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Abstract
Genocide and war crimes are increasingly the focus of scholarly and activist attention. Much controversy exists over how, precisely, these grim phenomena should be defined and conceptualized. Genocide, War Crimes & the West tackles this controversy, and clarifies our understanding of an important but under-researched dimension: the involvement of the US and other liberal democracies in actions that are conventionally depicted as the exclusive province of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.
Many of the authors are eminent scholars and/or renowned activists; in most cases, their contributions are specifically written for this volume. In the opening and closing sections of the book, analytical issues are considered, including questions of responsibility for genocide and war crimes, and institutional responses at both the domestic and international levels. The central section is devoted to an unprecedentedly broad range of original case studies of western involvement, or alleged involvement, in war crimes and genocide.
At a moment in history when terrorism has become a near universal focus of public attention, this volume makes clear why the West, as a result of both its historical legacy and contemporary actions, so often excites widespread resentment and opposition throughout the rest of the world.
Adam Jones is currently Professor of International Studies at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. He is author of Beyond the Barricades: Nicaragua and the Struggle for the Sandinista Press, 1979-1998 ( 2002), and editor of Gendercide and Genocide (forthcoming). His scholarly articles have appeared in Review of International Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Genocide Research, Journal of Human Rights, and other publications. He is Executive Director of Gendercide Watch (www.gendercide.org), a Web-based educational initiative.
'This exceptionally well selected, brilliantly edited collection of writings provides the most comprehensive treatment of Western responsibility for mass atrocity yet published. The cumulative impact of the volume is a devastating indictment of state terrorism as practised by the West, both historically, and now after September 11 in the name of "anti-terrorism." '
Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
'In the names of millions of forgotten victims, from Wounded Knee to My Lai, a brilliant tribunal of scholars assail the himalayan hypocrisy of "Western humanitarianism." '
Mike Davis, author of Late Victorian Holocausts
‘Like communist and third world regimes, Western states have been opponents, bystanders, accomplices and perpetrators of genocide and war crimes. In different cases, they have also variously ignored, denied, covered up, re-examined, recanted, and refused to apologise for their roles. Is there a pattern here? "Genocide, War Crimes & the West" is definitely worth reading. In case studies and thematic essays, the authors offer a variety of answers and raise important new questions about democracy, foreign policy, and international law, uncovering the complexity along with the complicity in the West‘s relationships and approaches to genocide and war crimes.‘
Ben Kiernan, Yale University, and editor of Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia.
'This book documents one of the darkest chapters in recent history. It tells the story of what the "First World" - the Western democracies, most prominently the United States -- have done mainly against countries and peoples in the South and in the former socialist world. It is a history of aggression, indiscriminate bombing, war crimes, and massacres since the 1970s, the story of Western complicity in genocide in the South and East, and worse, it is about genocide committed by these democracies themselves. This path-breaking book fills a huge void; it carefully accounts for serious crimes that others have shamefully avoided, omitted or denied.'
Christian P. Scherrer, Hiroshima Peace Institute, Japan; author of Genocide and Crisis.
‘A revealing compendium of studies regarding the crimes against humanity committed by "Western democracies." This book should give citizens a better sense of those parts of our history that remain largely unexamined and untaught.‘
Michael Parenti, author of "The Terrorism Trap" and "The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People‘s History of Ancient Rome"
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Cover | cover | ||
Contents | iii | ||
Part I: Overview | 1 | ||
1: Introduction: History and Complicity | 3 | ||
‘Democrisy’ and the dissident strand | 8 | ||
Genocide and the West | 18 | ||
Definitions, caveats and acknowledgments | 20 | ||
Notes | 23 | ||
References | 25 | ||
2: Shades of Complicity: Towards a Typology of Transnational Crimes against Humanity | 31 | ||
Complicity as a theme | 32 | ||
Obligations: ending the culture of impunity? | 44 | ||
Conclusion | 48 | ||
Notes | 49 | ||
References | 51 | ||
Part II: Genocide, War Crimes and the West | 57 | ||
3: Imperial Germany and the Herero of Southern Africa: Genocide and the Quest for Recompense | 59 | ||
The Herero–German War | 60 | ||
The ‘Blue Book’ | 63 | ||
White settler unity and the ‘Blue Book’ | 65 | ||
Seeking to deny the past | 66 | ||
Michael Scott and Herero representations to the UN | 67 | ||
Genocide and the establishment of nationalist parties | 69 | ||
The Herero genocide and nationalist struggle | 70 | ||
Namibian independence, Herero genocide and Herero unity | 71 | ||
Regaining the international stage | 72 | ||
Conclusion | 72 | ||
Notes | 73 | ||
References | 76 | ||
4: Genocide by Any Other Name: North American Indian Residential Schools in Context | 78 | ||
Form and scope of the crime | 80 | ||
Genocide in North America | 83 | ||
‘To kill the Indian…’ | 86 | ||
Worlds of pain | 105 | ||
Shaping the future | 108 | ||
Notes | 112 | ||
References | 112 | ||
5: The Allies in World War II: The Anglo-American Bombardment of German Cities | 116 | ||
Effects and effectiveness | 117 | ||
Intent, international law and recognition | 121 | ||
Ethics, conscience and recognition | 124 | ||
Conclusion: was it a war crime? | 127 | ||
Notes | 129 | ||
References | 132 | ||
6: Torture and Other Violations of the Law by the French Army during the Algerian War | 134 | ||
‘Police operations’ in Algeria | 134 | ||
Violence by the French army in Algeria: legality, legitimacy and violations of the law | 138 | ||
The role of torture | 142 | ||
Notes | 145 | ||
7: Atrocity and Its Discontents: US Double-mindedness about Massacre, from the Plains Wars to Indonesia | 146 | ||
Atrocities, seminal and responsive | 146 | ||
The two Indonesias and the two Americas | 149 | ||
Developing psywar | 152 | ||
US psywar, Indonesia, and East Timor | 155 | ||
Conclusion | 159 | ||
Notes | 160 | ||
References | 162 | ||
8: Bob Kerrey’s Atrocity, the Crime of Vietnam and the Historic Pattern of US Imperialism | 164 | ||
Mekong Delta, 1969 | 164 | ||
1954–65: US thwarts 1954 Geneva Accords, defies Vietnamese sovereignty and conducts illegal covert war | 166 | ||
1965–75: US moves to illegal overt intervention | 167 | ||
Comparison of casualties | 169 | ||
Vietnam was not an aberration | 169 | ||
Historical precedents of imperial behavior | 170 | ||
The special intensity and reach of Western and US imperialism | 171 | ||
The American Way of Life | 175 | ||
Healing as an antidote to our ‘forever war’ | 175 | ||
Conclusion | 178 | ||
Notes | 178 | ||
References | 180 | ||
Document I: Inaugural Statement to the Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal(1966) | 181 | ||
9: Charles Horman versus Henry Kissinger: US Intervention in 1970s Chile and the Case for Prosecutions | 186 | ||
The election of Salvador Allende | 188 | ||
Obstructing Allende’s road to socialism | 191 | ||
The US diplomatic failure | 193 | ||
Conclusion: The never-ending story | 195 | ||
Notes | 197 | ||
References | 200 | ||
10: The Wretched of the Nations: The West’s Role in Human Rights Violations in the Bangladesh War of Independence | 201 | ||
Human rights and their genesis in Eurocentrism | 201 | ||
Elite conflict, Bengali Muslim nationalismand the creation of Bangladesh | 203 | ||
The tragedy of 1971 | 205 | ||
Hitchens, Kissinger, and the case for a war-crimes trial | 207 | ||
Kissinger responds | 209 | ||
Postscript: Musharraf ’s visit, Pakistan’s ‘apology’ | 211 | ||
Notes | 212 | ||
References | 212 | ||
11: Indicting Henry Kissinger: The Response of Raphael Lemkin | 214 | ||
Salient facts regarding Raphael Lemkin | 214 | ||
Salient facts about Axis Rule in Occupied Europe | 216 | ||
Indicting Henry Kissinger | 218 | ||
Relevant international legislation | 220 | ||
Raphael Lemkin’s response? | 221 | ||
Concluding thoughts | 224 | ||
Notes | 227 | ||
References | 228 | ||
12: Crimes of the West in Democratic Congo: Reflections on Belgian Acceptance of ‘Moral Responsibility’ for the Death of Lumumba | 230 | ||
The murder of Lumumba | 233 | ||
Complicity: the scholarship and the cable record | 236 | ||
Conclusion | 239 | ||
Note | 239 | ||
References | 239 | ||
13: In the Name of the Cold War: How the West Aided and Abetted the Barre Dictatorship of Somalia | 241 | ||
American and Western complicity | 241 | ||
Ignoring Barre’s political orientation | 242 | ||
The rationale for supporting the Barre dictatorship | 243 | ||
The destruction of the North | 245 | ||
Overall US assistance to Barre | 246 | ||
Assistance after the outbreak of the war in the north | 248 | ||
Assistance from other Western countries | 248 | ||
US reactions to the 1988 massacres | 250 | ||
Bush abandons Somalia, then sends in the Marines | 251 | ||
Avoiding responsibility for the Somalia mess | 252 | ||
Conclusion | 254 | ||
Notes | 255 | ||
References | 257 | ||
14: The Security Council: Behind the Scenes in the Rwanda Genocide | 260 | ||
The crucial decisions | 262 | ||
15: US Policy and Iraq: A Case of Genocide? | 264 | ||
Note | 269 | ||
Documents II and III: Criminal Complaint against the United States and Others for Crimes against the People of Iraq (1996) and Letter to the Security Council (2001) | 270 | ||
Document II | 270 | ||
Document III | 273 | ||
16: The Fire in 1999? The United States, NATO and the Bombing of Yugoslavia | 276 | ||
Precedents | 277 | ||
The war begins | 278 | ||
Unintended civilian consequences? | 281 | ||
Civilian deaths | 282 | ||
Depleted uranium | 285 | ||
Cluster bombs | 286 | ||
The KLA and regional instability | 287 | ||
Regional instability | 289 | ||
Assigning blame | 290 | ||
US ‘war crimes’? | 292 | ||
Conclusion | 295 | ||
Notes | 296 | ||
References | 296 | ||
17: Collateral Damage: The Human Cost of Structural Violence | 299 | ||
Examples of structural violence | 301 | ||
Addressing the crisis | 305 | ||
What is to be done? | 308 | ||
Globalizing greed | 315 | ||
Conclusion | 319 | ||
Notes | 322 | ||
References | 322 | ||
Part III: Truth and Restitution | 325 | ||
18: Institutional Responses to Genocide and Mass Atrocity | 327 | ||
Theoretical issues | 328 | ||
Empirical considerations | 335 | ||
Conclusion | 342 | ||
Notes | 343 | ||
References | 343 | ||
19: International Citizens’ Tribunals on Human Rights | 346 | ||
Conceptual foundations | 347 | ||
The Reichstag fire trial case | 348 | ||
The Moscow show trials case | 351 | ||
The Vietnam war crimes case | 353 | ||
The tribunal movement | 356 | ||
Suggestions for reform | 358 | ||
Notes | 359 | ||
References | 359 | ||
20: Coming to Terms with the Past: The Case for a Truth and Reparations Commission on Slavery, Segregation and Colonialism | 361 | ||
Three strategies: legal, political and mass movement | 362 | ||
Truth commissions | 366 | ||
The Pan-African Truth and Reparations Commission | 369 | ||
Regional panels | 372 | ||
Afterword | 374 | ||
References | 375 | ||
Document IV: The World Conference against Racism: Declarations on the Transatlantic Slave Trade | 377 | ||
Part IV: Closing Observations\r | 381 | ||
21: Afghanistan and Beyond | 383 | ||
Targeting Afghanistan | 384 | ||
‘Operation Endless Deployment’ | 392 | ||
Targeting Iraq… and Cuba | 394 | ||
Conclusion | 397 | ||
Afterword: censored on H-Genocide | 397 | ||
Notes | 399 | ||
References | 400 | ||
22: Letter to America | 404 | ||
Note | 408 | ||
About the Contributors | 409 | ||
Index | 413 |