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Timely talk of war,
peace By The Press-Enterprise In 3,000 years of recorded history, no nation has achieved the undisputed role of world leadership that the United States has today -- not Rome, not England, Spain or Portugal. Along with that role goes the obligation to lead the world toward peace, said Christopher Gregory Weeramantry, a judge with the United Nations' International Court of Justice based in The Hague, Netherlands. "Sadly, at the present moment, we find the United States leading the world toward war," Weeramantry told 30 Democratic activists Monday at Denny's restaurant in San Bernardino. A former justice of the Sri Lanka Supreme Court, he was in town visiting Leighton Jayasekera, a member of the Democratic Luncheon Club who was Weeramantry's personal secretary when he was first appointed to the Sri Lankan court. Weeramantry has written extensively on human rights, religion and the law. He served nine years on the International Court of Justice, hearing cases on the legality of using nuclear weapons and the dispute between the U.S. and Libya over the Lockerbie bombing. Since 2000, he has been an ad hoc judge called in to hear specific disputes between U.N. member nations. It's rare that a person of such international stature visits San Bernardino, and the visit couldn't have been more timely, with the U.S. preparing for war on Iraq. Weeramantry began his remarks by saying he feels deep admiration and friendship for the United States, having been a guest lecturer at numerous U.S. universities and during the Bicentennial celebration. He was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was struck by hijacked airliners flown by Muslim extremists. He was there to address the law school faculty at New York University on cross-cultural understanding. Such understanding is the "greatest hope for world peace," Weeramantry said. Every world religion teaches peace, he said. Christ was called the Prince of Peace. Buddhism teaches that violence begets violence in an endless cycle. Islam's first teachings included avoiding war. Hinduism teaches that all people are brothers and sisters made by the same creator. Yet throughout time, "war has been the order of the day, war has been a normal, war has been legitimate," Weeramantry said -- until the United Nations was created as a forum for international disputes to be settled without violence. "It took 3,000 years for war to be declared illegal" except under specific circumstances defined in the United Nations' charter, he said. Avoiding war is vital today because its victims are not just soldiers but innocent civilians, he said. "Modern war is much more brutal." Even a brief war can leave bitterness and hatred that take generations to erase. "Anybody can see that it's very easy to get into war, but it's very difficult to get out of," he said. He said the U.N. charter prohibits pre-emptive strikes when a nation is not in imminent danger. If a nation wages war unilaterally, "the danger is the loss of friends, enemies can be hardened, neutrals can be pushed away," he said. And in the Middle East, "any time sparks fly, you can have terrible fires," he said. "The world is looking to the United States for leadership," Weeramantry said. I hope it's not too late to lead the way to peace, not war. (15/01/03 go2lanka.com) |