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NATO Genocide in Afghanistan
By Ali Khan
30/01/08 "ICH" -- -- Ali Khan argues that the internationally
recognized crime of genocide applies to the intentional killings
that NATO troops commit on a weekly basis in the poor villages
and mute mountains of Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban.
Sloganeers, propagandists and politicians often use the word
"genocide" in ways that the law does not permit. But rarely is
the crime of genocide invoked when Western militaries murder
Muslim groups. This essay argues that the internationally
recognized crime of genocide applies to the intentional killings
that NATO troops commit on a weekly basis in the poor villages
and mute mountains of Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban, a
puritanical Islamic group. NATO combat troops bombard and kill
people in Taliban enclaves and meeting places. They also murder
defenseless Afghan civilians. The dehumanized label of "Taliban"
is used to cloak the nameless victims of NATO operations. Some
political opposition to this practice is building in NATO
countries, such as Canada, where calls are heard to withdraw
troops from Afghanistan or divert them to non-combat tasks.
Dehumanization
In almost all NATO nations, the Taliban have been completely
dehumanized — a historically-tested signal that perpetrators of
the crime of genocide carry unmitigated intentions to eradicate
the dehumanized group. Politicians, the armed forces, the media,
and even the general public associate in the West the Taliban
with irrational fanatics, intolerant fundamentalists, brutal
assassins, beheaders of women, bearded extremists, and
terrorists. This luminescent negativity paves the way for
aggression, military operations, and genocide. Promoting the
predatory doctrine of collective self-defense, killing the
Taliban is celebrated as a legal virtue. To leave the Taliban in
control of Afghanistan, says NATO, is to leave a haven for
terrorism.
A similar dehumanization took place in the 16th and 17th
centuries when NATO precursors occupied the Americas to purloin
land and resources. The killings of native inhabitants were
extensive and heartless. Thomas Jefferson, the noble author of
the Declaration of Independence, labeled Indians as "merciless
savages." President Andrew Jackson pontificated: "What good man
would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few
thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities,
towns, and prosperous farms." Promoting the predatory doctrine
of discovery, the United States Supreme Court later ratified the
pilgrims' crimes, holding that "discovery gave an exclusive
right to extinguish the Indian title (to land). ([T]he Indians
were fierce savages...To leave them in possession of their
country was to leave the country a wilderness."
The predators have not changed their stripes a bit. They come,
they demonize, they obliterate. They do all this in the name of
superior civilization.
The Facts
The NATO website lists its killings in Afghanistan. These
killings are also reported in the world media, often with a
shameless tone of gratitude as if NATO forces are engaged in
wiping out cannibals. In 2007 alone, NATO helicopters and
precision guided munitions bombed and killed over six thousand
"Taliban." Read the following recent attacks, which the NATO
itself reports, and smell the scent of genocide:
• On January 19, 2008, NATO launched a preemptive strike relying
on "credible intelligence" that the Taliban were planning to
mass on a NATO base. The attack killed two dozen "insurgents" in
the Watapoor District of Kunar Province, though the exact number
of casualties could not be confirmed because of the rough
mountainous region. The world media reported that numerous
civilians were killed and 25 bodies were buried in just one mass
grave.
• On January 12, 2008, NATO forces conducted what it calls a
"precise strike" on a compound in Kapsia Province targeting
Taliban leaders. NATO claimed that the civilians were cleared
from the compound before the attack. The claim is absurd because
any removal of civilians from the compound would have alerted
the battle-hardened Taliban that an enemy attack was imminent.
• On September 20, 2007, NATO forces launched "Operation Palk
Wahel" to kill and remove the Taliban from an area in the Upper
Gereshk Valley. Numerous civilians were killed. The evidence of
the genocide was so obvious that NATO admitted that it "was
unaware of civilians in the vicinity of the target and
unfortunately it appears that a number of non-combatants were
caught in the attack and killed."
The Law
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide (entered into force, 1951) is binding on all states
including the 26 member states of NATO. The Genocide Convention
is jus cogens, the law from which no derogation is allowed. It
provides no exceptions for any nation or any organization of
nations, such as the United Nations or NATO, to commit genocide.
Nor does the Convention allow any exceptions to genocide
"whether committed in time of peace or in time of war." Even
traditional self-defense - let alone preemptive self-defense, a
deceptive name for aggression – cannot be invoked to justify or
excuse the crime of genocide.
In murdering the Taliban, NATO armed forces systematically
practice on a continual basis the crime of genocide that
consists of three constituent elements - act, intent to destroy,
and religious group. The crime, as defined in the Convention, is
analyzed below:
1. Act. The Convention lists five acts, each of which qualifies
as genocide. NATO forces in Afghanistan are committing three of
the five acts. They are killing members of the Taliban. They are
causing serious bodily harm to members of the Taliban. They are
deliberately inflicting on the Taliban conditions of life
calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or
in part. Any of these three acts committed one time constitutes
the crime of genocide. NATO combat troops have been committing,
and continue to commit, these acts through multiple means and
weapons.
2. Intent to Destroy. The crime of genocide is a crime of
intent. It must be shown that NATO combat troops and the high
command ordering these troops carry the requisite intent to
destroy the Taliban. Mere negligent killings do not qualify as
genocide. The statements of NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer and those of NATO spokesmen leave no doubt that
the NATO conducts military operations to "hunt and destroy" the
Taliban. Preemptive strikes to kill the Taliban are sufficient
proof that NATO troops and commanding generals have specific
intent to destroy as many Taliban members as they can find. The
weekly murderous planning and intelligence gathering to locate
and eliminate the Taliban leaders and members further
demonstrate that the killings in Afghanistan are not negligent,
accidental, or by mistake. For all legal purposes, NATO's
incessant and deliberate killings of the Taliban are powered
with the specific intent to destroy a religious group.
3. Religious Group. The Genocide Convention is far from
universal in that it does not protect all groups from genocide.
Its protection covers only four groups: national, ethnic, racial
and religious. (Political groups are not protected). The
Convention does not require the complete eradication of a
protected group as a necessary condition for the crime of
genocide. Even part destruction of a protected group constitutes
the crime. It is no secret that the Taliban are a religious
group. (They may also qualify as a national (Afghan) or ethnic (Pushtun)
group). The Taliban advocate and practice a puritanical version
of Islam. The Convention does not demand that the protected
group advocate and practice a form of religion acceptable to the
West or the world. The questionable beliefs and practices of a
religious group are no reasons to destroy the group. That the
Taliban are armed or support terrorism or oppress women are
unlawful excuses to commit genocide. (All reasons that Hitler
had to murder Jews would be simply irrelevant under the
Convention).
The Holding
It may, therefore, be safely concluded that NATO combat troops
and NATO commanders are engaged in murdering the Taliban, a
protected group under the Genocide Convention, with the specific
intent to physically and mentally destroy the group in whole or
in part. This is the crime of genocide.
Ali Khan is a professor at Washburn University School of Law
in Kansas. This essay is previously published in JURIST
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