Apartheid now a war crime

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 8

Apartheid now a war crime

NZPA-Reuter Geneva The 100-nation conference revising Red Cross conventions on the rules of war yesterday adopted an article defining apartheid (racial segregation) as a war crime. The article — part of an additional protocol to the 1949 Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians — described actions which should be regarded as grave breaches of the conventions “when committed wilfully and in violation of the conventions or the protocol.” It cited “practices of apartheid and other inhuman and degrading practices involving outrages upon personal dignity, based on racial discrimination.” Countries are required under the existing conventions to take legal measures to punish grave breaches of them. The new article, which

was adopted without a vote, also defined transfers of civilian populations by an occupying power as a grave breach. It also included attacks on civilian populations, undefended localities and demilitarised zones; unjustifiable delay in repatriating prisoners of war or civilians; missuse of Red Cross emblems; and attacks on historic monuments, places of worship, or works of art not located near military objectives. The conference failed to adopt an article giving a soldier the right to refuse to obey orders breaching the rules of war and making him criminally responsible if he knew his orders breached the rules of war. The article, which needed a two-thirds majority for acceptance, was supported by 36 countries and opposed by 25, with 25 abstentions. The rest of the delegations were absent.