Sauron Moridor wrote:
>
> Sauron1 writes; If this string must go on; The please read this;
> Near the end of the last reel there is a series of shots of an
> unofficial, unauthorised visit to a just overrun concentration camp. The
> captured German guards are seen standing in front of a deep trench they just
> dug,under the watchful eyes of a group of GI's and an American AA half-track
> mounting a quad 50 Cal AA. As the jeep carrying two officers derives away
> out of the camp, the camera is jerked around as the holder is startled by
> the AA firing at the lined up guards, who are driven into the trench by the
> impact of 50Cal at short range. A hand clamps over the lens and the films
> end.
And by my reading of the Geneva Protocols, although warranting an
investigation, this is not a War Crime.
Key issues are:
The camp had been "Just overrun". So it can be argued that it was "in
the heat of combat".
Enemy had been caught amidst evidence of an atrocity.
Under these circumstances, the massacre of _recently_ captured prisoners
is highly discouraged, but looked upon as being too human to be counted
as criminal. It's taken that such circumstances induce a form of
temporary psychosis - People Get _MAD_ in the literal sense.
BTW The Canadian military has a reputation - almost a tradition - of
"disposing" of inconvenient prisoners whenever someone isn't watching. I
might add that the Australian military doesn't have this reputation:
they just don't take prisoners in the first place, if anyone offers
serious resistance. I've been on exercises where the Intel guys were
going spare trying to get Reservists to take even one for interrogation.
Maybe it comes down to the days of Breaker Morant: capture a prisoner,
and kill them later, you get shot. Don't bother with prisoners, and
there's no comeback.
--
aebrain_at_... <> <> How doth the little Crocodile
| Alan & Carmel Brain| xxxxx Improve his shining tail?
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By pulling MAERKLIN Wagons, in 1/220 Scale
Received on Thu Feb 12 1998 - 10:32:24 UTC