Russell Tribunal

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The first Russell Tribunal , also known as the Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal (English for " Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal "), was founded in 1966 by the British mathematician, philosopher and Nobel Prize laureate in literature, Bertrand, Lord Russell , and Ken Coates and others involved the umbrella of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation (Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation) launched. The aim of the tribunal was to investigate and document US war crimes in the Vietnam War after 1954.

Character and objectives of the first Russell Tribunal

In his speech at the first meeting of the tribunal on November 13, 1966, Bertrand Russell declared that the tribunal had no historical precedent. In contrast to previous tribunals such as the Nuremberg Tribunal , the Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal had no means of enforcing its decisions, which, however, also offered advantages, since the investigations were not influenced by the state.

At the constituent session in London on November 15, 1966 , the Tribunal announced its structure, schedule and a list of five main areas of work:

  1. Has the US government (and the governments of Australia , New Zealand and South Korea ) committed acts of aggression within the meaning of international law ?
  2. Has the US Army tested experimental weapons, used new types of weapons, or weapons prohibited by martial law?
  3. Have targets of a completely civil character such as B. Hospitals, schools, sanatoriums, dams etc. bombed, and to what extent did this happen?
  4. Have Vietnamese prisoners been subjected to inhuman treatments prohibited by international martial law , including torture and mutilation ? Were there unjustified reprisals against the civilian population , in particular the execution of hostages ?
  5. Were forced labor camps established and were there deportations of the population or other measures with the aim of exterminating the population that can legally be characterized as genocide ?

Members of the First Russell Tribunal

Representatives from a total of 18 countries took part in both sessions of the tribunal. The representatives, mostly prominent people of the peace movement , civil movements , writers, scientists or politicians were:

Implementation, conclusions and "judgments"

Russell Tribunal in Stockholm (1967)

The first meeting took place in London on November 13, 1966. The plan was to meet in Paris to investigate the first and third charges . However, following a ban obtained by Charles de Gaulle , the tribunal decided to meet in Stockholm instead , where the first session was held from May 2-10, 1967, followed by the second in Copenhagen . Since the Danish authorities had banned the meeting in Copenhagen, this second meeting was held in Roskilde .

During both sessions of the tribunal, more than 30 people gave testimony, including US military personnel and representatives of the warring factions in Vietnam. The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam assured the tribunal of their support in obtaining information and in checking the reliability of the material. The Cambodian leader, Prince Sihanouk , made a similar offer to the tribunal. The US government, which had been invited to provide evidence and to send staff / representatives to the tribunal, refused to cooperate.

As a result of the first session, which dealt with priorities 1 and 3, it was found that the USA had committed the crime against peace, breach of international law, in particular the Paris Pact of 1928, the Briand-Kellogg Pact , the Charter of United Nations (Article 2, Item 4) and the agreement of the Indochina Conference of 1954 are guilty. The governments of Australia, New Zealand and South Korea have been found guilty of complicity (point 1).

The US continued to be found following war crimes guilty: the bombing exclusively of civilian facilities (hospitals, schools, etc.) and the use of cluster bombs against civilians (point 3).

The results of the second session were:

  • Is the government of Thailand guilty of complicity in the aggression by the US government against Vietnam? - Yes (unanimously)
  • Is the government of the Philippines guilty of complicity in the aggression carried out by the US government against Vietnam? - Yes (unanimously)
  • Is the government of Japan guilty of complicity in the aggression of the US government against Vietnam? - Yes (8 for, 3 against: the three members of the tribunal who answered no agreed that Japan had provided significant support to the US government, but declined to suggest complicity in US aggression)
  • Is the US government guilty of aggression against the people of Laos as defined by international law? - Yes (unanimously)
  • Have the US forces experimented with weapons or used weapons that are prohibited under martial law? - Yes (unanimously)
  • Have Vietnamese prisoners of war been subjected to treatments that are prohibited by martial law? - Yes (unanimously)
  • Have US Forces Inhuman, Forbidden Treatments On Civilians? - Yes (unanimously)
  • Is the US government guilty of genocide against the Vietnamese people? - Yes (unanimously)

International perception / aftermath

The Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal received some international attention, but largely went unnoticed in the United States as many believed it was a “ show trial ” with a predetermined outcome.

The model of the Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal was taken up several times after Russell's death:

  • from 1973–1976: 2nd Russell Tribunal on Human Rights Violations in Latin America and South Africa in Rome and Brussels
  • from 1977–1979: 3rd Russell Tribunal on the Human Rights Situation in the Federal Republic of Germany in Frankfurt-Harheim (March 28 to April 4, 1978) and Cologne-Mülheim (January 3 to 8, 1979)
  • from -00001980: 4th Russell Tribunal in Rotterdam on the oppression of the indigenous peoples of North and South America
  • from -00002001: 5th Russell Tribunal on Human Rights in Psychiatry in Berlin, as part of the "Freedom of Thought" congress
  • from -00002005: World Tribunal on Iraq [war] on the US invasion of Iraq in 2003
  • from -00002009: Russell Tribunal on Palestine on the human rights situation in the occupied territories of Palestine

On the initiative of Lelio Basso , a permanent peoples tribunal on human rights violations and violations of peoples' rights was set up in 1979 , which is active annually on different topics.

Character, objectives and course of the third Russell Tribunal

The third Russell Tribunal on the situation of human rights in the Federal Republic of Germany was initially created through a public campaign against the so-called radical decree and the alleged political and social “repression” in the Federal Republic. Its most important initiators belonged to the Socialist Bureau . The Communist League joined in and pushed the campaign forward with its own events and publications.

The tribunal initially met with great public interest , especially due to the events in the German autumn of 1977, but remained due to suspicion of political one-sidedness and the selection of the jurors, etc. a. the writer Ingeborg Drewitz , the theologian Helmut Gollwitzer , the pastor Martin Niemöller and the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung are controversial.

The Russell Foundation and the Socialist Bureau ensured that the tribunal only dealt with a limited number of subjects. Sensitive issues, such as the treatment of RAF prisoners in prisons or the murder thesis about the death of the RAF leadership in Stammheim , were not taken up. However, the gay group NARGS succeeded in making the 1973 ban on an information stand in Aachen, which the Higher Administrative Court of Münster in 1976 had declared lawful in the last instance, to be the subject of negotiations in the second session in January 1979. This caused displeasure among ultra-left supporters of the event. The Communist Federation , which represented the interests of these individuals and Russell initiatives, therefore refused to support the campaign after the first session and the second session.

From the "moderate" line, the initiators expected a greater public impact of the tribunal and a certain acceptance on the part of the SPD , whose domestic policy of the last few years was the focus of the event: In addition to the radical decree, the tribunal examined whether it was in the course of anti-terrorism -Laws to restrict freedom of expression and freedom of the press and to restrict the rights of defense lawyers in criminal proceedings. The question of whether the prison conditions of the RAF prisoners were at risk for human rights was also discussed in passing. Overall, the jury members were less unanimous in their assessments than after the first session. Nevertheless, they drew the conclusion that the human rights situation in the Federal Republic should be viewed critically and should henceforth be monitored by an independent body. In this context the Committee for Fundamental Rights and Democracy was formed .

literature

  • Bertrand Russell: War Crimes in Vietnam , Monthly Review Press , New York, 1967.
  • Bertrand Russell / Jean-Paul Sartre (eds.): The Vietnam Tribunal or America in front of the court. Translated from the French and American by Stefan Reisner, Reinbek bei Hamburg (rororo currently 1091) July 1968.
  • Bertrand Russell / Jean-Paul Sartre (eds.): The Vietnam Tribunal II or The Condemnation of America. Translated from the French by Agnes Hüfner, Reinbek bei Hamburg (rororo currently 1213–1214) September 1968.
  • Duffett, John: Against the Crime of Silence. Proceedings of the Russell International War Crimes Tribunal. Stockholm, Copenhagen. Intr. by Bertrand Russell . Flanders, New Jersey: O'Hare 1968.
  • Limqueco, Peter; Weiss, Peter: Prevent the Crime of Silence. Reports from the Sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal . With additional material selected and edited by Ken Coates and a Foreword by Noam Chomsky. London: Allen Lane, Penguin Press 1971.
  • Russell Tribunals. Från sessionerna in Stockholm och Roskilde . Urval and redigering: Peter Limqueco and Peter Weiss. Stockholm: PAN / Norstedts 1968.
  • Fake proceedings against our country Press article about the "Third Russell Tribunal" in the Federal Republic of Germany, in: Der Spiegel , March 27, 1978.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Speech to the First Meeting of Members of the War Crimes Tribunal ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. London, November 13, 1966 (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vietnamese-american.org
  2. ↑ a b Aims of the Tribunal agreed at the Constituting Session ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. London, November 15, 1966 (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vietnamese-american.org
  3. ↑ Bertrand Russell: War Crimes in Vietnam , Monthly Review Press , New York, 1967, pp. 127-130.
  4. ↑ List of members, reporters and witnesses who testified before the tribunal ( memento of the original dated November 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.911review.org
  5. ↑ Summary and Verdict of the Stockholm Session ( Memento of the original dated December 31, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Stockholm, May 10, 1967 (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vietnamese-american.org
  6. ↑ Verdict of the Second Session (English) ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vietnamese-american.org
  7. ↑ http://www.freedom-of-thought.de/deutsch/index_deutsch.htm
  8. ^ "Sham proceedings against our country" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1978 ( online - Mar. 27, 1978 ).
  9. ^ OVG Münster, March 15, 1976, AZ: IX A 1375/75
  10. ↑ 3rd International Russell Tribunal, Volume 3 - Censorship, Rotbuch Verlag Berlin, 1979 (Case 9)
  11. ↑ See Michael März: Left Protest after the German Autumn. A history of the left spectrum in the shadow of the 'strong state' 1977–1979 , Bielefeld 2012, chap. VI