ThomasMore
06-28-2001, 11:27 PM
The Hague has dropped its charges against Milosevic from genocide, which it could not prove, to war crimes, which has a lower threshold of proof, and which may be more common in any military conflict.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>The tribunal is helping to set an important and ironic precedent. By dropping the genocide charge, the court has set a relatively undemanding hurdle for trying heads of state or military leaders. And the ICTY's most serious charges -- crimes against humanity -- are not iron-clad in the sense that the crimes are not on the scale of, say, Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan.
As a result, the threshold for crimes against humanity -- and their ferocity -- have been signficantly lowered. If an unpopular but democratically elected former leader like Milosevic can be indicted, extradited and tried for these crimes, so can many other political leaders in a variety of governments around the world.
Every leader who has sent troops into conflict is liable for civilian deaths or excessive force....
On this front, Americans may have some of the greatest legal exposure. Former President Clinton ordered U.S. operations in Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan -- all of which resulted in civilian deaths. U.S. military officers may face additional legal exposure abroad, as would officers in the Canadian, British and Nordic militaries who contribute forces to peacekeeping operations.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
To read more, link to: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,28365,00.html
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>The tribunal is helping to set an important and ironic precedent. By dropping the genocide charge, the court has set a relatively undemanding hurdle for trying heads of state or military leaders. And the ICTY's most serious charges -- crimes against humanity -- are not iron-clad in the sense that the crimes are not on the scale of, say, Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan.
As a result, the threshold for crimes against humanity -- and their ferocity -- have been signficantly lowered. If an unpopular but democratically elected former leader like Milosevic can be indicted, extradited and tried for these crimes, so can many other political leaders in a variety of governments around the world.
Every leader who has sent troops into conflict is liable for civilian deaths or excessive force....
On this front, Americans may have some of the greatest legal exposure. Former President Clinton ordered U.S. operations in Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan -- all of which resulted in civilian deaths. U.S. military officers may face additional legal exposure abroad, as would officers in the Canadian, British and Nordic militaries who contribute forces to peacekeeping operations.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
To read more, link to: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,28365,00.html