Accountability for Killing and Destruction
Is Needed to Reinforce Global Laws
Ed Horgan / The Irish Independent

(January 17, 2025) — While there are hopes of a ceasefire, as I write this letter on January 16, at least 77 Palestinians are reported to have been killed overnight by Israeli bombing in Gaza. Accountability for such killing and destruction should now be prioritised.

Too many perpetrators of crimes against humanity are never held to account. Ottoman Turkey was never held to account for the Armenian genocide. Far too few perpetrators of the Holocaust were held to account for their crimes. Stalin and Chairman Mao both died of old age.

Idi Amin conducted a reign of terror in Uganda in the 1970s, but died of old age in Saudi Arabia in 2003.

Former Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam is still enjoying retirement in Zimbabwe despite being found guilty of genocide.

Pol Pot was responsible for the deaths of up to three million people during the Cambodian genocide (1976–78), yet after he was overthrown, his regime continued to be recognised by the United Nations. He died of old age in 1998.

Such impunity for perpetrators and the perception that genocide can be “successful” are among the reasons that such crimes continue to be committed. The UN and the proper rule of international laws have also been seriously damaged. The buildings can be rebuilt, but those exterminated cannot be reborn or rehabilitated.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Co Limerick