Tuesday, March 04, 2008

  • Colombia's Uribe to bring charges against Chavez in the ICC


    AFP is reporting that Colombia's ambassador to the UN will bring charges against Chavez today before the International Criminal Court for "patronizing and financing genocide."

    Why "genocide"? Why not "terrorism," since FARC is officially considered a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA? Because following the Second World War, genocide is the one thing the world's nations have all formally committed to stopping such that when something is declared a genocide (as opposed to "acts of genocide"), there's legal grounds for military intervention.

    I wonder how this case will test the strength of the ICC. We're living in an interesting time when we see tensions between the authority of the nation versus supranational organizations (like the UN, World Bank, and ICC). At times it seems like these organizations have a lot of power to make international decisions, but the power to make binding decisions over nations requires that nations cede authority.

    And the accusation of attempting to purchase uranium? Is that true or yet another convenient appeal (this time to the fear that terrorist organizations and rogue states might acquire weapons of mass destruction)? And even if it is true, was the FARC the intended recipient of the uranium or just another middleman?




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