The UN, the ICC and other international organisations have unanimously agreed that if by governmental action famine is created that might be categorized as a war crime as this quotation says “If the famine comes from deliberate action of the State or other players using food as a weapon of war, it is an international crime,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, told journalists in New York. She noted that the most serious cases of man-made famine could be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), but said in the press conference that this has never been done.
One of the shortcomings of the ICC that I criticized in my book, “Tyrants Wanted Dead” is that it is reactive, not proactive, and doesn’t understand the concept that a stitch in time saves nine; but that only after the nine have perished it gets ready to punish the perpetrators. One must congratulate it on its warrant for Putin’s arrest while he is still in power although thousands of lives have been lost through his invasion of Ukraine. It is still hoped that he might be taken out before more lives are lost.
How is ICC relevant to us? Hypothetically, If the earnings you make from running your taxi puts food on your table for your family and somebody steals your car, isn’t that akin to an act of murder since you could no longer feed your family? Now, actually, if the Petrotrin refinery helped feed thousands of people in this country and the government arbitrarily shuts it down making it difficult for those dependent on it, isn’t this something genocidal from an economic view and something we should take to the ICC for their arbitration?
Not because it hasn’t been done before means we could not initiate something landmark in law; Petrotrin was too relevant to the sustenance of life here for one man to just decide he could shut it down and who vex vex. ICC is known for taking action after the fact and here we have a classic case for them.
We could start by sending them a petition to that end so they could at least keep an eye on what is happening in this banana republic; how Rohan Sinanan has so damaged our roads that they have actually become dangerous as if there are landmines set there. This is worse than a war crime being played out and we should let the courts have a look to see if their deputies shouldn’t come here.
Our point is, before the scarcity of food becomes a famine case, shouldn’t we let the ICC know that there are persons here committing what are equivalent to war crimes upon citizens?
Lastly, in Samuel Selvon’s book, “A Brighter Sun”, it says, America actually asked England for ownership of Trinidad and the question is why? My guess is that we had a refinery that few countries in the world had and one suspects that was enough reason for mighty America to want this dot of an island. And then came the Dumb and Dumber who couldn’t understand what was the jewel we had at Pointe-a-Pierre and shut it down. Isn’t that enough reason why we should take the matter to the ICC?
L. Siddhartha Orie
