INTERVIEW WITH BALTASAR GARZON: “WE ARE CLOSING THE SPACE OF IMPUNITY.”

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MADRID, Mar 1 2005 (IPS) - Any attack or act of aggression against a civilian population, whether by civilian groups, insurgents, terrorists, or regular armed forces is an act of terrorism, asserts Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who won international renown for his prosecution of the ex-dictator of Chile Augusto Pinochet (London 1998) as well as of socialist functionaries for the \”dirty war\” (1983-1986), Spanish and foreign drug traffickers, and the Basque terrorist group Eta and its press and political organs.

Any attack or act of aggression against a civilian population, whether by civilian groups, insurgents, terrorists, or regular armed forces is an act of terrorism, asserts Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who won international renown for his prosecution of the ex-dictator of Chile Augusto Pinochet (London 1998) as well as of socialist functionaries for the “dirty war” (1983-1986), Spanish and foreign drug traffickers, and the Basque terrorist group Eta and its press and political organs.

A fighter for human rights, Garzon, 49, has just published his book “A World without Fear”, soon to be released in the United States where he will remain until the end of this year teaching courses on criminal justice.

Why does your book deal with fear? My argument is that we must bring about a world without fear, in the positive sense. Because it is through the process of law, and not so much through force, that we must come up with a solution to conflict in whatever form.

Without ever resorting to force? No, not never, but always bearing in mind that when force is necessary it must be used within the parameters of international law, which is common to all peoples and must guide every type of action, whether juridical, political, or military.

Do you think that fear can be eliminated? Fear is a normal component of human life, but it must be limited to the realm of personal experience.

Why then speak of ending fear? I am speaking about the fear that is imposed by power, which should no longer exist yet still does, and which should not be allowed to continue because of people’s indifference. A broad action is needed to make criminal organisations disappear and to make institutions capable of offering a positive response to the victims and to citizens in general.

Since the detention and prosecution of Augusto Pinochet, initiated at your behest, has the cause of international criminal law advanced? Without a doubt, international justice has taken its course in Europe and Latin America. The 1998 judgment involved an impulse that remains vital today, and this is positive because we are seeing the restriction of the space of impunity in grave cases like crimes against humanity.

Is the creation of the International Criminal Court an effective step forward? Yes, though it is still in its infancy. What is most important is that action is being taken to close the space of impunity in countries where these crimes are committed, and that the principle of international justice is being affirmed in each. This action must be grounded in the will not to allow crimes against humanity to go unpunished and to judge them in their entirety without imposing time limits, as seems to be happening in Chile with regard to human rights violations.

What is your opinion of the charges of human rights violations and torture by the United States at its base in Guantanamo, Cuba? In the United States, the Patriot Act, passed in 2001, allows for the indefinite detention of enemies, whether combatants or non-combatants. From my point of view this is a flagrant violation of fundamental individual rights, a view supported in decisions by the US Supreme Court and more recently by certain federal courts. This demonstrates that such human rights violations cannot continue and that the prisoners at Guantanamo, like many others under US jurisdiction, have the same rights to a fair hearing in court.

Are you thus optimistic about the future of human rights in the United States? I hope and expect that things will evolve in this direction because I believe that the current situation is unsustainable, a sort of closed circuit that sooner rather than later must be opened. The only way to do this is to try these cases in ordinary courts, which are in fact beginning to take the initiative in this area, challenging the administrative courts.

How does one determine what constitutes “terrorism” and what constitutes guerrilla activity or insurrection? The law is perfectly clear on the definition of all three. When an organisation acts against a civilian, non-combatant population, whatever it may say, this is clearly an act of terrorism because it affects the rights of humanity. In no case can the civilian population be attacked, and whoever does so is committing a crime against humanity. In contrast, a guerrilla insurgency involves conflict between regular or irregular armies. Action against a civilian population, however, can never be legitimate no matter who it is, who commits it, or what the justification is.

Even if it is a bombardment by a regular army, as was the case in Palestine or Iraq? What I am saying is that the civilian population is clearly named in the Geneva Conventions on war and the statute of the International Criminal Court. This is true for any individual or entity that commits or contributes to the harming of a civilian population.

To fight terrorism, is there a need for a special international organisation or is the coordination among states sufficient? What is needed is effective coordination and cooperation, legislation that uniformly, or nearly so, defines the concepts and phenomena at issue, and specifically grants a leading role in politics, diplomacy, and instrumentation to the United Nations, which must serve as the guarantor of international law. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)