<Though it had kept it a secret, the French government had much the same objection to the court as the American government ? that its peacekeepers could be hauled before the court.
... the French government had secretly negotiated a seven-year exemption for its own peacekeepers back in 1998.
>
Yes, Lindy. It would be a shame if the heroic peacekeeping frogmen and woman who murdered a Portugese photographer on board the dangerously-armed Rainbow Warrior in a state-sponsored terrorist act in my village harbour had to face the scales of justice.
They came a heck of a long way, all the way from France to New Zealand to fight for peace by blowing up a Greenpeace boat. They were French "freedom fighters". Not the type who should be hauled before an international court.
I believe the attack was a French-led deliberate act to show NZers who the hell is boss and that an anti-nuclear policy was going to get us bombed. That shows the morality and ethics of at least the French and I believe also the British [who supplied the inflatable boats] and probably the USA. The French did NOT expect to be caught red-handed.
And we are their "friends". Imagine what happens to their strategic competitors. I can imagine that those on the receiving end of more enthusiastic belligerence from French, British and American 'freedom fighters' sometimes feel like a bit of Utu. [Maori word for payback, revenge, rebalancing etc].
Big, tough people, including sole remaining superpowers, have to be somewhat circumspect about throwing their weight around. It's a peculiar aspect of human spirit that bullies don't necessarily get their own way. Freedom is a shining light in the human mind, not easily crushed into subjugation. Having immunity from prosecution so My Lai and Rainbow Warrior 'freedom fighting' can be carried out with impunity grates on some people.
What's required is not immunity, but a sensible legal system so that governments can have confidence that the criminal regimes around the world don't set up kangaroo courts. Looking at the silly 'save the world' jamboree in South Africa, we are far from any kind of sense in the international sphere - they seemed to just want to help themselves to what creative wealthy people produce. Same old thing.
Meanwhile, it's back to the jungle rules. Until the matrix of malevolence is overthrown by civilisation, we can expect more of the same. If people don't like the USA ruling the roost, they'll have to come up with an international system which makes sense and defeats the likes of Osama and Saddam. So far, they aren't making any serious moves in that direction.
Mqurice |
