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CRI Journal Issue 1 (2004)
Beslan boy recalls hostage horror
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Reproduced courtesy of BBC News
The boy turns to the camera in terror as the masked man flashes a white-gloved hand at the detonator under his foot.
The image of 10-year-old Georgy Farniyev was seen all over the world when a video shot by the hostage-takers inside the school in Beslan was released.
He could easily have been among the more than 300 who died - but miraculously he survived.
The woman and girl visible at his left in the video are both believed to be dead.
"They said: 'Sit down and if you make any noise, we will kill 20 children,'" Georgy told BBC correspondent Andrew Burroughs.
Body bags
Georgy left the siege with cuts to his leg and arm. His injuries require further treatment but are not thought to be serious.
His mother told British newspaper The Sun how hours of sifting through body-bags ended with a call from a hospital, saying a boy matching Georgy's description had been found alive.
"It was the worst imaginable torture each time I looked inside the bags containing the remains of children, the ones with the most space inside," she said.
"Each time I thought I was about to see the face of my dead son - and each time I felt the most incredible relief before moving down the line to do it again," she said.
Burst pipe
It is not entirely clear how Georgy emerged alive from the siege, avoiding the gunfight between rebels and Russian commandos and the bomb blasts that brought the school's roof down.
He told The Sun he was barely five metres from the first mine detonated inside the building on Friday.
"The explosion was very close to me and I still don't understand why I wasn't killed. I sat up and was just dazed while everyone else seemed to be screaming."
He says he asked one of his captors if he could get water to drink, then made his way to a room with a burst pipe.
Behind him, another explosion shook the building - thought to be from mines wired to the basketball hoops inside the school gymnasium.
'I was going to live'
He returned to a scene of carnage.
"There were body parts - arms and legs - everywhere and wounded people screaming for help as the gunmen carried on firing at them.
"In the middle of it all was a dead woman who had been blown into two parts by one of the bombs.
"Everyone in the area where I had been sitting was dead from the explosions."
Shrapnel was lodged in his arm and he removed it before going to hide, he told the Associated Press.
Amid the chaos, a pair of hands hoisted him out - it was a Russian soldier.
"I couldn't believe it - I was going to live," he said.
A phrase crops up several times in his account. He repeated it like a mantra throughout the ordeal: "Stay as quiet as a mouse... as quiet as a mouse."
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 World leaders hear U.N. chief criticize violation of basic laws from Iraq to Russia to Sudan
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Click here to read more on SFgate.com
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday Sept. 21, 2004. Note: photo is from Associated Press pool photo
My intro :
In an address to the UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General said today ( 21 September 2004 New York) that fundamental international laws are being "shamelessly disregarded" and called on world leaders to "foster the rule of law at home and abroad" by signing international treaties on the protection of civilians.
Quote:
[W]e have reached a fork in the road. If you, the political leaders of the world's nations, cannot reach agreement on the way forward, history will take the decisions for you, and the interests of your peoples may go by default.
Today I will not seek to pre-judge those decisions, but to remind you of the all-important framework in which they should be taken - namely, the rule of law, in each country and in the world.
The vision of "a government of laws and not of men" is almost as old as civilisation itself. In a hallway not far from this podium is a replica of the code of laws promulgated by Hammurabi more than three thousand years ago, in the land we now call Iraq....
Yet today the rule of law is at risk around the world. Again and again, we see fundamental laws shamelessly disregarded - those that ordain respect for innocent life, for civilians, for the vulnerable - especially children.
To mention only a few flagrant and topical examples: In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood, while relief workers, journalists and other non-combatants are taken hostage and put to death in the most barbarous fashion. At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused.
In Darfur, we see whole populations displaced, and their homes destroyed, while rape is used as a deliberate strategy.
In northern Uganda, we see children mutilated, and forced to take part in acts of unspeakable cruelty.
In Beslan, we have seen children taken hostage and brutally massacred.
In Israel we see civilians, including children, deliberately targeted by Palestinian suicide bombers. And in Palestine we see homes destroyed, lands seized, and needless civilian casualties caused by Israel's excessive use of force.
And all over the world we see people being prepared for further such acts, through hate propaganda directed against Jews, against Muslims, against anyone who can be identified as different from one's own group....
No cause, no grievance, however legitimate in itself, can begin to justify such acts. They put all of us to shame. Their prevalence reflects our collective failure to uphold the law, and to instill respect for it in our fellow men and women. We all have a duty to do whatever we can to restore that respect.
To do so, we must start from the principle that no one is above the law, and no one should be denied its protection. Every nation that proclaims the rule of law at home must respect it abroad; and every nation that insists on it abroad must enforce it at home.
Yes, the rule of law starts at home. But in too many places it remains elusive. Hatred, corruption, violence and exclusion go without redress. The vulnerable lack effective recourse, while the powerful manipulate laws to retain power and accumulate wealth. At times even the necessary fight against terrorism is allowed to encroach unnecessarily on civil liberties.
At the international level, all states - strong and weak, big and small - need a framework of fair rules, which each can be confident that others will obey. Fortunately, such a framework exists. From trade to terrorism, from the law of the sea to weapons of mass destruction, States have created an impressive body of norms and laws. This is one of our Organisation's proudest achievements.
And yet this framework is riddled with gaps and weaknesses. Too often it is applied selectively, and enforced arbitrarily. It lacks the teeth that turn a body of laws into an effective legal system.
Where enforcement capacity does exist, as in the Security Council, many feel it is not always used fairly or effectively. Where rule of law is most earnestly invoked, as in the Commission on Human Rights, those invoking it do not always practice what they preach.
Those who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it; and those who invoke international law must themselves submit to it.
Just as, within a country, respect for the law depends on the sense that all have a say in making and implementing it, so it is in our global community. No nation must feel excluded. All must feel that international law belongs to them, and protects their legitimate interests.
Rule of law as a mere concept is not enough. Laws must be put into practice, and permeate the fabric of our lives.
It is by strengthening and implementing disarmament treaties, including their verification provisions, that we can best defend ourselves against the proliferation - and potential use - of weapons of mass destruction.
It is by applying the law that we can deny financial resources and safe havens to terrorists - an essential element in any strategy for defeating terrorism.
It is by reintroducing the rule of law, and confidence in its impartial application, that we can hope to resuscitate societies shattered by conflict.
It is the law, including Security Council resolutions, which offers the best foundation for resolving prolonged conflicts - in the Middle East, in Iraq, and around the world.
And it is by rigorously upholding international law that we can, and must, fulfill our responsibility to protect innocent civilians from genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. As I warned this Assembly five years ago, history will judge us very harshly if we let ourselves be deflected in this task, or think we are excused from it, by invocations of national sovereignty.
The Security Council has just requested that I appoint an international commission to investigate reports of human rights violations in Darfur and determine whether acts of genocide have been committed. I shall do so with all speed. But let no one treat this as a respite, during which events in that devastated region continue to take their course. Regardless of their legal definition, things are happening there which must shock the conscience of every human being.
The African Union has nobly taken the lead and the responsibility in providing monitors and a protective force in Darfur - as well as seeking a political settlement, which alone can bring lasting security. But we all know the present limitations of this new-born Union. We must give it every possible support. Let no one imagine that this affair concerns Africans only. The victims are human beings, whose human rights must be sacred to us all. We all have a duty to do whatever we can to rescue them, and do it now....
Last month, I promised the Security Council that I would make the Organisation's work to strengthen the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies a priority for the remainder of my tenure.
By the same token, I urge you all to do more to foster the rule of law at home and abroad. I ask all of you here today to take advantage of the arrangements we have made for you to sign treaties on the protection of civilians - treaties that you yourselves have negotiated - and then, go back home, to implement them fully and in good faith. And I implore you to give your full support to the measures I shall bring before you, during this session, to improve the security of United Nations staff. Those non-combatants, who voluntarily put themselves in harm's way to assist their fellow men and women, surely deserve your protection, as well as your respect.
Throughout the world, Excellencies, the victims of violence and injustice are waiting; waiting for us to keep our word. They notice when we use words to mask inaction. They notice when laws that should protect them are not applied.
I believe we can restore and extend the rule of law throughout the world. But ultimately, that will depend on the hold that the law has on our consciences. This Organization was founded in the ashes of a war that brought untold sorrow to mankind. Today we must look again into our collective conscience, and ask ourselves whether we are doing enough....
Each generation has its part to play in the age-long struggle to strengthen the rule of law for all - which alone can guarantee freedom for all.
Let our generation not be found wanting.
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Joint NGO statement on the Beslan Hostage Tragedy
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Human Rights Centre "Memorial", Moscow Helsinki Group, All-Russia Movement for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, International League for Human Rights
Out of respect for the victims of the tragedy, their relatives and the national, two-day period of mourning, the release of this statement was delayed until 8 September.
(8 September 2004) A coalition of Russian and international human rights organizations united today to condemn in the strongest terms the taking hostage and killing of hundreds of children, parents and teachers by a group of armed men and women in a school in the city of Beslan, North Ossetia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia.
The crisis began on 1 September when armed men and women burst into the school as approximately one thousand children, their parents and teachers had gathered to celebrate the beginning of the academic year. The composition of the group of hostage-takers has not been clarified, however, it has been reported that some of their demands were related to the armed conflict in Chechnya. The armed group held the hostages without food or drinking water for over 48 hours before Russian security forces, at approximately 13:00 on 3 September, stormed the school in circumstances that still remain unclear. It has been reported that over 325 hostages, almost half of them children, were killed; hundreds more were taken to hospital suffering from injuries of varying degrees of severity.
The actions taken by the armed group: taking over 1,000 people as hostages, including young children - the most vulnerable members of society; depriving them of food and water for over 48 hours; issuing repeated death threats against them; and the subsequent deliberate killing of many hostages - are all flagrant abuses of international and domestic law.
"This abhorrent and calculated action by an armed group on a school displays a callous disregard for civilian life," the organizations stated. "It is an attack on the most fundamental right - the right to life; our organizations denounce this act unreservedly."
We are also seriously concerned that the authorities have been covering up the extent of the crisis, including by providing misleading data on the number of hostages, and urge the authorities to ensure that the investigation into the full circumstances of the school hostage-taking incident encompasses an investigation into the way in which the authorities released information, both to the public and to the families of the hostages. We call for the findings of the investigation to be made publicly available.
The Beslan attack took place against a backdrop of five years of widespread, persistent and largely unpunished human rights violations by Russian troops against civilians in Chechnya as well as egregious human rights abuses by rebel fighters. The impunity for such abuses has served to perpetuate the conflict and has led to serious human rights atrocities committed by both sides. In our opinion, lasting peace in Chechnya cannot be achieved without justice for all victims of human rights abuses committed in the context of the conflict, and without ensuring the establishment of the rule of law and human rights protection for all. We call on the Russian authorities to take measures to ensure that persons responsible for human rights abuses in Chechnya are brought to justice in an independent and impartial court of law in accordance with international standards, whether they fought on the Russian or rebel side.
We remind the Russian government of its positive obligation to protect civilians at risk of spontaneous reprisal attacks in North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya and other Russian regions. We similarly urge the authorities to ensure that law-enforcement operations aimed at bringing those responsible for the Beslan attack to justice are conducted in full accordance with international human rights standards.
At this tragic time, we extend our condolences and deepest sympathy to the victims, their relatives and the people of Beslan.
Background
Hostage-taking is universally condemned in a number of international legal documents: in particular the 1979 UN Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, which qualifies these acts as an "offence of grave concern to the international community" and demands that "any person committing an act of hostage taking shall either be prosecuted or extradited". The UN Security Council, in a Presidential Statement of 1 September 2004, condemned the hostage-taking in North Ossetia in the strongest terms and urged States actively to cooperate with the Russian authorities in efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
For more information and comments, please contact:
Human Rights Centre "Memorial", +7 095 200 6506
Tanya Lokshina, Programmes Director, Moscow Helsinki Group, +7 095 207 6069, +7 916 624 1906 (mobile)
Lev Ponomarev, Executive Director, All-Russia Movement for Human Rights, +7 095 203 5010, + 7 916 690 8310 (mobile)
Lydia Aroyo, Europe and Central Asia Press Officer, Amnesty International, +44 20 7413 5599, +44 (0)7771 796 350 (mobile)
Diederik Lohman, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch, +1 212 290 4700
Press officer, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18
Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director, International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, +43-676-635-6612 (mobile)
Alexey Korotaev, Geneva Representative, International League for Human Rights, +4178-769-8390
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Barbaric crime of unmitigated evil
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by Alexander Gillespie
Professor of Law at Waikato University New Zealand
NZ Herald 07/09/2004.
Let us speak clearly. In an age punctuated by acts designed to cause terror, mayhem and destruction, what has happened in Russia, is an act of evil and we should recognise it for what it is. It is the antithesis of humanity. The act represents a crime, first and foremost against the children and their families. It also represents a crime against all civilisation, all humanity and kind of progress we collectively seek to achieve. We were all once children. We all know what childhood is. It is the age of promise, of potential, of vulnerability. All children are intrinsically special and it is for this reason that the world pauses when they get caught up in the conflicts of adults. We last paused when we watched Mohammed al-Dura get publicly executed in 2003 in a firefight between Israeli and Palestinian combatants. The difference now is one of magnitude, and the moral void we must look into in the wake of all of the corpses of the dead children.
The murder of the children was designed to strike terror into all of those who witnessed it. This is part of the strategy of terrorism. It is designed to make a targeted audience give in to the goals that are being demanded. Similar practices are part and parcel of official military strategies, although the difference between terrorism and official state violence, in this instance, is one of intention. Historically, it is very rare to directly target children en-masse. Indirectly, children in their millions have been sacrificed in the wars of grown ups. The difference is one of intention. Carpet bombing, fire bombing and nuclear bombing. In all of these instances, incalculable children have been destroyed in the path of military necessity. The one redeeming feature of the past, is that the intention was never to directly target children. The millions of lives of lost generations of children were destroyed within the moral black hole of what we call ‘collateral damage.’ This is not the same as what happened in the weekend. In the weekend, the children were the target. It was the adults who were the collateral damage.
International law has striven for hundreds of years to place limits on the most horrific acts that belligerents can do to each other. It tries to act independently of the reasons why people and nations try to kill each other, and lay down some basic ground rules. Justifications in war are a slippery slope, but we can rest assured, there can be, and there are not, any justifications for the deliberate killing of children. It sounds like an oxymoron, but the there are restraints, even in times of warfare. The current escalation of terrorism is trying to erode these. These restraints are the high tide mark of our moral limits. In many instances they do not go high enough, and we need to go much further. But rarely do they go too far. To act in complete contravention of the rules of humanity, as reflected in laws which often date back thousands of years is an act of unmitigated barbarism. Some forces are now trying not to turn the clock backwards, but to smash it. If it is possible to build a pyramid of principles of restraint in international law, the first principle would be to safeguard non-combatants. The second would be to recognise certain classes of non-combatants above others, such as medical personnel, religious personnel or nursing mothers. Children would be (and are) at the pinnacle of non-combatants of whom all possible actions must be done to protect their safety.
There have been many violations of international law since World War II. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape and murder et al. From Bosnia to Rwanda, the international community has responded, trying to restore civilisation through mechanisms such as international criminal tribunals, which prosecute war crimes. But one war crime, until now, has stayed hidden. This is the deliberate killing of children. In World War II, a number of Nazi’s were condemned at Nuremberg for the killing of children. There were many ways of killing them, but rarely was the charge involving intention. From the gas chambers to the slave labour, they were targeted and killed, but not because they were children. They died for their ethnicity, their nationality or for being in the wrong place. For example, around 15% of all Polish children were removed to Germany as slaves in WWII and only 10% of these children survived. At Nuremberg, only in three instances (all Orphanages) was it found that children died because they were children, and these all involved criminal neglect. For example, over 400 infants died from neglect at the Volkswagenwerke ‘Children’s Home’ run for the children whose parents had been deported to work in Germany between April 1943 and April 1945.
What happened in the weekend has introduced a new chapter into the unmitigated evil that ethically rotten people can perpetuate. It was an act against civilisation, in the tradition of the great crimes against humanity committed by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. It was a very dark day for humanity.
Reproduced with the permission of the Author
Links
Children and Terrorism - National Center for Children Exposed to Violence,
American Academy of Pediatrics - Children, Terrorism & Disasters
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the CRI Journal are those of the author's and are included to enhance discussion, they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Children's Rights International.
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