The South Atlantic Conflict, the only one fought by Argentina in the last century, was described as conventional and asymmetric, a small great insular war and the first of the missile era.
But very few realize that the atypical thing was that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) classified it as the only one in which both sides respected International Humanitarian Law, also known as the Uses and Laws of War, or as the Conventions of Geneva to which our country joined on August 12, 1949.
By the way, it was very different from others before and after, mainly in the events that occurred during the Second World War (GM II), which were bloody, devastating and atrocities were committed that humanity has described as “war crimes”. In Malvinas, there was no complaint about the commission of acts of this nature.
A war crime is a violation of the protection of the aforementioned instruments. It is a crime against humanity because it offends the essence of human rights, and becomes a concern for the international community.
Some of these examples would be: taking and executing hostages; pillage and destruction of public and private property; deportation to force the civilian population of the occupied territories to do jobs; the murder of civilians or prisoners of war or shipwrecked; the pillage of public or private property; wanton destruction of cities and towns and devastation not justified by military necessity.
The Second World War dealt a devastating blow against civilization, getting to barbarize the conflict by the warring sides. The Germans, the Japanese, and the Allies murdered each other.
Brutality was opposed by more brutality. A destructive and criminal appetite was evident. The Soviets, for ideological reasons, indiscriminately murdered thousands of innocent civilians regardless of children, women and the elderly.
The Nazis, by ideology and racial hatred, came to exterminate millions of Jews, and also disabled people, gypsies and Christians, among others; also reducing thousands to servitude, just like the Japanese. Hundreds of massacres were recorded, among others:
* That of Biscardi (Sicily) in 1943, where officers of the United States Army (USA) shot 74 Italians and 2 German prisoners of war, following – according to them – orders from General George Patton.
* The so-called Ardeatine Fossils (Rome) in 1944, in which by order of Hitler the Nazis murdered more than 300 defenseless Italian civilians.
* That of the Katyn Forest (Soviet Union, near Smolensk) in 1940, in which by order of Stalin more than 10,000 Polish prisoners of war and civilians were executed en masse.
* In 1944, troops from the Der Führer Regiment attacked the defenseless French commune of Oradour-sur-Glane. The victims were more than 600 civilians, and much of its buildings and infrastructure were destroyed after looting and burning. Charles De Gaulle, in this regard, stated: “Oradour-sur-Glane is the symbol of the misfortunes of the fatherland. It is convenient to preserve its memory, because it is necessary that such misfortune never be reproduced again ”.
* Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery did not hesitate to order devastating Allied bombing raids on France and Germany. One of them, in 1944, in the city of Caen (France) caused more than 5,000 civilian deaths, including women and children. The city had been totally evacuated by the Germans.
* In February 1945, in devastated and defeated Germany, the British Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) bombed the city of Dresden, the capital of Saxony. A thousand bombers dropped more than 4 thousand explosive and incendiary bombs and reduced the city to ashes. The balance was more than 15 thousand dead. They violated all humanitarian principles. The city was not a military or strategic or tactical objective. The so-called Florence of the Elbe, a jewel of the Renaissance and Baroque, was destroyed.
* In March 1968, in Mÿ Lai (Vietnam), the ensign of the US Army. William Laws Calley, commanding an infantry section, indiscriminately attacked a village of no military value. They raped women and girls, completely set the village on fire and killed all the livestock. The victims range from 400 to 500. The lieutenant was tried and sentenced; he served 3 years of house arrest and was pardoned by President Richard Nixon.
In other conflicts – Korea, Iran-Iraq, the Balkans and the Middle East – the cited paradigms of irrationality are known, and war crimes were also committed.
On the contrary, I would like to remind you that in the Malvinas, Argentines and Britons we observe the norms prescribed in the Uses and Laws of War. It was fought without hatred and with remarkable respect for the dignity of the opponent. I personally know that the civilian population and prisoners of war were fully respected.
Regarding the latter, the aforementioned Geneva Conventions, among other aspects: “Prohibit superfluous damage and perfidious means of struggle that undermine military honor (…) They must be treated humanely and protected against any act of violence …”. What has been said applies to enemy combatants and includes members of irregular organizations.
No war crimes were committed in the Malvinas, they fought without hatred and “with notable respect for moral standards on the part of both sides” (Hastings and Jenkins, The Battle for the Malvinas, Emecé Editores, Bs As 1984, p. 343 ).
Nothing related to state terrorism and the systematic and deliberate policy against human rights of the last civic-military dictatorship on the continent had the slightest relationship with the behavior of our men in Malvinas.
Martín Balza is a former Army chief, former ambassador to Colombia and Costa Rica, and a Malvinas War Veteran.
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#Malvinas #war #crimes
source https://pledgetimes.com/in-malvinas-there-were-no-war-crimes/
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