Who bears the greatest responsibility?

Living in Sierra Leone has made me think carefully about the chain of responsibility for war crimes and acts of terrorism. The Special Court for Sierra Leone decided to concentrate its energies on only those who bore the greatest responsibility for the crimes against humanity that were committed during the decade long civil war. So only the leaders of the rebel groups and Liberian head of state Charles Taylor were indicted, 13 people in total, not every single person that fought on the streets or amputated their own people. Except Taylor, whose trial is still underway, eight people have received life sentences.

The decision by a special court in India last week on the Godhra issue, made me think about responsibility once again. In this verdict 11 people have been sentenced to death and 25 life sentences have been given out. Going back a bit, the Godhra incident refers to the burning of a train in 2002 carrying Hindu pilgrims by Muslim protestors. This led to bloody riots in the state of Gujarat where about 1,000 Muslims citizens were massacred.

Are the right people taking the fall? As this Hindustan Times article points out, who takes the blame for the bloodbath against Muslims that followed the burning? Who bears the greatest responsibility in this case? 11 people might die as a result of this sentencing but we need to think about whose orders they were following and whether the right people were indicted.

In Sierra Leone and in many international criminal tribunals such as Rwanda and Yugoslavia, the doctrine of Joint Criminal Enterprise has been employed. While it is quite complex, if simplified it means that a number of individuals had a common plan to commit a crime. Last year Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi was given a clean chit in the riots case. Last week a cleric named Maulvi Umarji was among those acquitted last week. The Special Investigative Team (SIT) found that he had ordered his lieutenants to carry out the attacks. It is widely acknowledged that these were politically motivated decisions. Both the burning and the targeted genocide that took place against Muslims were well planned, not spontaneous acts of violence. How is it possible that no incriminating evidence was found against either of them? The same goes for the 1992 bomb blasts and riots in Mumbai. Everyone knows the Shiv Sena were involved, but will anyone ever invoke the joint criminal enterprise against the Thackerey family?

In Sierra Leone, people murmur that many army leaders were not indicted or convicted because of political reasons. While bodies like the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the special court in India should not be politically slanted, unfortunately it is often people with influence that escape punishment.