Every person responsible for war crimes should be put to trial even if he belongs to nation that won: Justice Rohinton Nariman

Every individual responsible for war crimes should be made accused in post-war trials irrespective of whether the person belongs to the victorious or the vanquished country, retired Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Nariman recently said..Justice Nariman emphasised that universal peace is possible only if every person participating in war crimes is indicted.“Without looking at the ‘victor’ (nation) or the vanquished (nation), arraign those responsible for war crimes. For it is only then that we can as human beings, look forward to universal world peace which has thus far eluded us and probably will elude us at least in the near future,” the judge suggested..He that there ought to be a charter and a panel of judges, preferably constituted by a neutral organisation like the United Nations (UN), to prosecute persons for war crimes.“A utopian dream which may become reality in the future is having a Charter first drawn out by an organisation like the UN which clearly outlines what are war crimes. So that you never have this finger pointing at you saying this (the accusation) was ex post facto. So clearly delineate what are war crimes. Second, provide for judges from neutral countries. Very important! Because if the ‘victor’ (nation) is to decide about the vanquished, then there will be an inbuilt bias. So have neutral judges set up by the UN Charter or some other world body,” the judge said..Justice Nariman was giving a lecture on ‘The Nuremberg & Tokyo Trials - The Rule of Law Vindicated’ at an event organised by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) at Nagpur bench of the Bombay High CourtThe event was held in the memory of Senior Advocate late Vinod Bobde and was part of a lecture series by the team study circle of the HCBA..Justice Nariman spoke at length about the two trials that took place at the end of World War II and how they did not follow the rule of law.He explained that the trials consisted of two separate panels of judges that belonged to the nations that had won the war which included Great Britain, Soviet Union and United States of America (USA)..After narrating about both trials in brief, he pointed out that the dissenting opinions by certain judges at both trials pointed out the arbitrariness of prosecution by the tribunals. Italians had not been arraigned as accused even though they had also waged war just like Germany.Japanese Emperor Hirohito did not have to face trial as the United States wanted Japan to be an American protectorate and hence they wanted Hirohito to continue as Emperor. This, Justice Nariman explained, would not have happened with German Führer Adolf Hitler had he been alive.The crimes committed by USA by dropping the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were never looked into as it was the victorious countries which conducted the trial..He also said that out of all the dissenting opinions, the dissent by Indian judge Justice Radhabinod Pal, one of the judges on the Tokyo trial tribunal, was very interesting. Justice Nariman emphasised that Justice Pal’s dissenting opinion, which ran into 1,200 pages, said that the ‘victors’ in the case should also be indicted as their bombs killed over 2 lakh civilians.“He drew attention to the single most important fact that the ‘victor’ seems to be meting out his own justice. And if the ‘victor’ metes out his own justice, where is the justice? Where is the rule of law,” Justice Nariman asked..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.