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Has Britain Started Listening to the Words of Reason?

Grete Mautner, March 04

45234234222Last October, the former Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, in response to the actions of the permanent representative of the United Kingdom, Matthew Rycroft, said the following:

Stop now to support different mob worldwide extremists, terrorists and various other fans. In General, stop interfering in the Affairs of other sovereign States, leave these colonial habits, leave the world alone. And then the situation will be improved in many regions of the world.

Yet, it took the UK political elites almost five months to listen to these worlds of reason. How else can one explain the statement made by Teresa Mae cited by The Independent that she said during his speech to the representatives of the Republican party in Philadelphia. The statement reads as follows: “Britain will never again invade sovereign foreign countries in an attempt to make the world in their own image.”

Additionally, the UK Prime Minister promised never to repeat the “failed policies of the past”, referring to the Western military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking from the “liberal intervention” principle established by Tony Blair. May seems to be convinced that the days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in pursuit of their own interests are over.

But this statement of the British Prime Minister should not be just mere words, as they must be followed by concrete steps aimed at addressing the malicious policies that UK had bees pursuing in spite of the outrage of both the British but and international communities.

First of all, there’s an urgent need of preventing imperial raids against other states, carried out with the use of British arms. Among the most pressing cases of such an aggression the most despicable one has been the Saudi armed aggression against Yemen,

For instance, The Independent has been reporting in much detail all the peculiarities of the British military cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the war that the latter is waging on the people of Yemen. However, so-called British military advisers are still deployed in Yemen, so it’s only natural to demand Theresa May, when will Britain “stop attempts to make the world in their own image”? Or is it no longer necessary to stay true to one’s words?

And since Theresa May decided to go down that lane, she could as well examine the allegations that British soldiers were committing war crimes in various countries of the world. In particular, two human rights organizations: Berlin’s European Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the UK’s Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) filed a demand to the International Criminal Court in Hague for it to investigate numerous cases of mass torture of Iraqi prisoners carried by British military personnel in the period from 2003 to 2008.

Even back in the days of the British military aggression against Iraq various human rights activists demanded that the International Criminal Court put to trial senior British military commanders, including the former British Defense Minister Geoffrey Hoon, and other politicians, to establish their responsibility in various war crimes. The question of Tony Blair’s guilt has always been regarded as a separate matter, but he has escaped prosecution nonetheless.

If Theresa May is determined to set the record straight to start from scratch, she must also comment the closure of 58 cases that investigated the crimes of British troops in Iraq, that was carried out by the British Ministry of Defence.

Grete Mautner is an indepenent researcher and journalist from Germany, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.