WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FINDS U.S. GOVERNMENT GUILTY OF GENOCIDE
The International War Crimes Tribunal ended its second session of hearings December 1. It found the U.S. government guilty of a series of war crimes, including genocide.
Meeting at Roskilde, near Copenhagen, the tribunal heard a long series of witnesses, including experts who brought in extensive reports of their findings on the scene and the results of laboratory studies.
Besides genocide, the charges listed the use of weapons that have been banned by international agreement, maltreatment and killing of prisoners, violence and forced movement of prisoners. The U.S. was found guilty on all charges.
The U.S. government was also found guilty of aggression against Laos and Cambodia.
Last May, in the first session of hearings, which were held in Stockholn, the tribunal found the U.S. government ilty of aggression in Vietnam. [See World Outlook May 19, page 505.]
On the basis of the evidence
of events for publications of the labor, socialist, colonial independence and black liberation movements. Signed articles represent the view of the authors, which may placed before the tribunal, verdicts of guilty were also brought in against Japan, Thailand and the Philippines as accessories to the American aggression. Last May, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea were found guilty of similar complicity. In response to invitations from the tribunal, the National Liberation Front and the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam cooperated with the investigation, making it possible for experts to move freely in the areas under attack by the U.S. and Saigon.
The U.S. government was also invited to cooperate with the investigation or to send representatives to defend the U.S. against the charges. The Johnson administration refused.
The tribunal cannot impose sentences on the guilty officials of the U.S. since it has no legal standing. Its moral standing, however, is unquestioned. The verdict it has brought in will be recognized by the overwhelming majority of mankind as a historic condemnation of the world's greatest criminal association -- lyndon B. Johnson and the imperialist war machine which he heads.