cover image War Crimes:: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice

War Crimes:: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice

Aryeh Neier, Neier. Crown Publishers, $25 (308pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-2381-0

How should humanity respond to severe abuses of human rights committed during wars? Neier (Only Judgment), a former executive director of the ACLU and Human Rights Watch and currently the president of George Soros's Open Society Institute, marshals history, reporting, ethics and argument in making his case for a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute war criminals and other egregious violators of ""international humanitarian law."" Neier considers the problem of balancing justice with stability (punishing war criminals can exacerbate a society's divisions); the utility and morality of truth commissions; apportioning guilt among leaders, followers and bystanders; imposing ""victor's justice""; and defining genocide. He traces the development of the concept of the ""law of war"" from its ancient and medieval origins to the present day and pivotal events such as the Nuremberg trials, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the establishment of ad hoc tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The primary focus is on Bosnia, though the author also provides background on the genocide in Rwanda and on human rights abuses in Latin America, the former Warsaw Pact nations and South Africa. Neier effectively weaves together graphic descriptions of atrocities with scholarly discussion and, while he acknowledges that many efforts to deal with war crimes have met with mixed results, his is not a despairing voice. This is the reasoned plea of an idealist who understands complicated realities but does not let them obscure his moral vision. Editor, Mike Ruby; agent, Patricia van der Leun. (Aug.)