Mark Tedeschi: Eerie echoes of the start of World War I
By Mark Tedeschi
24sep01
GEORGE W. Bush has categorised last week's tragic events as "an act of war". An act of war is an act of aggression committed by one state against another. In the absence of convincing evidence implicating a state or a government in the destruction of last week, all we can say at this stage is that the acts of terrorism were the criminal acts of a large number of individual people.
Such criminal acts should be subject to the most intensive investigations. Where evidence is available to implicate people in the planning or carrying out of these acts, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Where a state hinders an investigation or refuses to hand over suspects for trial, there are established measures that can be taken by the international community to bring pressure until co-operation is obtained from the recalcitrant state.
This is what was done in the Lockerbie case – the destruction of a US aircraft over a Scottish town in 1988 that resulted in the deaths of 270 passengers and Scottish citizens on the ground. After a lengthy and incredibly sophisticated international investigation (with assistance from a wide range of countries) the Scottish authorities indicted two Libyan nationals, who were state employees, for the deaths. After years of international pressure, the Libyan Government handed over the two to be tried in a Scottish court, temporarily situated at The Hague in The Netherlands. One of them was convicted, the other was acquitted.
Historically, however, there are striking parallels between the present situation and the events that led to World War I. In June 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian Black Hand secret society, which had as its main aim the destruction of Austro-Hungarian rule in the Balkans. The assassination gave the Austro-Hungarians the excuse to make heavy demands on the Serbs, who they blamed for fomenting this and similar terrorist groups.
The Serbs, wishing to avoid war with the much stronger Austro-Hungarians, complied with the majority of the demands. However, the Austro-Hungarian government and people, egged on by their German allies, itched for an excuse to attack Serbia. They seized on the few parts of the demands that Serbia had refused, and declared war. European powers soon joined in and the war only stopped after 8 million people had been killed and more than 22 million wounded. The dead included a million Austro-Hungarian soldiers.
What the US President should be doing is encouraging nations to bring whatever legitimate pressure they can on all nations to co-operate in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for this monstrous crime. It would be inappropriate for Bush to order military action against another state in the absence of clear and convincing evidence that the targeted state's government was directly involved.
It is not a sufficient justification for military action that the criminals who committed these atrocities live in a particular country or are tolerated by that country's government.
It is of concern that President Bush's fourth demand on Friday to the Taliban regime bears a striking similarity to the fifth demand made by the Austrians to the Serbs on July 24, 1914. The Austrian demand was that they "accept the collaboration in Serbia of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Government for the suppression of the subversive movements directed against the territorial integrity of the Monarchy".
What is needed is a cool-headed approach in bringing to justice those responsible for crimes that arouse the utmost revulsion. What is not needed is a knee-jerk, emotional lashing out at those who are thought to have given sanctuary to the criminals. We have come a long way since 1914 in the area of international criminal law, especially with the imminent establishment of the International Criminal Court. Let us not slide back into the antediluvian attitudes of nearly a century ago.
Incidentally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in 1918, largely because of the war.
Mark Tedeschi QC is the senior crown prosecutor for NSW, president of the Australian Association of Crown Prosecutors and a member of the International Association of Prosecutors. This article is written in his private capacity.