A former chief prosecutor for UN international criminal tribunals on Wednesday praised the new UN resolution calling for the disarmament of Iraq, but warned the United States not to be seen as violating the Geneva Convention.
”Last week’s UN Security Council resolution is a victory for those who support the international rule of law and to recognise the importance of the UN,” said Richard Goldstone, the former chief prosecutor for the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
But Goldstone said even though the resolution was passed, the United States could not be seen as respecting international conventions because of the way it was treating fighters captured in Afghanistan that it is holding at the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
”It is a great misfortune that the most powerful nation in the world and the country that likes to be seen, and is seen by many as the leader of the free world, turn its back on international law and the protection of civil liberties, both at home and abroad.”
”The United States is being seen here as violating the Geneva Conventions which would clearly apply to the people captured in Afghanistan,” said Goldstone, who is a South African Constitutional Court judge.
He said those captured still had not been classified either as prisoners of war, or as civilians. Goldstone said the Geneva Convention was ”very clear” that if there was doubt on the status of a person captured on the battlefield, the person was entitled to have their status determined by a tribunal.
”That is being completely ignored by the United States.”
”The danger of not respecting international law was that it was ”more likely than not to return back to haunt those who violate it,” Goldstone warned.
”I hope the United States is not one day in the near future going to regret not respecting the Geneva Convention and the rights of people who are being detained,” he said.
”Because it is not going to have much it can say to other nations who treat people that they may capture on their battlefields, who happen to be US citizens, in a similar fashion.” – Sapa-AFP