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From: David Josephy <josephy@chembio.uoguelph.ca> Dear Eric, With regard to: > The Milosevic Indictment, by Stephen R. Shalom > ... the Tribunal does not represent objective justice: > ... by being restricted to violations of humanitarian law in the > former Yugoslavia, some of the worst atrocities in the world are ignored. > Thus, U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq that have taken such a tremendous > human toll are immune from criticism, as are massacres in Turkey, East > Timor ... How very ironic; this is precisely the same argument that the right wing repeatedly used against Vietnam war protesters in the 1960s; I remember it well. "Why are you denouncing the US war in Vietnam, when you are silent about the Russian (Chinese, whatever) atrocities in Czechoslovakia (Korea, wherever)." Of course, then as now, the premise is false: it is generally the very *same* people who are defending the human rights of the Vietnamese (then) and Kosovars (now) who also defend the human rights of the Czechs (then) or Iraqis (now). Also, then as now, citizens of the Western democracies can powerfully influence the actions of their own governments --- whereas protests outside the Soviet (then) or Indonesian (now) embassies, while laudable, have little or no impact on those foreign governments. To argue that no action should be taken against any war criminals until each and every one of the world's problems is resolved is just an argument for doing nothing. Yes, it is time to halt the bombing and permit a negotiated settlement. But we must also pursue Milosevic until he is brought to justice at the Hague. David Josephy David Josephy Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Univ. of Guelph, Guelph Ontario Canada N1G 2W1 phone 519 824 4120 ext. 3833 (lab. ext. 4590) FAX 519 766 1499 http://www.chembio.uoguelph.ca/josephy/
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