War Crimes

Abby Olcese 2-09-2024
The image shows a Nazi commandant smoking in his yard, and the photo was taken through bars on a fence. The man wears a white button up with a black tie.

From The Zone of Interest

JONATHAN GLAZER’S FILMS aren’t really stories; they’re experiences. His work is moody and image-driven. Plot matters less than concept, which often makes his work feel like it should be viewed in an art museum rather than in a theater. This is certainly true of his latest, The Zone of Interest, a loose adaptation of a novel by Martin Amis.

Glazer’s film follows a Nazi commandant and his family who live next door to Auschwitz. Theirs is a disturbingly wholesome life — a study in what philosopher Hannah Arendt called the “banality of evil,” the bureaucratic just-following-orders mentality that allows evil to proliferate. As such, it’s also a timely film to consider in the context of rising authoritarianism around the world.

Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, January 7, 2024. Vatican Media/­Handout via Reuters

Pope Francis, tackling conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine in his yearly address to diplomats, said on Monday that “indiscriminately striking” civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law.

Rose Marie Berger 2-27-2018

“Has the United States ever apologized?
Or are we too big to apologize?”

—Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson

The Chaplains Handbook has no confiteor or rite,
neither Book of Common Prayer nor missalette,
for scrutinies that beg forgiveness from the torn

and desecrated dead. We come contrite
for reports of helicopter gunships,
bodies observed in a ditch, the undress

of a girl who covered only her eyes:
Noncombatant gang rape, with bayonet.

FILE PHOTO" Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand amid smoke in Raqqa's western neighbourhood of Jazra, Syria June 11. REUTERS/Rodi Said

Intensified coalition air strikes supporting an assault by U.S.-backed forces on Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa in Syria are causing a "staggering loss of civilian life," United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday.

n refugees from Aleppo

Syrian refugees from Aleppo wait at the refugee camp in Essalame, Syria on Feb. 2, 2016. kafeinkolik / Shutterstock.com

On Dec. 14, Syrian pro-government forces breached the fragile ceasefire agreement, shelling besieged neighborhoods of Aleppo and banning civilians from fleeing. Addressing Syria, Iran, and Russia, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, asked, “Are you incapable of shame? … Is there no execution of a child that gets under your skin? Is there literally nothing that shames you?”

Jim Wallis 1-16-2014

Broken glass with the flag of Central African Republic. Via Shutterstock/Micha Klootwijk

This weekend we’ll commemorate the too-short life and great work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While we rightly celebrate his life dedicated to advancing equality for all, too often we overlook his call to peacemaking. This year, in light of conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, and an often-overlooked war in Central African Republic, we should remember his words.

In his 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence,” King opposed the violence, saying:

"To me the relationship of this ministry [of Jesus Christ] to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I'm speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men — for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative?"

Those aware of our long history at Sojourners know that we have always been committed to peace, to opposing unjust wars and finding nonviolent solutions wherever possible. And in all the work we do, we aim to speak out for the least of these, the poorest and most vulnerable.

QR Blog Editor 5-16-2012

The BBC reports on the opening day of Ratko Mladic's war crimes trial at The Hague:

Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic intended to "ethnically cleanse" Bosnia, the opening day of his war crimes trial has heard. Gen Mladic faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, in connection with the brutal 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Read more about the trial here

the Web Editors 10-26-2011

We Are All Occupiers Now: The Mainstreaming of OWS; 10 Cities With The Lowest Poverty Rates: U.S. Census; Senators Push For Syria's Assad To Be Charged With Crimes Against Humanity; Surprise! The Rich Are Still Getting Richer; Paul Ryan To Slam Obama For 'Politics Of Division'; Does Pope Benedict Support Occupy Wall Street?; Clergy Petition Village Voice To Drop Ads Linked To Sex Trafficking.

Debra Dean Murphy 5-05-2011
"However much we try to distinguish between morally good and morally evil ways of killing, our attempts are beset with contradictions, and these contradictions remain a fragile part of our mode
Aaron Taylor 10-07-2009
A few days ago I received a mass e-mail from the ACLJ. For those who don't get their daily dose of Christian talk radio, ACLJ stands for the American Center for Law and Justice.
Elizabeth Palmberg 8-31-2009
The outgoing commander of the U.N./African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur has garnered much press by saying, on his way out of the door, that "I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur.
There is much to be disturbed about in the recent revelation of the Bush administration torture memos.
Jim Wallis 4-14-2009
In an op-ed piece in Monday's Wall Street Journal, on
Molly Marsh 3-01-2006

Communities at Risk

“AIDS is born in the house of poverty,” an Indian health worker says on Making Ends Meet: AIDS and Poverty, a new resource from the Mennonite Central Committee. The 18-minute DVD looks at communities in India and South Africa and how AIDS is impacting the economies of each. The DVD includes additional interviews, a 25-minute story on church workers in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and other features. Excellent for Sunday school or study groups. www.mcc.org/aids

Joe Roos 11-01-2001

Christopher Hitchens, in this illuminating assessment of Henry Kissinger's war crimes, reports on a filmed 1998 interview with Michael Korda, senior editor of Simon and Schuster.