Thread: genocide law

I live in Belgium.
Belgium is the only country in the world that has a genocide law.
This means that if anyone makes a violation to human rights in any way they can be prosecuted from the moment they take one step in Belgium. People like Arafat and others (sout-americ) could be prosecuted when they put foot on Belgium territory.
So basically with this law immunity is gone , wich isnt bad if you dont do anything wrong.
Now the US wants to make sure that no representatives of the US can be prosecuted in Belgium (no matter what they did).

I just want a opinion from all of you because this hasnt only to do with the US, belgium or any other country. It actually involves almost every country (in a way).
So what do you think of this "elimination" of that law.

P.S: I dont want a US bashing thread, if so ill try to pm a mod saying they can close it.

If Belgium was to try and execute a high-profile American, it would create TONS of international tension and outrage in the US. A lot of people here would call for US action against Belgium. Belgium is a little country, and the US is a big country with big bombs that it seems that we like to drop... that wouldn't be entirely unlikely.

You mean a bit like diplomatic immunity?

Visitors in UK flaunt these rules frequently.....albeit not for crimes such as murder etc.

Put it one way-if a (insert country here) diplomat smashed a car up ........ed out of his/her head, they would escape the law. I believe occurences are more infrequent than they used to be now, but it still happens.

If Belgium was to try and execute a high-profile American

In Belgium we dont execute people no matter what they did.
You can kill 10.000 people by dropping a bomb somewhere but you certainly wont be executed. Execution is against the law here.
So you would only get a maximum penalty.

For exemple: Two weeks ago some guy (age 40) shot this woman in cold blood on the street (she was living nextdoor).
Anyway hes being trialed now but he will probably get a sentence of about 21 years for that . After being 14 years in jail hes released. That is because our jails are crowded and theres just no more place to put em, thats why in lots of cases you original sentence is reduced to 2/3 of it.
A lil something to know bout this guy, it was his second killing. 10 years before he killed his neighbour (2 weeks ago) he had already stabbed his mother to death while she was asleep.

This is one of the many cases but to execute someone , no way (says the government, regardless what the ppl think-> kind of logic a trial doesnt need to be something public like during the Romans in the arenas).

So the only thing someone can get around here is a jail sentence.

::edit::

Put it one way-if a (insert country here) diplomat smashed a car up ........ed out of his/her head, they would escape the law. I believe occurences are more infrequent than they used to be now, but it still happens

Im talking about mass murdering like the things done in Congo, super-dooper vialotion of human rights ( treat humans like animals etc.. )

Does that mean that a US soldier who was following orders and fighting in Iraq could be sentenced? If so, that's ridiculous. For absolutely obvious obliterations of human rights, it seems logical.

I think that if you follow orders it isnt you who has to be sentenced. But the man who gave the orders.
Beause if a soldier doesnt follows orders then i think he can be sentenced by a military court isnt it ?

I heard on the news some weeks ago about some High ranked guy in the military who might (notice the might, i only heard the Belgium media version of it)gave terrible orders (it involved something with killing lots of civilians), Belgium then stated that he could be busted when he came on Belgium ground. Thats the main cause (according to me) of yet another problem between the US and Belgium.

>> A lil something to know bout this guy, it was his second killing.

That's what happens when you let the bastards out of jail.

True blackrat... and frenchfry also has a point (although we dont actually have a problem with drug users in jail- because you may use soft-drugs like cannabis when used in a privatie place, without children).

The U.S. is trying to get some NATO headquarters moved out
of Belgium because there has been talk abour arresting Tommy
Franks and other U.S. military brass for alleged war crimes committed by U.S. personnel in Iraq and elsewhere. It looks
to be a very serious situation.

>>> if you follow orders it isnt you who has to be sentenced

I'm afraid "I was only following orders" is probably the commonest thing you will hear whenever "war crimes" and "attrocities" are being discussed.

Soldiers follow orders from their superiors, their superiors receive their orders from higher superiors, ultimately from the civlian government who told the military to act and thence to the population at large as the civilian government is the elected representative of the people. It is a very fuzzy area.

The US's stance whereby you cannot prosecute Americans is, of course, offensive.

The U.S. is trying to get some NATO headquarters moved out
of Belgium because there has been talk abour arresting Tommy
Franks and other U.S. military brass for alleged war crimes committed by U.S. personnel in Iraq and elsewhere. It looks
to be a very serious situation.

The only reason why its a serious sitation is because money is involved.
Each year Belgium receives lots of money from all NATO-countries (headquarters of the NATO are in Belgium). Not all the money is spend on NATO things=> Belgium has money left wich they can use for the economy etc...
Also there are alot of ppl employed in NATO services in Belgium...so with the removal of the NATO headquarters Belgium would lose the funding and lots of jobs would disappear.
Its only a matter of money and thats why Belgium is giving into the demands of the US.
A Belgium politician said that they are willing to drop the genocide law if it concerns US representatives.

Question is what does this politician understand under US representatives.