M D NALAPAT hails the Apex Court for rejecting the Italian government’s claim that its envoy is as immune from accountability for misdeeds as NATO personnel are and observes that the way is now open for courts in other countries to begin legal procedures against specific NATO military personnel for murders and maiming of civilians.
Acting on a petition filed by Subramanian Swamy, an anti-corruption crusader, the Supreme Court of India blocked the return to Rome of Ambassador Daniel Mancini, on the ground that he had falsely sworn to the court that two Italian marines allowed by the Court to go home to cast their votes in elections would return by March 22. When the Italian government declared that the marines would not return, thereby treating as waste paper the assurance given to the Supreme Court, the Italian ambassador faced jail for contempt of court. The Vienna Convention applies only to actions done by diplomats in the course of their official duties and not to criminal acts. Otherwise, it would be a simple matter for gangsters to commit loot and murder through the hiring of foreign diplomats stationed in a national capital.
The two NATO marines had shot and killed two Indian fishermen just off the coast of Kerala in India on 15 February 2012, claiming that they “mistook them for pirates”. The fact is that their fishing boat was far too small to be a pirate craft and that five of the six fishermen on board the tiny vessel were asleep on deck when the marines started to shoot. In any case, no pirate vessel would dare to operate so close to a coast secured by the Indian navy. In their eagerness to shoot first and ask questions later, the two marines relied on NATO doctrine, which holds personnel of the alliance to be immune from punishment despite killing innocent civilians. Since the 21st century dawned 13 years ago, NATO forces have killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians across the globe, without a single individual being held to account for such war crimes. In the past 72 hours (the article was written on 30 March), two Indians have been killed by French NATO soldiers in Bangui airport, apparently mistaken for suicide bombers. The soldiers are being protected from accountability for this killing of innocents by the French government.
The so-called “international human rights” mechanism is in effect controlled by NATO member-states, who use mechanisms such as the Geneva Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or the International Criminal Court (ICC) to discredit their geopolitical rivals while protecting those regimes which serve the interests of NATO…. By its stern action against the Italian ambassador, which forced Rome to return the marines to Delhi, the Supreme Court of India has opened the way for judicial authorities in countries where NATO military personnel operate to hold them accountable for acts against innocent civilians. In Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, tens of thousands of civilians have been lost to NATO military action without a single soldier or official being held accountable. NATO regards itself, it seems, as a James Bond force, with the “007 right to kill”. This culture of immunity has been finally challenged by the Supreme Court of India.
The two Italian marines who killed the fishermen were treated as VIPs, being put in luxurious guest houses rather than in prison for many months after being arrested for murder. Even when they were – briefly – in jail, they were not kept locked up in their cells but could walk about freely within the prison premises, eating food prepared specially for them by 5-star chefs. After coming back to India on 22 March because of the threat of arrest of the Italian ambassador should they refuse to return, the Government of India has allowed the two to go not to jail the way Indian nationals would be but to stay in comfort in the Italian embassy in Delhi.
The government has given an assurance in writing that they will not be subject to the death penalty, making a mockery of the system of justice in India, where matters such as the quantum of punishment should be left to the courts to decide rather than to the government . Also, a special “fast track” court is being constituted to try the two marines so that they do not have to go through the regular court system in India, which often takes several decades before a final verdict gets delivered. Because the Italian witnesses to the murder are unlikely to return to India to give evidence, or may seek to protect their two colleagues rather than reveal the truth, the two marines are likely to get acquitted for lack of evidence, especially as the ship was allowed to return without its logbooks and other evidence of location being seized by the Kerala police. Even should they be found guilty, they will be allowed to return to Italy to “serve out their sentence”. It is certain that once in that country, they will be pardoned. It may be mentioned that there are 160 Indian nationals in jails in Italy. Not one of whom has been allowed to return to India to serve out their prison sentence here, nor lodged in guest houses eating 5-star cuisine. Clearly, Italians are a more important group of human beings than Indians, according to the Government of India.
In contrast to the silky-soft stance taken by the Government of India towards two individuals guilty of killing innocent Indian fishermen, the Chinese government recently got extradited and executed some criminals who had killed PRC nationals. For these individuals, there was no 5-star cuisine and luxury apartments to stay in, only prison and very soon, death. The contrast between the way the government in Beijing has reacted to the murder of its citizens and the way the government in Delhi has acted in response to the same crime is obvious. Small wonder that India has become an international joke, not taken seriously even by its neighbours. However, the silver lining in this episode is the fact that for the first time, NATO’s Doctrine of Immunity has been challenged. The Supreme Court of India deserves credit for rejecting the Italian government’s claim that its envoy is as immune from accountability for misdeeds as NATO personnel are. The way is now open for courts in other countries to begin legal procedures against specific NATO military personnel for murders and maiming of civilians. Although the UN system is still silent about this, the fact is that the many actions of NATO personnel which resulted in civilian casualties need to be documented and accountability be enforced. The “007” tag needs to be removed from NATO before even more innocent lives get lost.