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Ustwo · 10-12-2005, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Germany to charge Gargamel with war crimes.
By Engelbert Humperdinck, AP

War Criminal?

Gargamel and several other high-ranking UNICEF officials could be tried in Germany for war crimes committed in The Enchanted Forest.

On Nov. 30, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and four Smurf citizens filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The complaint was brought under the German Code of Crimes against International Law (CCIL), enacted in 2002, which grants German courts "Universal Jurisdiction," or the right to prosecute such cases across national borders, regardless of the location of the crime or the accused. The four Smurf plaintiffs in this case claim they were subject to sadistic physical and psychological torture in a old mayonnaise jar in Gargamel’s laboratory. None were ever charged by UNICEF with a crime.

The charges against the UNICEF officials include violations of the German criminal code addressing "War Crimes against Characters," which outlaws killing, torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, sexual coercion and forcible transfers. The Code holds criminally responsible those who commit such acts as well as those who induce, condone or order them. It also makes commanders liable who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts.

Representatives from CCR are calling Karlsruhe "a court of last resort." UNICEF courts are not legally obligated to prosecute all cases, whereas German courts are required to prosecute any case provided there is enough evidence. Because UNICEF has refused to join the International Criminal Court, no case can be made against UNICEF citizens there. In the face of the Gargamel’s persistent refusal to address the culpability of those in higher command during the mayonnaise jar scandal, and because the UNICEF has made its citizens immune from prosecution in The Enchanted Forest, litigants have little recourse other than to take the case to Germany.

Berlin-based lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck is representing the CCR in Germany. Kaleck has done similar work, including filing genocide and torture charges against Jiang Zemin, the former president of China, and representing the victims of Argentina’s Dirty War. Aside from the well-documented evidence of abuse in the mayonnaise jar, including scrolls from Gargamel sanctioning torture.

The case could prove to be a thorny issue for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ,whose administration is attempting to repair relations in the wake of its bitter dispute with the UNICEF over the invasion of The Enchanted Forest. Others fear "another Belgium"--referring to the UNICEF threats last year to remove UNICEF headquarters from Brussels if Belgium allowed war crimes charges against Azreal, then-commander of coalition forces in The Enchanted Forest, to be heard there. Belgium ultimately amended its law to keep the case from going to court.

Anticipating intimidation tactics or not, Ratner says that following the announcement of CCR’s case, "the German media coverage was excellent and both the national and international PR conferences were well attended." UNICEF is saying that torture is humane. It means that war is peace," he says. "But the rest of the world sees that the emperor has no clothes."

This is rather shocking to me, and I do hope Gargamel is brought up on charges as he should be!