, both of which are essential in street fighting.
Former British army captain A. Clarke has written a book, Contact, about his Ulster experience. His testimony has an ominous ring: "Support Company have been enjoying themselves over the past few weeks with a couple of contacts and a good publicity-earning kill in the Old Ardoyne."^^2^^
When A. Clarke, a rank-and-file participant in the conflict, speaks of terror against the people of Ulster, it may seem that we have here the case of an embittered soldiery and crudeness which occurs in any war. But in fact such people as Clarke are not only rapists and killers: they are participants in an inhuman experiment which London politicians and the army have staged in Ulster. French _-_-_
~^^1^^ Kevin Kelly, op. cit., p. 223.
~^^2^^ A.F.N. Clarke, Contact, Seeker & Warburg, London, 1983, p. 44.
114 researcher Roger Faligot wrote: "Ireland has the unhappy privilege of serving as a military laboratory, with her people as guineapigs.''^^1^^One of the aspects of the current ``civilized'' genocide in Ulster has been the transformation of the province into a testing ground for methods of suppressing public demonstrations and the use of its residents as guineapigs. This strategy has been developed by British General Frank Kitson and embraces population control, psychological suppression, use of special forces and intelligence units, new technology for suppressing civil disobedience or any manifestation of political, nationalist or any other social protest. Kitson proceeded from the assumption that "...conditions can be made reasonably uncomfortable for the population as a whole, in order to provide an incentive for a return to normal life and to act as a deterrent towards a resumption of the campaign".^^2^^
As the Ulster crisis developed, the "Kitson experiment" was modified only in one direction---that of intensifying British terror.
Now, how are the "reasonably uncomfortable" conditions created day by day? How is terror practised?
Emmanuel Pyper told me: "I was standing with a group of boys outside, 6 Norglen Parade. A foot patrol of soldiers came up the street, and as they passed by one of them suddenly grabbed me by the hair and started punching me in the face... Another soldier came from the far side of the street and put a gun to my head and threatened to shoot me... My Mother ... came out and complained about the soldier assaulting me, then the soldier hit my mother on the arm and then grabbed her by the throat.''
_-_-_^^1^^ Roger Faligot, Britain's Military Strategy in Ireland, The Kitson Experiment, Zed Press, London, 1983, p. 2.
~^^2^^ Ibid., p. 16.
__PRINTERS_P_115_COMMENT__ 8* 115An ordinary street scene: grabbed by the throat, slightly strangled, let go, proceeded further...
A written testimony by Mary Mulholland: "I was in my working kitchen doing my washing ... when suddenly I heard a loud bang and on going into my hall I saw about ten soldiers walking up the hall. They had busted open my door and part of the wall had given way. They pointed their rifles at me... I asked one of the soldiers what they were going to do and he answered: 'Wreck, not raid, they are going to wreck.' And as I made my way out of the hall, one of the soldiers kicked me on the leg. I don't know where I got the courage from but I ran on up the stairs. The soldiers had pulled the rooms apart and had flung all the bedclothes and clothes from the wardrobes and drawers onto the floor. I had previously bought a new case and it was lying busted open and smashed in the middle of the room. My daughter's stereo equipment was broken... I was horrified at the damage and complained to one of the soldiers about it. Another soldier came over to me and held a hatchet up to my face and threatened to hit me with it. Yet another soldier put his rifle to my mouth and warned me not to speak another word or he would blow my head off... One of the soldiers passing by kicked me on the leg again... They had pulled bricks out of the back of the fire and scattered ashes and soot over the living room carpet. All the ornaments and pictures on the walls and fireplace had been pulled down and a lot of them broken... An expensive wall clock was broken.''
The "Bloody Sunday" of January 1972 in Deny, when 13 demonstrators were shot dead and scores of others wounded, was no chance occasion in the occupation of Ulster. At that time, the British army was prepared to shoot any mass demonstration of Catholics so as to make it an object lesson for the residents of the ghetto. At the Catholic cemetery in Derry, where the victims of the "Bloody 116 Sunday" are buried, the tombstones carry photos of very young men: William Nash was 19, Jack Buddy, Hugh Gilmore, Michael McDaid, John Young, Gerard Donaghy, and Michael Kelly were 17, Kevin McElhinney was only 16. The day after the shooting of the demonstration, reporters asked a London spokesman in Ulster whether the "Bloody Sunday" meant a turning point heralding a radical change in the course of Irish history and a new future for Northern Ireland. The reply was a cynical one: the spokesman expressed the view that in fact nothing had changed apart from the death of another 13 people. True indeed: the killings continued with impunity, as before.
__b_b_b__In August 1971, London officially introduced the system of internment, marking yet another stage in the war against the residents of the Catholic ghettos, in the creation of the "reasonably uncomfortable" conditions which compelled Catholics to emigrate from Northern Ireland. Everything possible was done to intimidate the Catholics in the ghetto, to convince them that anyone could be exposed to terror. The British army practised and improved methods of psychological pressure with regard to detainees. Special instructors trained police in new methods of interrogation at "unidentified interrogation centres''. Michael Montgomery, who passed through these experiments, testified that a sack was pulled over his head and he was smashed against a wall. His legs were then pulled apart (a method called "rupture test''). He fainted and came to from the deafening wail of a siren. He was thrown up to the ceiling and again fainted. When he regained consciousness he heard his hitherto silent ``detectives'' speaking. They had an English accent and were talking in the belief that he was unconscious. They were British soldiers. He was then dragged to another cell, the sack was removed from his head, a powerful lamp directed at him and he was made to 117 lean on the wall on outstretched hands. Hour after hour passed and then he was thrown into a dungeon with the window filled with brick. Michael Montgomery developed hallucinations, he imagined his wife and children crouching there at the wall. He was never interrogated---merely tortured.
Michael Montgomery was one of those who were used to test the five techniques of "sensory deprivation" which were later widely applied in Northern Ireland. Its basic elements comprised: a sack on the head, noise pressure, denial of sleep, water and food, motionless leaning with the hands on the wall. These techniques were mentioned at the Strasbourg Judgement in the Case of Ireland versus the United Kingdom, in which the British authorities were accused of violating the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Michael Montgomery was witness and plaintiff at the court.
In his book The Guineapigs John McGuffin writes: "This policy, at first believed by the detainees to be merely the sadism of the few, turns out to have been deliberate Army policy.''^^1^^ Only a few of the detainees were set free, while the majority were sent to prison. The human ``guineapigs'' were the centre of attention. They were isolated from the rest of the detainees, handcuffed and covered with sacks. These people were selected not because anything was known about their ``terrorist'' activities. The group of 12 to whom later two more men were added were selected on the geographical principle: Northern Ireland was divided into three sections and four men were taken from each: from Belfast, from Down and Arma counties, and from Derry and Tyrone counties. Paddy McClean, for instance, was told during interrogation that he had been selected because there was a need for someone from Omagh district. McClean later said that his chief mistake was to tell the _-_-_
~^^1^^ John McGuffin, The Guineapigs, Penguin Books, London, 1974, p. 47.
118 detectives that he knew what they were after. "Whether you are innocent, as I' was, or guilty, it makes no difference. They weren't concerned on whether we were guilty or not--- indeed they knew that some of us were completely innocent---they were concerned with our reactions to the extreme stress of Sensory Deprivation.''^^1^^Two members of the Irish Republican Party were told during interrogation: "It's a waste of time to talk to you--- you have passed through all this.'' Others were selected because they were young and although they had past experience in searches, humiliation and short interrogations, ardly anyone could withstand all the "five techniques"--- to last eight days of torture. Hearing, sight and sense of touch deteriorate owing to these ``techniques''. The sugar and oxygen deficiency of the brain which develops in the course of the tortures leads to loss of temporal and spatial orientation. Professor Robert Daly in an interview with The Times said that he had interviewed around twenty men who had been subjected to extreme coercive pressure while in the hands of the security forces in the North, including some who had been subjected to sensory deprivation. "Almost all the patients I saw had overt psychiatric illnessDepression was almost universal among these individuals... I feel that it is particularly worrying that the problems of psychosomatic illness, such as peptic ulcers, headaches and buzzing in the ears have emerged in the men so quickly--- a considerable number are .already showing such symptoms.'' Being arrested in the middle of the night, being beaten, lied to, insulted, was all part of the "unfreezing process" through which one's psychological defences were broken down, and terror was induced. Hence the photographing in the nude, refusal to allow toilet visits. "The whole experience was a package,'' he said, "put together in a pre-planned way... The aim of the treatment was to cause _-_-_
^^1^^ Ibid., p. 68.
119 temporary psychosis---temporary insanity, which was a severe psychological injury liable to have lasting consequences.'' Even a year later these patients still needed medical aid.^^1^^The "five techniques" constitute a system of `` treatment'' of ``guineapigs'' which was constantly modified and supplemented by all sorts of innovations. Martin Miham was tied to an armchair and the soldiers then pierced his hands with steel knitting needles. "The pain was in my brain, not in my hands,'' he recalled. Tony Doherty has over 100 scars on his body: the soldiers burned him with cigarettes. Owen Roe O'Neill charges that "tufts of hair were pulled from his head, moustache and chest, that he had extensive bruising of the genitals and that once when he vomited during interrogation an RUG detective wiped up the vomit and forced it back into his mouth".^^2^^ Sean McKin recalled that after the usual ``treatment'' he asked for a doctor to see him. The ``doctor'' came and asked him what the trouble was. "I have been beaten,'' McKin said. "Where?" McKin pointed to his jaw and stomach. The `` doctor'' then asked the man to turn up his shirt and hit him on the stomach and jaw saying: "This is the best medicine for such a bastard as you.'' Kevin Hennevue went through the so-called "helicopter treatment''. He was blindfolded and pushed into a helicopter. Some time after take-off he was thrown out of the helicopter. It was only then that he realized he had been raised only about one metre from the ground.
__b_b_b__The Case of Ireland versus the United Kingdom contains 14 volumes of testimony by 228 detainees who had been _-_-_
~^^1^^ John McGuffin, The Guineapigs, pp. 122--23.
~^^2^^ The Morning Star, May 25, 1974.
120 taken through the Ulster "interrogation centres''. The case has a long history---too long for that matter. Ireland's complaint was filed with the European Commission on Human Rights in 1971. It took five years for the Commission to confirm the fact that Britain had indeed violated Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which prohibits torture and "inhuman and/or degrading treatment of detainees''.The European Commission on Human Rights, which prepared data for the court hearing, stated unambiguously that detainees in army and police barracks in Ulster were subjected to torture. On the basis of the testimony available the European Court of Human Rights held two open hearings in February and April 1977.Inl978I attended the reading of the final verdict at the European Court. With 13 votes against 4 the Court ruled that the methods of interrogation practised against Ulster detainees should be qualified not as torture, but as inhuman and degrading treatment. The Court failed to discover any violations of the European Convention in detention without trial or investigation and also removed from the agenda the issue of criminal responsibility of those accused of brutality.
Such a ruling with regard to Britain encouraged the British advocates of genocide in Ulster. It would be useless to look for any report on parliamentary discussions on the subject. Britain had been in the dock but this unprecedented fact found no response from those who sat in Westminster. London's desire to hush down the Ulster problem was appreciated by the European Court which did its best to avoid giving a fair assessment of the events in Northern Ireland.
Prior to the court hearing, the European Commission on Human Rights accepted complaints on detention without trial or investigation from Northern Irish citizens. After the shameful policy had failed to meet with condemnation, the 121 Commission refused to examine such complaints. After the Strasbourg trial, the Northern Irish forces of "law and order" resorted to new methods against the plaintiffs. Counter-claims were filed accusing them of deliberately false statements. That is why the court hearing, which its sponsors claimed would promote the solution of the Ulster crisis, had in fact further aggravated the situation. The court cleared Britain of accusations of torture and thus gave an indulgence to those who were guilty of brutality.
After Strasbourg, police statistics provided an illustration of the impact of its rulings: 80 per cent of persons detained "on suspicion" confessed during interrogation. How this was done is explained by the police officials themselves. Robert Irving, a police surgeon in Belfast, said that he had to examine a detainee who had just confessed. There were over 40 wounds and bruises on his body. The detectives said that the man had inflicted all that by himself. Robert Irving also examined detainees with ear-drums broken by blows, with fingers crushed by heels. In all these cases the police officers insisted that the detainees had maimed themselves. Robert Irving said he could recall 150--160 such incidents.
Irving's testimony is confirmed by his Belfast colleague John Hendron. Jack Hassard, a public figure, also spoke of torture in Ulster detention centres. After Robert Irving's testimony had been published, a governmental commission was set up. Its findings stated that hundreds of complaints had been filed against the Ulster police.
__b_b_b__In the seventeenth century, Oliver Cromwell believed that the rivers of Irish blood that had been shed to assert the "supreme race" status of Protestant settlers provided the ultimate solution of the Irish problem. But then came new uprisings and more blood. In the 1920s, Britain's Premier Lloyd George carved off Ulster from Ireland and 122 tried to ``resolve'' the problem once again, naturally in favour of Great Britain. Then again, the metropolis believed the solution was final. Half a century later, another Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, ordered the dispatch of troops to Northern Ireland on the assumption that he was " resolving the Irish issue''.
The last decade and a half of growing crisis have shown that terror, violence and genocide provide no answer to the acute problem. It is often said in London that Britain lacks a political conception with regard to Northern Ireland. Very true indeed, provided the sending of fresh battalions to Ulster, the drawing of barbed wire over more and more streets, and the detention of ``suspicious'' elements are not regarded as a political conception. In his time, Hitler turned the better half of Europe into a giant concentration camp, sowing death and destruction and exterminating whole peoples. This was his policy and its name is genocide. And isn't it genocide that the British authorities are practising in Ulster?
For over a decade the British Parliament has been prolonging the special legislation which has placed Northern Ireland under direct rule from London. The emergency powers act is also prolongated, the very law which gives the British "security forces" the right to detain without warrant any suspect in the civil rights movement. The tragic results of this policy are the thousands of killed and wounded, the thousands of political detainees. The terror and violence of the authorities have resulted in a genuine exodus of the population from Northern Ireland. Something like 60,000 people have left Belfast alone. The Forum for a New Ireland held in Dublin noted that this was the largest emigration in Western Europe during the entire post-war period. This population exodus has centuries of genocide behind it.
[123] __ALPHA_LVL1__ EL SALVADOR:The Patriotic Forces of El Salvador led by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) are waging a long and difficult struggle for the liberation of the people, for genuine democracy, independence and social progress in the country. The upsurge in the liberation movement in El Salvador stems from the socio-economic crisis which has affected all aspects of life in Salvadoran society. The rate of the country's economic development has slowed down drastically (from 1979 to 1982 the country's gross domestic product was reduced by 25 per cent and the outflow of capital during the same period exceeded 4,000 million dollars). El Salvador's external debt grew and exceeded 1,500 million dollars at the end of 1982.
The economic crisis has affected living standards and the cost of living index went up 200 per cent from 1979 to 1982. The process of impoverishment of the population proceeded at a rapid rate. The situation was particularly difficult for the working people in'both the urban centres and rural areas. They were the first to be exposed to the dire consequences of the crisis. Towards the beginning of the eighties unemployment affected over 600,000 people, which was 40 per cent of the country's able-bodied population. In some regions in El Salvador unemployment was as 124 high as 70 per cent.
The ruling quarters of El Salvador were incapable of overcoming the socio-economic crisis and resorted to extensive punitive actions against the people who had risen to struggle. Instead of making allocations for social needs, the government of El Salvador sharply increased expenditures on the modernization of its armed forces: during the 1982/1983 fiscal year, allocations for the armed forces soared by 22 per cent and accounted for about a quarter of the country's national budget. Terror and reprisals are widely practised and have become part of the day-by-day policy of the Salvadoran government. ``Pacification'' is conducted under the guise of the so-called land reform. The ``reform'' was planned by known agencies in Washington and its realization was entrusted to one Roy Prosterman. This ``specialist'' won renown back in the sixties in Vietnam when he and the then CIA Director William Colby supervised "Operation Phoenix" which resulted in the extermination of scores of thousands of innocent rural residents. What the United States is now trying to do in El Salvador has been known to the world since the aggression in Vietnam.
The forced resettling of Salvadoran farmers into " strategic hamlets" (a more recent synonym of concentration camps) is accompanied by the mass extermination of the population. It is indicative that such "strategic hamlets" are usually organized within the zone of activity of FMLN units. These hamlets are controlled by army units in contact with "death squads"---paramilitary fascist-type formations. Access to the "strategic hamlets" is strictly limited but, nevertheless, the world learns of fresh facts of reprisals there. The Spanish news agency EFE correspondent succeeded in visiting one of the "strategic hamlets" called La-Bermuda. He saw there some 2,500 people living in inhuman conditions. About 80 per cent of the population were children 125 under twelve.^^1^^ No one was allowed to leave the zone. The children were plagued by various infectious diseases and an unidentified eye disease associated with the use by the Salvadoran army of bombs and shells containing toxic gas and chemicals. The soldiers and cut-throats from the "death squads" took groups of teenagers out of the hamlets, shot them and then demonstrated the bodies alleging they were guerillas killed in battle.
In its attempt to break the will of the Salvadoran people to win freedom and independence, the junta resorts to allout terror and violence: "strategic hamlets" are set up, the method of "scorched land" is enforced, special operations are conducted with the aim of exterminating the rural population under the pretext of combating guerillas, special punitive battalions (Atlacatl, Atonal, Ramon Belloso, etc.) are used to comb rural areas, paramilitary fascist organizations (ORDEN, Union Guerra Blanca) and the notorious "death squads" are involved in all these operations, and a state of siege declared throughout the country.
The punitive expeditions which are conducted on an increasing scale have become an integral part of the policy of genocide directed against the country's population in full accordance with the plans of the Reagan administration to ``pacify'' the situation in El Salvador. In the course of these operations vast regions are subjected to carpet bombing and intensive shelling which destroy densely populated villages and administrative centres. The population are forced to flee and then groups of refugees and their camps are tracked down and destroyed. The world knows of a hideous bloodbath organized by Salvadoran army units at the Sumpul river.
In December 1981, government forces resorted to Hitler's methods and razed the town of El Mosote, the villages of _-_-_
~^^1^^ Granma, March 30, 1981.
126 Toriles, Meanguera, Serro Pando and other residential centres in retaliation for the failure of the US-sponsored operation "Hammer and Anvil" which was conducted with the help of US military advisers against the Francisco Sanchez guerilla front in Morazan department. The criminals in military uniform burned the bodies of their victims in an attempt to cover up the traces. The FMLN conducted an investigation into this crime of the Salvadoran authorities and found that over 1,000 people had been murdered. Of the 217 bodies which could be identified, 101 were children under 14, there were 42 women, 41 aged people and 33 men between 15 and 45.In their campaign of mass terror and reprisals against the civilian population the Salvadoran authorities deliberately exterminate members of progressive and mass organizations. The "death squads" which are rampant with the undisguised connivance of the authorities have launched an all-out hunt against Communists, trade unionists, leaders of student and peasant organizations. The fascists stop at nothing---not even the frock of clergyman if that person supports the just demands of the people or speaks out in defence of the oppressed and deprived. Archbishop Oscar Amulfo Romero of San Salvador, who condemned the government policy of terror and violence, was shot by a fascist cut-throat in March 1980. One of the leaders of the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, Ramon Valladares, was brutally murdered. Felix Antonio Ulloa, Rector of San Salvador University, was shot. Members of the security service kidnapped and then murdered six leaders of the Revolutionary Democratic Front. The actions of the ultra-right terrorist organizations belonging to the Anti-communist Secret Army and the "death squads" are coordinated by officers of the Salvadoran army.
National guardsman Isidore Gevara, who was captured by Salvadoran patriots, testified that General Vides 127 Casanova, Defence Minister in the Salvadoran government who in December 1983 declared his intention to do away with "death squads'', had actually taken part in the formation of fascist terrorist organizations. He also controlled secret prisons where members of the "death squads" dealt with patriots and progressive-minded Salvadorans who opposed the anti-popular regime.^^1^^ This is another testimony to the fact that the criminal activity of the terrorist organizations is within the framework of the domestic policy of the government and in full accordance with the Reagan plan of `` pacification'' in El Salvador.
In order to crush the resistance of the country's patriots the Salvadoran army resorts to punitive operations using US-made weapons of mass annihilation: bombs and shells charged with pesticides, defoliants and white phosphorus. These weapons, which are banned under international agreements, are used, first and foremost, against the innocent population of rural and mountain districts. Chemical and bacteriological weapons are also used systematically. Thousands of people, including children, women and old folk, were killed by these weapons in Jukuaran, El Jikaro, El Lano and other villages in Usulutan department and also in the vicinity of Chinchontepel volcano in San Vicente department. The appearance of hitherto unknown diseases in El Salvador is the direct result of the bacteriological war waged by the Salvadoran military regime under the guidance of American advisers.
The leadership of FMLN issued an official statement containing documentary testimony to the growing use of prohibited weapons of mass extermination by the Salvadoran army. It is pointed out, among other things, that during the period from July 6 to 10, 1981 the army used toxic gases in the northern regions of San Miguel department and _-_-_
^^1^^ Granma, May 14,1982.
128 in the eastern section of El Salvador department. That same month government aircraft dropped 500-pound phosphorus bombs on peaceful villages in the northern section of Chalatenango department in the centre of the country. This was followed by the release of toxic gas and the spraying of defoliants. In Usulutan department in September 1981, military aircraft sprayed and gassed an area with a population of over 2,500.^^1^^Scott Barnes, a former CIA agent, has testified that the United States uses the civil war in El Salvador for testing the impact of various chemical and bacteriological weapons on the human organism. In his interview with the Salpress news agency Barnes said that American advisers operating in the inaccessible mountain district of La Reyna in Chalatenango department in the north of the country studied the effect of various viruses, nerve gases and other weapons of mass annihilation in the course of hostilities. The former CIA agent also said that during hostilities in El Salvador government troops tested the CN gas, which, if combined with certain chemicals, results in blindness and the development of unhealing ulcers in the mouth. Other toxic chemicals---CS and VM, which the American* army widely used in Vietnam, were dropped by Salvadoran airforce planes in areas of suspected location of FMLN detachments. Scott Barnes also said that punitive battalions of the Salvadoran army used artillery and mortar shells charged with VX and GB gases which affect the central nervous system. Shells and bombs containing VX gas form enormous bogged sections and deep puddles which infect people and the environment for a long time.
Scott Barnes' testimony sheds true light on President Reagan and his administration with their so-called ``humane'' aid to El Salvador.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Barricada, October 12, 1981.
__PRINTERS_P_129_COMMENT__ 9---1169 129The list of crimes against the people, committed by the reactionary regime of El Salvador in conjunction with its Washington patrons, is further extended by the use of napalm bombs by government aircraft against civilians first and foremost. Thus, in August 1982, Salvadoran airforce planes dropped napalm bombs on a number of residential centres in San Vicente department killing 300 peasants, including many children, women and old folk. Napalm was also used in operations in which American military advisers took part directly. The ruling quarters in El Salvador are planning to broaden the use of this prohibited weapon against their own people. This is borne out by the fact that 15 Salvadoran airforce pilots have been trained in the application of napalm at the US special centre in the Panama Canal zone.
In 1983, the Salvadoran army considerably broadened the use of prohibited weapons during large-scale air raids and artillery shelling of residential centres. At the beginning of February 1983, A-37 planes delivered by the United States dropped napalm bombs on San Pedro, La Esperansa, Amatitan, San Jasinto, El Carao and other residential centres in San Vicente department. Berlin, the administrative centre of an important agricultural district, was subjected to severe bombing.
Charles Clemens, a former US airforce pilot and Vietnam war veteran who worked as a medical doctor on the territory controlled by Salvadoran patriots, witnessed the death of Salvadoran children from napalm in Platanares and La-Kaja, which are located in the vicinity of Guasapa volcano. He described the daily bombing raids with the use of napalm, the strafing of densely populated areas adjoining Guasapa volcano. Charles Clemens accused the Reagan administration of complicity in the campaign of mass extermination of the civilian population which had been unleashed by the El Salvador regime.
130The Reagan administration renders all-out support to its henchmen and has sharply increased military assistance to the Salvadoran government. Congress allocated 86.2 million dollars in direct military aid to El Salvador for the 1984 fiscal year, which is a more than threefold increase on 1983. There are also many more American military advisers in El Salvador and some sources say that they account for 10 per cent of the Salvadoran army command. Considerably more US advisers are now in direct command of military operations against the Salvadoran people.^^1^^
Military supplies from the United States arrive in El Salvador in increasing amounts: planes, transport and gunship helicopters, firearms, etc. The assistance which the reactionary Magana regime receives from the Reagan administration exceeds a third of all American assistance to Latin America. Little Salvador ranks sixth in the list of countries receiving US military aid. The special punitive battalions Atlacatl, Atonal and Ramon Belloso have been trained at American military bases at Fort Bragg, Fort Benning and the Panama Canal zone. In Honduras, the Pentagon has created another regional military centre at Puerto Castilla where fresh contingents of Salvadoran punitive forces are trained.^^2^^
It has become part of everyday life in El Salvador to discover secret burials of terror victims, mutilated or beheaded corpses in the morning streets of San Salvador and other cities, mass murders of peasants and killings of national intellectuals. Between 1981 and 1983 a total of 43,000 people were killed as a result of punitive operations of the Salvadoran army and criminal actions of the "death squads''.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees something like 300,000 have fled El Salvador because of _-_-_
~^^1^^ Le Monde, January 13, 1982.
~^^2^^ Didlogo Social, Panama, No. 158, 1983, p. 33.
131 terror and reprisals. Over half a million Salvadorans have been rendered homeless and roam the country.The wave of terror forced the Human Rights Commission (CDHES) of El Salvador to go underground in April 1978. Marianela Garci'a-Villas, Chairperson of the CDHES and one of its founders, was murdered in March 1983. The 38th session of the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution on the violation of human rights in El Salvador condemned the murder of Marianela Garci'a-Villas and instructed the special representative of the UN Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation into the case.
In an attempt to cover up traces of its crimes the government of El Salvador announced an amnesty for political detainees as one of the prerequisites for establishing a dialogue with the insurgents. The leaderships of the FMLN and FDR have exposed the government proposal as a provocative trick: many of those set free by the amnesty fell victim to the cut-throats from the "death squads''.
The amnesty brought no changes in the government's systematic policy of deliberate extermination of the rural population. The legal aid bureau under the archbishop of San Salvador which presents regular reports on violations of human rights in El Salvador to the UN Human Rights Commission has reported that in the course of 36 military operations conducted by the government forces at the beginning of 1983, there was a daily loss of at least 50 innocent lives. During the first six months of 1983, over 2,800 peaceful civilians were killed. The report also mentions government forces bombing villages with chemical bombs. After these air raids, the local population, children first and foremost, suffer from strong intestinal disorder accompanied by haemorrhage, uncontrollable vomiting, fever, blindness, deafness and other disorders.^^1^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ Barricada.July 30, 1983.
132Carlos Lopez and Gilberto Ayala, members of the Medical Workers' Committee (COPROSAL), which was set up in 1981 and operates underground, have stressed the fact that the widely practised tactics of "scorched land" brings death to peaceful inhabitants, results in the spread of dangerous diseases and inflicts enormous harm to the vegetable and animal world, since the contaminated rivers, pastures and fields retain their harmful effect for a long period.^^1^^
A group of American professors who visited El Salvador in August and September of 1983 failed to meet a single member of the Salvadoran National Association of Teachers which had a membership of 20,000. Constant threats by ultra-right extremist organizations, reprisals and persecution by government security forces had made them go underground. Professor Noel McGinn of Harvard University has established that since 1980 over 200 teachers have been murdered in El Salvador, to say nothing of those who are missing.
As the Reagan plan for the ``pacification'' of El Salvador is put into effect, there is an escalation of reprisals against the country's civilian population. The insurgent radio station Venceremos reported that in June 1983, in the course of a punitive operation by government troops and American military advisers, over 200 civilians were killed in the densely populated departments San Vicente and Usulutan. The bodies of 97 peasants were discovered in San Juan Buena Vista canton in San Vicente department. At the beginning of November 1983, soldiers of the Atlacatl battalion killed 177 people near Sinquera village in San Nicolas canton (Cabanas department). Not far from Sarago ssa village in La Libertad department were discovered mutilated bodies with traces of brutal torture, including the bodies of two pregnant women.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Granma, September 22, 1983.
133The resolution adopted by the 38th session of the UN General Assembly on the human rights situation and fundamental freedoms in El Salvador (1983) noted the continuation of violence, grave and large-scale violations of human rights, the greatly increased number of ``missing'' persons and murders organized by the "death squads''. The resolution also mentions regular bombardments by government forces of city districts which are not military targets.
The Washington administration openly ignores the United Nations resolutions and the demands of the progressive world public calling for an end to the US support of the Salvadoran regime which has made large-scale terror against the peaceful population its state policy. President Reagan has still not replied to an open letter from the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador which demands an end to interference into the domestic affairs of El Salvador, a stop to arms deliveries and the withdrawal of American military advisers from the country.
In December 1983, Reagan fully exposed his true policy when he vetoed a Congressional Bill obliging the United States President to report to Congress twice annually on the human rights situation in El Salvador. This veto by the American president encouraged the cut-throats from the Salvadoran "death squads" and was immediately followed by a wave of political murders which took the lives of hundreds and thousands of people in El Salvador. President Reagan's actions testify to the fact that the White House has decided to press for a military ``settlement'' of the Salvadoran crisis.
The Reagan administration openly flouts the decisions of international organizations, in particular the resolutions of the 36th, 37th and 38th sessions of the UN General Assembly, and continues to render growing military support to the reactionary Salvadoran regime. Even more---- Washington is planning to create another major military base in the eastern part of El Salvador. Its facilities will allow for the 134 training of up to 1,000 cut-throats every month who will be taught the "art of killing''. At the same time, the La Union base on the Gulf of Fonseca coast has been expanded and modernized. This base trains "Ranger battalions''. The government of El Salvador counts on further assistance by American military advisers and is organizing two new military training centres at Zacatecoluca and Sonsonate. Israel too is taking an active part in military aid to El Salvador by sending advisers to train Salvadoran security forces. Israel is also increasing arms deliveries and in 1983 granted a loan of 81 million dollars to the junta for military purposes. The practical deeds of American imperialism have once again demonstrated to the world the hypocrisy of the Reagan administration with regard to human rights in El Salvador, and in other parts of the world for that matter.
In his statement of September 28, 1983, Yuri Andropov pointed out: "The world knows the real value of such moralizing. In Vietnam the code of morals, as conceived by Washington politicians, was enforced with the help of napalm and toxic chemicals. In Lebanon it is backed by salvoes of heavy battleship guns, while in El Salvador the same code of morals is enforced by means of genocide.''^^1^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ Pravda, September 29, 1983.
[135] __ALPHA_LVL1__ GUATEMALA:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The revolution in Guatemala,
which continued from 1944 to 1954, was influenced by the
victory of democratic forces over fascism in World War II.
This revolutionary decade was in fact the only period in
the country's history when it was governed in the interests
of the people. A land reform was planned and its realization
started, labour legislation was introduced, the system of
education was improved, the political structure was made
more democratic and a constitution adopted. October 1946
saw the adoption of Guatemala's first ever law on social
insurance and the elaboration of a 20-year programme of
developing the medical services. In 1947, the government of
President Juan Jose Arevalo adopted the country's first
Labour Code. Trade unions were allowed to function. The
process of reforms and democratization continued under
President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman (1951--1954). The
government of Guatemala tried to curb the activities of American
monopolies whose dictates spread far beyond the economy.
The government led by President Arbenz strove to pursue
a foreign policy less dependent on the United States, and
it was at this time that the diplomatic relations were
established between Guatemala and the Soviet Union.
The progressive programmes under President Arbenz met with the bitter resistance of the local reactionary forces. These programmes also aroused the rage of American 136 imperialism. During the ten years of democratic rule in the country, the United States made something like 30 attempts to overthrow the Guatemalan government. In 1954, the United States organized armed intervention and a counterrevolutionary putsch in Guatemala. Both the intervention and the putsch were inspired by the United Fruit Co. The operation with the code name ``Success'' was developed and put into effect by the CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon.
The military junta which came to power with American support eliminated the gains of the revolution: the democratic constitution of 1945 was abolished, progressive political parties, organizations and trade unions were outlawed and disbanded, the land reform was revoked and land was returned to latifundistas and foreign companies, including the United Fruit Co. A regime of military and political terror reigned in the country.
Since then scores of thousands of people have been killed in Guatemala. The terror in the country is reported in the press, books are written on the subject and there are numerous reports by official and public organizations. However, very often, nothing is said about who this terror is directed against, first and foremost. For instance, many bourgeois writers depict the situation in Guatemala as one in which the army and the police combat the guerillas, implying that loss of life is inevitable under these circumstances. Some reports and articles barely mention the fact (which is often overlooked) that terror in Guatemala is directed primarily against the Indians, and is therefore tantamount to genocide against the country's indigenous population. No mention is also made of the fact that this country has a ramified system of repression which is designed to keep in submission the majority of the population---the Indians--- and thus to keep them in conditions which doom them to extinction.
137The Guatemalan dictators differ one from another only in the degree of ruthlessness with which they conduct punitive expeditions.
Rios Montt was the first to intensify reprisals against the Indians. The ``new'' strategy of this American henchman, as mentioned in a statement by the International Indian Treaty Council^^1^^ submitted to the United Nations, lay in the priority extermination of Indians. Rios Montt directed all his efforts at exterminating as many Indians as possible. During the first three months of his rule, 5,000 Indians in Guatemala were killed. One million Indians fled from government reprisals and sought refuge in the mountains and forests without food and shelter. Over 100,000 Indians crossed into Mexico as refugees.
From time to time the supporters of the Guatemalan dictators asserted that it was allegedly difficult to decide who was actually responsible for the large-scale killings: the rightists or the liberation movement of the people. According to these allegations both sides had paramilitary organizations beyond the effective control of the government. Such fabrications meet with the zealous support of the US administration, which is only natural since the policy of genocide has been pursued by the military-dictatorial regimes in Guatemala thanks to the military aid and political backing of the United States. Since the sixties, American military specialists have been training government forces in Guatemala and commanding their operations against the guerillas. During the three years from 1980 to 1982 alone, according to official figures, the United States rendered the Guatemalan regime direct military and economic aid to the tune of _-_-_
~^^1^^ International Indian Treaty Council---an international organization embracing 98 Indian Peoples of the Western hemisphere, holding a non-governmental organization status at the United Nationsfid.
138 47.5 million dollars. Besides, another 58.4 million dollars was made available through various pro-American international agencies.^^1^^The false assertions aimed at whitewashing the Guatemalan rulers are fully exposed by the simple question: who are the thousands of men and women who have been killed, tortured and kidnapped? They are, first and foremost, plain peasants, which means that they are mainly Indians. Secondly, they are those who attempt to protect the peasants: the lawyers, the progressiveminded students, the journalists, worker activists, leftwing politicians and public figures. It is against them that the enormous government machinery of suppression is directed.
The population of Guatemala is around seven million and the Indians constitute a majority. According to the International Indian Treaty Council, there are 4,171,000 Indians in the country. They are the descendants of the Maya Indians and belong to 22 language groups, of which eight are on the brink of extinction. Although they are the majority in the country, the Indians are subjected to extremely severe political, social and economic discrimination.
As in the other developing countries which had been colonized by the Europeans, the class structure of Guatemalan society is largely- based on nationality. The white population (not more than 4 per cent of the total) and the upper crust of the mestizo population form the ruling clique. The official state language is Spanish which the Indians practically do not know.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1982. Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, and Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, by the Department of State, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1983, p. 531.
139The policy of the ruling quarters in Guatemala with regard to the Indians contains all the elements of genocide which have been identified in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: killings, infliction of serious corporal harm, deliberate creation of conditions of life which are calculated for the complete or partial extermination of any national, ethnic, race or religious group. It is just these conditions that the successive Guatemalan dictators have created for the Indians.
It is 30 years since the United States intervention in Guatemala and the reactionary putsch which overthrew the Arbenz government. This period has seen the steady deterioration in the living standards of most of the population in the country. Over 80 per cent of the land is in the hands of landlords who constitute less than 10 per cent of the land-holding population. Other sources say that the oligarchy holds as much as 88 per cent of all the ploughed land in the country.
Bearing in mind that four out of every five rural inhabitants are Indians, it is understandable that they constitute the majority of the landless population. The latifundistas strive to make maximum profit and set aside most of the land for production of exotic crops---spices which are exported. Such a plantation system has led to a deficiency in staple foods, cereals and leguminous crops. About a third of the rural population in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition.
The mortality rate (11 per 1,000 of the population) places Guatemala third in the Western hemisphere after Haiti and pre-revolutionary Nicaragua. There is a particularly high child mortality. According to official government statistics 83 children out of 1,000 do not live to the age of two years. Four out of every five children live in semi-- starvation. There is only one medical doctor for 100,000 of the population. Average life expectancy among the Indians is 140 44--45 years. About 70 per cent of the population in Guatemala are illiterate and there is almost total illiteracy among the Indians.
When martial law was declared in the country in 1981, this actually led to a state of war in the departments of El Quiche'', Huehuetenango, San Marcos and Quezaltenango where the Indians constitute the majority of the population. A curfew was imposed, house searches and arrests without warrant and indictment were allowed. The army and the police can break into any house or establishment at any hour of the day or night and requisition houses and means of transportation at their discretion. People under 30 with military training are obliged to register for possible mobilization.
Since 1981, there have been special courts which examine cases on a quick and simplified procedure. Special courts deal with people suspected of participation in the guerilla movement and they are given the right to pass the death sentence without the right of appeal.
The decree on martial law bans all political and trade union activity and imposes rigid censorship in the press. Whole districts in the country have been declared closed. Any meeting, including a matrimonial ceremony, requires special permission of the authorities.
Under the pretext of combating guerillas, the army and the police have launched punitive operations against the population in many parts of the country. Civilians, i.e. Indian peasants, are liable to be shot on the spot for suspected contacts with the insurgents. Thousands of government troops have been stationed in the departments of Verapaces, Chimaltenango, El Quiche, San Marcos, Solola and Huehuetenango which are populated mainly by Indians. Soldiers dressed in civilian clothes or even wearing Indian national dress pose' as guerillas and destroy whole villages. Many villages have been bombed and strafed by planes and 141 helicopters, shelled and burned down by napalm. The ultimate goal of these barbaric acts is to break the organizational structure of the Indians who traditionally live in communes. The International Indian Treaty Council has declared: 'This is a period of the greatest threat to the cultures and survival of the Indigenous populations of Guatemala since the Spanish conquest.''^^1^^
__b_b_b__In the spring of 1982, several young Indian peasants occupied the premises of the Brazilian embassy in Guatemala city. They resorted to this desperate step with the sole purpose of drawing attention to the tragedy of the people of Guatemala. The group found political asylum in Mexico and one of its members said: "We had no other way to tell the world what is happening to our people. This is real genocide. We want everyone to know that the new junta which seized power on March 23, not only continues what its predecessors have been doing, but has even intensified terror against us...''^^2^^
Scores of thousands of Indian refugees from Guatemala fled from government terror in July-August 1982 to the Mexican state of Chiapas. They found refuge in the forests where there are no roads, no dwellings and no food.
In August 1982, a number of documents were presented to the United Nations testifying to the grievous situation of the Guatemalan refugees in southern Mexico and identifying the circumstances which had forced the Indians to flee the country and seek refuge in the neighbouring country. Many of the testimonies were given under oath and juridically certified. There is an affidavit of Susan Shawn Roberts and Ernest Norton Tooby who obtained first-hand information from the refugees themselves and recorded hair-raising _-_-_
^^1^^ Indigenous World, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1983, p. 3.
~^^2^^ Izvestia, October 23, 1982.
142 events. The eye-witnesses were so terrified by the reprisals of the Guatemalan authorities that they did not feel secure even in Mexico. They asked for their names and even their villages not to be revealed.Roberts and Tooby visited several refugee camps. One of them called Las Diez Vindas (The Ten Widows) had twelve families, of which ten had no bread-winners, since they had been killed by government troops. At the El Bosque (The Forest) camp there were 11 families from Huehuetenango department: 29 adults and 41 children. They fled their commune when the Guatemalan army killed 14 people in their commune and another 8 in the neighbouring commune. In another camp there were 23 families from the same department. They all fled to Mexico at the approach of army units from Nueva Catalina, where the soldiers had killed 14 people, including small children. The Rancho Tejas camp was set up in May-July 1982 and provided refuge for 984 people from 26 villages in Huehuetenango department. At the Nenton and El Recuerdo (The Memory) camps Roberts and Tooby saw 305 refugees. The population of El Recuerdo were refugees from several small villages which had been burned down on June 21, 1982.
Roberts and Tooby saw much the same situation in other camps. At La Hamaca (The Hammock) they found 100 families, twice as many as there were initially. Over 250 families found refuge at La Sombra (The Shade). Overpopulation, absence of sanitary facilities and malnutrition had led to the spread of epidemics. In Colonia Joaquin Miguel Gutierrez district, which borders on Guatemala, there are over 10,000 refugees. This is the situation along the entire 800 kilometres of the Guatemala-Mexico frontier. The stream of refugees continues unabated.^^1^^
_-_-_^^1^^ Affidavit of Susan Shawn Roberts and Ernest Norton Tooby Concerning Testimony of Guatemalan Refugees in Southern Mexico __NOTE__ Footnote cont. on page 144. 143
The barbaric extermination of the Indian population includes point-blank shooting of people, burning, torture, decapitation, hacking off of legs and arms, rape and murder of women, killing of old people and children.
The Guatemalan Bishops' Conference has issued a statement saying, "Never in the nation's history has there been such extreme danger. These murders are within a framework of genocide.''^^1^^
Testimonies of this kind are numerous and every year the United Nations receives between 10,000 and 15,000 of them. They are taken up by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations which was set up by the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at its 34th session in August 1981. The creation of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations was approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights in March 1982.
The Working Group gave great prominence to problems relating to the gross and large-scale violations of the rights of Indians in Guatemala. Spokesmen from various organizations dealing with problems of indigenous populations stressed the fact that many peoples of the world suffered from constant violations of the basic human right---the right to life. They also pointed out that genocide was practised with regard to the indigenous population of a number of Central and South American countries. This applied first and foremost to Guatemala and El Salvador where government troops and paramilitary groups sponsored by the governments of these countries destroy whole _-_-_ __NOTE__ Footnote cont. from page 143. before the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, 36th Session, 1982, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, 1982, pp. 1, 5, 6.
~^^1^^ Conselho Indigenista Missionario, Brasilia, July 15, 1982, p. 1.
144 communities of the indigenous population.^^1^^The issue of human rights violations in Guatemala has been arousing world public concern for a number of years and was discussed by various UN bodies. In 1979, it was taken up by the 35th session of the Commission on Human Rights and since then it has been permanently on the agenda of the Commission and its Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. The problem has been discussed by the Economic and Social Council and also by UN General Assembly sessions. The 33rd session of the above Subcommission in 1982 expressed concern over reports on mass reprisals against communes of the indigenous population and their displacements in Guatemala.^^2^^
The 39th session of the Commission on Human Rights again discussed the issue of grave violations of human rights and fundamental liberties in Guatemala. On March 2, 1983, the Commission was addressed by a spokesman of the International Indian Treaty Council, who cited convincing proof of the growing scale of extermination of the Indian population in Guatemala. He drew the attention of the Commission to continued deliveries of military equipment to Guatemala which is used against the Indians. These deliveries are made by the United States and Israel. Since 1975 Israel has supplied the Guatemalan junta with 15,000 submachine-guns and a lot of other modern weaponry. All this is supplied with the approval of the American administration. In this way the United States government has got around the Congressional embargo on the deliveries of _-_-_
~^^1^^ Report of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations on Its First Session, E/CN4/Sub. 2/1982/33, August 25, 1982.
~^^2^^ Ibid., E/CN4/1983/4, Res. 1982/17.
__PRINTERS_P_145_COMMENT__ 10--1169 145 offensive weapons to Guatemala.^^1^^ In March 1982, when General Montt, another American henchman, came to power in Guatemala, the United States resumed direct and large-scale deliveries of weapons and materiel to Guatemala.On March 8, 1983, the UN Commission on Human Rights adopted another resolution reiterating its "profound concern at the continuing reports of massive violations of human rights taking place in Guatemala, particularly reports of violence against non-combatants, widespread repression, and killing and massive displacement of rural and indigenous people''. The Commission called upon governments "to refrain from supplying arms and other military assistance as long as serious human rights violations in Guatemala continue to be reported".^^2^^ At the 38th session of the UN General Assembly the world community again condemned human rights violations in Guatemala by adopting a special resolution on the issue.
According to the letter and spirit of Article III of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide the support which the United States has rendered and continues to render to the dictatorial regimes in Guatemala can be classified only as " complicity in genocide" and "direct and public incitement to commit genocide''. Perhaps here we find the explanation for the United States' stubborn refusal to join the Convention.
The United States scorns decisions taken by the UN _-_-_
~^^1^^ United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 38th Session, Feb. 1-March 12, 1982. Report by the International Indian Treaty Council, Geneva, 1982, p. 6.
^^2^^ "UN Commission on Human Rights, Report on the 39th Session (31 January-11 March, 1983)'', Economic and Social Council, Official Records, Supplement No. 3, United Nations, New York, 1983, p. 168.
146 General Assembly and builds up aid to the dictatorial regimes in Central America. At the same time, the US has stepped up subversion against the progressive governments of the region. This is the only conclusion to be made from President Reagan's address to the joint session of Congress of April 27, 1983. This aggressive politician declared Central America a zone vital to US interests and spoke of the " strategic importance of Central America".^^1^^ Reagan asked Congress to allocate an additional 298 million dollars in 1983 and another 600 million dollars in 1984 for the sake of "freedom in Central America''. In fact this money was needed to step up subversion against sovereign states and national-liberation movements in the region, the victorious revolution in Nicaragua first and foremost. The money was also needed to increase military aid to Somoza gangs and to anti-popular dictatorships in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.^^2^^Commenting on Reagan's address, Senator Christopher Dodd, Congressional Democrat, said not without irony: "The painful truth is that many of our highest officials seem to know as little about Central America in 1983, as we knew about Indochina in 1963.''^^3^^
With generous US military aid the dictatorship in Guatemala wages war against its own people. Genocide against the Indian population is part of this war.
_-_-_~^^1^^ The New York Times, April 28, 1983, p. A12.
^^2^^ Ibid., p. A13.
~^^3^^ Ibid.
[147] __ALPHA_LVL1__ KAMPUCHEA: DESTRUCTION
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In January 1979, a popular
uprising swept away the bloody clique of Pol Pot from the
longsuffering land of Kampuchea. For 1,300 days Kampuchea
was drowned in the blood of its citizens. Something like 3
million Kampucheans were exterminated, the
economic and social structures of the country were destroyed and
cultural centres liquidated.
The victorious people demanded that those guilty of genocide be brought to answer. On August 19, 1979, the People's Revolutionary Tribunal pronounced judgement--- the sentence of history.
Pol Pot and leng Sary (sentenced to death in absentia) were indicted for usurping state power in Kampuchea and using it as an instrument of criminal acts. In order to realize their plans the clique of Kampuchean traitors trained ruthless executors of their criminal orders concerning massive killings. During the period in power of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique, unheard-of crimes were committed in Kampuchea.
The Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique recruited 14--17-year-old youngsters and declassed elements into gangs of killers. They were told that if they refused to kill they themselves would be tortured and eventually killed. The youngsters were corrupted, adapted to murders and made to drink a home-brew of palm juice and human blood. They were 148 indoctrinated that they were allegedly capable of achieving everything, that they were "special people" because they had drunk human blood. The rulers cleverly encouraged and directed the escalation of brutality, which made them bound to each other by mutual criminal responsibility.
An objective analysis of facts and testimony by witnesses at the People's Revolutionary Tribunal in Phnom Penh proved irrefutably that the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique was guilty of the crime of genocide with nothing to justify them.
__b_b_b__One of the first measures realized by the Pol Pot clique and aimed at the massive extermination of the people was the forced displacement of the urban population into rural and mountain areas.
It was a carefully planned policy. A document used as a manual for the advanced training of top-level Pol Pot cadres in 1975, mentioned the fact that the policy of displacement of the population had been outlined by the leadership of the Pol Pot party back in 1970. According to this decision, Pol Pot troops were to displace the population of urban centres as soon as they entered them.
With regard to the population of the capital the document said that it was desirable to displace 95 per cent of the population of Phnom Penh. The displaced people were to go to ``liberated'' territory without any belongings and even personal effects were to be reduced to the minimum.
The Pol Pot clique explained the displacing of the population of Phnom Penh as a measure to avoid famine, inasmuch as the government did not have the food supplies to feed the population. Another reason given was that there had allegedly been uncovered a plot aimed at the overthrow of the government.
149The real reasons were very different and this was illustrated by numerous documents presented to the tribunal. The main reason was that there could arise serious opposition to the regime in the cities. It is not fortuitous that the population of Phnom Penh was referred to the third category, i.e. to the category that was marked for extermination.
After seizing power in the country, the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique classified the population of Kampuchea into three categories on the basis of their loyalty to the regime. The first category, the so-called "old population'', embraced people who lived in remote mountain and jungle zones of Kampuchea. The second category were the "new population" who lived in districts controlled by the previous regime. The third category comprised servicemen, officials of the ousted administration, members of their families and the population of Phnom Penh. The latter were all marked for wholesale extermination. The population of the "second category" were subject to purges to which the Pol Pot clique resorted so often that this section of the population was also practically exterminated. The "first category" of people at first enjoyed some privileges (they could live with a greater sense of security), but after 1977 they too were exposed to purges and many thousands of people were killed.
The scale of reprisals against the population of Phnom Penh may be illustrated by the records of investigations which were presented to the People's Revolutionary Tribunal set up on July 15, 1979 under a Decree of the People's Revolutionary Council of Kampuchea.
A few days after the Pol Pot troops entered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, over 2 million residents were driven out of the city. An order was issued for all the residents to leave, taking no food or belongings with them. Those who refused to obey the order or were slow in leaving were 150 brutally beaten or shot. This plight was shared by old people, invalids, pregnant women and hospital patients. The people were made to walk in rain or scorching sun. They were subjected to searches at every stop so that when they reached their destination they had nothing with them. Neither food nor medicine were given to the ousted city dwellers and sanitary conditions were horrible. If any attempt was made to barter clothing or other things for rice, fish or salt with the local inhabitants, those guilty were shot.
Something like half a million people perished on the banks of the Mekong where the population of Phnom Penh were made to cross into remote districts.
The plight of the population of Phnom Penh was shared by the population of other cities and towns. All this was made with the purpose of disrupting social ties and thus hampering the development of organized resistance to the bloody reprisals of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique.
One of the documents circulated among the Pol Pot hierarchy mentioned the results of the displacement of people: "The people left barehanded and will remain in communes. This means that we have fully destroyed the state system and driven the people into villages. In the long run this will lead to their complete extermination.''
The Pol Pot policy of creating so-called ``communes'' was approved by Mao Zedong. In a conversation with Pol Pot in June 1975 Mao said: "We have won a splendid success---to do away with classes by a single stroke. Communes in the countryside, together with poor and lower middle peasants, are our future.''^^1^^
What were these ``communes'' like? Their distinctive feature was that people, irrespective of age and state of _-_-_
~^^1^^ People's Republic of Kampuchea. People's Revolutionary Tribunal Held in Phnom Penh for the Trial of the Genocide Crime of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary Clique, August 1979, Document No. 2526, p. 2.
151 health, were made to work 12--16 hours a day. Children over the age of 10, old people and the sick worked as much as healthy adults. Children above the age of six were separated from their parents.Meagre rations were the only remuneration for work done in the communes. Besides routine work, the members of the communes were compelled to so-called ``socialist'' labour which was performed during intervals in routine work. The members of the communes were under the surveillance of secret agents. Those who behaved independently, complained or protested were placed on the list of "suspicious elements" and ``oppositionists'' and marked for liquidation.
Ruthless police control was enforced on the thoughts and feelings of the .people. They were not allowed to think, to suffer, to laugh, to cry. Despair, compassion, request were all regarded as manifestation of dissatisfaction and opposition. The agents registered even the expression of the face and any sadness or indignation could well be the reason for the given person to be sent to death.
Social ties in the communes were systematically destroyed. Married couples were separated, children were separated from their parents, contacts between neighbours were prohibited. Everything that was conducive to the establishment of human relations was liquidated: markets, means of communication, the post, telephone, etc.
The family and family relations were destroyed by the Pol Pot henchmen deliberately and by various means. The ruling clique directed its efforts at alienating married couples, at alienating parents and children. Husband and wife were forced to live separately and to work far one from the other. They were nbt allowed to see each other, to help each other in times of distress, to display affection and even to mourn the dead.
152People were afraid to come to other people's assistance, fearing for their own lives. They were afraid, for instance, to render support to children whose parents had been killed, fearing accusations of sympathy for the enemy. That is why many orphans were not admitted to the communes and lived as vagrants. Whenever these children were caught begging, they were beaten, often to death.
At the age of 14--15, youngsters were recruited into socalled "mobile production brigades" or the army. The Pol Pot clique believed that this was the best age to mould them into soldiers ready to blindly fulfil any order.
Back-breaking labour and malnutrition resulted in the spread of diseases but there was no medical assistance available. The country's medical services had been destroyed and of the 683 medical doctors and pharmaceutists only 69 survived. Only malaria or a trauma were recognized as illness. Other patients were accused of being idlers and rebels, which more often than not meant physical extermination. Pregnancy was regarded as a pretext to evade work and pregnant women were given less food. There was no such thing as pre- and post-natal leaves. A month after delivery the woman was obliged to turn up for work. If she failed to report she was treated as a saboteur.
The Pol Pot regime had ``doctors'' with no medical training whatsoever and often illiterate. Their main `` medications'' were coconut milk, the bark of trees and various chemical solutions. One can imagine the kind of medical ``assistance'' which these ``doctors'' and their ``medicine'' provided.
Any violation of the numerous regulations at the "people's communes" brought about severe punishment. There were only two grades of punishment: doubling or trebling of the daily quota with reduced rations and beating or the alternative death penalty.
153About 90 per cent of the Kampuchean population profess Buddhism. For the overwhelming majority of the people, particularly the rural population, Buddhism is not only a religion, but also a culture. In this connection the destruction of Buddhism had special meaning---it was directed against the culture of the people and their traditions.
The ruthless campaign unleashed by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique resulted in the destruction of almost all of the 2,800 pagodas in Kampuchea. Many pagodas were turned into wheat and fertilizer storages, concentration camps and prisons. Only a few of the 82,000 Buddhist monks have survived. They were not allowed to wear their monastic clothes and were forced to work in the communes. For a Buddhist it is a mortal sin to slaughter and eat fowl. The Pol Pot clique issued an order for the monks to do just this. Refusal to obey was punishable by death.
All Buddhist books were to be destroyed and the population were forbidden to pray and to enter monastic orders.
Measures were also taken to destroy Islam, which is professed mainly by the Cham, a national minority in Kampuchea. All 114 Islamic mosques in the country were either degraded or destroyed. Some of them were turned into pigsties and others blown up or levelled to the ground by bulldozers.
The Cham were almost fully exterminated. The district of Kompong Xiem, Kompong Cham province, had five hamlets with a total Muslim population of about 20,000, but not a single inhabitant survived. Koong Neas district had seven hamlets with about 20,000 Muslim inhabitants too, of whom only four survived.^^1^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ See: People's Republic of Kampuchea. Judgement of the Revolutionary People's Tribunal Held in Phnom Penh from 15 to 19 August 1979,s.d.,p.l3.
154The same fate was prepared for other national minorities. Thirteen ethnic groups in Kampuchea were subjected to forced assimilation.
The report drawn up by the commission investigating the crimes against the national minorities quoted Pol Pot directives to the effect that "individuals must change their names by taking new ones akin to the Khmer race... The conscience, languages, ethnic particulars, costumes, habits, religions of the former nationalities are to be drastically abolished.''^^1^^
Ruthless punishment was meted out for failure to fulfil these orders. Scores of thousands of people belonging to national minorities in the North-Eastern Region were killed outside Strung Treng city. Among them were members of the Lao ethnic group, including military personnel and guerillas who had taken part in the struggle against US aggression.
__b_b_b__There was wholesale destruction of intellectuals: medical doctors, teachers, engineers, artistes, scholars and students were declared enemies of the regime. The directive dated September 5, 1977 and circulated in the Eastern Region under a decision of the Pol Pot party leadership pointed out the necessity of increasing revolutionary vigilance with regard to persons who had been serving in the old state apparatus: technicians, teachers, medical doctors, engineers, etc. inasmuch as the party had adopted a decision not to use them. It was believed that if their knowledge and experience were used for the development of technology, the enemy would have an opportunity to penetrate into the state machinery and thus pose a serious threat to the authorities.
_-_-_~^^1^^ People's Republic of Kampuchea. People's Revolutionary Tribunal..., Document No. 2402, p. 4.
155In the course of displacement of the urban population, the Pol Pot clique forced intellectuals to settle in villages with the alleged purpose of ``re-education''. Intellectuals were compelled to conceal their origin and education so as to escape extermination. Anyone wearing glasses, reading books, knowing a foreign language, wearing decent clothes, particularly of European fashion, was identified as an intellectual.
The Pol Pot clique played on the patriotic feelings of Kampuchean intellectuals living abroad and invited them to return home so as to take part in the rehabilitation of the country. About 1,000 people responded to the appeal. They were all convicted to hard labour and all exterminated.
As a result of this policy only 50 of the 725 professors and assistant professors of the country's higher educational establishments remained alive. Of the 11,000 students only 450 survived. There were 2,300 secondary school teachers and only 207 remained. Out of the total of 106,000 secondary school pupils there remained alive 5,300. Of the 21,311 primary school teachers---2,793 survived. There were 991,000 primary school pupils of whom only 322,379 children survived. The classical ballet lost 147 of its 195 dancers. The fine arts department had an enrolment of 416 students and only 14 remained alive. Of the country's 1,341 art workers only 121, i.e. less than 10 per cent, survived. Of the more than 300 journalists and printing workers only 5 remained alive.
The entire material base of Kampuchean national culture was also destroyed. Such art and cultural centres as the Phnom Penh theatre, the theatres in provincial centres, the museums and cinema theatres were demolished. Television and sports stadiums were eliminated, as well as the fine arts university, the conservatoire and libraries. Musical instruments, traditional stage costumes and all publications on 156 the arts were burned. School buildings were either destroyed or turned into prisons, torture centres or storages for wheat and fertilizer. Books from libraries, educational and research centres as well as museum exhibits were destroyed and priceless items of ancient art were stolen. Half of the country's historical monuments were destroyed, including 1,225 architectural monuments. The world-renowned architectural ensembles of Angkor Wat and Angk6r Thorn perished.
__b_b_b__Prisons in Kampuchea were turned into death centres. The notorious Tuol Sleng jail in Phnom Penh had a particularly bad reputation. Something like 10,000 prisoners were put to death there. Before the Pol Pot forces retreated from the capital they killed the remaining prisoners. Only eight people, four of them children, managed to survive.
All the above-mentioned facts testify to genocide practised in various forms. There was physical genocide: extermination of people by firearms, hoes, metal bars, by burying and burning alive, by feeding to crocodiles, etc. There was biological genocide: prohibition to marry, separation of married couples, forced co-habitation. Nationalcultural genocide consisted in the destruction of national culture, the system of education, the medical services and the national economy, and the prohibition to use the language of the national minorities.
The People's . Revolutionary Tribunal of Kampuchea condemned the criminals. History itself has passed sentence and branded with shame the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique.
__b_b_b__The imperialist quarters in the United States and their hangers-on are trying hard to revive the bloody regime. They supply the Pol Pot gangs in Thailand with 157 weapons, military and food supplies and send them into Kampuchean territory for armed struggle against the people's power.
__b_b_b__The imperialist intrigues against People's Kampuchea, and the imperialist support for the executioners of the Khmer people arouse the wrath and indignation of all people of good will.
[158] __ALPHA_LVL1__ JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ As mentioned earlier, the rout of
fascist Germany raised the practical question of
responsibility of the Hitlerites not only for aggression and war crimes,
but also for crimes against humanity. Paragraph C in Article
6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, set
up by the member countries of the anti-Hitler coalition,
lists the crimes against humanity: "Murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts
committed against any civilian population, before or during the
war, or persecution on political, racial or religious grounds
in execution of or in connexion with any crime within the
jurisdiction of the Tribunal...''^^1^^
Thus the Charter and the Judgement of the Niirnberg Tribunal formulated responsibility for the crime of genocide. The term ``genocide'' is not mentioned in the documents of the Niirnberg trial, but the very fact of organized mass-scale killing of civilian population on national or racial grounds is fully recognized in the bill of indictment and the judgement over the major war criminals.
On December 11, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 96(1) condemning genocide as such. The preamble to the Resolution says: " _-_-_
~^^1^^ The Charter and Judgement of the Niirnberg Tribunal, U.N. International Law Commission, New York, 1949, p. 4.
159 Genocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to life of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, results in great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and other contributions represented by these human groups, and is contrary to moral law and to the spirit and aims of the United Nations.''^^1^^The Resolution says that according to international law genocide is a crime which is condemned by the civilized world and for which its main perpetrators and accomplices shall be punished whether they are private individuals, constitutionally responsible rulers or public officials, and also whether the motives are religious, racial, political or otherwise.
The UN member countries were offered to enact the necessary legislation to provide effective penalties for the prevention and punishment of the crimes of genocide. At the same time, the General Assembly instructed the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations to draw up a draft convention on the crime of genocide and to submit it for discussion at the next session of the General Assembly.
In the course of preparations and discussions of the draft convention there clashed two stands, as was the case with other UN documents concerning human rights. The group of countries led by the United States strove to prevent adoption of a special convention on genocide. By contrast the Soviet Union believed that such a convention was essential. In July 1947, the UN Secretariat completed the draft and circulated it among the member countries of the organization. On December 9, 1948, the United Nations _-_-_
^^1^^ Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during the Second Part of Its First Session, 23 October-15 December 1946, U.N., New York, 1947, pp. 188--89.
160 Organization adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.The United Nations Convention declared genocide a crime violating international law and subject to punishment irrespective of whether it is committed in time of peace or in time of war. Genocide means "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" (Article~II).
The Contracting Parties confirmed that "genocide ... is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish''. In this connection the Convention holds that the following acts shall be punishable: genocide; conspiracy to commit genocide; direct and public incitement to commit genocide; attempt to commit genocide; complicity in genocide (Article III). Just like the Charter of the Niirnberg Tribunal the Convention provides that persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals (Article IV).
The Convention includes a highly important practical undertaking of the Contracting Parties to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide (Article V). According to the Convention persons charged with genocide shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of __PRINTERS_P_161_COMMENT__ 11--1169 161 which the act was committed, or by an international penal tribunal that may be set up by the Contracting Parties (Article VI).
Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article III shall not be considered as political crimes; therefore persons guilty of such acts shall not be accorded the right of asylum. The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force (Article VII).
The Convention gave all the Contracting Parties the right to request corresponding bodies of the United Nations to undertake all essential measures aimed at preventing and curbing acts of genocide in accordance with the UN Charter. This means provision of measures on inter-state level, including possible measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Unfortunately, a number of important factors were overlooked in the development and adoption of the Convention. The Soviet delegation expressed reservations with regard to the tabled preamble which did not provide a sufficiently exhaustive description of the nature of genocide. The draft preamble tabled by the Soviet representatives pointed out that genocide, as one of the gravest crimes against humanity, was organically related to fascism and misanthropic racist theories. The Soviet draft also stated that genocide is a crime grossly violating the principles and goals of the United Nations Organization which has promulgated equality of all countries and peoples and defends the sovereignty of the peoples of the world and basic human rights. The draft also stressed the fact that the struggle against genocide called for resolute measures by all civilized countries to prevent fanning of racial, national and religious animosity. In contrast to the draft sponsored by the Western powers, the Soviet draft identified the root causes of genocide and exposed its social nature and essence.
162The Soviet draft, as it was presented, did not pass the vote. Nevertheless it had constructive influence on the final reading of the Convention.
Inasmuch as the Convention contributed to international law in combating international crime the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR signed and ratified the document. At the same time, the Soviet Union made two reservations. Firstly, the Soviet Union did not consider as binding upon itself the provisions of Article IX which provides that disputes between the Contracting Parties with regard to the interpretation, application and implementation of the present Convention shall be referred for examination to the International Court at the request of any party to the dispute, and declared that, as regards the International Court's jurisdiction in respect of disputes concerning the interpretation, application and implementation of the Convention, the Soviet Union would, as hitherto, maintain the position that in each particular case the agreement of all parties to the dispute is essential for the submission of any particular dispute to the International Court for decision.
The second reservation concerned Article XII which limited the effect of the Convention to the metropolitan countries and did not extend to the colonies. The Soviet Union declared that it was not in agreement with Article XII of the Convention and considered that all the provisions of the Convention should extend to non-self-governing territories, including trust territories.
Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia also ratified the Convention or joined it with reservations concerning Articles IX and XII. The Convention came into force on January 12, 1951 and since then 88 states have taken up obligations arising from the provisions of the Convention. The United States and other Western powers refused to sign and ratify the Convention although they had __PRINTERS_P_163_COMMENT__ 11* 163 participated in its elaboration.
It should be borne in mind that genocide is a crime the prevention of which is the obligation of any state, irrespective of its acceptance or non-acceptance of the Convention. This was the conclusion made by the United Nations International Court of Justice in Reservations to the Convention on Genocide (1951).
In its advisory opinion the International Court of Justice expressed the following: "The origins of the Convention show that it was the intention of the United Nations to condemn and punish genocide as 'a crime under international law' involving a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, a denial which shocks the conscience of mankind and results in great losses to humanity, and which is contrary to moral law and to the spirit and aims of the United Nations... The first consequence arising from this conception is that the principles underlying the Convention are principles which are recognized by civilized nations as binding on States, even without any conventional obligation.''^^1^^
The adoption of the Convention marked a major stage in the development and codification of international law aimed at combating international crime. As mentioned earlier the Convention expressed the principles which had been recognized by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Niirnberg and included in to its judgement. These principles were reiterated by the world community in Resolution 95 (1) unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1946. In 1950, these principles were codified by the International Law Commission of the United Nations.
_-_-_^^1^^ Reservations to the Convention on Genocide, Advisory Opinion: I.C.J. Reports 1951, A.W. Sijthoff's Publishing Company, Leyden, 1951, p. 12.
164It follows that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is based on universally recognized principles which are obligatory to all, namely:
---any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible thereof and liable to punishment;
---the fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law;
---the fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law;
---the fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him;
---any person charged with a crime under international law has the right to a fair trial on the facts and law.
The principles of international law, as fixed by the Charter of die Niirnberg Tribunal and its Judgement, were reiterated and developed further in the Draft Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Mankind drawn up by the International Law Commission of the United Nations. The draft was definitely influenced by the international law acts which aimed at preventing international crime, including genocide.
Paragraph 10 of Article 2 lists as international crime "acts by the authorities of a State or by private individuals committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such, including:
``I. Killing members of the group;
``II. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
165``III. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
``IV.. Imposing measures intended to prevent- births within the group;
``V. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.''^^1^^
The Commission also classified as offences against the peace and security of mankind "inhuman acts such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or persecutions, committed against any civilian population on social, political, racial, religious or cultural grounds by the authorities of a State or by private individuals acting at the instigation or with the toleration of such authorities"^^2^^
It should be recalled that modern international law recognizes as a crime racism, which constitutes the basis of genocide and which justifies this gravest offence against the peace and security of mankind.
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which was adopted on December 21, 1965 by the 20th Session of the UN General Assembly condemns racial discrimination and obliges all states "to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms and promoting understanding among all races''.^^3^^
Under the Convention each State Party undertakes:
"a. to engage in no act or practice of racial _-_-_
^^1^^ Report of the International Law Commission Covering the Work of Its Sixth Session, June 3-July 28, 1954, General Assembly, Official Records, 9th Session, Supplement No. 9 (A/2693), p. 11.
^^2^^ Ibid.
^^3^^ Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during Its Twentieth Session, 21 Sept.-22 Dec. 1965, Supplement No. 14 (A/6014), United Nations, New York, 1966, p. 48.
166 discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to ensure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation;``b. not to sponsor, defend or support racial discrimination by any persons or organizations;
``c. [to] take effective measures to review governmental, national and local policies, and to amend, rescind or nullify any laws and regulations which have the effect of creating or perpetuating racial discrimination wherever it exists;...
``e. to encourage, where appropriate, integrationist multiracial organizations and movements and other means of eliminating barriers between races, and to discourage anything which tends to strengthen racial division.''^^1^^
The Convention condemns racial segregation and apartheid and obliges the States Parties to prevent, prohibit and eradicate any such practice on their territories. The Convention condemns, in particular, any propaganda and any organizations based on the ideas or theories of race superiority or justifying and encouraging race hatred and discrimination in whatever form.
The Convention regards as crime punishable by law any dissemination of ideas based on race superiority or hatred, any incitement to race discrimination, all acts of violence or incitement to such acts directed against any race or group of persons of a different colour of the skin or ethnic origin, and also the rendering of assistance in any form for the implementation of racist activities, including financing of such activities. Organizations as well as organizational and all other propaganda activity which encourage racial discrimination and incite to such are regarded unlawful and are banned. Participation in such organizations or in such _-_-_
^^1^^ Ibid.
167 activities is a crime punishable by law.The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was developed and adopted on the initiative and with the active participation of the USSR. Its international legal and political significance lies in the fact that the Convention declares racism a crime, prohibits all forms of racial discrimination and makes it binding upon states to take practical steps for its eradication.
The adoption of the Convention created the prerequisites for drawing up and concluding an International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which was adopted on November 30, 1973. It was also drawn up on the initiative of the Soviet Union and won the support of the overwhelming majority of the member countries of the United Nations, the socialist and developing countries in the first place. A number of Western powers opposed the Convention on the grounds that it was unfeasible since the Republic of South Africa would refuse to sign and ratify the document. Most of the members of the UN Commission on Human Rights turned down this ``argument''.
The Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid^^1^^ elaborates on and provides more concrete wording to the fundamental ideas outlined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. For instance, Article I of the Convention on Apartheid points out that " apartheid is a crime agains-t humanity and that inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and _-_-_
~^^1^^ Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during Its TwentyEighth Session, Vol. 1, Supplement No. 30/A/9030, U.N., New York, 1974, p. 75.
168 discrimination ... are crimes violating the principles of international law, in particular the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and constituting a serious threat to international peace and security... The States Parties to the present Convention declare criminal those organizations, institutions and individuals committing the crime of apartheid.''The Convention not only provides a general definition of apartheid, but also lists the specific inhuman acts which constitute the crime of apartheid: "denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person; deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part; any measures, including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines...; denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms...; any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a social group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country...'' ( Article II). ^^1^^
According to the Convention persons charged with the crime of apartheid may be tried by a competent tribunal of any State Party to the Convention which may acquire jurisdiction over the person of the accused. The Convention on Apartheid, just like the Convention on Genocide, provides for an alternative, namely that the persons charged with the crime may be tried by an international penal tribunal.^^2^^ The authors of the Convention were well aware of the fact that the states which organize and inspire apartheid would hardly put to trial or punish the executors of their criminal policy.
_-_-_~^^1^^ Ibid., p. 76.
~^^2^^ Ibid.
169The Convention on Apartheid, just like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, provides for the creation of an international mechanism of control.
Hence the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid reiterates and further develops the principle of individual penal responsibility of persons charged with international crime, in this case apartheid. The adoption of this Convention, which elaborates on the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, has compensated for the shortcomings in the Convention on Genocide which reduced its efficiency to a certain extent.
The recognition and juridical confirmation of the principle of international penal responsibility of individuals does not exclude, rather on the contrary, stipulates responsibility of states for the commitment of international crimes.
Neither the Convention on Genocide nor the Convention on Apartheid places direct responsibility on states for these crimes. The issue of responsibility of states is mentioned in Article IX of the Convention on Genocide only in connection with the problem of disputes between the contracting parties on the interpretation, application or implementation of the Convention, including disputes concerning responsibility of states for acts of genocide.
However, in the case of genocide, just as in the case of apartheid, there arises the issue of responsibility of states under international law, inasmuch as under modern international law the state is held responsible for all actions undertaken by persons acting on behalf of the state, as well as by state organs and other state entities.
This point of view is shared by the International Law Commission, which in its activities, particularly in the Code of Offences Against the Peace and Security of Mankind, 170 stresses the responsibility of states for international crimes. The draft definition of international crime proposed by the Commission points out, among other things, that international crime may result from a breach of obligations concerning the prohibition of slavery, genocide and apartheid. The Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly has noted time and again that the prohibition of such crimes as slavery, genocide and apartheid constitutes an imperative norm of modern international law and that the motion tabled by the International Law Commission of the UN to qualify them as international crimes marks an important stage in the development of international law.
[171] ~ [172] __ALPHA_LVL1__ DOCUMENTS AND OTHERA United Nations document adopted at the 3rd Session of the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1948. The Convention came into force on January 12, 1951. To date the Convention has been joined by SSstates.
The Contracting Parties,~
Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution 96 (1) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world;
Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity; and
Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge international co-operation is required:
Hereby agree as hereinafter provided:~
Article~I
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
175Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
a) Genocide;
b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.
Article IV
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
Article V
The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present 176 Convention and, in particular; to provide effective, penalties for persons guilty of genocide or of any of the other acts enumerated in Article III.
Article VI
Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
Article VII
Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article III shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.
Article VIII
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III.
Article IX
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in Article III, shall be submitted to the International __PRINTERS_P_177_COMMENT__ 12--1169 177 Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
Article X
The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948.
Articles XI-XIX
[The order of signing, ratification, period of validity and coming into force, etc.]
[178] __ALPHA_LVL2__ APPEAL OF THEFinal document of the International Trade Union Conference held in Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), May 25--27, 1983.
1. We, participants in the International Conference "International Trade Union Movement Against Chemical and Bacteriological Weapons'', note with anxiety that the international situation continues to deteriorate. Faced with the arms race launched by imperialist forces, in the face of a nuclear conflict, it is a matter of great urgency that the questions of war and peace should be the main concern of the international trade union movement.
2. World military spending reached the alarming sum of 550 billion dollars in 1980 and has increased at an annual rate of 15 to 20% since then.
This represents:~
---more than a million dollars a minute,
---62 million dollars an hour,
---1.5 billion dollars a day;
this represents: 110 dollars per inhabitant of our planet.
3.Just one tenth of the sums spent on armaments would suffice to eliminate hunger, malnutrition, diseases and illiteracy from the developing countries.
__PRINTERS_P_179_COMMENT__ 12* 1794. These scourges cause vast harm on our planet:
---over 500 million people do not have enough to eat and live below the subsistence level,
---each year 30 to 40 million people die of starvation, ---hundreds of millions of people suffer from parasitical, bacterial or viral diseases,
---1.5 billion people are without health care, ---there are over 800 million illiterates in the world, ---there are 30 million unemployed in Europe, 11 million in the USA and tens of millions elsewhere in the world.
5. The WHO spent 83 million dollars to wipe out smallpox entirely. Progress is not being made in the eradication of malaria, which the WHO estimates would cost 450 million dollars, for lack of funds, even though this sum is equivalent only to around 7 hours of world armaments spending.
6. The levels reached by armaments spending give greater cause for concern than ever before, because:
---they are an enormous obstacle to development, ---they hold back social progress,
---they represent a drain on economic, financial and technical resources,
---they represent a waste of human resources.
7. But as well, military spending is a mortal risk for the whole of mankind.
8. 60,000 nuclear weapons are stockpiled on our earth, ready for use with inconceivable consequences for the very future of our planet.
9. These 60,000 weapons are so powerful that they are equivalent to 1 to 1.5 million Hiroshima A-bombs.
18010. New weapons are continually being invented and developed: we have gone from the ``A'' bomb to the ``H'' bomb and then to the horrific Neutron bomb.
11. To launch these arms, we have gone from bombers to intercontinental rockets and then to different missiles launched from the ground, from the air and from submarines.
12. How much further will this folly go?
13. We must put an end to the threat of nuclear annihilation that hangs over us with the extraordinary qualitative evolution of these arms.
14. We, the workers of the world, must be fully aware of this threat of annihilation.
15. We can stop this folly if we all act together, in the broadest unity, with all the forces of progress and peace, for the liquidation of nuclear stockpiles, for total, simultaneous and controlled disarmament. Our future, the future of our children, the future of mankind is at stake, because:
NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE A CRIME
AGAINST HUMANITY.
16. But the folly of the warmongers has not stopped at nuclear arms.
17. They have developed weapons that are just as appalling as nuclear arms: chemical and bacteriological weapons.
18. These arms are terrifying.
18119. In contrast with nuclear arms or ``classical'' bombs and shells that destroy both human life and material and economic means, chemical and bacteriological weapons respect material and economic means: they are directed at man and at man alone, either directly or through his means of subsistence.
20. During the First World War chemical weapons caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of serious injuries.
21. The chemical weapons, such as defoliants, described as ``humane'' because they are claimed to respect life, have sterilized thousands and thousands of hectares of plantations, forests and fields in Vietnam for 20 years. They have also killed several thousands of people who have come into contact with them. Since then the incidence of liver cancer has been rising and large numbers of infants have been born with congenital malformations.
22. We, the participants in this Conference, here in Vietnam have seen the defoliated forests, we have s"een the exhibition on war crimes, the deformed children. American imperialism is responsible for this. Many delegations have spoken to denounce the way in which this American intervention is continuing throughout the world. The decision made by the Reagan Administration on chemical rearmament increases the threat that these arms'will be used. Never again must there be another tragedy like that of Vietnam which would be even more murderous.
23. The American, Australian and New Zealand soldiers who were in Vietnam and came into contact with these products, in particular with Agent Orange, are suffering the same long-term effects. They too have fathered deformed 182 children and they too are suffering from the same aftereffects as the peoples in Indochina.
24. Neurotoxic gases, fatal in doses of only one milligramme, have been developed and produced. They are stockpiled in several countries of the world.
25. Chemical weapons are being used again at present, in particular, in Palestine and Lebanon by Israel, in El Salvador and Guatemala by regimes linked to American imperialism. New chemical arms are even more hideous.
26. Shells and bombs are now charged with binary arms. On explosion these too spread lethal nerve gases.
27. The development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons must be stopped and it is through our action together that we will achieve this, because:
CHEMICAL WEAPONS ARE A CRIME
AGAINST HUMANITY.
28. The threat hanging over humanity also takes the form of the use of bacteriological weapons that endangers lives and crops as is being done by American imperialism in Cuba. We will also join our forces in demanding the abolition of bacteriological weapons. All countries must be brought to adhere to the 1975 Convention banning bacteriological weapons.
29. We will never recognize that the culture of germs of such dread diseases as cholera, typhus, typhoid fever, bubonic plague and others is justified for purposes of mass extermination while these and other diseases continue to take a heavy toll in vast areas of the world.
18330. We will never recognize the justification of the culture of bacteria and microscopic fungi capable of destroying crops when half a billion people are at present suffering from hunger.
31. We will never accept genetic engineering for military purposes with the goal of creating pathogenic agents against which the human organism is defenceless and medicine powerless, while we are still entirely or almost without protection in face of several serious diseases, contagious or otherwise.
32. Bacteriological weapons undoubtedly have a genocidal effect. But in addition to their immediate effects, they can also have long-term ecological, medical and social consequences which are impossible to foresee.
33. Biological weapons have the effect of cancelling out the work that health services have done to control and wipe out contagious diseases. This is why we affirm that:
BACTERIOLOGICAL WEAPONS ARE A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
CHEMICAL AND HEALTH WORKERS, WORKERS OF THE WORLD,~
34. We, participants in the International Conference "International Trade Union Movement Against Chemical and Bacteriological Weapons'', aware that whatever the country, whatever the economic or political system, armaments spending can only be to the detriment of the satisfaction of the needs of the workers and people and the improvement of their standard of living, to the detriment of their security, of their future and of peace. This is why we call on you to:
18435. Demand:
---an end to the arms race,
---an end to all nuclear tests,
---total, universal and controlled nuclear disarmament,
---the liquidation of existing stocks of nuclear weapons,
---elaboration, as soon as possible, by the Committee on Disarmament, of an international convention effectively banning chemical weapons,
---the reopening of bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union on a ban on chemical weapons.
36. Demand immediately:
---the generalized application of existing agreements and conventions on arms limitations,
---refusal by all nuclear powers that have not yet done so, to have recourse to a nuclear first strike,
---the ratification of SALT-2 by the USA,
---serious negotiations to reach an agreement on the limitation of strategic and medium-range arms, as have been proposed by the Soviet Union,
---non-deployment of new nuclear weapons in Europe or elsewhere,
---non-replacement of existing missiles,
---a ban on the sale of nuclear technologies to countries that do not yet have them, technologies that would enable them over the short, medium pr long term to acquire nuclear arms,
---the reconversion, throughout the world, of plants producing chemical weapons and laboratories working on the development and production of bacteriological weapons,
---the liquidation of existing stocks of chemical and bacteriological weapons,
---the creation of zones, that should be as large as possible, free of all chemical weapons,
185---an end to research, development and production of the neutron bomb.
37. Act:
---so that we can all work together for peace,
---to denounce the warmongers,
---to unite all the forces of peace,
---in demonstrations on an ever larger scale for peace,
---because the struggle for peace and disarmament is an integral part of the struggle to improve the standard of living, of the struggle against unemployment and progress towards a New International Economic Order,
---because the struggle for peace and disarmament is an integral part of the struggle against misery, sickness, hunger and exploitation,
---to increase pressure on governments and States by all appropriate means to bring them to renounce the very idea of war,
---against the transnational companies that produce the chemical weapons and nuclear arms, that maintain climates of insecurity and earn vast profits to the detriment of the satisfaction of the people's needs,
---tirelessly, to impose our desire for peace.
CHEMICAL AND HEALTH WORKERS, WORKERS OF THE WORLD,
38. War is not a law of nature, we must struggle.against it.
39. Peace is not a gift, we must win it.
40. Together, with all progressive peace-loving people who want to work for the well-being of mankind, we will win Peace.
[186] __ALPHA_LVL2__ APPLICATION OF TOXICStatement by Thuy GiangHoang, Chairman of the State Commission of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for investigating the consequences of the chemical war waged by US imperialism. Delivered at the international symposium "Chemical Weapons and Disarmament" held in Vienna (Austria) in May 1982.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The US systematically employed
on a large scale chemical products and toxic gases alongside
bombs, grenades and various other war materials in their
war of aggression against Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea,
in order to kill the civilian population and destroy the
environment.
The Memorandum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam of 21. 1. 1980 recalls that during the period 1961 to 1971 in South Vietnam alone American troops sprayed nearly all the provinces with more than 100,000 tons of toxic chemical products. Among these products were the so-called herbicides and defoliants which contain 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T and toxic CS gases. These substances were employed in concentrations many times higher than those generally used in agriculture in the USA or elsewhere. Since 1970 Vietnamese -scientists have disclosed that the substance 2,4,5-T also contains another very dangerous chemical product: dioxin. This latter has very disastrous long-term effects on the environment and living organisms. Because dioxin is conserved for a very long time in nature (it is insoluble in water, and dissolves only in alcohol or fats, and can be destroyed at 800°C only) it can 187 lead to the defoliation of forests, it makes the soil unproductive for dozens of years, changes the environment and causes periods of floods and droughts. A minimal dose of dioxin can have fatal consequences for the next generation: miscarriages, deformed infants, stillbirths, cancer, etc. The greatest danger is that dioxin does not remain locally isolated, but is carried by the waters into the sea. The greater the ^quantity of "Agent Orange" (a product obtained by mixing 2,4,5,-T and 2,4-D), the more dioxin accumulates in nature and living organisms. According to estimates, 1 ton of 2,4,5,-T contains 30 grams of dioxin. Based on this, and on the amount of 2,4,5-T which has been sprayed over South Vietnam by the USA, the quantity of dioxin could amount to about 550 kg, which constitutes a great risk to the Vietnamese population and the environment .as dioxin is active in a dose of a few micrograms.
The chemical war waged by the USA in Vietnam has had terrible consequences: 13,000 km2 of the cultivated surface (43%) and 25,000 km2 of forest (44%) have been affected by one or several sprayings. 70% of the area planted with coconut trees have been destroyed, 60% of rubber plantations, 110,000 acres along the coast where ``filars'' and 15,000 acres where mangrove trees were grown. The war also destroyed a great number of wild animals which could have fed millions of people. 2 million persons were poisoned, of which 3,500 died. Each South Vietnamese had been exposed on the average to 6 Ibs (approximately 3 kg) of toxic chemical products. Since 1966 disastrous consequences had been registered among the South Vietnamese population: cases of genetic and physical deformation, cancer, etc. Such cases are by no means limited to South Vietnam alone, but today are observed even in the USA and Australia where similar cases have been registered among American and Australian veterans who returned from the Vietnam war.
188Even today it has been impossible to estimate the range of destruction through toxic chemical products in Vietnam and in the environment, on which the entire population depends.
Recently certain governing circles in the USA started a campaign on the alleged employment of toxic substances by the USSR, Vietnam and Laos in Afghanistan, Kampuchea and Laos. They even declared they have proof that these substances are related mykotoxines of ``nivalenon'' and T2-- toxin products. The American government, however, only substantiates this on the basis of a minimal quantity of samples gathered together in great haste and which consequently cannot serve as concrete and tangible proof. Therefore the Pugwash Conference confirmed in Geneva in March 1982 that there was no concrete proof for the employment of toxic substances, as alleged by the American government. Even the experts of so-called inquiry groups who returned from South-East and South Asia in November 1981 and February 1982 also concluded that there was no proof for the employment of chemical poisons in Afghanistan and Kampuchea.
What aims is the American government pursuing with this campaign? Above all to divert public attention from the intensified arms race, from the war preparations of the USA, including chemical weapons. It is known that the USA possesses the most significant arsenal of chemical weapons in the world. More than 3 million pieces of chemical munition, close to 150,000 tons, are stockpiled in the USA, Japan, Western Europe and on islands in the Pacific Ocean. This campaign also tries to divert attention from the intentions of the USA to employ chemical weapons in Europe in an eventual war which would not only turn Europe into a theatre of limited atomic war, but also of a chemical war by the USA. And finally, the USA wants to divert world public attention from its own responsibility for the criminal 189 chemical war in Vietnam.
We believe that now the most crucial task for all democratic and peace-minded forces in the world is to struggle against these dangerous manoeuvres of the imperialist powers and their allies. We must voice our opposition to the arms race and war preparations, to preparations for a limited atomic war and chemical war which have been initiated by the USA. We need united actions to stop plans for war and to stop and reduce the production and storage by the USA of new weapons of destruction such as the neutron bomb, binary gas weapons, etc. We must fight for peace, and this is the direction in which the peace movement is now developing throughout the world, and particularly in Europe.
We are convinced that disarmament will not- only free significant resources for development purposes, but will also create an atmosphere of goodwill which consolidates friendship and cooperation between the peoples.
[190] __ALPHA_LVL2__ DOCUMENTS OF THEThe Commission is a non-- governmental organization comprising prominent lawyers, medical doctors, diplomats, public and religious figures from many countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. The task of the Commission is to establish facts concerning the crimes of the Israeli aggressors against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, to evaluate these facts and bring them to the attention of the world public. The Commission held two sessions---in August 1982 in Nicosia (Cyprus) and in February 1983 in Geneva (Switzerland). Its Medical Subcommittee met in A thens in November 1982.
Findings and conclusions of the
International Commission of Inquiry 'into
Israeli Crimes Against the Lebanese
and Palestinian Peoples, August 15--16,
1982, Nicosia, Cyprus
(Excerpts)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ On June 6, 1982, regular Israeli
troops invaded Lebanon and committed aggression against
the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples. The goal of this
invasion was to liquidate the Palestine Liberation Organization
primarily by killing as many Palestinians as possible. The
aggressors killed, wounded and maimed dozens of thousands
of the Lebanese and Palestinians, predominantly women,
children and old people; thousands upon thousands of
people are missing, while close to a million people have
191
been left homeless or have been forced to flee from
their native cities and villages. It was in cold blood that
the invaders destroyed fourteen Palestinian refugee
camps, three major cities in Southern Lebanon, and 32
villages...
In reaching its conclusions and findings, the Commission made it a point to be satisfied beyond doubt before doing so.
The Commission heard the evidence of a wide range of witnesses, many of whom had actually observed events in Lebanon. These included three members of the Commission itself, Paulette Pierson-Mathy, Mikis Theodorakis and Hans Goran Franck, who were sent to Lebanon before the meeting, members of Scandinavian, Greek, Dutch, Canadian, Finnish and French medical teams, social workers and journalists who had worked in or visited West Beirut, and experts on military matters and on the lethal^ effects of the sophisticated weapons used by the Israelis in Lebanon and also witnesses from inside Israel...
The doctors also gave the effects of different kinds of bombs, particularly cluster bombs and phosphorus bombs, on men, women and children, and the total destruction of the livelihood of people already living near the edge of existence...
From the Commission members who visited West Beirut and the doctors and journalists who entered the city in the last few weeks came detailed evidences of the bombing of the city. The widespread indiscriminate character of the destruction was shown by many slides, examples of the different kinds of bombs used had been photographed or brought to us...
The state of Israel and its Zionist rulers are accused of the following criminal actions: I---crimes against peace;
II---crimes against humanity;
192III---war crimes, and~
IV---actions aimed at denying the right of self-- determination of the Palestinian people.
...The state of Israel and its leaders are accused of at least the following acts of aggression:
a) invading or attacking with the armed forces of the state the territory of another state or any military occupation, provisional as it may be, resulting from such an invasion or attack, or any annexation through the use of force of the territory of another state or any part of it;
b) bombing by the armed forces of a state of the territory of another state or using any weapon by a state against the territory of another state;
c) blockade of the parts on the shores of a state by the armed forces of another state.
Israel is committing a premeditated aggression and the occupation of the territory of a sovereign independent state, founder member of United Nations, and a direct interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon. We .are forced to conclude that Israel is trying to install a "new order" in Lebanon serving its own interests...
The Israeli aggression has led to the occupation and vast indiscriminate destruction o'f the greater part of the independent Arab state of Lebanon. It has also endangered its political independence. The Israeli aggression has, concurrently with the above, become a serious threat to international peace and security.
Witnesses from inside Israel referred to the gradual change of unwinding taking place within. an influential section of the people of Israel towards the hostile policy __PRINTERS_P_193_COMMENT__ 13--1169 193 of their government to the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples. The Commission is satisfied there is a rethinking among these sections about the justification and continuance of the aggression and brutalities committed by the invaders.
Having committed an unprecedented act of aggression against independent Lebanon, the state of Israel and its leaders have carried on a course of genocide against the Arab people of Palestine.
According to the definition contained in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948, genocide is defined as actions, committed with an intent to exterminate, fully or partly, a national, ethnic, racial or religious groups per se.
The Israelis have committed the broadest actions against the Palestinians which can be qualified as genocide...
As a result of the policy of genocide, the Palestinian inhabitants of Lebanon have been put into such a position as to endanger their very existence.
The overall direction of Israel's criminal activities is also seen from the fact that, according to the witnesses and documents, all Palestinian males from 16 to 60 years of age have been taken prisoner.
They really are prisoners of war but were put into concentration camps where they are treated in a most cruel and degrading manner.
The Commission received eye-witness accounts of Israel maltreatment of Palestinian prisoners of war from members of a Norwegian medical team. The Commission was informed of the extensive use of violence, of regular and 194 systematic beatings, of degrading and inhuman treatment, of physical and mental abuse against these men.
The methods of conducting military actions employed by the Israelis, their treatment of Palestinian prisoners of war, the new orders they brought in with them into Lebanon's occupied regions, contradict a whole range of norms of international law and, in fact, by their very nature are military crimes.
1. The Conduct by the Israelis
of Military Actions Against the Civilian Population, Bombing and Shelling of Peaceful Cities and Villages Violate:
a) The St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868 which obliges both sides in a conflict to fight against the enemy's armed forces only;
b) Article 25 of the Statement supplemented to the Hague Convention of October 16, 1907 which prohibits attacking open or non-defended cities;
c) Article 6 of the ``B'' Section of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal in Niirnberg which equates the unwarranted destruction of cities and villages to a military crime;
d) Article 48 and subsequent Articles of the Supplementary Protocol of June 8, 1977 to the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949 on protecting war victims;
e) Resolutions 2444 (XXIII) and 2675 (XXV) of the United Nations General Assembly, which prohibit military operations against the civilian population.
The three member group of our Commission who visited Lebanon confirmed that as a result of the operations of the Israeli army, substantial parts of Beirut, Tyre, Nabatiya 195 and Saida, as well as of many other places, were destroyed, and whole camps of the Palestinian refugees were razed from the face of the earth. Over 600,000 Lebanese were left homeless, and the occupied territory of Lebanon has been plunged into a critical situation. According to a report compiled by UN observers, some 300,000 Lebanese citizens and not less than 83,000 Palestinians urgently need aid and shelter.
2. Use of the Cluster, Phosphorus, Fragmentation and Other Bombs.
The use of the cluster and phosphorus bombs, and of some other weapons is a violation of the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and the Hague Convention of 1907. They prohibit the use of arms which cause unnecessary human suffering. Quite recently these weapons were expressly added to the Supplementary Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
All witnesses stated that these horrendous weapons of mass destruction were widely used by Israel in Lebanon, and the overall majority of those who have suffered from them were peaceful civilians. We heard rumors about even more frightening devices such as the vacuum bomb; we have the duty to inquire further about these weapons.
3. Bombing of Hospitals and Clinics Protected by the Red Cross and Red Crescent Insignia.
This is a violation of one of the oldest rules of the humanitarian law. This is reflected in a number of documents, particularly in Articles 18 and 23 of the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949, on the protection of the civilian population in case of war.
The Israeli military obstructed even the International 196 Red Cross from rendering aid to the Palestinians and the population of Beirut.
4. Cutting Off Food, Water and Energy and Essential Medical Supplies from the Civilian Population.
This represents actions against the civilian population prohibited by humanitarian conventions, namely by Article 1, Para 1 of the Supplementary Protocol which prohibits the causing of hunger among the civilian population as a method of conducting warlike actions.
Such Israeli actions were confirmed by the United Nations Security Council Resolution of July 30, 1982. The Security Council demanded in that Resolution that the government of Israel should immediately lift the blockade of the city of Beirut, so as to permit supplies necessary to satisfy urgent needs of the civilian population and to allow the distribution of aid delivered by UN agencies and by non-governmental organizations, especially by the International Red Cross Committee (IRCC).
5. Article 51, Para 2 of the Supplementary Protocol Prohibits Acts of Violence or Threats of Violence Aimed at Terrorizing the Civilian Population.
The Israeli leaders widely used threats of violence, especially during the siege of Beirut.
6. The Refusal to Grant POW Status to Palestinian Fighters Violates:
Article 4 of the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949 on the treatment of prisoners of war.
The Commission was informed that the Israeli 197 government is denying prisoner of war status and treatment to the Palestinians...
The non-granting to Palestinians of POW status also runs counter to the UN General Assembly resolutions, such as No. 3103 (XXVIII) of December 12, 1973 which demands that this status be granted to those persons who fight against foreign occupation and for their right to self-- determination.
7. Cruel Treatment of Palestinians, Both Combatants and Civilians, Captured by the Israeli Forces.
This violates some basic provisions of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war and the Geneva Convention on protecting the civilian population in case of war. Article 13 of the former contains general provisions that prisoners of war should always be treated humanely. It is prohibited in particular to maim them.
8. Preventing the Authorities in the Occupied Territories to Execute Their Functions...
9. The Israelis Systematically and Purposefully Shelled and Destroyed the Beirut-Based Diplomatic Representations of the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, France, Algeria, All Arab Embassies and the Canadian Embassy, Which Traditionally Enjoy Protection at Times of Armed Conflicts.
10. The Destruction of Monuments and Cultural and Scientific Institutions.
This violates the provisions of the Hague Convention of May 14, 1954 and Article 53 of the Supplementary 198 Protocol on protecting cultural values in case of armed conflicts.
The Israelis have -committed exactly such actions in Lebanon.
The Israeli planes systematically and quite deliberately destroyed the buildings of the Arab University and the Exhibition Hall of the works of art and culture of Palestiniari painters.
11. Violation of Other Traditional Rules of Conducting Military Actions.
The international law prohibits, in particular, any perfidious actions (see Article 3 7 of the Supplementary Protocol).
The Israeli troops on numerous occasions perfidiously violated ceasefire to regroup their forces, to replenish their supplies and to fortify the captured positions, only to perfidiously violate the ceasefire after that.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Since the United Nations General
Assembly adopted, on December 14, 1960, the Declaration
granting independence to former colonial countries and
peoples, any subjugation of peoples to foreign yoke and
domination, any military actions or repressive measures
against peoples fighting for their right to self-determination
should be viewed as a grave international crime. All the
more so since the General Assembly of the United Nations
in 1974 adopted Resolution 3236 confirming officially the
right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Israel and its leaders, by their systematic actions, primarily by their use of military force, aimed at denying 199 Emacs-File-stamp: "/home/ysverdlov/leninist.biz/en/1985/G243/20071130/243.tx" __EMAIL__ webmaster@leninist.biz __OCR__ ABBYY 6 Professional (2007.11.30) __WHERE_PAGE_NUMBERS__ bottom __FOOTNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ __ENDNOTE_MARKER_STYLE__ [0-9]+ the right to self-determination and to setting up their own state to the Palestinian people, and by their occupation of the territories that belong to the Palestinian people, have committed just this crime.
The USA as an Accomplice in Israel's Crimes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The United States is
internationally responsible for the violations of international law
by Israel because of the support it has been
rendering to Israel in committing the above international
crimes.
This support included:
---military aid through shipments of arms and modern technology, while the US-Israeli Memorandum on strategic cooperation signed last year provided for coordinating their operations in the Middle East;
---economic aid through granting gratuitous assistance and very big loans;
---on the political and diplomatic plane, direct support of the Israeli aggression as reflected in the use by the United States of its veto right in the Security Council when the USA vetoed resolutions demanding the withdrawal of the Israeli forces and refused to vote for a UN General Assembly resolution denouncing the Israeli aggression.
More than 50% of the Israeli experts go to the EEC, where they receive preferential customs rates and credit benefits. This form of economic support to a state which continues with aggression and occupation of Lebanon constitutes a form of indirect support. Obviously precedents 200 show that aggression is met with immediate sanctions. We call upon the USA and the EEC in particular to take action in helping with what has been done before.
The above-mentioned international legal norms violated by Israel are binding upon it either on the treaty basis (the Geneva Conventions, with regard to Israel, came into effect on June 6, 1951), or because these norms have been formed on the habitual basis and have by now become a composite part of the modem general international law, compulsory for all states without exception.
Israel's responsibility acquires an even graver character due to its refusal to implement the compulsory decisions of the Security Council.
The general legal principle of the inevitability of responsibility for the committed offences should be applied to international crimes on an even stricter basis, because they jeopardize international peace and security and lead to incalculable economic, moral and ethic losses for the countries and peoples and undermine the entire international law and order...
The International Commission warns that all those guilty directly or indirectly of transgressions and violations of international law and crimes against humanity will have to answer for them before the bar of international justice.
[201] Findings and Conclusions of the
International Commission of Inquiry
into Israeli Crimes Against the Lebanese
and Palestinian Peoples,
February 27--28, 1983, Geneva,
Switzerland
(Abridged)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ...In violation of the resolutions of
the Security Council about the immediate and unconditional
recall of Israeli troops from the Lebanese territory, the
aggressor is deliberately postponing the ceasing of its
military occupation to an undetermined date.
In the time lapse between the Commission's first and second sessions, its delegated missions went to Lebanon and Israel. They met numerous representatives of Palestinian and Lebanese opinion, as well as witnesses and victims of violence by the Israeli army; they also conversed with responsible persons from various committees opposed to war...
At the close of the auditions and multiple interventions at a high level on the part of numerous speakers, the Commission came to the following conclusions:
The prolongation and persistent occupation of an important part of the territory of the Lebanese state constitutes a permanent violation of the most fundamental norms of international law. This occupation is the source of all tragedies and all crimes to which the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples have been subjected for months. This is why everything must be done to put an end to this occupation.
The Commission gives the main conclusions which it reached:
202 I. Persistent occupation
Crimes against humanity
Crimes of war
Concentration camps of Ansar and other criminal actions
by Israel in Lebanon.
---The facts collected unquestionably prove that the Israeli occupation authorities are using their military presence to achieve their expansionist goal. To this end they provoke and make use of violence in all its forms. They organize massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps, assist and encourage the dealings of extremist forces which give rise to confrontations between Muslim and Christian communities, as in the case of the area of Mountain Lebanon.
---The Israeli occupation engenders destabili/ation of the system of political relations and strikes at the normal functioning of the State, in violation particularly of articles 53, 54, 64 of the Geneva Convention of 1949.
---The Israeli occupation leads to massive and gross violation by Israeli troops and administration of the rights and liberties of the Lebanese and Palestinian civilian population:; round-ups and massive arrests, deportation and internments in concentration camps, use of torture and other forms of violence against detainees, violation of articles 47, 49 and 70 of the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilian populations in case of armed conflict.
---Persistent occupation and the accompanying barbaric violence, the contempt in Israel of the principles and norms of international law are serious obstacles to an equitable and global settlement in the Middle East, taking into account the legitimate rights of all peoples and in particular the guarantee of the right of the Palestinian people to create its own State.
203---By voluntarily multiplying obstacles in face of the humanitarian action of governments and international organizations wishing to intervene in favour of the Palestinian and Lebanese populations victims of the aggression--- the Israeli authorities are impeding the supply of food and sanitary material for this population, thus violating articles 55, 56 57 and 59 of the Geneva Convention.
---Israel persists in totally ignoring the Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949 relating to prisoners of war, by refusing this status to Palestinian and Lebanese combatants who,. . are waging a legitimate armed struggle against the invaders (Article 4 of the Convention). Israel takes no notice whatsoever of the 1977 Protocol concerning international armed conflicts as annexed to the Geneva Convention of 1949 on the defence of victims of war, though it took a direct part in its elaboration.
---The Israelis maintain and multiply concentration camps in South Lebanon. Numerous Lebanese and Palestinian detainees in the Ansar camp are subjected to torture and undergo inhuman treatment. The Commission finds that Israeli authorities still prohibit access to camps to families of detainees, to their lawyers, as well as to representatives of the international media, whilst they do not have the benefit of an international protection of any kind.
II. Sabra and Shatila: extreme consequences of a policy of extermination o.f the Palestinian people.
The Commission heard numerous testimonies; it studied documents, films, photos and other elements of proof on the massacre of Sabra and Shatila which it communicated to all participants.
It also referred to the report of the Israeli Commission of Inquiry and to various hearings given before the Israeli 204 Commission by witnesses attending the February 27 and 28, 1983 Geneva session.
It took good note of the positive aspects of this inquiry and was pleased therewith.
But it also pointed out the limits and inadequacies of the documents published by the Commission, and especially the conclusions which it considers not to have any valid implications for those responsible for the massacres.
For its part, the Commission came to the conviction that these horrible, out-of-the-ordinary events are part of the global policy of aggression, annexation and extermination pursued by the Begin government, and that they bring out the racist aspects of Zionism.
The invaders continue, in astonishing cold blood, to destroy the Palestinian refugee camps on Lebanese territory. Seventeen camps have been deliberately erased during the months which have passed since the beginning of Israel's invasion of Lebanon. The objective is to chase off all, or almost all, refugees, first "to the North'', then "in the direction of Syria'', and then towards Jordan, to "finally solve" the problem of Palestinian independence.
The Commission added to inquiry documents the following statement by Yaakov Meridor, the Israeli minister in charge of refugee problems: "Send them eastwards, to Syria. Allow them to leave, but do not let them come back.''
Lt. Col. Dov Yirmiah found himself excluded from the top reserve of Israel's army for having disclosed this statement by the minister.
Thus, Yaakov Meridor confirmed the anti-humanitarian essence of the premeditated, forced expulsion plan of the Palestinian refugees. He admitted, at the October 13, 1982 meeting of the Israeli government, that his plan consisted, as a first step, in the evacuation of refugees from South Lebanon to the North. The systematic destruction of the Palestinian refugee camps and the terror in the 205 southern area of this Arab country were aimed at provoking the flight of Palestinian refugees to Syria and Jordan.
Scornful of Security Council resolutions and in violation of the promises made by Philip Habib, the American emissary, to the Palestinians about non-entry of Israel's army into West Beirut, about the non-violation of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and the security of the Palestinians remaining in that country, Israel clearly manifested the intention to pursue a policy of genocide against the Arab people of Palestine.
In spite of the full guarantee by the Americans, the Israeli army started to take over West Beirut on the night of September 15, 1982. It was an operation planned in advance and prepared with the greatest care in all details. The Israeli army units participating in this operation had been air-lifted to Lebanon the day before.
The massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila circled by Israeli army units lasted 40 hours without interruption from September 16 to 18. Undisputable facts attest that Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan, General Amir Drori, BrigadierGeneral Amos Yaron, and other Israeli military leaders participated in the instruction of the gangs responsible for the killings at Sabra and Shatila. It was upon Sharon's orders that'Israeli army units illuminated these Palestinian camps during the night. The electricity supply of West Beirut had been deliberately cut off to hide the massacres.
Uri Avneri, Israeli politician and journalist, had warned that under cover of the West Beirut invasion operation General Sharon had the intention of destroying the Palestinian refugee camps in the neighbourhood of Lebanon's capital city. This warning got published in the Israeli press in the morning of September 17, 1982, but the authorities of Israel did not take any notice.
206Israeli citizen Ben Yishai confirmed having witnessed the massacres which took place literally next to the commanding post of the Israeli brigade which encircled the Sabra and Shatila camps. He communicated immediately his observations to Sharon, but the Minister did not react in any way. "He thanked me and expressed his wishes for a good year. I got the impression that apparently he was informed about what was happening in the camp.''
An Israeli officer testified that the Israeli units had received the order not to impede the murderers who, as was said, "were clearing the place''.
All during the morning of September 18,1982---so reported Israeli journalist Amnon Kapeliouk---many inhabitants of the camps were taken out and then disappeared... They were pushed into trucks leaving for an unknown destination. One still does not know what happened to the persons who so disappeared. Their bodies, thrown out of the trucks, were scattered along the roadsides leading to South Lebanon. These roads cross the areas of Al-Ouzai, Khalde, Harat an-Naame, Kafr Himah. Corpses were also found on the road to the international airport of Beirut''.
Full information about the number of victims of the massacre has not yet been obtained. On September 22, 1982, an International Red Cross report announced the discovery of the burial of 663 bodies. On October 14, the Orient-Le Jour of Beirut stated that according to Lebanese government sources, 762 corpses had been found, 213 of them in a communal pit; 302 bodies had been identified, then burned by the local assistance brigades; 248 corpses had been buried by the International Red Cross after identification. According to the same source, "about 1,200 bodies have been taken by families for burial in individual tombs''.
To the total number of victims of the massacre one must add the many corpses taken from the ruins of nearly 200 207 residential buildings destroyed in the course of the massacre in the camps. It was very difficult to make an exact estimate. It was stated that there were hundreds. 115 bodies were uncovered the first day of the search, 56 the second day. The search had to. be interrupted after a few days due to the rapid decomposition of the cadavers.
On September 23, 1982, the France-Presse Agency assessed at 2,000 the total number of corpses of Palestinian refugees who had disappeared from the camps of Sabra and Shatila. This refers essentially to those taken by truck in an unknown direction.
Israeli journalist Amnon Kapeliouk states therefore that one can speak of the extermination of a total of over 3,000 persons. During 40 hours, on September 16, 17 and 18, 3,000 to 3,500 men, women and children were killed of the 20,000 who were counted as being in the two camps. Among the 302 bodies initially identified, 136 were Lebanese living in Sabra and Shatila alongside the Palestinian refugees. And Amnon Kapeliouk draws the conclusion: "One believes that about one fourth of the victims of the massacre at Sabra and Shatila were Lebanese citizens, the remainder being Palestinians.''
At the onset of the massacre the inhabitants of Shatila made two separate attempts to stop the carnage. In particular, a delegation of four persons had gone to the Israeli post near the Kuwaiti Embassy, the building of which was occupied by the Israeli soldiers, in order to explain that there were neither arms nor Palestinian fighters in the camp and that the inhabitants were surrendering. The delegation included Abu Hamad Ismail (55 years old), Abu Ahmed Said (65 years old), Abu Suaid (62 years old) and Tawfik Abu Hakhmeh (64 years old). Amnon Kapeliouk writes that in view of everyone they were approaching the southern exit of the Shatila camp, then disappeared. Two days later, the bodies of three of the members of the 208 delegation were discovered near the building of the Embassy of Kuwait.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin is personally responsible for the massacre in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila. He authorized the invasion of West Beirut, which nothing could justify. His first argument, totally improvised, in favour of the occupation of that part of the Lebanese capital was that the murder of Bashir Gemayel, the recently elected President of Lebanon, would probably have led to general chaos. The recourse to such an argument shows that this murder was in fact all to the benefit of the aggressor.
The second argument, according to which "thousands of terrorists" had stayed in the camps, was just as inconsistent. General Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, had in fact declared on September 15 that only a few Palestinian combatants and a small representation of the PLO had remained in West Beirut (cited from the Israeli paper Haaretz).
Although they immediately received the news about the carnage at Sabra and Shatila, the US Department of State and its civil servants did nothing to stop the crime. The allegations about American diplomats posted in Lebanon and responsible for investigating the situation on the spot not being able to enter the camps are inconsistent.
At this point the Commission notes that Israel, equipped by the USA with modern arms and munitions, has used this material in violation of the agreements existing between the two countries, on the face of which American arms delivered to the Israeli army could only serve for the defence of Israel. In Lebanon they were in operation for aggression and conquest. The world press had on various occasions pointed out violations of the American-Israeli agreements, but the government of the United States has taken no measure of sanctions against Israel, nor did it try to put an end to these __PRINTERS_P_209_COMMENT__ 14--1169 209 violations; one can say that they practically encouraged the aggressor to the detriment of the victim. This attitude of the American administration can only qualify it as an accomplice of Israel in its crimes.
The types of arms mostly supplied by the United States are:
---vacuum bombs,
---fragmentation bombs,
---cluster bombs,
---phosphorus bombs,
---anti-shelter rockets.
The way in which they were used by the Israeli army leaves no. doubt whatsoever about the determination of the Begin government to fundamentally conduct a war of terror and extermination against the civilian population---which lost tens and tens of thousands of killed and wounded.
III. Destabilization of the economy and social structure of Lebanon.
Starting with the inquiry it has been conducting, the hearing of testimonies, the. objective reports of the Lebanese and Israeli press, the large amount of news coverage on a worldwide scale, the Commission calls the attention of public opinion to the fact that following the systematic and deliberate actions of the armed forces of Israel, and of its occupation authorities, we can observe a destabilization of the economy and social structure of Lebanon. Whilst military operations were in full swing, the Israeli currency was introduced on all Lebanese territory occupied by the army of Israel, by an unilateral act...
At the time of the assault on West Beirut, the Israeli army, with the' help of Israeli finance experts, trespassed the inviolability of the Lebanese banks. The purpose of this unprecedented measure was to demonstrate that 210 henceforth Israel could control the Lebanese finances in accordance with its interests...
Israel has been systematically destroying the socioeconomic structure of Lebanon. The infrastructure of the country is demolished, its development needs are being ignored, conditions have been created which make the functioning of the state impossible. The result is agricultural decline, the decline of all the branches of industry, of the national handicraft business and small traders. Many administrative sectors which had been dealing with the recovery of customs and income taxes do not function any more, and this has caused incalculable damage to the Lebanese State.
This type of policy seems to be preparing for Lebanon to come under a protectorate mandate. It is applied and followed by all who, like Begin, Sharon and others, fanatically defend the conception of a Great Israel. This is why such an attempt must be denounced and fought against with the utmost vigour in the interest of the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon.
__b_b_b__The members of the International Commission declare:
---the criminal situation created by the occupation can only come to an end with immediate, unconditional and total retreat of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory, according to resolutions 508 and 509 of the Security Council, an indispensable condition to the re-establishment of sovereignty in Lebanon and a normalization of its political and social life;
---Israel, as an occupying state, is wholly responsible for all criminal acts committed by its forces and collaborators on the territory it occupies and controls...
The Commission wants to stress once more the fact that in conformity with international law, such crimes are not subject to prescription and that the punishment incurred is __PRINTERS_P_211_COMMENT__ 14* 211 irrevocable (Convention of 1968 on non-prescription of war crimes and of crimes against humanity).
The Commission recalls the practices of the Niirnberg Tribunal which passed judgement on the main war criminals of the Second World War...;
---the situation persisting in Lebanon puts to the fore the fundamental role in this war of the United States, engaging its responsibility both with regard to occupation and the crimes for which Israel is the guilty party;
---persisting occupation, brutal violence, the negation by Israel of the principles and norms of international law are serious obstacles to an equitable and global settlement of the crisis in the Middle East, taking into account the legitimate interests of all states and of all peoples of the area and in particular the need to vouchsafe the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to create their own state and to decide in all independence on their relations with the other states;
---persisting aggression and Israeli occupation, and the ensuing crimes are also a danger to world peace. This is why the Commission deems it necessary to alert and call on world public opinion, political parties, social and religious movements, governments and parliaments, international and intergovernmental organizations to raise their voices and to act so as to guarantee and ensure protection of the Lebanese and Palestinian populations...
The Commission has noted with satisfaction the development of the steps taken by political and social forces and leaders who in Israel denounced the criminal character of the aggression and annexation policy of the Begin government and who call for rapid achievement of a peace based on recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people for their self-determination and the creation of their own state.
[212] Findings and Conclusions of the
Medical Subcommittee of the
International Commission of Inquiry
into Israeli Crimes Against the
Lebanese and Palestinian Peoples,
November 20--21, 1982, Athens, Greece
(Abridged)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The sitting of the Medical Subcommittee ... with the participation of 58 delegates from 17 countries, and three international organizations, after hearing testimonies of doctors, other medical personnel, lawyers and journalists, who worked in Lebanon and gave medical treatment to the victims of the Israeli aggression or visited medical establishments which had been destroyed or damaged; and having analyzed the evidence submitted, has reached the following conclusions:
1. The Israeli invasion in Lebanon, carried out with the full support of the US, constitutes a flagrant violation of international law.
2. The atrocities and indiscriminate bombings against the civilian population took on dimensions surpassing the limits of genocide.
3. The cutting off of such basic supplies as water, electricity, foodstuffs and even blood and plasma to the besieged part of Beirut, and the siege of this city withhundreds of thousands of inhabitants constitute an infringement on fundamental human rights and values.
4. The violation of every basic human right is also proved by the ruthless bombardment from air, sea and land of residential areas, refugee camps and other civilian targets, such as hospitals and even cemeteries.
5. The witnesses who spoke at the sitting proved the use of napalm, phosphorus, fragmentation and cluster bombs, toy and vacuum bombs; all banned by international conventions. The use of these bombs results in a great number of 213 casualties among the civilian population, including infants and children under the age of seven. Those attending the sitting are convinced that both the country of Lebanon and its population have been used to test the efficiency of the most sophisticated US weapons. This constitutes a most flagrant violation of the provisions of the St. Petersburg Declaration (1868), the Hague Convention (1907) and the Supplementary Protocol (June 10, 1977) to the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of War Victims (August 12, 1949).
6. The siege and blockade of the city, the explosions, the mock bombings, the dropping of threatening leaflets and the booby-traps were elements of the aggressor's psychological warfare, which has caused many psychological problems, especially among children.
7. The planned, systematic and mass bombardment of hospitals and other buildings bearing the emblems of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is a gross violation of several international conventions, including the Geneva Conventions regarding the protection of civilians. The witnesses gave testimonies concerning specific cases of destruction of hospitals and clinics, of arrests and murders of doctors and medical staff, of the killing and injuring of hospitalized patients, both civilians and combatants, of destruction of first-aid centres, medical vehicles and medical equipment in general.
8. Hospital conditions for the injured were very bad, because hospitals were being bombed and could provide no security. Lack of medical supplies and equipment, the reduced numbers of medical ana para-medical personnel, lack of electricity, water and blood, caused insurmountable difficulties, resulting in a high rate of mortality and high percentage of postoperative complications.
9. The mass destruction of medical establishments, such as Barbir, Akka, Gaza, Makkassed and many other hospitals and clinics in Southern Lebanon, the creation of various 214 obstacles and prevention of medical personnel and official health bodies from carrying out their duties resulted in a complete paralysis of the health care system in the occupied regions. All this, together with the occupation of the Lebanese Ministry of Health, constitutes a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Population, which forbids the occupying power to modify the status of officials (Art. 54).
10. We must say that the position of the International Red Cross is puzzling and negative. Throughout the war in Lebanon it has failed either to take action or fulfil the goals for which it had been founded.
11. Israel's refusal to assign POW status to Palestinian and Lebanese fighters, the torture and cruel treatment of civilians captured by the occupation forces, their detention in prisons and concentration camps constitute a violation of the basic provisions of the above. Geneva Conventions. The violation of the privacy of the home, the repression of all trade union and political activity, the disruption of economic activity, as well as the silencing of every democratic expression, violate the sovereign rights of the Lebanese people.
12. The continuing occupation of the sovereign territory of Lebanon by Israeli troops and Israel's efforts to conceal the facts and nature of its crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples impede a full and detailed investigation of the true dimensions of the crimes against humanity and the violation of human rights.
13. We express our concern over the attitude of the multinational military force in Lebanon toward Palestinian and Lebanese patriots, following the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
14. The Israeli aggression in Lebanon can be classified as a grave international crime, violating established international conventions and international law, and causing unnecessary suffering both to fighters and the civilian popuktion...
[215] __ALPHA_LVL2__ DECISION OF THE EUROPEANThe case of Ireland v. the United Kingdom was brought before the European Court of Human Rights, European Council, and heard at closed sessions on February 10--11, April 22, 25--27, July 25--28, and December 6-13, 1977. The Court made its decision on the case. Open hearings were held at the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, France, from February 7 to 9, 1977 and from April 19 to 22, 1977.
I. THE EMERGENCY SITUATION AND ITS BACKGROUND...
11. The tragic and lasting crisis in Northern Ireland lies at the root of the present case. In order to combat what the respondent Government describes as "the longest and most violent terrorist campaign witnessed in either part of the island of Ireland'', the authorities in Northern Ireland exercised from August 1971 until December 1975 a series of extrajudicial powers of arrest, detention and internment...
12. Up to March 1975, on the figures cited before the Commission by the respondent Government, over 1,100 people had been killed, over 11,500 injured and more than £ 140,000,000 worth of property destroyed during the recent troubles in Northern Ireland. This violence found its expression in part in civil disorders, in part in terrorism, that is organised violence for political ends.
216A. Social, Constitutional and Political Background...
15. Northern Ireland is not a homogeneous society. It consists of two communities divided by deep and long-- standing antagonisms. One community is variously termed Protestant, Unionist or Loyalist, the other is generally labelled as Catholic, Republican or Nationalist. About twothirds of the population of one and a half million belong to the Protestant community, the remaining third to the Catholic community. The majority group is descended from Protestant settlers who emigrated in large numbers from Britain to Northern Ireland during the seventeenth century. The now traditional antagonism between the two groups is based both on religion and on social, economic and political differences. In particular, the Protestant community has consistently opposed the idea of a united Ireland independent of the United Kingdom, whereas the Catholic community has traditionally supported it...
4. Operation Demetrius
39. Starting at 4.00 a.m. on Monday, 9 August. 1971, the army, with police officers occasionally acting as guides, mounted an operation to arrest ... 452 persons... The arrested persons were taken to one of the three regional holding centres ... that had been set up to receive the prisoners during 48 hours: All those arrested were subjected to interrogation by police officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUG). 104 persons were released within 48 hours. Those who were to be detained were sent on to the prison ship Maidstone or to Crumlin Road Prison, both in Belfast... 12 individuals were moved to one or more unidentified centres for "interrogation in depth" extending over several days...
21740. At 11.15 a.m. on 9 August 1971, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland announced to the public the introduction of internment. He stated, inter alia:
``The main target of the present operation is the Irish Republican Army... They are the present threat; but we will not hesitate to take strong action against any other individuals or organisations who may present such a threat in the future.''
41. Arrests continued to be made during the rest of the year...
The three regional holding centres were closed down in August 1971 shortly after Operation Demetrius was completed, and in September/October 1971 police centres were established at Palace Barracks (Holywood, County Down), Girdwood Park (Belfast), Gough (County Armagh) and Ballykelly (County Londonderry) for the purpose of holding and interrogating persons arrested...
B. The Unidentified Interrogation Centre or Centres...
96. Twelve persons arrested on 9 August 1971 and two persons arrested in October 1971 were singled out and taken to one or more unidentified centres. There, between 11 to 17 August and 11 to 18 October respectively, they were submitted to a form of "interrogation in depth" which involved the combined application of five particular techniques.
These methods ... [are] sometimes termed `` disorientation'' or "sensory deprivation" techniques... It emerges from the Commission's establishment of the facts that the techniques consisted of:
(a) wall-standing: forcing the detainees to remain for periods of some hours in a "stress position" ... spreadeagled against the wall, with their fingers put high above the head against the wall, the legs spread apart and the feet 218 back, causing them to stand on their toes with the weight of the body mainly on the fingers;
(b) hooding: putting a black or navy coloured bag over the detainees heads and ... keeping it there all the time except during interrogation;
(c) subjection to noise: pending their interrogations, holding the detainees in a room where there was a continuous loud and hissing noise;
(d) deprivation of sleep: pending their interrogations, depriving the detainees of sleep;
(e) deprivation of food and drink: subjecting the detainees to a reduced diet during their stay at the centre and pending interrogations.
The Commission's findings as to the manner and effects of the application of these techniques on two particular case-witnesses are referred to below paragraph 104.
97. From the start, it has been conceded by the respondent Government that the use of the five techniques was authorised at "high level''. Although never committed to writing or authorised in any official document, the techniques had been orally taught to members of the RUG by the English Intelligence Centre at a seminar held in April 1971...
99. Reports alleging physical brutality and ill-treatment by the security forces were made public within a few days of Operation Demetrius...
100. On 16 November 1971, the British Home Secretary announced that a further Committee had been set up under the chairmanship of Lord Parker [to investigate cases of brutality and violence in Northern Ireland---Ed.]...
The Parker report, which was adopted on 31 January 1972, contained a majority and a minority opinion... Both the majority and the minority considered the methods to be illegal under domestic law...
101. On 2 March 1972 ... the United Kingdom Prime Minister stated in Parliament:
219``[The] Government ... have decided that the techniques ... will not be used in future as an aid to interrogation."...
104. [Witnesses] T6 and T13 were arrested on 9 August 1971 during Operation Demetrius. Two days later they were transferred from Magilligan Regional Holding Centre to an unidentified interrogation centre... They were subjected to the five techniques during four or possibly five days...
T6 and T13 were kept at the wall for different periods totalling between twenty to thirty hours...
The Commission found no physical injury to have resulted from the application of the five techniques as such, but loss of weight by the two case-witnesses and acute psychiatric symptoms developed by them during interrogation were recorded in the medical and other evidence...
108. Palace Barracks, a military camp in Holywood, County Down, on the outskirts of Belfast, was used as a holding centre for some days in August 1971 and then from September 1971 until June 1972. Duringthis period, when it was the main interrogation centre in Northern Ireland, some 2,000 persons from all over the province passed through Palace Barracks. The centre was operated jointly by the army and the RUG...
The interrogations ... were conducted solely by police, usually at least two in number, from the Special Branch of the RUG...
110. These four men [T2, T8, T12 and T15-Ed.] were all arrested early on 20 September 1971 at their homes in County Tyrone and taken to Palace Barracks for interrogation. They were photographed and examined by an army doctor immediately after their arrest; apart from one small scar, no injuries were apparently found. The next day they were transferred together from Palace Barracks to Crumlin Road Prison. They all alleged that at various times they had been made to stand spreadeagled against a 220 wall and had been severely beaten or otherwise physically ill-treated, particularly during interrogations. On their arrival at Crumlin Road, a prison doctor found contusions and bruising on three of the men; on 23 September, another doctor found similar injuries on the fourth man...
Despite the absolute denials given in evidence by witnesses from the security forces at Palace Barracks, the Commission held the following facts,, amongst others, to be established beyond reasonable doubt:
``The four men ... severely beaten by members of the security forces... The beating was not occasional but it was applied in a sort of scheme in order to make them speak...''
111. T9 and T14 were arrested together by an army patrol in a Belfast street on the night of 16 October 1971. They were brought to Palace Barracks for interrogation and held there until the evening of 18 October when they were transferred to Crumlin Road Prison. On arrival at the latter institution, they were examined by a prison doctor. T14 was immediately transported to the prison hospital wing where he spent the next three weeks. Both men soon made statements alleging ill-treatment at Palace Barracks. T14, for instance, claimed that he had been made to stand spreadeagled against a wall while being questioned by a Special Branch man who was kicking him continuously on the insides of the legs...
The medical evidence disclosed injuries described as `` substantial'' in T9's case and ``massive'' in T14's case. The Commission concluded that "the proved injuries must have been caused while the two men were at Palace Barracks''. Fourteen members of the security forces at the centre gave evidence completely denying any knowledge of the injuries or their causes, but these denials were not believed by the Commission... The Commission made the following finding:
``T9 and T14 ... were subjected to physical violence, 221 especially kicking and beating, during ... a series of ' interviews' conducted by the Special Branch."...
115.T10 was arrested at his house early in the morning of 18 November 1971 and subsequently taken to Palace Barracks for interrogation. The next day a detention order was served on him and he was transferred to Crumlin Road Prison. T10 alleged that while at the interrogation centre he was subjected to what the Commission term "comparatively trivial beatings''.
He was medically examined on arrival at Palace Barracks, when entering Crumlin Road Prison and on 20 November by his family doctor who saw him in prison. The latter two examinations revealed that T10 had suffered a perforation to the right eardrum and some ... bruising...
119. This army camp [at Girdwood Park---Ed. ] on the outskirts of Belfast, adjacent to Crumlin Road Prison, was used as a regional centre for holding and interrogating suspects, 186 of whom passed through it in August 1971. It was temporarily closed in that month and re-opened in October 1971 as a police holding centre...
120. Of 36 cases involving allegations of ill-treatment at Girdwood, the Commission examined in detail as illustrative that of T16. It found that this Protestant, aged over sixty and arrested in connection with the possession of arms and a radio aerial, had been severely injured <5n 13 August 1971 by army personnel during transport to Girdwood and following his arrival there. He had been insulted, kicked, beaten and dragged by the hair and his evidence had been corroborated by that of T23 who had been arrested at the same time. T16's ill-treatment was not connected with his formal interrogation which was ... conducted by the Special Branch. Although the army doctor at Girdwood treated T16 for a diabetic condition, the Commission considered the medical examination inadequate since no notice was taken of the injuries 222 which were observed later by other doctors...
123. Ballykinler was an army camp in County Down used in August 1971 for holding and interrogating some of those arrested during Operation Demetrius... It was under the overall authority of the RUG, the army being responsible for security and the Special Branch conducting the interrogations. On 9 and 10 August 89 persons were brought to Ballykinler of whom, by 11 August, 80 had been removed to a place of detention and the remainder released...
125. The Commission examined, as illustrative, the case of T3 and found that:
(a) he and other persons arrested were made (in some cases before medical examination) to do exercises which caused considerable strain and hardship, especially to the elderly and those in poor physical condition;
(b) the exercises consisted partly of sitting on the floor with the legs outstretched and the hands raised high above, or clasped behind, the head, and partly of kneeling on the floor with the forehead touching the ground and the hands clasped behind the back;...
(e) For a purpose not sufficiently explained, bedding was provided only for those who had been interrogated...
127. 121 cases involving allegations of ill-treatment at miscellaneous places were referred to the Commission by the applicant Government. The allegations included beating and assaults by the army or the police at army posts, police stations, a prison, in the street, at home or during transport at dates falling between August 1971 and 1974. 65 of these cases were in connection with interrogation...
128. The Commission found that on 28 October 1971, without provocation or resistance, this civilian [witness T7---Ed.] had been severely assaulted and injured ... by a corporal effecting his arrest. When it was realised that his arrest had been a mistake, he was discharged...
[223] __ALPHA_LVL2__ POLICIES OF APARTHEID OFThe document is part of a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly (38/39) at its 38th session (20 September-20 December 1983). For the resolution---124 countries; -against---16 countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada, France, the FRG, Belgium, Italy, Japan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The General Assembly,~
Recalling and reaffirming its resolution 37/69 of 9 December 1982,
Having considered the report of the Special Committee against Apartheid, as well as its special report on recent developments concerning relations between Israel and South Africa,
Taking note of the declarations of conferences organized or co-sponsored by the Special Committee, namely, the International Conference of Trade Unions on Sanctions and Other Actions Against the Apartheid Regime in South Africa, held at Geneva on 10 and 11 June 1983, the International Conference for Sanctions against Apartheid in Sports, held in London from 27 to 29 June 1983, the International Non-Governmental Organizations Conference on Action against Apartheid and Racism, held at Geneva from 5 to 8 July 1983, the International Conference on the Alliance between South Africa and Israel, held at Vienna from 11 to 13 July 1983, and the Latin American Regional Conference for Action against Apartheid, held at Caracas from 16 to 18 September 1983,~
224Gravely concerned over the threat to international peace and security, and repeated breaches of the peace and acts of aggression, caused by the policies and actions of the racist minority regime of South Africa,
Condemning the racist minority regime of South Africa for its repeated defiance of the United Nations, its oppression of the great majority of the people of South Africa and its ruthless repression of all opponents of apartheid,
Strongly condemning the execution of Mr. Simon Mogoerane, Mr. Jerry Mosololi and Mr. Thabo Motaung, members of the African National Congress of South Africa, in defiance of appeals by the General Assembly and the Security Council,
Reaffirming that apartheid is a crime against humanity,
Strongly convinced that peace and stability in southern Africa require the total eradication of apartheid and the exercise of the right of self-determination by all the people of South Africa, irrespective of race, colour or creed,
Convinced that the racist minority regime of South Africa has been encouraged to perpetrate those criminal acts by the protection accorded to it by major Western Powers against international sanctions and by their continued collaboration with it,
Recognizing that the policies and actions of certain Western Powers and Israel are the main obstacles that have frustrated international efforts for the elimination of apartheid,
Condemning, in particular, the increased collaboration by the Government of the United States of America with the racist regime of South Africa, in pursuance of its policy of so-called "constructive engagement'', which has encouraged the racist regime to entrench apartheid, intensify repression and escalate aggression against and destabilization of independent African States,~
__PRINTERS_P_225_COMMENT__ 15--1169 225Condemning the increasing collaboration by Israel with the racist minority regime of South Africa, particularly in the military and nuclear fields,
Rejecting the so-called "constitutional proposals" by the racist minority regime of South Africa as designed to entrench apartheid,
Commending the unity of the oppressed people of South Africa in their opposition to the constitutional proposals as well as in their struggle for the elimination of apartheid and for the establishment of a democratic and non-racial society in a non-fragmented South Africa,
Taking note of the advance of the armed struggle for liberation undertaken by the national liberation'movements in the face of brutal repression of peaceful protest,
Recognizing that the legitimate struggle of the South African people for liberation from apartheid is a contribution to the objectives of the United Nations,
Reaffirming that the elimination of apartheid constitutes a major objective of the United Nations,
Considering that all the organizations of the United Nations system have a duty to make a maximum contribution, within their mandates, to the internationaTcampaign against apartheid,.
1. Endorses the annual report of the Special Committee against Apartheid and its special report on recent developments concerning relations between Israel and South Africa;
2. Declares that the United Nations and the international community have a special responsibility towards the oppressed people of South Africa and their national liberation movements in their legitimate struggle for the elimination of apartheid and the establishment of a non-racial democratic society assuring human rights and fundamental freedoms to all the people of the country irrespective of race, colour or creed;~
2263. Again proclaims that the national liberation movements of South Africa are the authentic representatives of the people of South Africa in their just struggle for national liberation;
4. Recognizes the right of the oppressed people and their national liberation movements to resort to all the means at their disposal, including armed struggle, in their resistance to the illegitimate racist minority regime of South Africa;
5. Demands that the racist minority regime of South Africa:
(a) Release persons imprisoned or restricted for their opposition to apartheid;
(b) Allow those who have been exiled for their opposition to apartheid to return unconditionally to their country;
(c) Rescind bans on political and other organizations and media opposed to apartheid;
(d) Terminate all political trials and all repressive measures against opponents of apartheid;
6. Commends the people of South Africa and their national liberation movements for the great advance in their struggle for national liberation;
7. Commends the oppressed people of South Africa and their national liberation movements, particularly the African National Congress of South Africa, for intensifying the armed struggle against the racist regime of South Africa;
8. Calls upon all States and organizations to provide all necessary moral, political and material assistance to the South African liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity at this crucial stage in their struggle for liberation;
9. Reaffirms that freedom fighters of South Africa should be treated as prisoners of war in accordance with Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949;~
22710. Strongly condemns the apartheid regime of South Africa for its brutal repression of all opponents of apartheid, its torture and killing of detainees, its execution of freedom fighters and its repeated acts of aggression, subversion and' terrorism against independent African States;
11. Condemns as an international crime the policy of ``bantustanization'' designed to dispossess the African majority of its inalienable rights and to deprive it of citizenship, as well as the continuing forced removal of black people;
12. Condemns the policies of certain Western States, especially the United States of America, and Israel, and of their transnational corporations and financial institutions that have increased political, economic and military collaboration with the racist minority regime of South Africa despite repeated appeals by the General Assembly;
13. Again urges the Security Council to determine that the situation in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole, resulting from the policies and actions of the apartheid regime of South Africa, constitutes a grave and growing threat to international peace and security, and to impose comprehensive and mandatory sanctions against the racist minority regime under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations;
14. Urgently calls upon the International Monetary Fund to terminate credits or other assistance to the racist minority regime of South Africa;
15. Again requests the International Atomic Energy Agency to refrain from extending to South Africa any facilities which may assist it in its nuclear plans and, in particular, to exclude South Africa from all its technical working groups;
16. Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to accede to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid;~
22817. Decides to continue the authorization of adequate financial provision in the regular budget of the United Nations to enable the South African liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity--- namely, the African National Congress of South Africa and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania---to maintain offices in New York in order to participate effectively in the deliberations of the Special Committee and other appropriate bodies;
18. Commends the anti-apartheid and solidarity movements, religious bodies, trade unions, youth and student organizations and other groups engaged in campaigns for the isolation of the apartheid regime and assistance to the South African liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity;
19. Urges all Governments to lend all appropriate assistance, including financial assistance, to such groups, especially in countries which continue to collaborate with the apartheid regime;
20. Appeals to journalists, writers, artists and other professionals working in the mass media, as well as their professional associations, to foster the role of the mass media in the dissemination of information commensurable with the urgent need to eradicate apartheid;
21. Requests the Secretary-General:
(a) To instruct all relevant units of the Secretariat and all United Nations offices to promote the international campaign against apartheid in co-operation with the Special Committee;
(fe) To take all necessary measures to deny any facilities to, and to refrain from any investment in, corporations operating in South Africa;
(c) To enter into urgent consultations with the International Monetary Fund and the International Atomic Energy Agency to secure their full co-operation in action against 229 apartheid in accordance with the resolutions of the General Assembly;
(d) To prepare, in consultation with the executive heads of the organizations of the United Nations system, proposals for concerted action by all the agencies in the international campaign against apartheid;
22. Requests the Special Committee:
(a) To prepare a report reviewing the implementation of the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council on the problem of apartheid and the acts of aggression by the racist regime of South Africa, and the policies and actions of States which have failed to co-operate in international action;
(b) To review developments concerning collaboration by the United States of America, Israel and other States with the racist regime of South Africa, and to report from time to time, as appropriate;
(c) To pay special attention to mobilizing public opinion and encouraging public action against collaboration with South Africa.
[230] __ALPHA_LVL2__ SITUATION OF HUMANResolution (38/101) adopted by the UN General Assembly at its 38th session (20 September-20 December 1983). For the resolution---85 countries; against---14 countries, including the United States, El Salvador, Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Chile, Honduras, Pakistan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The General Assembly,~
Guided by the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Conscious of its responsibility in all circumstances to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all,
Reiterating that the Governments of all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to carry out the responsibilities they have undertaken under various international human rights instruments,
Determined to remain vigilant with regard to violations of human rights wherever they occur and to take measures to restore respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Recalling that, in its resolutions 35/192 of 15 December 1980, 36/155 of 16 December 1981 and 37/185 of 17 December 1982, it expressed deep concern at the situation of human rights in El Salvador, especially in view of the death of thousands of people and the climate of violence and insecurity prevailing in that country, as well as the impunity of paramilitary forces and other armed groups,
Bearing in mind Commission on Human Rights 231 resolutions 32 (XXXVII) of 11 March 1981, in which the Commission decided to appoint a Special .Representative on the situation of human rights in El Salvador, 1982/28 of 11 March 1982 and 1983/29 of 8 March 1983, whereby the Commission extended the mandate of the Special Representative for another year and requested him to report, inter alia, to the General Assembly at its thirty-eighth session,~
Taking note with grave concern of the interim report of the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, in which the continuation of a climate of violence and insecurity in El Salvador characterized by armed clashes, acts of economic, sabotage and grave and large-scale violations of human rights, as well as the failure of the Salvadorian authorities to prevent these constant violations of human rights in that country, are confirmed,
Bearing in mind that in its resolution 37/185 the General Assembly observed that the elections which were held in El Salvador in March 1982 had not led to the cessation of violence or to improvement in the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in that country,
Noting with satisfaction that the El Salvador Peace Commission, officials and special envoys of other Governments within and outside the region, as well as the representative political forces, have initiated talks in the search for a negotiated comprehensive political solution,
1. Commends the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights for his interim report on the situation of human rights in El Salvador;
2. Expresses its deepest concern at the fact that, as indicated in the report of the Special Representative, the gravest violations of human rights are persisting in El Salvador and that, as a result, the suffering of the Salvadorian people are continuing, and regrets that the appeals for the cessation of the acts of violence made by the General Assembly, the 232 Commission on Human Rights and the international community as a whole have not been heeded;
3. Again draws the attention of the Salvadorian parties concerned to the fact that the rules of international law, as contained in article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and Additional Protocols I and II thereto, are applicable to armed conflicts not of an international character, such as that in El Salvador, and requests all parties to apply a minimum standard of protection of human rights and of humane treatment of the civilian population;
4. Takes note of resolution 1983/18 of 5 September 1983 of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in which the Sub-- Commission suggested that the Special Representative give attention in his report to respect for or violation of humanitarian law in armed conflict;
5. Recommends that the reforms necessary for the solution of the economic and social problems which are at the root of the internal conflict in El Salvador should be put into effect so as to allow the effective exercise of civil and political rights in that country, and reaffirms the right of the Salvadorian people freely to determine their political, economic and social future without interference from outside and in an atmosphere free from intimidation and terror;
6. Calls upon the Government of El Salvador and other political forces to intensify their talks and work for a comprehensive negotiated political solution which will put an end to the internal armed conflict and establish a lasting peace which will allow the full exercise both of civil and political rights and of economic, social and cultural rights by all Salvadorians;
7. Once again urges all States to abstain from intervening in the internal situation in El Salvador and to __PRINTERS_P_233_COMMENT__ 16--1169 233 suspend all supplies of arms and any type of military assistance, so as to allow the restoration of peace and security and the establishment of a democratic system based on full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;
8. Expresses its deep concern at reports which prove that government forces regularly resort to bombarding urban areas which are not military objectives in El Salvador, and its concern for the fate of several hundred thousand displaced persons who are currently located in camps in which they are subjected to abuse and in which even the minimum conditions of internment, in terms of either humane treatment or material needs, are not observed;
9. Also expresses its concern at the resurgence of disappearances and murders, for which the so-called "death squads" claim responsibility, committed against persons who belong to various sectors of the civilian popuktion, and urges that these activities be investigated with a view to punishing those responsible;
10. Expresses its concern at the consequences of the damage done to the economy of El Salvador as a result of the attacks on the economic infrastructure attributable for the most part, according to the report of the Special Representative, to the opposition forces;
11. Reiterates its urgent appeal to the Government of El Salvador to fulfil its obligations towards its citizens and to assume its international responsibilities in this regard by taking the necessary steps to ensure that all its agencies, including its security forces and other armed organizations operating under its authority, fully respect human rights and fundamental freedoms;
12. Urges the competent authorities of El Salvador to establish the necessary conditions to enable the judiciary to uphold the rule of law, prosecuting and punishing speedily and effectively those responsible for the grave violations of human rights which are being committed in that country;~
23413. Reiterates its appeal to all Salvadorian parties in the conflict to co-operate fully and not to interfere with the activities of humanitarian organizations dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the civilian population, wherever these organizations operate in the country;
14. Deplores the violent death of Marianela Garcia Villas, President of the Commission on Human Rights of El Salvador, and, given the contradictory reports on the matter, requests the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the circumstances of her death;
15. Renews its appeal to the Government of El Salvador, as well as all other parties concerned, to continue to cooperate with the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights;
16. Decides to keep under consideration, during its thirty -ninth session, the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in El Salvador, in order to examine this situation anew in the light of additional elements provided by the Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council.
[235] __ALPHA_LVL2__ SITUATION OF HUMANResolution (38/100) adopted by the UN General Assembly at its 38th session (20 September-20 December 1983). For the resolution---84 countries; against---15 countries, including the United States, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Pakistan, Paraguay, Uruguay.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The General Assembly,~
Reiterating that the Governments of all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Recalling its resolution 37/184 of 17 December 1982, Noting Commission on Human Rights resolution 1983/37 of 8 March 1983, in which the Commission reiterated its profound concern at the continuing reports of massive violations of human rights in Guatemala,
Noting also that the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in its resolution 1983/12 of 5 September 1983, recognized that in Guatemala there existed an armed conflict of a non-- international character, which stemmed from economic, social and political factors of a structural nature, and that within that conflict the security forces and government institutions had not respected the norms of international humanitarian law,
Expressing its satisfaction at the appointment of a Special Rapporteur of the Commission on"Human Rights, and taking note of the co-operation extended to the Special Rapporteur by the Government of Guatemala,
Taking note of the interim report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Guatemala submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1983/37,~
236Welcoming the lifting of the state of siege and the abolition of the special tribunals,
Disturbed by the large number of persons who have disappeared, including those reported to have been tried by the special tribunals, and who, despite appeals from various international organizations, remain unaccounted for,
1. Expresses its deep concern at the continuing massive violations of human rights in Guatemala, particularly the violence against non-combatants, the widespread repression, killing and massive displacement of rural and indigenous populations, which are reported to have recently increased;
2. Calls upon the Government of Guatemala to refrain both from forcefully displacing people belonging to rural and indigenous populations and from the practice of coercing people into participation in civilian patrols, leading to human rights violations;
3. Urges the Government of Guatemala to take effective measures to ensure that all its authorities and agencies, including its security forces, fully respect human rights and fundamental freedoms;
4. Requests the Government of Guatemala to investigate and clarify the fate of persons who have disappeared and are still unaccounted for, including those reported to have been tried by the special tribunals;
5. Calls upon the Government of Guatemala to establish a system for the revocation of convictions and sentences passed by the special tribunals, now abolished;
6. Appeals to the Government of Guatemala to allow international humanitarian organizations to render their assistance in investigating the fate of^persons who have disappeared, with a view to informing their relatives of their whereabouts, and to visit detainees or prisoners, and to allow them to bring assistance to the civilian population in areas of conflict;~
2377.Appeals also to all parties concerned in Guatemala to ensure the application of relevant norms of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts of a noninternational character to protect the civilian population and to seek an end to all acts of violence;
8. Calls upon Governments to refrain from supplying arms and other military assistance as long as serious human rights violations in Guatemala continue to be reported;
9. Invites the Government of Guatemala and other parties concerned to continue co-operating with the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights;
10. Requests the Commission on Human Rights to study carefully the report of its Special Rapporteur, as well as other information pertaining to the situation in Guatemala, and to consider further steps for securing effective respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all in that country;
11. Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Guatemala at its thirty-ninth session.
[238] __ALPHA_LVL2__ JUDGEMENT OF THEThe People's Revolutionary Tribunal in Phnom Penh was set up in accordance with the Decree of the People's Revolutionary Council of Kampuchea of July 15, 1979, in order to investigate the crimes committed by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique. The Tribunal held its public hearings from 15 to 19 August 1979 and on the basis of numerous and irrefutable facts found Pol Pot and leng Sary guilty of the crime of genocide and sentenced them to death (in absentia).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ During the four years in power
the accused Pol Pot and leng Sary betrayed our people and
our Fatherland. The Tribunal finds that the accused have
committed the following crimes:
I. Implementation of a plan of systematic massacre of many strata of the population on an increasingly ferocious scale; indiscriminate extermination of nearly all the officers and soldiers of the former regime, liquidation of the intelligentsia, massacre of all persons and destruction of all organisations assumed to be opposing their regime...
II. Massacre of religious priests and believers, eradication of religions; systematical extermination of national minorities without distinction between opponents and nonopponents, for the purpose of assimilation; extermination of foreign residents...
Hundreds of Buddha statues made of stone or wood were destroyed, some among these were historical relics hundreds of years old. Religious books were all burnt. The pagodas of Ba Kon (Sot Nikum district) of Xo Xay, Phnom To Rung 239 Bat (Kompong Thkhau village, Kralank district, Seam Reap province) were turned into places of torture and massacre...
The cathedral of the Christian community in the heart of Phnom Penh was blown up by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique.
Yun Yat, Pol Pot-Ieng Sary's Minister of Culture and Propaganda, has confirmed this policy of eliminating religions in his talk with Yugoslav journalists. He said: " Buddhism is a tool for exploitation, that is why there is no longer any question of Buddhism.''
Together with Buddhism, Islam was also eliminated...
With a view to forcing the national minorities to forsake Islam and finding a pretext for massacring them, the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique compelled them to eat pork, contrary to their customs and Islamic precepts. Those who refused to do so were killed on the spot. Anyone caught using his mother tongue was also killed.
The Muslim population of many hamlets, villages and even districts was exterminated for daring to oppose forcible assimilation...
90 per cent of the Muslim population were exterminated for the only reason that they wanted to keep their religion and preserve their mother tongue...
III. Forcible evacuation of the population from Phnom Penh and other towns and villages; breaking or upsetting of family and social structures; mass killing...
IV. Herding of people into ``communes'', i.e. disguised concentration camps where they were forced to work and live in the conditions of physical and moral destruction, were massacred or died in large numbers.
1. Physically, the people were put to do hard labour like slaves. They had not enough to eat, wore rags and were condemned to a slow death from exhaustion and disease.
The urban population and the rural people in the newly liberated areas were expelled from their localities. And after 240 a long and bloody journey, they arrived in new places where they were sent to the ``communes''... Communes were only huge concentration camps to detain the majority of the Kampuchean people. Lacking food, medicine and medical care, clothed in rags, living in miserable huts, their nerves always strained, people were dying a slow death, physically and morally...
2. In the moral aspect, all social relations were abolished, and man was turned into a solitary slave. The right to freedom of expression and independent thinking was also abolished.
The division into male and female groups for working together, eating together, living together completely destroyed the family structure. Children above 6 years of age were separated from their parents. When they reached the age of 13 or 14, they were sent to mobile shock brigades for building irrigation networks or reclaiming land outside their villages...
In order to drive the citizens into a state of utter isolation, right after April 17, 1975, the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique abolished money, trade, markets, postal communications and transportation services. In fact, practically all citizens were under house arrest. All relations with the outside world, or with family and friends were forbidden, so were cultural relations.
Angkor kept a strict control over the population with a large network of secret agents spying day and night. If someone uttered a careless word, he would be "invited to a meeting'', then liquidated...
V. Massacre of small children, persecution and moral poisoning of the youth, transforming them into cruel thugs devoid of all human feelings...
VI. Undermining of structures of the national economy, abolition of culture, education, and health service.
1. Prior to 1975, Kampuchea, though not industrially 241 developed, had hundreds of factories...
During their four years in power Pol Pot and leng Sary destroyed the structure of the national economy. Under the slogan "To have rice is to have everything'', they completely destroyed handicraft. Industrial production was almost at a standstill. More than 50% of the factories were closed down, machinery and equipment became unusable...
2. Concerning culture and education, the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique advocated total abolition of our culture and education, and destruction of the cultural and educational establishments...
3. With regard to the health service, according to an investigation report, there were 62 hospitals with nearly 6,000 beds. Under Pol Pot and leng Sary all these institutions were closed down...
VII. After their overthrow by the genuine revolutionary forces, the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique still persisted in opposing the revolution and committed new crimes in massacring those who refused to follow them.
In their flight the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary gang compelled part of the population to follow them to their hideouts. Wherever they came, they plundered, destroyed crops, burnt rice granaries.
They carried out bloody repression against those who opposed them and wanted to return to live under the genuine revolutionary regime...
VIII. During their four years in power the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique have used most barbarous methods of torture and killing.
Pol Pot-Ieng Sary meji massacred hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of persons at a time without firing a simple bullet. They led files of tied-up victims to the brink of a newly-dug pit, and the executioners standing on both sides used spade handles or pick handles or bamboo clubs to hit violently at the victims' nape and pushed the 242 corpses down into the pit. When the pit was full of corpses, they used bulldozers to cover it with earth and proceeded to another pit to continue the killing until all the victims had been disposed of.
Many medieval methods were resorted to such as cutting a man's throat with a palm-leaf, disembowelling and taking out human livers to eat, taking human gall bladders to make, after drying, a medicine...
One can find in communes common graves where lie heaps of cprpses, broken skulls, bones of limbs with binding ropes.
__b_b_b__Upon the verification by the Tribunal of proofs of the above criminal acts as perpetrated by the accused Pol Pot and leng Sary, the Tribunal rules that these acts were intended to achieve genocide,~
Considering that the policy of carrying out the abovementioned criminal acts had been discussed at meetings held by the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique, written down in such documents as resolutions, directives, teaching materials, etc. as presented in the Indictment Act of the Public Prosecutor citing a large number of documents whose originals have been presented at the Tribunal for examination,
Considering that the acts of genocide carried out in accordance with the policy of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique were systematically perpetrated throughout Kampuchea with the same methods...,
Considering that the criminal acts of the accused Pol Pot and leng Sary have had extremely serious far-reaching consequences on social life...
The extermination of about 40 per cent of the population has brought untold suffering to millions of families, caused irretrievable losses to the country, an underdeveloped country just emerging from the resistance war against U.S. aggression, when the productive force consists mainly 243 in the labour and creativeness of its industrious people. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the massacred included genuine patriots, workers, peasants, intellectuals, patriotic personalities, technicians, scientists, artists, writers, and the youth which is the main labour force. Especially the teenagers and the children were persecuted, physically ill-treated and morally corrupted, a large number were killed. The Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique have destroyed the buds of the country.
Due to the genocide policy of the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique, a considerable number of youths have been turned into executioners so bloodthirsty that they no longer show any traces of human nature...
On the basis of Decree-Law No. 1 of July 15, 1979 of the Revolutionary People's Council, with reference to international law on the punishment of the crime of genocide, including the 1948 Convention, we- find that the above-mentioned criminal acts perpetrated by the accused Pol Pot and leng Sary with the intention of genocide do constitute a crime of ``genocide''...
[244] __ALPHA_LVL0__ The End. [END]PROGRESS PUBLISHERS ~
will soon publish ~
KUZNETSOV. V., Europe: Ten Years After Helsinki
In this book, the author looks at the result of agreements between thirty-three countries in Europe, the USA and Canada on issues pertaining to relations between countries with differing social structures. He indicates what has been achieved by the consistent implementation of the policy of detente and peaceful co-existence by the USSR and the socialist countries, and the negative trends issuing from the USA.
The book is intended for the general reader.
[245]PROGRESS PUBLISHERS ~
will soon publish
YAROSLAVTSEV, I., Zionism Stands Accused
The book, based on a wealth of factual material, is devoted to exposing the ideology and practice of Zionism from the time of the First Basle Congress in 1897 to the present day.
The work gives an analysis of international Zionist activity in the period between the two world wars, the history of the colonisation of Palestine, and the various stages of Israeli expansion in the Middle East (the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the tragedy of Sabra and Shatila, the arbitrary Israeli rule in occupied Arab lands and so forth).
A section of the book is devoted to exposing the Zionists' anti-Soviet activity, revealing the mechanisms of the psychological warfare that international Zionism is waging against the USSR and other socialist countries.
The book is intended for the general reader.
[246]REQUEST TO READERS ~
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