Bringing War Criminals To Justice

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During the first months of my new government, Pakistan decided to make a million-dollar contribution to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. We did this despite vehement arguments from those who believe the best way to deal with past horrors is to bury the truth alongside the victims, never to be disturbed again. To relive atrocities, they said, is to destroy any chance for healing.

But this is simply not true — if we are going to ever have lasting peace in places like Bosnia, justice must be served. Inaction in response to war crimes compounds the injury of the victims and only encourages future abuses. When we pick and chose which crimes we'll look into and which we'll ignore, we're giving ruthless dictators carte blanche to commit genocide.

As I said in a speech before the World Affairs Council in 1993, morality selectively applied is, by definition, immoral. Justice must be swift, no matter how unpleasant the resulting investigations may be.

The framework for such global action is clearly set out. The Vienna Declaration states that universal rights are legitimate subjects for review by international organizations. The Genocide Convention of 1942 asserts that the community of nations has an obligation to establish trials and enforce universally agreed standards of human rights, including the creation of international trials to prosecute war criminals.

Sadly, this has not been the way the world has acted over the last 50 years. And millions have died because of our neglect.

Early on in Adolf Hitler's career, he asked, "Who remembers the Armenians?" In other words, if others could get away with genocide and ethnic cleansing, then he could, too.

Unfortunately, his deeds soon gave proof to the ferocity of his words.

Fifty years later, it seems the Bosnian Serbs asked themselves the same cynical question as they ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina. If the nations of the world stood by as the Khmer Rouge slaughtered over 1 million in Cambodia, why would anyone care about a little bloodshed in Bosnia?

The lesson is clear: Genocide acquiesced to is genocide encouraged. If the world cannot unite to enforce standards of universal human rights, international society has no moral foundation. Without enforcement, our commitment to human rights is meaningless.

We must go well beyond sanctimonious rhetoric and begin the often-difficult task of implementation and enforcement. We must be prepared to act.

Bosnia, then, is a test case as to whether the world is serious about its commitment to human rights and morality. Will we dare to uncover the truth, no matter how embarrassing it may be to the nations that stood by while the atrocities occurred? Or will we turn a blind eye to the genocide, allowing these wounds to fester until violence erupts again?

The punishment of the guilty restores a sense of honor and dignity to the victims and provides them and their families with a sense of justice and catharsis. It also establishes a psychological closure to the horror, and a sense of finality and completeness.

Whether it be the Nazi Holocaust, the devastation in Cambodia, the slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda or the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Muslims, the community of nations has a vested interest in promoting and enforcing basic standards of international and personal conduct that will make such tragedies less likely in the future.

Those of us in positions of leadership as the new millennium approaches have a special responsibility to ensure that morality is not only universal but universally applied and enforced.

I echo the words of another young leader, U.S. President Bill Clinton, who recently said: "Now it falls to our generation to make good on its promise to put into practice the principle that those who violate universal human rights must be called to account for those actions."

There is no better, no more fitting place for this principle to be applied than at the War Crimes Tribunals now forming in the Hague on the question of Bosnian genocide. Pakistan stands firmly behind these actions, both emotionally and financially.

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