Deprioritising US war crimes

The new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court plans to ‘deprioritise’ investigations into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan and focus on the Taliban and Daesh. The ICC had previously spent about 15 years taking note of alleged war crimes in the country before former chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a formal investigation last year. Although Bensouda’s successor Karim Khan said the change comes in light of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the decision is being seen with skepticism by most observers.

However, we must note that the court’s hands were already tied by the ousted Ghani government, which claimed it would probe US war crimes soon after the ICC announced its probe. Since the ICC’s mandate only allows it to investigate and prosecute war crimes when a member country is unable or unwilling to do so, Afghanistan’s ‘willingness’ to probe the allegations was enough to block the ICC probe. But with the Ghani government gone, that should not be an issue.

More problematic, however, is that Washington has been flouting international law for decades. Even though the US is not a member of the ICC, we would expect the self-proclaimed leader of the free world to at least respect a court that only investigates the worst human rights violations imaginable. But then, anyone who has ever seen the news would be familiar with US war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere since the ICC opened for business in 2002. While the US has, in some cases, prosecuted American war criminals, it is often only after the media reported on the crimes — as was the case with Abu Ghraib Prison and Bagram airbase, and several attacks on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the eyewash domestic prosecution of war crimes is exposed when the US elects a wannabe war criminal who pardons real war criminals, as was the case with Donald Trump pardoning almost every former American serviceman convicted of war crimes. Trump even ordered sanctions against ICC officials when the court opened its investigation. At the time, nobody in Congress formally opposed the move, showing the US lawmakers’ belief that America is above the law. In light of this, we must reiterate that ignoring or ‘deprioritising’ US war crimes is itself a crime.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2021.

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