What has slowly and painfully come to be revealed through the debriefing of those who have through great struggle re-emerged into the light of lawful day, is shocking beyond belief; that human beings in authority have done what has been done to these men is a sickening indictment of how the world has not matured, and not progressed. And yet crimes against humanity, and war crimes, are defined thus:-
"Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of the 12th August 1949, including
torture or inhuman treatment; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to
body or health, wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of
the right to a fair and regular trial; unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful
confinement."
What of those who have perpetrated these crimes against humanity? Two issues need to concern us urgently in Britain. The visual images put out by the US military showed us in part what the US was doing and the seven year debate in the USA as to the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield redefinition of torture and its abusive practices has been conducted in public. Whistleblowers in the USA are a protected species. But here, the part played by our Intelligence Services, and in turn our Foreign Office and our Home Office, has remained in large part secret. There are no dramatic visual images that tell us the reality. Yet they were there, in many cases it was they who told the Americans where to locate British nationals and British residents, it was they who provided information that could be and was used in conditions of torture, and it was and is they who have received the product.
The question of how far we will in this country ever properly know the extent of British participation deserves to be a burning issue; we should not take for granted that there will be judicial enquiries or court cases in which we, the public, will know what we need to know about the complicity of our government in crimes against humanity. There will be and is already a continuous assertion by the Government that any issue that relates to the Intelligence Services, and any issue that relates to the conduct of diplomatic relationships, should not see the light of day in normal courts, but should be confined to special courts, and/or the evidence should be heard in secret. This is not the way that the most basic principles of democratic responsibility and due process should be exercised in even the most normal of instances. In relation to issues of such moral seriousness and public importance as the issues raised here, in the wider interests of a healthy society nationally and internationally as a whole, we must not let that happen.
It is all too obvious that the reality of guarantees of human rights does not come from the top down, but has to be fought for, generation by generation, that they be observed, preserved, or, as is demanded now in this century, reinstated. We should not let the burden rest upon the victims themselves, whose accounts have been so carefully assembled here, to ensure that the secret state is held properly and publicly to account.
Comments
Hide the following comment
See also...
10.04.2009 10:03
Chris