ICC and Hypocrisy

Imperialism doesn’t bother about shame. This power of shamelessness energises imperialism’s business with hypocrisy. The latest example is an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court [ICC]–based in The Hague on March 17. The warrant of arrest has been issued for Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, and for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s ombudsman. The charge against them: Unlawful removal of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation since February 24, 2022.

People from areas bombarded by the armed forces of Ukraine were evacuated to safer places. Among those people were children. An evacuation to safety is the crime! Bombardment of civilian areas for years, since 2014, isn’t a crime! Logic of the ICC takes capricious path of illogic; and the ICC’s role in imperialism’s designs is well-known.

The imperialist microscope and telescope see everything in its fashion, as these like, at near, and to distant. It finds wrong in Russia, but it goes blind in lands ravaged by imperialism.

Imperialist propaganda machine, they call it free media, and all its accessories forget incidents in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. They forget incidents in Indonesia and Chile. They forget incidents in once apartheid-ruled South Africa.

In all these lands imperialism created havoc–thousands of citizens killed or murdered, maimed, bombed, entire people’s life spoiled, environment and ecology ransacked, economic activities turned upside down. But all instigators, planners, organisers and implementers of these murders, destructions and havocs enjoyed impunity. They, who are alive among those folks, are still enjoying impunity. It seems, for them, it’s impunity in perpetuation. It’s, as if, no crime was there; so, no question, no accountability.

Someone with higher “sense” of liberty and freedom may consider life in imperialism-invaded countries, in countries that turned victims of imperialist conspiracy including murderous coups, and countries ravaged by imperialism with many tools, political and economic, carries no value at all. But what shall be the answer from that higher “sense” about loss of life the people in the US and UK made for invasion, occupation and destruction of the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America? Who shall take responsibility of those lives in the US and UK?
What comes out, if all other imperialism-destructed lands are set aside, and a single country–Iraq–is considered? What is the price the people in Iraq paid for imperialist lie?

With that lie, a white lie, a lie told bluntly, hundreds of thousands of its citizens were killed and tortured in Iraq. The lie is now well-exposed, and the trail of destruction is well-recorded.

What shall happen to the liars? Shall those responsible for the killings and destruction be questioned, be issued warrant of arrest, be put on trial?

There’s no response to these questions. The mainstream–the mainstream media and the political arrangement–shall not even discuss the issue.

But, voices of dissent have not died. Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said Tony Blair, many in the UK call him as Tony Beliar, should face a tribunal for Iraq invasion. Speaking on MSNBC ahead of the 20th Iraq invasion anniversary, Hans Blix said, “in principle”, Blair and Bush should have faced consequences for their invasion–which is now widely regarded as illegal under international law. He said there should be a penalty for breaking the “principal rule” of the UN charter–not to “use force against the territorial integrity and independence of other states.”

Other than Bush and Blair, there are Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremer, and a few more in the gang.
Shall the ICC issue warrants of arrest for these gentlemen?

That business will go unattended as there’s the business with hypocrisy.

  [Contributed]
28-03-2023

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Vol 55, No. 42, April 16 - 22, 2023