4 Aug 2006 @ 16:08, by Bruce Kodish
As policy, Hezbolla deliberately targets civilian's and furthermore hides among the civilian population of Lebanon and uses Lebanese civilians as human shields.
This directly contravenes the laws of war as spelled out in the Geneva Conventions.
Here are some excerpts to keep in mind when there is loose talk of war
crimes:
Both Protocol I and Article 28 of the Geneva
Convention (IV) make clear that "the deliberate
intermingling of civilians and combatants, designed to
create a situation in which any attack against
combatants would necessarily entail an excessive
number of casualties is a flagrant breach of the Law
of International Armed Conflict," according to
international law scholar Yoram Dinstein (see his The
Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International
Armed Conflict, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp.
129 - 130).| In short, Hezbollah is in violation of
the laws of war when it places missiles and rockets in
villages and homes in order to shield them from
Israeli attack.
Article 51(7) of Protocol I states: "The presence or
movements of the civilian population or individual
civilians shall not be used to render certain points
or areas immune from military operations, in
particular attempts to shield military objectives from
attacks or to shield, favour or impede military
operations." And the Geneva Convention (IV) holds that
"The presence of a protected person may not be used to
render certain points of areas immune from military
operations." (Geneva Convention Relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949,
Laws of Armed Conflicts, 495, 511.) Moreover, the Rome
Statute is clear that "utilizing the presence of
civilians or other protected persons to render certain
points, areas or military forces immune from military
operations is recognized as a war crime by Article 8
(2) (b) (xxiii)". (Dinstein, p. 130)
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