A DAY FOR JUSTICE

A DAY FOR JUSTICE A Lesson from History T HROUGHOUT 1984, Iraq kept stepping up its attempt to ruin the Iranian economy by cutting off export of oil through the Kharg Island terminal. Hoping to force Iran to negotiate an end to the four-year-old Gulf War, the Iraqi authorities conducted systematic attacks on international shipping using the Iranian oil terminal. Their efforts were considerably assisted by their acquirement of sophisticated Exocet missiles from France. So successful have these missiles been that Aerospatiale—the French manufacturers of the Exocet—considered fit to bring out an advertisement in the London Economist, announcing that their product had hit and disabled many vessels in the Gulf War. The advertisement, quite conveniently does not mention the dozens of crewmen on these vessels who were killed or injured. The Exocet, as the advertisement omits to say, has disabled and wrecked not only ships but human life as well. The fact that Aerospatiale, like the manufacturers and distributors of so many other weapons of destruction, consider it fit to advertise the devastating nay life-taking qualities of their products, is due to the reason that they feel there is none to bring them to account for their actions. Everyone knows that killing innocent people, and giving others weapons to kill them is a crime against God and humanity. Yet those who wield political and economic power in this world continue to kill, and even take pride in their action, when it serves their interests. They think that their power gives them a license to kill. The human conscience demands that such people be brought to justice; it cries out, “Who is going to take away their license to kill?” Yet in this world, they are never brought to justice. Those who perpetrate these crimes against humanity are accorded state funerals and buried as ‘heroes’. They are condemned and punished only if they happen to be on the losing side. In a world where the human conscience, and the order of the whole universe, demands justice, it is inconceivable and unacceptable to think It is inconceivable and unacceptable to think that some people should indulge in games of death and destruction and are allowed to go without paying for their crimes.