ICC arrest warrant on Vladimir Putin

US -European -Israeli war criminals remain scot-free

By Latheef Farook

The International Criminal Court (ICC)   issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin   for war crimes   committed in Ukraine from 24 February 2022 – when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

The question is where was the ICC when Putin slaughtered Syrians who rose against tyrant Bashar Al Assad and unleashed barbarity on Chechen Muslims.

However it is highly unlikely that that ICC which refused to bring United States, British,   and European and Israel leaders for their endless war crimes especially on Muslim countries will do anything to implement its arrest warrant on Vladimir Putin.

The question is where was the ICC was when US, Europe and Israel committed, and still committing, heinous crimes against Muslim countries. In fact it started with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan followed by US invasion .The two super powers got Afghans to kill Afghans besides raped and ravaged the country. Afghans made Soviet Union to collapse and kick out US.

An estimated 10,000 Bosnian Muslims were massacred at Srebrenica. In Myanmar ruling junta committed genocide of Rohingya Muslims who still languish in refugee camps in Bangladesh .Where were the ICC arrest warrants?

Besides former US President George Bush senior tricked Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait and triggered the Kuwaiti crisis. Under the guise of liberating Kuwait Bush bombed and  destroyed Kuwait and slaughtered Iraqis.  He got the Gulf oil sheikhs to foot the bill   for reconstruction and contracts were given only to US companies.

 His son George Bush Junior, together with former British  Prime Minister Tony Blair, falsely accused Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction,  bombed and  turned this almost developed country   into a slaughter house. They killed   hundreds of thousands of Iraqis besides destroying the modern infrastructure. Bush remains free while Blair was given the highest award by late Queen Elizabeth.

 US and its European partners bombed oil rich Libya, destroyed   its modern infrastructure, massacred Libyans and looted its gold and money.

Dealing with western hypocrisy   British columnist Yvonne Ridley had this to state;

When the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush flouted international law and unleashed Shock and Awe on Iraq in March 2003, the attack and invasion had unintended consequences which could probably lead us directly to the equally illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia’s Vladimir Putin in February last year. The only major difference is that, in Ukraine, the fickle international community has issued an arrest warrant for Putin accusing him of war crimes. Blair and Bush, meanwhile, are still at large, unpunished and unrepentant. There have been no arrest warrants for them; they’re just two of many war criminals who get away with murder.

Israel, a state planted in Palestine for migrant Jewish settlers under a UN resolution    passed by bribing and blackmailing member countries, has been brutalizing and killing Palestinians   for more than three quarter century.

All Israeli   leaders committed war crimes. 

For example convicted Russian born   Menachem Begin massacred more than 25o Palestinians at Deir Yassin village in the outskirts of Jerusalem   to    drive   out Palestinians from their homes and lands which were occupied by Jewish settlers to create Israel. He later became Israel’s Prime Minister and was awarded coveted Nobel Prize.

His partner in crime Ariel Sharon Ariel spent his life killing Palestinians. He committed genocide of Palestinians in Sabra Shatila   refugee camps in Lebanon and triggered the Intifada which killed thousands of Palestinians. He was Israel’s prime Minister and his funeral, after suffering in life saving machine for years, was attended   US- European and Russian leaders. He was never portrayed as a war criminal.

Yet another Soviet Union born   Yitzhak Shamir bombed King David Hotel and killed more than 90 people. He was later the Prime Minister of Israel. Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres killed more than 100 Palestinians in the United Nations compound. He was also given Nobel Prize.

Today’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remain soaked in Palestinian blood. Despite their crime records US and European leaders roll red carpet to receive them while ICC remains silent.

Grabbing Palestinian lands for new settlements building for Jewish migrants   and killing the resisting Palestinians have become daily routine in Palestinian lands occupied Israel in its June 1967 war of aggression.  So much so  last week extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich  called for a Palestinian village to be wiped out — by denying the very existence of the Palestinian people,  standing in front of a podium bearing a map of ‘Greater Israel’ that included Jordan. 

Killing Palestinians and lawlessness were keys to Israeli barbarity blindly supported by US, UK and Europe while Arab tyrants installed in power by US, UK and France turn blind eyes to the daily Israeli atrocities on the Palestinians.  Eraser of Palestinians remains the main target of Israel which is busy creating Greater Israel to rule the entire Middle East and, perhaps, replacing London and New York.

It was under such circumstance that ICC   issued arrest warrant for Putin.

In the midst  in a letter sent today to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and the Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has called on the UK government to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed in Palestine, and to recognize the court’s jurisdiction over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Since Israel and its protector, the United States, are not members of the ICC and both refuse to accept or even recognize its jurisdiction, any investigation – let alone indictment – will not be easy. Israel has a long track record of flouting and breaking international law, and doing it again is no problem.

This is today’s world where war mongers and weapons industry flourish on the misery of voiceless and helpless people, especially Muslims, worldwide.