{"id":114887,"date":"2021-06-04T16:20:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T23:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114887"},"modified":"2021-06-04T16:20:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T23:20:59","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/04\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-b\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY   Part 20 B"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>A <strong>WAR CRIME<\/strong> is an act that constitutes\na serious violation of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Laws_of_war\">laws of war<\/a>. Serious violations of international\nhumanitarian law constitute war crimes.\u201d (ICRC Rule 156). &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several lists of war crimes. Here\nare the current lists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) The Rome Statue of the International\nCriminal Court set up by the UN (1998, 2002) contains a long list of war\ncrimes.&nbsp; It is the most official of the\nlists. The list can be seen at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/resource-library\/documents\/rs-eng.pdf\">https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/resource-library\/documents\/rs-eng.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(2)The\nInternational committee of the Red Cross has also issued a list. (2005) it was\nprepared at the request of &nbsp;&nbsp;the 26th International Conference of the Red\nCross and Red Crescent in Geneva, in 1995. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icrc.org\/en\/doc\/assets\/files\/other\/customary-law-rules.pdf\">https:\/\/www.icrc.org\/en\/doc\/assets\/files\/other\/customary-law-rules.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;(3) The Statutes of the International Criminal\nTribunals for Yugoslavia (1993) Rwanda, (1994)) and Sierra Leone (2002) also\ncontain lists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ICRC LIST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The list of war crimes in both ICRC and ICC\nare very long. Here are some of the war crimes taken from the ICRC list. (International\nReview of ICRC Volume 87 Number 857 March 2005). I have selected only those items which would\nbe interest to Sri Lankan readers. Those who wish to look at the full list must\ngo to the links given above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the selection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Civilians<\/strong> must be protected during the war<strong>.<\/strong> Constant care must be taken to spare\nthe civilian population in the conduct of military operations<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The\nparties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and\ncombatants. <\/li><li>Attacks\nmay only be directed against combatants. <\/li><li>Attacks\nmust not be directed against civilians. <\/li><li>Civilians\nare protected against attack, unless and for such time as they take a direct\npart in hostilities.<\/li><li>Civilians\nmust be removed from the vicinity of military objectives. <\/li><li>Acts\nfor the purpose of spreading terror among the civilian population is\nprohibited. <\/li><li>The\nparties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilian objects\nand military objectives. Attacks may only be directed against military\nobjectives. Attacks must not be directed against civilian objects.<\/li><li>Indiscriminate\nattacks are prohibited.<\/li><li>Launching\nan attack where loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian\nobjects, will be greater than military advantage expected, is prohibited.<\/li><li>The\nuse of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare is\nprohibited. <\/li><li><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and\noutrages upon personal dignity are prohibited. <\/li><li>Children,\n(i.e. those under the age of 15) must not be recruited into armed forces or\narmed groups. <\/li><li>The\ntaking of hostages is prohibited. <\/li><li>Locating\nmilitary objective within or near densely populated areas. <\/li><li>\u2018Persons\ntaking no active part in the hostilities must be treated humanely, at all time,\nwithout any discrimination.<\/li><li>Displaced\npersons have a right to voluntary return in safety to their homes or places of\nhabitual residence as soon as the reasons for their displacement cease to\nexist. [<\/li><li>The\ne property rights of displaced persons must be respected. [IAC\/NIAC<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Other persons who<\/strong> are protectedas long as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>doctors<\/li><li>religious\npersons<\/li><li>Journalists\nengaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Protected places are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>H<\/strong>ospitals\n<\/li><li>&nbsp;zones established to shelter the wounded, the\nsick and civilians from the effects of hostilities<\/li><li>&nbsp;non-defended locality <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Strategies that are forbidden <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Taking\nof hostages is prohibited. <\/li><li>The\nuse of human shields is prohibited. <\/li><li>The\nimproper use of the white flag of truce is prohibited such as using the flag as\na ruse to mount an attack on enemy troops. <\/li><li>The\nuse of chemical weapons is prohibited. <\/li><li>The use of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chemical_weapon\">chemical<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Biological_agent\">biological weapons<\/a> in\nwarfare are also prohibited by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_chemical_arms_control_agreements\">numerous chemical arms control agreements<\/a> and\nthe <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Biological_Weapons_Convention\">Biological Weapons Convention<\/a>. <\/li><li>Wearing enemy uniforms or civilian\nclothes to infiltrate enemy lines for <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Espionage\">espionage<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sabotage\">sabotage<\/a>\nmissions is a legitimate <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ruse_of_war\">ruse of war<\/a>,\nthough fighting in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Combat\">combat<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Assassinations\">assassinating<\/a>\nindividuals, even if they are military targets, behind enemy lines while so\ndisguised is not, as it constitutes unlawful <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Perfidy\">perfidy<\/a>. <\/li><li>&nbsp;using starvation of civilians as a method of\nwarfare <\/li><li>Using prohibited weapons. <\/li><li>Destruction\nof property not required by military necessity. (scorched earth\u201d policy). <\/li><li>Directing\nan attack against a demilitarized zone agreed upon between the parties to the\nconflict is prohibited.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Individuals\nare criminally responsible for war crimes they commit. <\/li><li>Commanders\nand other superiors are criminally responsible for war crimes committed\npursuant to their orders. <\/li><li>Commanders\nand other superiors are criminally responsible for war crimes committed by their\nsubordinates if they knew that the subordinates were about to commit or were\ncommitting such crimes and did not take all necessary and reasonable measures\nin their power to pre-vent their commission, or if such crimes had been\ncommitted, to punish the persons responsible. <\/li><li>Every\ncombatant has a duty to disobey a manifestly unlawful order. <\/li><li>Obeying\na superior order does not relieve a subordinate of criminal responsibility if\nthe subordinate knew that the act ordered was unlawful or should have known\nbecause of the manifestly unlawful nature of the act ordered.<\/li><li>Commanders\nand other superiors can be held criminally responsible for grave breaches and\nother serious violations of humanitarian law committed pursuant to their\norders.<\/li><li>They\ncan also be held individually responsible for failing to take proper measures\nto prevent their subordinates from committing such violations, or failing to\npunish the persons responsible. &nbsp;(\nCONTINUED) <\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KAMALIKA PIERIS A WAR CRIME is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the laws of war. Serious violations of international humanitarian law constitute war crimes.\u201d (ICRC Rule 156). &nbsp; There are several lists of war crimes. Here are the current lists. (1) The Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court set up by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}