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The case against
Musharraf
By Sanaullah Baloch ; 24-09-2009 ; dawn.com
IN the last six decades a significant number of so-called state leaders have
been prosecuted and brought before various domestic and international courts
and tribunals for their official and unofficial crimes against humanity and
genocide.
Unfortunately, the most unpopular state leaders have enjoyed lifetime
immunity in domestic and foreign courts for their sanctioned and
unsanctioned crimes. Many of them enjoyed personal immunity that lasts
during their tenure for all unofficial acts such as looting state coffers or
murdering political rivals.
After creating political and economic disarray and committing atrocities,
the majority of detested world leaders moved to different countries that
offered them protection and pleasure. But, including Pakistan’s former
military dictator Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, a great number of the world’s
reviled state heads have remained in their countries, benefiting from their
institutional connections, an incapable judicial system and the state’s lack
of will to try former and sitting rulers for unlawful and inhuman acts.
The lack of legal and institutional capacity and willingness to try
dictators and corrupt civil-military bureaucrats has resulted in an endless
crisis of governance and trust in Pakistan. Deliberate ignorance by the
legal and state institutions have benefited human rights violators, corrupt
and criminal prime ministers, presidents, and miscreant dictators to escape
justice, to live in cosy retirement, often with wealth dishonestly
accumulated.
But internationally a positive change of approach has been experienced, to
try rogue leaders for their crimes. Consensus also has been developed among
the legal community around the world that all those involved in crimes
against humanity must be prosecuted domestically and internationally,
because some of these crimes are so disgraceful they can never be considered
a part of any leader’s official duties. The statutes of the International
Criminal Court and other international tribunals specifically declare that
an official capacity or rank by itself is no defence against prosecution.
This month in Poland the country’s former communist leader and head of
state, Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski, who is now 85 and in poor health, has gone
on trial accused of committing a crime by imposing martial law in 1981.
Reading the charges, the prosecutor said the men had violated their own
communist constitution when they created what he called a “criminal military
organisation” to implement martial law in Dec 1981. Eight other former
officials will also be tried for the clampdown against the opposition
Solidarity movement, during which dozens of people were killed.
However, there is little hope among the marginalised people and victims of
Musharraf’s rule that the former military dictator will be persecuted for
looting, treason and grave human rights violations. No doubt, there is a
general perception among the marginalised people of Pakistan that ethnically
dominant and superior leaders in Pakistan are above any law and protected
for all their crimes. This time round there is a need that an ex-army man
must be held accountable for his evident and committed crimes.
There is little disagreement among Pakistani citizens that the Musharraf era
is marked with state highhandedness against citizens. Undermining the
constitution, bombing Balochistan, killing and persecuting Baloch veteran
leaders, kidnapping political activists, sacking judges, killing lawyers,
promoting centre-province confrontation and corruption are enough to
prosecute Mr Musharraf in domestic and international courts.
In the recent past, a number of the world’s errant leaders have been brought
before the domestic and international courts for human rights abuses. Some
have been convicted, others are on trial.
Internationally there is a growing trend to make all leaders accountable and
prosecute rogue rulers. Radovan Karadzic has been recently arrested and
shifted to ICC at Hague to face criminal charges. Sudan’s president Omar Al-Bashir
has also been summoned by the International Court of Justice for his human
rights crimes and genocide in Darfur.
We have an entire history of cases where war criminals and human rights
abusers have been brought before tribunals and convicted for their sins.
During 1945-49, the Nuremberg trials, the largest in history, that lasted
four years, brought the Nazi regime and the engineers of the Holocaust to
justice. Major war criminals were sentenced to death. In the 12 other cases
that followed, 65 defendants were convicted and more than 20 executed.
In 1948 under the watch of US Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur, an
international military tribunal prosecuted and executed Japan’s former Prime
Minister Hideki Tojo and 28 high-ranking Japanese leaders for war crimes. In
1989 after almost 25 years of communist reign in Romania, President Nicolae
Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were found guilty of crimes against humanity
by a secret military tribunal. The two were executed on Christmas Day 1989.
Rwanda’s former prime minister, Jean Kambanda, pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda. Argentina’s military dictator Captain Adolfo Scilingo (1976-1983)
was convicted in April 2005 by the Spanish court (1995-2005) almost 10 years
after his alleged human rights crimes. The late Chilean leader Pinochet was
prosecuted by the country’s supreme court in 2004.
The UN-Sierra Leone joint tribunal was set up in 2002 to try Liberia’s
former President Charles Taylor and those most responsible for crimes
against humanity, for war crimes and attacks against UN peacekeepers.
Musharraf including his team must be put on trial before domestic and
international courts for official and unofficial crimes. All victims must be
provided an opportunity to come forth with evidence before the judicial
institutions. This process will not only assist the overall failed state
system to improve its stained image, it will also strengthen the people’s
trust in institutions.
The Supreme Court Bar Council of Pakistan, the HRCP, vibrant civil society
and other concerned organisations need to go for a fresh strategy, to
discourage human rights violators and take their cases to world bodies. The
legal community must activate its professional capacity to surround the
high-profile culprits taking them before domestic and international courts
of law for their unforgettable crimes.
The writer is a former member of senate.
balochbnp@gmail.com
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Discussion
between Zardari and Ahmadinejad at the UN
By Koulmir Namiran ; 25-09-2008
; Balochi_Cutural Yahoo Group
A meeting took place at the UN between Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari
and Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad on 23 Sept. 08. What possibly was
discussed was something like bellow.
Ahmadinejad:
Ya
Ali, Salam Mr President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Asif A zardari:
Alayk Salaam wa Rahmatollah wa barkatohu, How do you do?
Ahmadinejad:
Still
need a bit more!
Asif A Zardari:
A bit more what?
Ahmadinejad:
I thought you were told about it!
Asif A Zardari:
Told about what, can you explain?
Ahmadinejad:
Don't you have a Guardian
Council to explain things before hand?
Asif A Zardari:
Guardian Council! What could that possibly be?
Ahmadinejad:
If you don't know about our Guardian Council, that mean you know nothing
about Iran.
Asif A Zardari:
My ancestors are Iranian, how do you say I don't know about it?
Ahmadinejad:
Really! That is nice to know. And that makes it easier for us to do business
each other.
Asif A Zardari:
Talking business! Wow, I love business. What are you selling Mr President?
Ahmadinejad:
We are selling lots of things; be it oil, plastic material and products,
pistachio, saffron; we even sell caviar. You can say we are the best of
exporters.
Asif A Zardari:
Sorry, we are not interested in those.
Ahmadinejad:
Really, I thought your ancestors were Iranian; Iranians love these things
particularly nuts and pistachio.
Asif A Zardari:
I am not like the rest of Iranian; I am a Baluch.
Ahmadinejad:
Baluch!!! I know them. Actually my authorities have killed them in large
numbers. They are terrorists and drug dealers…
At
this instant Ahmadinejad' s advisor tries to divert the attention of the
president, but president continues.
…they are playing in the hands of the enemies.
Asif A Zardari:
I am so glad that my ancestors left Iran or else I might have
been hanged long ago.
Ahmadijejad:
What make you say that?
Asif A zardari:
You just told me that Baluch were drug dealers and terrorists; I had not
been any different.
Ahamdinejad:
(Regretting
what he had said)
I didn't mean all Baluch; there are some Baluch out there who do exactly
what we tell them. They are like trained dogs! Another large number behaves
like sheep; they just have
their
heads down and push the day.
Asif A Zardari:
In my country we as Baluch are respected and treated equal. They even choose
them leaders,
like me. Look at me. I am a Baluch and yet president of Pakistan.
Ahmadinejad: Don't think this is an overstatement? My advisors
telling me that your country is also crushing
Baluch for the
same reasons.
Asif
A Zardari:
It has happened during dictatorial regimes, not when democracy!
Ahmadinejad:
Are
you sure? Wasn't it your father-in-law who ordered army operation on Baluch
in 1970s?
Asif A Zardari:
I thought you didn't know much about
Pakistan; you seem to have done your home work! Any how he wasn't my
father-in-law then. I don't intend to allow any operation or genocide in
Baluchistan or
elsewhere in my country. As matter of fact I wanted to warn you too. If you
continue treating Baluch like third
class citizens, we will have to act in their
defence.
Ahmadinejad:
You Act?! And what would that be
that you do? Your own hands are practically tied behind your
back.
Asif A Zardari:
(Gets
annoyed and stands up)
Sorry. I can't continue this fruitless dialogue with you.
Ahmadinejad:
Suit yourself.
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