Unlock the door to history’s atrocities

Financial Times; May 26, 2006
By David Scheffer

In spite of the relentless march of modernity, war atrocities and
other human rights abuses of decades or even centuries ago continue to
stoke anger and conflict across the globe. Remarkably, this often
occurs among societies sharing common values and embracing
globalisation. Collective memory of atrocities holds a historical
death grip on so many peoples today that we desperately need a new
means to help victims and perpetrators understand the past.

Consider Serbia’s sad example, in which self-censorship in politics
and schoolbooks about atrocities continues to isolate the country. The
recent death of Slobodan Milosevic, former Serbian leader – before the
international court trying him could render a verdict – and Belgrade’s
subsequent failure to arrest Ratko Mladic, the indicted war criminal –
fuelled both anger and memories.

Is it any wonder that political reconciliation in the Balkans remains
fragile or that Bosnia still seeks validation of Serbian-inspired
genocide before the International Court of Justice?

Remarkably, this anger often occurs among societies sharing common
values and embracing globalisation. Consider Turkey. Kurdish riots
threaten to reignite a civil conflict plagued by too many denials of
past atrocities and present realities. Turkish officials have long
contested labelling the forced marches and mass killings of Armenians
by Ottoman authorities almost 100 years ago as “genocide”. Some
European nations demand that Ankara acknowledge genocide before
approving Turkey’s accession to the European Union. The recent defeat
of French legislation criminalising denial of an “Armenian genocide”
has intensified tensions. Turkey pulled out of Nato military
exercises after Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, publicly
described those events in Armenian history as “genocide”. Pride and
political agendas still divide Armenians, Turks and the western
alliance. Japan, meanwhile, although a trading empire, is at
loggerheads with South Korea and China (neither sporting clean human
rights records) over how to explain and acknowledge aggressive
criminal conduct before and during the second world war. Japanese
school textbooks have reached new levels of revisionism about past
atrocities. Officials dodge the truth. Junichiro Koizumi, prime
minister, annually visits the Yasukuni shrine honouring Japanese war
criminals, despite foreign protests. South Korea declassified
documents that purportedly demonstrate Japan’s culpability for crimes
against humanity committed during its years as an occupier. Seoul
insists that Tokyo assume responsibility.

Relations between Poland and Russia are strained, too, partly because
of the “reciprocal silence” underpinning memories of atrocities.
Baltic states are revisiting, with rising anger, the killings and
disappearances they endured under Soviet rule and in the second world
war. Latin American societies remain burdened with past human rights
outrages. Seeds have been planted to inspire decades of hatred and
tension between the Islamic world and the US. Bush administration
officials have seemed increasingly oblivious to allegations of torture
and abuse within foreign detention facilities since September 11 2001,
as well as to their own credibility gap on the invasion and occupation
of Iraq.

Civilian deaths under US firepower in Iraq and Afghanistan leave far
too many questions unanswered. In contrast, Washington occasionally
faces up to atrocity crimes committed long ago against its native and
ethnic populations, but redemptive acts havenot fully overcome
societal divisions.

Robert Zoellick, US deputy secretary of state, noting Sino-Japanese
tensions over the history of Japan’s colonial rule in Taiwan, said:
“One way to defuse some of the tension on both sides is to have what
is called in diplomatic parlance a ‘track two’ effort, perhaps have
historians of China and Japan, perhaps the US, too, examine the
historical situation in world war two and perhaps other periods as
well.”

Efforts similar to this have been attempted in various countries to
address post-atrocity tensions plaguing society. Scholars convene
conferences and truth commissions and accomplish much good work, but
their efforts are insufficient. Records established by the
international criminal tribunals remain remote and partial at best.

The internet with its global reach offers a powerful way to educate
people and compete with political demagoguery about atrocities. A
consortium of leading independent scholars across the globe should
collaborate to develop in cyberspace credible accounts of the facts
about atrocities, drawing on solid research but striving to avoid
intellectual gridlock. Each such historical account should be easily
readable and printed in relevant languages so that ordinary people,
particularly students, can learn from a trusted source, free of
distortion. Other sources on atrocities and contested views must not
be ignored, although it is important to remember that too much
information in too many places on the web means most people remain
ill-informed.

Japanese, Turkish and Serbian schoolchildren – among many others –
could use such a website to overcome their textbooks’ shortcomings.
Africans, as they gain internet access, could retrieve objective
accounts of the atrocities that have plagued their continent.
Competing websites and government efforts to block access would
challenge the endeavour. But the existence of a reputable website
might help ease tensions and discipline public officials by helping
understanding of precisely what happened in the dark past.

The writer, a former US ambassador at large for war crimes issues, is
a law professor and director of the Centerfor International Human
Rights at Northwestern University