Hypocrisy and the garb of defending rights - EDITORIAL

Two days ago, the US announced it was designating Russia’s Wagner group, which operates in Ukraine alongside Russian troops in Ukraine - a transnational criminal organization. The Wagner Group operates in a similar manner to that of America’s ‘Black Water’ mercenary group which operated in Iraq together with US regular troops after the US invasion of that country.

The US invaded Iraq in March 2003, on spurious charges of Iraqi possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) which endangered the US lives. Despite occupying Iraq for nearly a decade, neither the US nor Britain were able to find a trace of any WDMs. However, a study by the ‘Watson Institute of Brown university put the number of Iraqi civilians killed during the occupation at between 250,000 to 306,000. Additionally, nearly 1.2 million Iraqis were internally displaced.

As though this were not bad enough, the US mercenaries from the Blackwater group who had around 160,000 personnel on the ground committed numerous atrocities on Iraq’s civilian population.

In a particular incident, a ‘Raven 23’ Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine-guns and rocket launchers on Iraqi civilians. The atrocity became known as the ‘Nisour Square massacre’. Fourteen civilians including two children died in the ‘incident’. The US government said in a memorandum filed after the sentencing: “None of the victims was an insurgent, or posed any threat to the ‘Raven 23’ convoy”.

Four Blackwater personnel were found guilty by a US Court and handed lengthy jail sentences. At the sentencing, the US attorney’s office said in a statement: “The sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the defendants’ criminal conduct on September 16, 2007 is staggering.”
The then US President granted all four perpetrators with presidential amnesty, referring to the perpetrators as heroes who were protecting American lives…
In Palestine, Israel is still occupying around two-thirds of Palestinian territory. The United Nations has charged Israel with imposing policies of apartheid of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Israel continues to expropriate Palestinian lands and hand them over to Israeli settlers. Israeli armed forces continue using lethal force against unarmed Palestinian protestors.

The Qatar-based ‘Al Jazeera’ reported in 2021 that the Israeli forces killed at least 266 persons and injured roughly 30,000 others demanding the right to return to their homes and lands. The OCHA (an arm of the UN) records that in 2022 alone, the number of Palestinian civilians killed during military operations and search-and-arrest operations by Israeli forces in the West Bank in 2022 was 70, including 27 in refugee camps (reliefweb October 16, 2022).  
However, the US blocks any condemnation of Israel at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Between 1991 and 2011, out of the 24 Vetoes invoked by the US, 15 were used to protect Israel.

Russia has invaded Ukraine on the pretext Ukraine’s attempt to join the NATO military alliance, could endanger its security. The US, its NATO allies continue pouring arms and ammunition into Ukraine, using it as a live testing ground for weaponry. Russia too has tested out the efficacy of its modern weapons in that unfortunate country.
To date, the OCHA statistics reveal that 7,031 civilians, including 433 children have been killed, while a total of 11,327 including 827 children were injured. The Centre for Strategic Studies reports around 15.7 million persons across Ukraine are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The damage to housing facilities from the Russian invasion of Ukraine based on publicly available evidence was estimated at US$ 50.5 billion as of September 2022. A further US$ 35.3 billion were recorded in direct losses from damage to transportation infrastructure. The total damage to physical infrastructure of the war that began on February 24, 2022 was estimated at US$127 billion. 

Despite the ongoing human tragedy, and the knowledge that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia, no efforts are being made to end the conflict. Rather NATO member states are being pressurized to pour scarce resources and weapons of destruction into Ukraine.
In Sri Lanka’s war on Terrorism, around 40,000 civilians were reportedly killed in the conflict. Justice has not been done to the victims.
Let’s stop mouthing platitudes to defending rights while protecting perpetrators of crimes against humanity. It’s time to bring right violators to justice. It’s time to remove the causes of conflict through dialogues and discussions, rather than inflaming them.
We, all humans, have a limited time on this planet, would it not be better to make our stay pleasant to all beings?