Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 12/Sep 09:24

Trinidad and Tobago must speak out on genocide

THE EDITOR: Silence is complicity. TT cannot remain quiet while genocide unfolds before our very eyes in Gaza. Western leaders who lecture on human rights and international law are themselves complicit. The same men and women who rightly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are mute when faced with far worse in Gaza. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union declared Russia must be held accountable for the torture and killing of civilians. Yet soon after, she visited Israel refusing to denounce even the bombing of schools, hospitals and refugee camps while Europe and America supply the very weapons used against a people with no means of defending themselves. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, once a human rights lawyer, condemned Russian war crimes while in opposition. Today, as prime minister, he claims politicians should not “judge” genocide even as UNICEF reports that Israel is killing the equivalent of a classroom of children every single day. If this is not hypocrisy, what is? What are the facts? The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and Holocaust experts have warned that Israel’s campaign in Gaza meets all five criteria of genocide under the 1948 UN Convention: Killing members of the group – tens of thousands, mostly civilians, many of them children. Causing serious bodily or mental harm – amputations, burns, trauma, entire families erased. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction – 36 of 36 hospitals bombed or disabled, deliberate denial of food, water, medicine, and fuel. Imposing measures to prevent births – pregnant women denied maternity care, forced to give birth in rubble. Forcibly transferring children – thousands detained, disappeared, displaced. We in TT remember with pride that our own ANR Robinson was instrumental in establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Today, that very court is sanctioned, its judges threatened, its rulings against Israel blocked by the US and its allies. The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine is vilified. At the security council, Israel is shielded from accountability time and again. This should matter deeply to small nations like ours in the Caribbean, part of the Global South. If powerful nations can erase international law when it suits them, then in any future global conflict, who will defend us? Israel’s recent actions in Qatar only reinforce the point. Qatar was working to broker a United States peace proposal when Hamas negotiators were seemingly lured into a death trap. This is eerily similar to the assassination of Iranian negotiators before the recent Israel-Iran conflict. Our Caribbean story is one of oppression and survival. Over five million enslaved Africans were brought here. Millions perished under colonial brutality. That is our history. That is why we understand, perhaps more than most, what genocide and erasure mean. We have always stood for equity even under the threat of sanctions. If we do not speak out now, we forfeit the right to speak later. Worse, if this silence continues, global conflict may soon erupt and when refugees, including our own diaspora, seek safety in the Caribbean, will we be ready? If we do not defend justice abroad, who will defend peace here? We must raise our voices now, or we will have none to raise tomorrow. KIERON BLACKMAN Diego Martin The post Trinidad and Tobago must speak out on genocide appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.