War: A Crime Against Humanity

WAR:

A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Roberto Vivo

© Copyright 2014 Roberto Vivo Chaneton

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Dedication

To my father, Roberto Vivo Bonomi,

and to his great friend, Einar Barfod,

intellectual and life experience mentors

for me and for many.

To my grandfather,

historian Abel Chaneton,

whom I never knew,

but who has always been

a source of pride for me.

What People are Saying about

WAR: A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Roberto Vivo’s comprehensive exposition of the origins and causes of war elucidates the problems and solutions needed for a more humane world. It should be mandatory reading for all heads of state and young people on whom future peace depends.

Benjamin Ferencz, former Prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.

Roberto Vivo posits that ‘the massively violent (and thus inevitable) death of innocent people is a fundamental issue of war. Everything else is merely circumstantial, and, to the extent that it is celebrated, improper.’ This is a necessary book, but it is one that covers so many fields of knowledge that it could not have been written by an academic, who would have had to exhaust every last detail under scientific discussion. And there is so much information and analysis contained here that it couldn’t have been analyzed from the viewpoint of a single discipline.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court

In all the turmoil of today, here is one clarion voice marshalling the forces of reason and law to once and for all eliminate war.

John Naisbitt, author of the worldwide bestseller, Megatrends

In this sweeping account of the history of war and peace, Roberto Vivo makes a bold and clarion call for world peace, based on the delegitimization and criminalization of war. He shows us how what was once considered utopian has become necessary if humanity is to survive and thrive. Highly stimulating and worthy of careful reading!

William Ury, renowned mediator, author and speaker.

Roberto Vivo Chaneton is a singular personality. He is one who has never limited his quest and his activity to a single focus. In an age of specialists, he is a humanist. He was the driving force behind publications that denoted sensitivity and a cultivated outlook. For some time now, Roberto has devoted effort to philosophical and historical reflection, managing to delve deeply into human aggression, in search of pathways toward peace.

Julio María Sanguinetti, former President of Uruguay

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The process of writing any book worth reading is bound to be a complex and meticulous task. And although I accept both the pride and responsibility of being the author of the work you are about to read, I would be remiss in accepting such a title if I failed to also acknowledge and thank all of the people who have provided me with their invaluable help, advice, knowledge, talent and inspiration in its creation. Indubitably, my sources on the complex subjects of this book—war and peace and all of the myriad factors that contribute to both—have been diverse and generous, and this has contributed vastly to the value of the final work. In that sense, this book-length essay has been an extraordinary team effort and I am grateful to everyone who has played even the smallest part in its development. By thinking about it together and developing it on the basis of both agreement and lively debate, we have, I believe, compiled a work that presents a new, unique and practical focus on the age-old quest for world peace. Within this context, I feel I should specifically thank the contributors mentioned below.

First, my thanks to Dan Newland, who originally came to this project as the English-language translator for another of my books, Short History of World Religions, but who, as a veteran journalist, writer and researcher in his own right, became so engrossed in the subject of war, peace and their intimate connection with politics and religion, that he permanently joined my team and became my chief collaborator in the investigations carried out over the course of the more than three-year period that it took to complete this work. In addition, he also maintained his post as chief translator for the bilingual Spanish-English editions of this book, as well as collaborating with me in the final revision of all texts included here.

I also wish to thank Juan Luis Iramain, Francisco Ochoa, Ricardo Elía and Aníbal Díaz Gallinal, who worked with me from the very outset on this project. Each of them contributed his invaluable time, critical thought and, above all, passion for the subjects treated in this work. With them I share the satisfaction of having given birth to a project that promises not to end here but to continue to develop far into the future.

Another person to whom I owe a debt of gratitude is renowned Argentine jurist Luis Moreno Ocampo. As former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, he not only introduced me to the court as such but also helped me understand its most intimate inner workings and its potential importance as a future preeminent enforcer of worldwide peace, justice and human rights. On August 24, 2011, Luis generously invited me to a worldwide Seminar on Child Soldiers which took place on the day before the hearing of closing arguments in the case of The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who was to become the first criminal convicted by the ICC (for enlisting children under 15 as soldiers and using them in fighting in the Congolese War). At the seminar I was able to meet and talk on a one on one basis with people who are highly committed to world peace and justice. Luis has further acted as a frequent consultant in the writing of this book, adding his expertise in international law to the overall value of the final text. My thanks also go to him for introducing me to yet another celebrated man of international law, the eminent former Prosecutor and Chief Prosecutor in the Nuremberg Nazi War Crime Trials, Benjamin B. Ferencz, whom I was thus privileged to meet.

Further thanks go to Alicia Padilla, who serves as a guide through the (for me) uncharted waters of the publishing world, and to Juan Pablo Nicolini, Ernesto Schargrodsky, Horacio Spector and Fernando Rocchi of the Torcuato Di Tella University and to Roberto Bosca of the Universidad Austral, all of them of Buenos Aires; to Dr. Felipe Maíllo Salgado of the University of Salamanca, to renowned American writers and speakers Dr. William Ury and Prof. John Naisbitt, to Prof. Rafael Ansón Oliart of the Camilo José Cela University’s Cátedra Federico Mayor de Cultura de Paz in Madrid and to Prof. Noah Weisbord of the Florida International University School of Law: Their precise and ever well targeted comments were a determining factor in ensuring that these pages were imbued with the rigorous accuracy that the subject matter merits.

I also wish to thank my assistants, Viviana Natalucci and Gloria González: A project like this one, in which team members live and work in different parts of the country and the world, requires meticulous organization and close attention to logistics, format and content. Their much-valued aid in this respect has been decisive in achieving not only proper team coordination but also a final text in which details have been thoroughly double-checked and revised by everyone involved.

Further thanks go to my sons, Lucas, Gerónimo and Roberto Valentín. This work began, in many ways, as a legacy to them, since by stating my viewpoint and seeking to advance the cause of world peace, I am attempting to bequeath a better world to them and their families, and I am grateful to them for their interest in and support of this project.

To my wife, Soledad García Lagos: She has read my manuscripts in detail, and has known how to counsel me fairly and honestly with regard to the paragraphs that she found unclear. But above all, she has generously forfeited the many hours of family time that have been devoted to this book.

Finally, my very special thanks to my father, Roberto Vivo Bonomi and to his great friend, Einar Barfod, to both of whom I dedicate this book. These two men have been intellectual and life mentors for me and my generation in Uruguay. Often, and as always, in the final revision of this work, I missed having their acutely lucid and intelligent minds to consult, but despite their sorely mourned absence, I am confident that their spirits are present in many of the ideas and concepts that fill these pages.

Table of Contents

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE by Luis Moreno Ocampo

WAR: THE SUPREME INTERNATIONAL CRIME by Benjamin Ferencz, former Prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.

A SINGULAR PERSONALITY by Julio Maria Sanguinetti Former President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 VIOLENCE AND MAN

1) Violence and Man

Naturally Violent or Naturally Empathic?

The Weight of Society

2) The Dehumanization of Others

3) Public Opinion Counts

4) Devastating Effects of War

War as Terrorism

War as a State of Exception

5) The Great Scourges Produced by Man

Rome

China

The Crusades

The Mongols

Religious Wars in France

The British Empire

World War I

The Genocide of the Armenian People

Stalinism

World War II

The Holocaust

Algeria

Vietnam

Cambodia

Ruanda

Congo

Kurdistan

Syria

6) The Causes of War

Path of Least Resistance

Ultimate Power: The Ultimate Cause

The Voice of Experience

The Dangers of False Hopes and Unclear Thinking

The Industry of War: Between War and Peace

Compatibility with Peace

7) The Just War Theory…and Overcoming It

Resorting to a Third Party

‘Close to Murder’

Supranational Organizations

CHAPTER 2 THE HISTORY OF PEACE

8) The Axial Age

9) The Golden Rule

10) Messages of Peace in All Religions

11) Celebrating Diversity

12) Stories of Peaceful Coexistence

Minoan Crete

Hammurabi

Alexander the Great

The Roman and Kushan Empires

Al-Andalus

Saint Francis of Assisi

Frederick II of Sicily

Alfonso X, The Wise

Ibn Battuta

Nicholas von Kues

Mahmet II

Akbar The Great

13) Modern Manifestations of Peaceful Coexistence

Olympe de Gouges

Gandhi

Teresa of Calcutta

Nelson Mandela

The Anabaptists

US-Chinese Relations

14) The League of Nations and the UN

From the League to the UN

CHAPTER 3 OPEN SOCIETY AND CLOSED SOCIETY

15) Closed and Open

The Falsifiability Factor

A Significant Political Option

Re-examining Certainties

16) Liberals versus Conservatives, Moderates versus Radicals

Liberalism

George Washington’s Contribution to Liberalism

Napoleon: The Liberal Emperor

Conservatism

A Shifting Balance

The Witch-Hunt Tradition

British Liberal Society

17) Liberals and Conservatives Today

18) Fundamentalism

19) Secularization: Crisis or Opportunity

CHAPTER 4 WAR: A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

20) Valid Parallels: Slavery, Torture and Racism

21) Slavery

European Slavery

The Greeks

The Romans

Europeans in India

Spain

Britain

France

Great Abolitionists

The Slavery that Divided the USA

Slavery Today

22) Torture

Defining Torture

Unclear Limits

A Brief History of Torture

Organizations that Fight Torture

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Hague and Geneva Conventions

23) Racism

Misinterpretation of Darwin’s Theory

Racism and War

Racism and Evolution

Going to Extremes

International Progress against Racism

International Convention against Racism

The Sum of All Inequalities

24) Defining War as a Crime

25) The Crime of Aggression

Individual Responsibility

Hard to Define

War is Changing

Applicability

26) Basic Legal Tenets

27) The Double Standard

How True?

Time for an Apology?

28) Elephant in the Room

29) The US Role in a Unipolar World

At War with Al-Qaeda, Not with Islam

Wild West Justice or Rule of Law

30) Is the United States Immune to Justice?

31) Preventing Conflicts

Prevention and Solution

Educating for Peace as a Conflict Prevention Tool

Conceptual Change

Peace Is Dynamic

Positive Peace and Negative Peace

Consensual Peace

Making and Building Peace

32) The Role of Institutions and International Organizations

Keeping the Peace

33) The Role of Justice

Impeachment

War, the Worst Crime

The Cell Next Door

Criminalizing War

34) The International Criminal Court

Advances in Defining the Crime of Aggression

New Definition

A Major Weakness

A Quantum Leap

35) Giving World Peace a Chance

About the Author

Endnotes

PREFACE

This book is a concise condensation of the history of War and of the evolution of Mankind in its search for Peace and harmony.

Roberto Vivo posits that the massively violent (and thus inevitable) death of innocent people is a fundamental issue of war. Everything else is merely circumstantial, and, to the extent that it is celebrated, improper.

To demonstrate his thesis, he crosses time from antiquity to what is happening right now in Syria. He spans every geographic location, reviews what occurred in the times of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Chinese, the Mongol invasions, the Crusades, and he carries us through history to the worst slaughters of the twentieth century, such as the Jewish Holocaust, and those of Algeria, Vietnam, Cambodia and Ruanda. He visits past wars, terrorism, and the use of torture, slavery and racism. He draws our attention to different realities and explains new concepts. He recalls Immanuel Kant and includes him in a dialogue between Freud and Einstein about hatred and destruction as part of human nature, only to swiftly suggest the evolution and expansion of human affection and its impact on culture and on society as proposed by Jeremy Rifkin. He refers back to 1872, and tells us that it was Robert Vischer who coined the term Einfüblung, as applied to German aesthetics, and from which the word empathy was derived. Later, the German philosopher and historian Wilhelm Dilthey took the term from aesthetics and used it to describe the mental process by which one person enters into the being of another and ends up knowing how that person feels and thinks.

This book analyzes the creation of the League of Nations, it discusses the organization of the United Nations and it reviews the establishment of the International Criminal Court, before concluding: Until the power of ethics, justice, and the law are accepted universally as the guardians of peace and the only bases for a just worldwide society, those with the most firepower will continue to be the ones who both set the rules and consistently break them. And until these changes take place in the universal mindset—where, today, the only balance is between abuse and resignation—war will continue to be embraced as a viable option, and the world will continue on its current path to chaos and self-destruction. This, then, is the challenge, to advocate peace through rule of law and an end to injustice through the prosecution of aggression and abuse of power.

This is a necessary book, but it is one that covers so many fields of knowledge that it could not have been written by an academic, who would have had to exhaust every last detail under scientific discussion. And there is so much information and analysis contained here that it couldn’t have been analyzed from the viewpoint of a single discipline. It was written, instead, by a Uruguayan businessman, who lives in Buenos Aires and works in Miami. Roberto Vivo never lost the ideals of his youth, which survived the breakup of his rock band and the rise of authoritarianism in Latin America, and he has devoted fifteen years of effort to giving us the gift of this unique and transcendent book.

This work cannot be summarized. It examines the need to create a new way of managing conflicts and suggests ways to reach that end. Its relevance will depend on how each reader translates and makes use of it in his or her own life, to educate their children, to guide their own conduct, or to propose new forms of coexistence to humanity.

Luis Moreno Ocampo

March 2013

WAR: THE SUPREME INTERNATIONAL CRIME

Roberto Vivo’s comprehensive exposition of the origins and causes of war elucidates the problems and solutions needed for a more humane world. It should be mandatory reading for all heads of state and young people on whom future peace depends.

The Nuremberg trials condemned aggressive war as the supreme international crime. General Dwight D .Eisenhower, after he became President of the United States, warned: In a very real sense the world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law. (April 30, 1958, Dept. of State Bull 831). The most effective way to deter crime is to let offenders know in advance that they will have to answer in a court of law. All states should add the ICC crimes to their national criminal codes and many have started to do so. Yet leaders responsible for aggressive war remain immune from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The truth is that powerful states are not prepared to yield their sovereign right to decide when to use armed might to protect their national interests. As long as there is no national or international institution capable of settling such disputes by peaceful means, violent means will be unavoidable.

Vivo’s studies have led to his wise recognition of the need to change the worldwide mindset by stripping war of its mask of legitimacy. It is good common sense that War is a Crime but that is a moral and not a legal conclusion. The UN Charter legitimizes self-defense against an armed attack or force if authorized by the Security Council. It cannot be tried by the ICC as the crime of aggression, because punishing that crime was again postponed at the Kampala Review Conference in 2010.

The original working title of Vivo’s excellent book was War Is a Crime. Upon reading an advanced copy of the finished manuscript, I suggested that this title could be improved by adding just two words; change it to: War is a Crime AGAINST HUMANITY.

This slight alteration has many advantages: Referring to humanity invites greater public support. In contrast to punishing aggression, no Security Council involvement is required and no Statute of Limitations applies.

The ICC has a final wrap-up provision criminalizing other inhumane acts in addition to those listed as crimes against humanity, such as murder, enslavement, persecution etc. As a former combat soldier who was with the American Army as we liberated many Nazi concentration camps, I cannot imagine anything more inhumane than being deliberately responsible for waging an illegal war, knowing that it will inevitably kill large numbers of innocent civilians. Such war is a moral abomination that shocks the conscience of all humanity—whether it be committed by individuals, militant groups or nations. The law must apply equally to everyone. It is, in my considered judgment, punishable now by the ICC as a crime against humanity. That may be the key to open the locked courthouse door.

Benjamin Ferencz, former Prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.

A SINGULAR PERSONALITY

Roberto Vivo Chaneton is a singular personality. He is one who has never limited his quest and his activity to a single focus. In an age of specialists, he is a humanist.

He was a young man back in 1980, when a recovering democracy was first trying its wings in Uruguay, and he was an outstanding player in a magnificent event in which the People of Uruguay, through their votes, defeated a constitution proposed by the military government of that time, which sought institutional reinstatement under military guardianship.

The thirty years since that episode have been a celebration of plurality, among all of Uruguay’s political parties, underscored by the near oddity of that self-same dictatorship’s having obeyed the people’s mandate, clearing the way for their own exit. As of that era, Roberto became a ceaseless activist for democracy. He was a co-founder in a variety of movements that advocated a return to democracy, joining together in this struggle with Dr. Enrique Tarigo, a formidable civic champion who would later become Vice President of the Republic. Residing in Buenos Aires, Roberto for many years represented the Colorado Party, and in 1983 organized a magnificent series of democratic events, with the participation of the major political parties of both Uruguay and Argentina, in which I had the honor to take part.

Working parallel to all of this in his commercial activities, his success as a businessman did not, however, distract him from his humanistic concerns, as he now turned toward the arts. He was the driving force behind publications that denoted sensitivity and a cultivated outlook.

For some time now, Roberto has devoted effort to philosophical and historical reflection, managing to delve deeply into human aggression, in search of pathways toward peace. His open-minded views toward all cultures have provided him with a vast scenario for philosophical analysis. I have shared in preliminary readings of these works, which are those of an independent spirit, a thinker without pigeonholes, and a mind that is profoundly rational.

I want to believe that this new stage in his life will permit him to also win a place of respect in the intellectual world.

Julio Maria Sanguinetti

Former President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay

(1984 – 1990) – (1995 – 2000)

INTRODUCTION

In 1969, while still in my teens, I created a collage entitled La Paz, esa ilusión (That Dream of Peace) that served as the cover illustration for the first Spanish-language edition of this book. My awareness of Man’s yearning for peace, yet tendency toward war was fully awakened during the Vietnam War Era. My world at the time was one of art and harmony. I was a musician and painter, and readily embraced the hippy culture and its message of universal love and the rejection of war in a world of brothers and sisters of all nations, races, colors and creeds. This awareness was underscored by my distant memory of a time over a decade earlier when my family accompanied my father from our home in Uruguay to the United States, where he went to do post-graduate work in gastroenterology. On completing this advanced training, he was offered the possibility of remaining in the United States to work in the medical profession there.

This recollection gave me pause, more than ten years later, to wonder what my fate might have been had my father decided to accept that offer and if he and my mother had chosen to bring up their family in that country instead of returning to our native Uruguay. In the Vietnam War era of my adolescence, it wasn’t hard at all for me to put myself in the shoes of American boys not more than a couple of years older than I was, who were being forced to put their young lives on hold and go to fight (and often die) in a place most of them would have been hard-pressed to find on a map. Had my parents opted to stay in the United States, I, in the end, could actually have ended up becoming one of the conscript soldiers being swiftly trained and sent off to fight a people against whom neither they nor I had any quarrel whatsoever.

That Dream of Peace was, then, my first real effort to express my feelings on the subject of war and peace. And at least since then, when the thought and effort that I put into that symbolic picture sealed my commitment, I have sought to discover the reasons why Mankind has so frequently incurred in violence and war throughout its history. I have also subsequently been driven to find the key to the paradox of how religions have always preached messages of peace and love, while, in practice, their faithful have so often been embroiled in such terrible hatreds and mutual destruction. This last was, indeed, the topic of my earlier book Short History of World Religions, which I decided to write as a means of imposing a rigorous research and compiling methodology on myself, at the service of this lifelong quest.

The next step on this road is the book that you are about to read, entitled War: A Crime against Humanity. The basic premise for this book-length essay is that the human race can no longer afford to keep justifying its pernicious custom of mass violence and its unacceptable glorification of war as not only a necessary, but also a desirable part of life in world society. The fact is that war is a clear and present threat and danger to the survival of planet Earth. This is true not only because of the ever latent threat posed by weapons of mass destruction but also because, unless peace extends across the world in the next few decades, so that peoples everywhere can finally focus on worldwide cooperation and human survival, Man will eventually be unable to generate the conditions and wealth necessary to effectively confront problems that threaten his survival: social inequality, hunger and poverty, the rapid extinction of species, the shortage of renewable energy resources, and the effects of global climate change and overpopulation, among others. Better said, then, more than to the planet itself, war is a palpable threat to Mankind’s existence on Earth, since the planet will, one way or another, continue to exist and evolve, in whatever condition it finds itself and whatever its own fate might be, with or without the presence of human beings. Seen in this way, what hangs in the balance is no less than our own survival as a species—a factor that, in the mere interest of self-preservation, should make it obvious to us that the issue of war and peace is urgently pressing and requires decisive action right now, in order to push world leaders onto a direct path toward lasting global peace.

The volume, depth and complexity of this work and the extensive nature of the subject it covers have convinced me that I should be clear and explicit from the outset regarding its main proposal—that war must be delegitimized and come to be considered a crime on the world stage. My further aim is to clearly express some of the major conditions necessary in order for this proposal to become a reality. The original project for the writing of this book gave birth to a major research effort in which I was aided by a brilliant team of professionals and intellectuals who shared my interest in the factors behind war and peace and in ways of seeking a better future for the rising generations. That dedicated effort led originally to a monumental 567-page work entitled God Beyond Our Grasp, Peace Within Our Reach, which traced the history of Mankind’s desire for peace and tendency toward war from the earliest origins of human existence until the present day, and the entire first half of the book discussed the causes of war, the tenets of lasting peace and the need to change the worldwide mindset by stripping war of its mask of legitimacy and declaring it a punishable crime on a worldwide scale. The second part of that work, meanwhile, analyzed the link between religion, political power and wars at the service of vested interests throughout history.

When we had completed that limited-edition work, however, and listened to the learned opinions of a number of highly qualified readers whom we prevailed upon to have a look at the finished manuscript, my team and I stood back, took a deep breath and admitted to ourselves that what we had created were actually two books in one that needed to be separated in order to concisely state the two parallel aspects of our case. Out of that decision immediately emerged the previously mentioned Short History of World Religions, which, with only a few modifications, comprised the entire second part of the combined original work. However, in creating the second book—the one that you are holding in your hands—I decided that we should delve into much greater depth on the subject of why wars happen and what can be done to stop them and to create an enduring worldwide culture of peace, which was the original hypothesis for my overall project. So it was that we set to work on a new research and fact-finding journey that would end up taking us another several years to complete.

Although books are meant to be self-explanatory, I think that a brief discussion of the structure of this one might prove helpful to the reader. As a general commentary in this regard, this essay is divided into four chapters.

Chapter 1, Violence and Man, begins with an anthropological analysis of a basic question that must be asked before any logical discussion of war and peace can be initiated: Is Man naturally prone toward organized mass violence, or is violence merely the consequence of certain forms of social organization? Next, this chapter discusses the devastating effects of wars over the course of human history and includes a summary of some of the most significant conflicts the world has known. It concludes by analyzing the main causes of the wars that humanity has experienced and by examining the so-called just war theory that, after being considered valid for centuries, today has lost all validity.

Chapter 2, The History of Peace, comes in sharp contrast to the preceding chapter, by providing examples of peaceful and prosperous coexistence dating back at least 4,000 years to the times of the Minoan culture in Crete. Since