Genocide, War Crimes and the West

Adam Jones is currently Professor of International Studies at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. He is author of Beyond the Barricades: Nicaragua and the Struggle for the Sandinista Press, 1979-1998 ( 2002), and editor of Gendercide and Genocide (forthcoming). His scholarly articles have appeared in Review of International Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Genocide Research, Journal of Human Rights, and other publications. He is Executive Director of Gendercide Watch (www.gendercide.org), a Web-based educational initiative.

'This exceptionally well selected, brilliantly edited collection of writings provides the most comprehensive treatment of Western responsibility for mass atrocity yet published. The cumulative impact of the volume is a devastating indictment of state terrorism as practised by the West, both historically, and now after September 11 in the name of "anti-terrorism." 'Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University'In the names of millions of forgotten victims, from Wounded Knee to My Lai, a brilliant tribunal of scholars assail the himalayan hypocrisy of "Western humanitarianism." 'Mike Davis, author of Late Victorian Holocausts‘Like communist and third world regimes, Western states have been opponents, bystanders, accomplices and perpetrators of genocide and war crimes. In different cases, they have also variously ignored, denied, covered up, re-examined, recanted, and refused to apologise for their roles. Is there a pattern here? "Genocide, War Crimes & the West" is definitely worth reading. In case studies and thematic essays, the authors offer a variety of answers and raise important new questions about democracy, foreign policy, and international law, uncovering the complexity along with the complicity in the West‘s relationships and approaches to genocide and war crimes.‘Ben Kiernan, Yale University, and editor of Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia.'This book documents one of the darkest chapters in recent history. It tells the story of what the "First World" - the Western democracies, most prominently the United States -- have done mainly against countries and peoples in the South and in the former socialist world. It is a history of aggression, indiscriminate bombing, war crimes, and massacres since the 1970s, the story of Western complicity in genocide in the South and East, and worse, it is about genocide committed by these democracies themselves. This path-breaking book fills a huge void; it carefully accounts for serious crimes that others have shamefully avoided, omitted or denied.'Christian P. Scherrer, Hiroshima Peace Institute, Japan; author of Genocide and Crisis.‘A revealing compendium of studies regarding the crimes against humanity committed by "Western democracies." This book should give citizens a better sense of those parts of our history that remain largely unexamined and untaught.‘Michael Parenti, author of "The Terrorism Trap" and "The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People‘s History of Ancient Rome"

• ContentsPart I: Overview1. Introduction: Genocide, War Crimes and the West - Adam Jones2. Shades of Complicity: Towards a Typology of Transnational Crimes against Humanity - Peter StoettPart II: Genocide, War Crimes and the West3. Imperial Germany and the Herero of Southern Africa: Genocide and the Quest for Recompense - Jan-Bart Gewald4. Genocide by Any Other Name: North American Indian Residential Schools in Context - Ward Churchill5. The Allies in World War Two: The Anglo-American Bombardment of German Cities - Eric Langenbacher6. Torture and Other Violations of the Law by the French Army during the Algerian War - Raphaëlle Branche7. Atrocity and Its Discontents: U.S. Double-Mindedness about Massacre, from the Plains Wars to Indonesia - Peter Dale Scott8. Bob Kerrey's Atrocity, the Crime of Vietnam, and the Historic Pattern of U.S. Imperialism - S. Brian WillsonDocument 1(1) Inaugural Statement to the Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal (1966) -- Jean-Paul Sartre9. Charles Horman et alia vs. Henry Kissinger: U.S. Intervention in 1970s Chile and the Case for Prosecutions - Mario I. Aguilar10. The Wretched of the Nations: The West's Role in Human Rights Violationsin the Bangladesh War of Independence - Suhail Islam and Syed Hassan11. Indicting Henry Kissinger: The Response of Raphael Lemkin - Steven L. Jacobs12. Crimes of the West in Democratic Congo: Reflections on Belgian Acceptance of "Moral Responsibility" for the Death of Lumumba - Thomas Turner13. In the Name of the Cold War: How the West Aided and Abetted the Barre Dictatorship of Somalia - Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi14. The Security Council: Behind the Scenes in the Rwanda Genocide - Linda R. Melvern15. U.S. Policy and Iraq: A Case of Genocide? - Denis J. HallidayDocuments 2 & 3(2) Criminal Complaint against the United States and Others for Crimes against the People of Iraq - Ramsey Clark(3) Letter to the Security Council (2001) - Ramsey Clark16. The Fire in 1999? The United States, Nato, and the Bombing of Yugoslavia - David Bruce Macdonald17. Collateral Damage: The Human Cost of Structural Violence - Peter G. ProntzosPart III: Truth and Restitution18. Institutional Responses to Genocide and Mass Atrocity - Ernesto Verdeja19. International Citizens' Tribunals on Human Rights - Arthur Jay Klinghoffer20. Coming to Terms with the Past: The Case for a Truth and Reparations Commission on Slavery, Segregation, and Colonialism - Francis Njubi NesbittDocument 4(4) Declarations on the Transatlantic Slave Trade - World Conference against Racism:Part IV: Closing Observations21. Afghanistan and Beyond - Adam Jones22. Letter to America - Breyten BreytenbachIndex