Latest news with #CrimesAgainstHumanity
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
‘Genocide': Bombshell finding as first Australian truth-telling commission releases report on treatment of Indigenous Australians
Crimes against humanity and a genocide were committed against Indigenous Australians in Victoria, a landmark report by Australia's first formal truth-telling commission has found. The landmark Yoorrook for Justice report into Victoria's Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems, released on Tuesday, made 46 recommendations based on findings gathered across 67 days of public hearings, the testimony of more than 200 witnesses and the contributions of 1,500 first nations people. The Yoorrook Justice Commission was established in 2021 to examine the 'extent and impact of historical and ongoing systemic injustice' against Indigenous Australians in Victoria since the start of colonisation. In their final report, the Commission found serious crimes were committed against Indigenous Australians from 1834 - including ' mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal, absorption and assimilation'. 'Yoorrook found that the decimation of the First Peoples population in Victoria between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of the pre-colonisation population by 1901 was the result of 'a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups',' the report states. 'This was genocide.' In addition, the Commission found Victoria's child protection system is not only discriminatory, but that it causes trauma, disconnects children from their culture and is in breach of 'fundamental cultural and human rights of the child'. Speaking to Patricia Karvelas on ABC's Afternoon Briefing, former co-chair of the First Peoples Assembly Marcus Stewart called the report 'historic'. 'We needed to look at the systemic injustices that had happened throughout Victoria to First Nations people. And we needed a mechanism in order to do that so our people could come forward, speak their truth, tell their stories,' Mr Stewart said. 'It's important to know that these mechanisms have been used worldwide,' he said. 'Canada had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that examined residential schools. 'East Timor had a truth telling process (after) Indonesian occupation, and the most famous … was chaired by the late Desmond Tutu in South Africa.' Speaking on the correlations between current and historical conditions faced by Indigenous children, Mr Stewart said the document was 'heavy'. 'The act of genocide did occur on our shores and in particular, did significantly impact First Nations people here in Victoria.' 'This process isn't to lay blame, but to create opportunity.' On Tuesday night, Yoorrook Commissioner Travis Lovett took to Instagram to tell Australians to 'take the time to read the recommendations'. 'This is not light reading, but it is necessary. For the first time, we as Aboriginal People have held the pen and told our truths, in our words,' he wrote. 'This official public record has the power to change forever how people learn about the true history of this state. It must be included in the Victorian school curriculum so that future generations grow up knowing the full story.' 'It's moving, it may make you cry, but it will make you think'.
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
'It is the role of justice to deal with this man': How the trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie shook the world
In July 1987, 38 years ago this week, a Nazi war criminal, the "Butcher of Lyon", was sentenced to life in prison by a French court for crimes against humanity. Four years earlier, in 1983, the BBC reported on how France felt about this reckoning with its dark past. Klaus Barbie was known as the "Butcher of Lyon". As the Gestapo chief in Lyon, France, during World War Two, he had been tasked with shattering the French Resistance and ridding the German-occupied city of its Jewish population. He became notorious for his cruelty and sadism, often taking a personal role in torturing and killing prisoners. He sent some 7,500 French Jews and Resistance fighters to concentration camps and executed 4,000 more. Warning: This article contains details of torture that some may find upsetting. When the war ended, despite being wanted by French authorities for his horrific war crimes, he was hired by US intelligence as an informant on communist networks. They shielded him, allowing him to live in the US zone of occupied Germany under a false identity. In 1951, Barbie managed to escape prosecution by fleeing to South America via "The Ratline" that the US used to smuggle Nazis out of postwar Europe. He lived openly in Bolivia for decades until he was tracked down by a Nazi-hunting couple, Serge Klarsfeld and his wife Beate. In 1983, France finally managed to extradite him to face justice. And in July 1987, 38 years ago this week, he was finally sentenced to life in prison. But Barbie's prosecution was far from a straightforward matter for France. The Nazi's return raised questions of guilt and complicity, focusing the nation's attention on the choices its citizens had made while living under German occupation. In 1983, four years before Barbie was sentenced, BBC reporter Bernard Falk travelled to Lyon to talk to people "whose lives were touched by the Gestapo commander's savagery" and the complicated and painful issues the forthcoming Barbie trial had resurfaced. "The presence of Klaus Barbie back on French soil has also aroused genuine fear that it may evoke old memories, the ghosts of 40 years ago," said Falk. "A time when Frenchmen betrayed Frenchmen and the country was divided into those who fought the Germans, the Resistance, and those who collaborated with them, and the bulk of the population who passively accepted their presence." Resistance fighter Raymond Basset reflected on this legacy: "At the time of the liberation of Lyon, there were about 6,000 members of the Resistance movement in the area. Three days afterwards, there was 110,000. That probably explains a lot of things about French life today. Why? Because they only became patriots when there is no more risk attached to it. That's all." When France surrendered to Germany in June 1940, the city of Lyon became a centre for the underground Resistance movement. Basset and radio operator Marcel Bidault were two of the young men who joined early to fight the Nazi occupation. "Basset ran a Resistance group responsible for smuggling shot-down Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain," said Falk. "Four thousand British, American and Commonwealth servicemen owe their lives to Basset's unit." But for every person who actively resisted the Nazis, many more tried to keep their heads down, hoping they would survive. Meanwhile, others welcomed the Nazis, even forming militia to participate as they terrorised the city's residents. Basset discovered this firsthand when he was arrested and then brutally interrogated while having his teeth pulled out. "Captured by the Gestapo, he was tortured to reveal the names of his couriers," said Falk. "The two men who mutilated him were both Frenchmen working for the Germans." Basset's co-conspirator, Bidault, "was captured by the French militia collaborating with the Nazis. He escaped before his own countrymen could hand him over to the Gestapo." Following France's liberation in 1944, people thought to be French collaborators were rounded up. Many were publicly humiliated. Women who had consorted with German soldiers had their heads shaved or were stripped and daubed with tar. People who had cooperated with the Gestapo were beaten in the streets, and some were tried and shot, including the men who had brutalised Basset. "I killed them, of course, we killed them at the liberation, there is no point in giving you their names," the 75-year-old Basset told the BBC in 1983. "They had retired with vast quantities of money, stolen from the Jews." Naming the collaborators But in the decades since the war, the German occupation and the scars it had created within French society had not been forgotten. Many of Lyon's residents were still haunted by what had happened during that time. "For the old, for those who suffered, Barbie never really went away. It's all still here. The battleground where the Resistance fought the occupying German army through the alleyways of the old city. The same streets, the same buildings," said Falk. With the "Butcher of Lyon" back in the country for trial, Basset was keen that France should acknowledge and reckon with its past. He told the BBC that the Gestapo chief should be made to name the French people who collaborated with the Nazis and escaped judgement. "I think the interrogation of Barbie will create many problems because there are most certainly men who were implicated with him," said Basset. He also told Falk of his desire for revenge. He wished that he had a chance to interrogate Barbie, and to mete out the punishment that he had suffered. In particular, the survivors wanted to know "the name of the person who betrayed Jean Moulin, the greatest of all the French Resistance leaders, who was arrested in Lyon after a tip-off", said Falk. Moulin was a crucial figure during the war who united the scattered elements of resistance into a co-ordinated force against their Nazi occupiers. He was viciously tortured by Barbie and died as a result of his injuries on 8 July 1943 on a train taking him to Germany. "During the occupation, there were lots of French who actually fought, but most of them spent their time looking for food. Now that Barbie is here, people will try to get him for all sorts of reasons," Basset told Falk, "but what should be done is simply to find out the name of who betrayed Jean Moulin. Once that has been done, he should be trodden on like a bedbug. He's a filthy animal who shouldn't be allowed to live. If you call that hate, it's hate." After his return, Barbie remained unrepentant for the atrocities he committed. Some felt that the Nazi simply could not be trusted to tell the truth and would use the trial for his own ends. "Opening up this Barbie case is pretty dramatic in the sense that you are going to have names coming up that, if Barbie does decide to talk, he could smear an awful a lot of people," said Jeremy Nicklin, chairman of Lyon's RAF Association, where many of the families of former Resistance fighters would regularly meet. "It doesn't matter what names he uses, if he is rather cunning about it, he can use any name, the mud will stick and what people are slightly frightened about in one sense is that he will sling a lot of mud because he's got nothing left to lose," said Nicklin. Basset's fellow Resistance fighter Bidault agreed that the Nazi's testimony couldn't all be believed, but it was now the job of the court to take over, sift through the evidence and see that justice was done. "I regret that he didn't die before, 40 years is a long time. What is he going to say, who is he going to denounce, if he denounces someone how can you prove that Barbie is right," Bidault asked the BBC in 1983. "I would have personally killed him 35 years ago. Now it is the role of justice to deal with this man. It's not my job." A national reckoning The trial would be a painful process for France; the wounds caused by Barbie and the Nazis were within living memory. Andre Signol had been only seven when his father Michel was arrested for being part of the Resistance. "He was beaten with bullwhips, he was half drowned in tubs of icy water. Barbie pulled out finger and toenails. It went on for four days. Michel wouldn't talk, he wouldn't betray his comrades," said Falk. Signol's father would be posthumously awarded the Legion of Honour. But Signol believed, despite the distress the trial would cause and his own need for vengeance, that having Barbie in court was vital to illustrate to young people what had taken place. "As far as Klaus Barbie goes, I think this man should be dead," said Signol. "He has never expressed any regret at all for his actions, so he goes on enjoying life and he has hope. That is completely abnormal. The trial is absolutely necessary to teach the younger generation about what happened." More like this:• How music saved a cellist's life in Auschwitz• The fake Hitler diaries that fooled the press• How Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Jewish people In the 1950s, Barbie had been tried twice for his war crimes by France and sentenced to death "in absentia", but by the time the Nazi returned to the country in 1983, both convictions had lapsed. His new trial began in 1987 and its extensive media coverage gripped the French public. The harrowing testimony from those of Barbie's victims who had survived, and the relatives of those who didn't, laid bare the scale and savagery of the "Butcher of Lyon" atrocities. Although Barbie never revealed who had betrayed Jean Moulin to him, the proceedings did detail the sickening violence he had personally participated in, and the thousands of killings he was responsible for, including one incident in which 44 Jewish children were rounded up from a farmhouse at Izieu in Lyon, and sent to their deaths. Barbie's trial became a focus of national reckoning for the country as it recounted both France's wartime collusion with and resistance to its German occupiers. The proceedings also served to highlight how Western governments' pursuit of their own political goals had enabled Barbie and other Nazis to escape accountability for their crimes for so long. The fact that Barbie had prospered in South America, while working for various intelligence agencies and engaging in political projects, cast a spotlight on Western governments' complicity and their willingness to ignore violence to civilians and human rights violations in the face of geopolitical calculations. The Gestapo leader was found guilty of 341 separate crimes against humanity, reaffirming that, legally, individuals are responsible for their actions, even if they are following orders. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, where he died in 1991. In 1983, the US formally apologised to France for hiring Barbie and protecting him against prosecutions. In 1995 the French President Jacques Chirac officially recognised the French state's responsibility in the deportation of Jews. "These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions," he said. The "Butcher of Lyon" prosecution proved to be a landmark in the pursuit of crimes regarded as some of the gravest in international law – war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its success would trigger the indictments of such French collaborators as former cabinet minister Maurice Papon and former police chief Rene Bousquet, for acts they had committed during WW2. Barbie's conviction would illustrate to the global community the imperative of recognising the atrocities that take place during war, and, even if it takes decades, holding their perpetrators to account. -- For more stories and never-before-published radio scripts to your inbox, sign up to the In History newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week. For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
National Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- National Post
'Political expediency': Lawyer for IDF soldiers critical of war-crimes probe
There is a growing backlash after the RCMP announced this month it is investigating whether Canadian citizens involved with clashes in or around Israel were in contravention of this country's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Article content Amid outcry from Jewish groups, the force said it wasn't a criminal probe, but to 'collect, preserve and assess information' for potential future prosecutions. Article content Article content Article content Foreign governments, such as Belgium and Brazil, have also opened investigations into their own citizens who served with the Israel Defense Forces. Article content Article content Lt.-Col. (ret.) Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform, at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, suggests these are politically motivated probes. Article content He has been retained by IDF soldiers who have been questioned by foreign government representatives. Hirsch has previously served as senior legal analyst for Human Rights Voices in New York, lawyer for the Israel Defense Forces, director of the legal department for Palestinian Media Watch, senior military consultant for NGO Monitor, and adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Article content I can't tell you exactly as to what their motivation is, but I believe that it's somewhere in the realms of political expediency, and internal demographic politics. It requires these governments to almost change what they've been doing traditionally, even to the point of potentially abandoning allies. Article content Article content Their voter base has changed. And so now you have a situation where you need to almost pander, to cater, to a more fringe population. Article content Article content In May, U.K. government lawyers told the High Court that there was no evidence Israel was deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza, and that evidence exists of Israel making efforts to limit harm to civilians. If the government doesn't believe that war crimes are being committed, then obviously they won't then take that forward, and actively engage in an investigation of something that they don't believe is happening. Article content But if the government is so prejudiced, and predisposed, that war crimes are being committed, then obviously you launch an investigation. Article content Video footage, forensic analysis, operational logs — all impartially examined. What they have is so weak and poor, it's impossible to say it's 'evidence.' I think it's just so circumstantial and flimsy, even imagined.
Kuwait Times
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Massive rallies for Gaza in Europe
Tens of thousands join pro-Palestinian protests in Netherlands, Belgium, France THE HAGUE: Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague and in Brussels on Sunday to demand more action from their governments against the genocide in Gaza. In France on Saturday, thousands of other people joined similar protests, as part of a weekend mobilization around the world against the Zionist offensive in the Palestinian territory. Some 150,000 people participated in the march in the Hague, according to organizers. In Brussels, where protesters were also calling for action from the EU, turnout was estimated at 110,000 by organizers and 75,000 by police. Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organized the demonstrations, which were aimed at creating a so-called 'red line' on the issue. With many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting 'Stop the Genocide', the demonstrators in the Dutch city turned a central park into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon before a march towards the International Court of Justice. Protesters brandished banners reading 'Don't look away, do something', 'Stop Dutch complicity', and 'Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die'. Organizers urged the Dutch government – which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition – to do more to rein in the Zionist entity for its military offensive on the Palestinian territory. 'More than 150,000 people here dressed in red – and a clear majority of the Dutch population – just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,' said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib, a Dutch branch of the international aid group. 'We demand action now from our government,' added Servaes. Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP: 'It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can't take it anymore.' Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, formerly Twitter: 'To all those people in The Hague I say: we see you and we hear you.' 'In the end, our goal is the same: to end the suffering in Gaza as soon as possible.' In Brussels, many families were seen taking part, with the crowd yelling 'Free free Palestine!' and aiming invective at Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A large sign noted that Netanyahu was 'Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity', referring to an ICJ warrant out against him. In Paris on Sunday, meanwhile, a dozen protesters began a march to Brussels to demand EU sanctions on Zionist entity. The group, which includes a French actress, Corinne Masiero, wants the European Union 'to hear the voice of civil society reminding it of its duties', said Nathalie Tehio, head of the NGO Human Rights League. The marchers want EU officials to meet with them on June 23, when a regular meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers is to be held. The Zionist offensive has killed at least 55,207 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians. The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against the Zionist entity, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators protested across France in support of Palestinians and calling for peace in Gaza. French trade unions, left-wing parties and pro-Palestinian activist groups called for a global weekend of protests against the Zionist entity's offensive in the territory. In Paris, where the largest march took place, police counted 9,000 demonstrators, while the CGT trade union and hard-left party France Unbowed (LFI) said 150,000 attended the gathering. European Parliament member Rima Hassan called on supporters to 'deviate, disobey and take all necessary actions to enforce international law, to put an end to genocide'. She recently spent three days in a detention center in the Zionist entity after attempting to breach its blockade of Gaza on a boat with other activists. Protesters on Saturday criticized France's stance on the conflict, branding it conciliatory or even 'complicit' with the Zionist government. 'We don't want what is happening in Gaza to be silenced. Every day we hear that 30, 60 people have died. It has become routine, we don't see it anymore and I'm afraid that with what's happening with Iran, it will become even more invisible,' said one protester, Eve, 63, who declined to give her last name. Thousands of people also rallied in the cities of Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes. — AFP
Globe and Mail
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
RCMP investigating Israel-Hamas conflict for possible war crimes
The RCMP is engaged in an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the continuing conflict between Israel and Hamas. In a statement released Wednesday, the RCMP said that it initiated a structural investigation in early 2024, which is 'a broad, intelligence-led intake process designed to collect, preserve and assess information potentially relevant under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.' The act implements Canada's obligations under the Rome Statute, that treaty that established the International Criminal Court. 'The RCMP remains committed to its mandate under Canadian law, to assess credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity,' the RCMP said. The investigation includes gathering open-source material and voluntary submissions, the RCMP said, and the intent is to collect information that could support future investigative steps, if jurisdictional and legal thresholds are met. The RCMP is also investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine. Opinion: The RCMP investigation on the Gaza war shows Canada's approach to Israel could be changing According to the Department of Justice, the intention of Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program is to 'deny safe haven in Canada to persons believed to have committed or been complicit in such crimes, and to seek accountability for their conduct.' The program is undertaken by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Department of Justice and the RCMP. The Toronto Star first reported on Monday that the RCMP was investigating potential war crimes related to the Israel and Hamas conflict. The Globe and Mail asked the RCMP a series of questions on Tuesday, but the force did not respond. On Wednesday, the RCMP released a statement saying that because of recent media coverage about its investigation related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, it sought to clarify information. The RCMP sought to urge the public to refrain from drawing conclusions, adding: 'This initiative is solely focused on collecting relevant information and does not target any community or group.' It said that it has a protocol to triage and process information related to global conflicts, which is a standard initial procedure and is the foundation for every case, 'after which specialized investigative techniques are applied to address the unique aspects of each investigation, including the Israel-Hamas structural investigation.' 'Should a perpetrator of core international crimes – such as genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity – with the appropriate nexus to Canada be identified, the RCMP will initiate a separate criminal investigation.' So far, the RCMP said it has not done so. The statement said the structural investigation had not been publicly announced because the RCMP is developing 'essential supporting operational tools,' including a secure online portal, which will be available in English, French, Hebrew and Arabic, to facilitate submissions. Technical challenges, the statement continued, have resulted in delays. The RCMP said it will advise the public when the online portal is ready. The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an assault that killed more than 1,200 people. Hamas abducted 251 people and is still holding 58 hostages, about one-third of whom are thought to be alive. Many of the hostages have been released under previous temporary ceasefires or agreements. Israel's military has killed more than 54,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. For weeks United Nations agencies have warned that people living in Gaza are at risk of famine. Mark Kersten, an assistant professor at the University of the Fraser Valley and consultant at the Wayamo Foundation, a Berlin-based non-profit that works to strengthen the rule of law and promote justice for international and transnational crimes, said the statement from the RCMP on its work raises a lot of questions. Mr. Kersten said it is striking that the RCMP launched a structural investigation before having the online portal set up, which will allow people to voluntarily provide information or evidence, and that it waited more than a year to acknowledge this. He wondered if the structural investigation into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had the same challenges. 'If the RCMP was doing such open-ended work without any concrete commitment to accountability, why would it take one-and-a-half years to say anything about it?' Mr. Kersten said the RCMP 'seems to be at pains to explain what it is not doing – any criminal investigation into atrocity crimes – with very little in terms of what it is doing. And if it won't commit to pursuing any criminal prosecutions in its structural investigation, then why would people submit their evidence to the portal?' With a report from The Associated Press
