By  Andy Knight

The recent US military strike in Caribbean waters, which killed three alleged narcotics traffickers, raises serious concerns that U.S. president Donald Trump is engaged in extrajudicial murder which is a blatant violation of international law.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, such actions are “unacceptable” and he has called on the U.S. government to provide greater transparency about these growing incidents.

The U.S. president could one day be charged with violation of international law and be held accountable for this crime against humanity.

As an international relations specialist, I am very concerned that the current U.S. government’s military actions in the Caribbean Sea, as well as in the Pacific Ocean, are bypassing due process.

Lethal force should not be used outside a conflict zone without proper judicial oversight. The U.S. president and his administration have failed to produced credible evidence of any threat to America stemming from these small crafts. The U.S. Congress has not declared war against the countries from whence these boats came.

Despite numerous strikes in the past few weeks, the US administration has yet to produce any credible or conclusive evidence linking the targeted vessels and individuals to terrorist organizations or specific drug trafficking crimes. Even if the individuals involved were drug traffickers, this does not meet the standards set in international legal treaties for dealing with such crimes. The Trump administration is acting in a lawless fashion in these cases.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm over these military strikes. He calls them breaches of international law that prohibits countries from using lethal military force against noncombatants outside a conflict zone.

Volker Türk has called for an immediate end to these illegal military operations, and has emphasized that the U.S. ought to be held accountable for the loss of human lives, within any judicial process.

Even US lawmakers from both major parties are sounding the alarm and demanding greater transparency from the U.S. president for these strikes. This says to me that some members of Congress are now questioning the legal justification and the level of intelligence behind these operations. Thus the U.S. seems to be acting as though it is the global policeman, a return to the immediate post Cold War days when the US assumed the role of global hegemon after the fall and disintegration of the USSR.

But the unipolar world no longer exist. We are now living in a multipolar world in which US hegemony is being challenged. The U.S. has lost all credibility when it comes to leadership within the global community. Its use of might rather than diplomacy continues to hurt its reputation around the globe.

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has accused the Trump administration of “murder” in connection with the death of a man that Petro described as a fisherman on one of the boats. I won’t be surprised if one day President Trump is charged by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for these egregious crimes against humanity.

Prosecuting a senior U.S. official, let alone a president, in a foreign court would most likely be immensely difficult politically, but it may not be impossible. There is precedent for doing so. Remember that Charles Taylor or Slobodan Milosevic thought that they were somehow above international law, but both men were eventually arrested and tried from their crimes against humanity.

And, then there is the Pinochet precedent, when the former Chilean president was arrested and charged in London for crimes he committed against his own people in Chile.

It is true that the U.S. Supreme Court has given immunity to the American president for any actions he takes that are part of his official duty as president. But there is a line being crossed right now. Sixty-one people have been killed by the Trump administration in boats connected to Venezuela, connected to Colombia, involving nationals from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Trinidad and Tobago.

While the justification for these killings is usually in reference to what is known as “the laws of armed conflict.” serious legal questions are being raised as to whether there is a declared armed conflict with the countries from whence these murdered individuals are citizens.

The U.S. president is crossing a very dangerous line in these cases. And while the U.S. may dismiss any rulings of an international court, it has to contend with the United Nations Charter, which, of course, the United States led the world in drafting.

The United Nations Charter makes it clear, in Article 2, paragraph 4, that members of the UN shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the UN.

There is one exception in the UN Charter in Article 51 which states that “Nothing in the present charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense…”. But note the caveat: “…if an armed attack occurs.” These naval vessels in the Caribbean Sea are definitely not carrying out any armed attack on the U.S.

#InternationalLaw #HumanRights #CaribbeanNews #TrumpAdministration #UN #GlobalJustice #Accountability #CaribbeanVoices #NewsUpdate #BreakingNews #TheCaribbeanCamera

Andy Knight is a professor at the University of Alberta and former director of Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies.

  Alberta, Calgary