Law-book toting gunslingers of the new, new West

In the folklore of the American wild, wild West, cattle barons and mine owners would pay hired guns to come around and “take care of business.”

Oftentimes, they would pay hired guns (hit men) to rid outlaws the local marshals and sheriffs could not handle.

Occasionally, they would hire them as bounty hunters to track down outlaws and bring them back “dead or alive.”

In the cold realpolitik reality of the new new West of the Biden era, Post WW II, the old-time gun slingers are replaced by law-book-toting lawyers and arrogant and self-righteous gospel-of-human-rights-thumping paper tigers and dragons preaching fire, brimstone and damnation against “outlaw” African countries for a contract price.

The new, new West’s cattle barons and mine owners are called Joe Biden, Susan Rice (Princess of Darkness), Chris Coons, Gregory Meeks, Robert Menendez, Josep Borrell, Antonio Gutierrez and Co.

The new, new West’s gunslingers are not called Wyatt Earp, Stagecoach Mary or Belle Starr.

They are called Steven Ratner, Kaari Murungi, and Radhika Coomaraswamy.

Their job is to travel the world on behalf of the cattle barons and mine owners of the new, new West and bushwhack governments in developing countries using  human rights as a machete.

Ratner’s professional description posted on the University of Michigan Law School website recounts his decades-long exploits as an international hit/lawman chasing after all types of Cambodian and Sri Lankan government outlaws: war criminals, criminals against humanity, perpetrators of genocide, etc.

Ratner

began his legal career as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department. In 1998–1999, he was appointed by the United Nations (UN) secretary-general to a three-person group of experts to consider options for bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice; and in 2010–2011, he was a member of the UN’s three-person Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, which advised the UN Secretary-General on human rights violations related to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war… (Boldface added.)

Ratner has been a decades-long legal hitman for the State Department travelling to Cambodia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere in hot pursuit of alleged human rights outlaws.

As a member of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE), Ratner is reprising his role in Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Indeed, it is not a big deal for him.

All he has to do is cut and paste the Cambodia and Sri Lanka “investigative” reports, substitute “Ethiopia” for the two countries and voila!

Another fine fictional human rights violations report on Ethiopia!

On March 2, 2022, Ratner’s Gang of 3 was appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Ethiopia.

On March 11, 2022, Ratner represented the following incredible statement on the University of Michigan Law School website:

The whole world, and especially the US, knows the terrorist TPLF started the war!

On November 4, 2020, the day after the TPLF attacked Ethiopian federal forces in Tigray region, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement making clear the U.S. position:

The United States is deeply concerned by reports that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front carried out attacks on Ethiopian National Defense Force bases in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on November 3. (Boldface added.)

Not only that, a top leader of the TPLF terrorist group explained how and why they started the war.

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For translation, click here.

How Ratner would conduct his “investigation” and frame Ethiopia for human rights violations was clear nine days after his appointment to the expert panel.

Ratner had already concluded Ethiopia had started the war and announced it to the world.

His job was simply to selectively collect evidence to support his conclusion: “Ethiopia launched an attack on Tigray. Rampaging Ethiopian troops committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, torture, etc. in Tigray.”

That is precisely what the September 19, 2022 ICHREE report concluded. (More on that below.)

Ratner and the Cambodia hit job

In 1998–1999, Ratner was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to a three-person group of experts to “consider options for bringing members of the Khmer Rouge regime to justice in Cambodia.”

Indeed, Ratner was instrumental in getting the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution asking the Secretary-General to consider “the possibility of the appointment of a group of experts” to look into human rights violations, war crimes, etc., in Cambodia.

Once appointed, Ratner’s group was given a triple mandate: (1) evaluate the existing evidence and determine the nature of the crimes committed; (2) assess the feasibility of bringing leaders to justice and (3) explore options for trials before an international or domestic court.

Ratner’s group also insisted the main source of evidence will be witness testimony. Any trial lawyer worth his salt knows, “eyewitness testimony is fickle and, all too often, shockingly inaccurate.”

Ratner’s group undertook its “investigation” in Cambodia and reported commission of various offenses under international law including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, forced labor and  torture among others.

Ratner’s group recommended trials of suspects be confined to “those persons most responsible for the most serious violations of human rights in Cambodia including senior leaders with responsibility over the abuses as well as those at lower levels who are directly implicated in the most serious atrocities.”

Ratner’s group further concluded only an ad hoc UN tribunal would effectively mete out justice to the Khmer Rouge, rejecting proposals for trials in both a Cambodian criminal court and a UN-supervised Cambodian court.

Ratner’s group further considered and rejected other mechanisms of accountability, including investigatory or truth commissions, removal and exclusion from office of offenders, and financial sanctions.

So, the million-dollar question is this: What was the outcome of the Ratner expert group’s Cambodia investigation?

On September 22, 2022, after 16 years and ONLY 3 convictions, the international tribunal for Cambodia closed down for good.

National Public Radio reported:

The international court convened in Cambodia to judge the Khmer Rouge for its brutal 1970s rule ended its work Thursday after spending $337 million and 16 years to convict just three men of crimes after the regime cause the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. (Boldface added.)

To add insult to injury, the court ended its work by rejecting the genocide conviction of the only surviving leader who is in prison and 91 years old.

It cost USD 112 million to convict each one of the three Cambodian defendants!

Where did all that money go?

Though as a criminal defense lawyer I believe the accused is entitled to the best defense, I am appalled that much of the $337 million went to cover lawyers’ fees, wild goose chase investigations and grease the palms of corrupt officials and UN bureaucrats to keep the investigative scam going.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

The UN Human Rights Council spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to feed lawyers and other bottom feeders and let hang to dry (turn over in their grave) 1.7 million Cambodians!

Ratner and the Sri Lankan hit job

In 2010-11, Ratner was called to service once again by the new, new West “cattle barons and mine owners.”

Ratner was appointed as a member of the UN’s three-person panel of experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka with the aim of advising UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on human rights violations related to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war.

Beginning in the 1970s, Sri Lanka had faced a bloody terrorist war at the hands of the “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE/Tamil Tigers”.

Hundreds of thousands were killed, maimed and displaced in Tamil Tiger terrorist war.

In 2009, Sri Lankan defense forces defeated the Tamil terrorists.

In the anti-terrorist action, it was alleged Sri Lankan defense forces attacked civilians and hospitals, denied food and medicines to the population and committed war crimes and all sort of atrocities.

After the Sri Lankan government declared victory over the terrorists in 2009,  it invited Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to visit.

Barely a week after Moon’s visit, the UN Human Rights Council convened a special session on Sri Lanka at the request of Western governments to look into human rights violations during the Sri Lankan civil war.

In March 2011, Ratner’s panel of experts issued a 214-page report that threw everything, except the kitchen sink, at the Sri Lankan government.

Ratner’s group accused the Sri Lankan government of

(1) killing of civilians through widespread shelling;

(2) shelling of hospitals and humanitarian objects;

(3) denial of humanitarian assistance;

(4) human rights violations suffered by victims and survivors of the conflict, including both internally displaced persons and suspected LTTE cadre;

(5) human rights violations outside the conflict zone, including against the media and other critics of the government;

(6) using civilians as human buffers;

(7) killing civilians attempting to flee LTTE control;

(8) using military equipment in the proximity of civilians;

(9) forced recruitment of children and

(10) forced labor.

Ratner’s group estimated more than 40 thousand people had been extrajudicially killed by the Sri Lankan government.

Ratner’s group barely documented the horrendous crimes of the Tamil terrorists.

So, the million-dollar question is what happened to Ratner’s Sri Lankan investigation and report?

To make a long story short, as of September 12, 2022, the Sri Lankan government has told the UN Human Rights Council to take their report and shove it where the sun don’t shine!

In March 2019, Sri Lanka co-sponsored a resolution made by the UN giving the country a 2-year deadline to establish a judicial mechanism to assess violation of humanitarian international law committed during the civil war.

Tiger Tamils are to Sri Lanka as TPLF hyenas are to Ethiopia

There is great similarity between the Tamil Tiger terrorists and the TPLF hyena terrorists in Ethiopia.

On October 8, 1997, the US State Department classified  the  Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a foreign terrorist organization.

From a date yet to be ascertained until June 2014, the TPLF was listed as a terrorist group by the US Department of Homeland Security.  Homeland Security determined:

The TPLF qualifies as a Tier III terrorist organization under INA section 212(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III) on the basis of its violent activities before it became part of the ruling coalition and the government of Ethiopia in May 1991.

The Tamil Tigers are listed in the Global Terrorism Database as a dangerous terrorist group.

The TPLF Hyenas are listed in the Global Terrorism Database as a dangerous terrorist group.

On November 11-14, 1993, the Tamil Tigers attacked Sri Lankan military base in government-controlled area of Pooneryn, overrunning the garrison and capturing military hardware and killing 532 Sri soldiers and 135 sailors.

On November 3-4, 2020, TPLF Hyenas attacked a federal military base (Northern Command) in Tigray region, overrunning the garrison and capturing military hardware and killing and maiming thousands of Ethiopian soldiers.

In August 2009, a 1,000 strong force of the Tamil Tigers massacred some 285 men, women and children, around a third of the population of the Palliyagodella village.

On November 9, 2020, the TPLF Hyenas massacred 766 innocent people in Mai Cadra.

The Tamil Tigers forcibly recruited child soldiers.

The TPLF Hyenas forcibly recruited child soldiers. They conscripting and deploying child soldiers at this very moment!

On January 5, 2007, Tamil Tigers terrorists set off explosions that killed 6 people and injured at least 30 in the Sri Lankan capital of Columbo.

ON September 16, 2006, the TPLF Hyenas planted 3 bombs that went off in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and publicly blamed Eritrea and other opposition groups.

Beginning in February 2009, the Tamil Tigers, “in spite of the futility of their military situation, not only refused to surrender, but also continued to prevent civilians from leaving combat areas ensuring their continued presence as a human buffer.”

Beginning in December 2021, the TPLF has been using child soldiers as human shields.

In August 2022, TPLF Hyenas issued orders to shoot their own retreating troops.

The Sri Lankan defense forces defeated the Tamil Tigers in 2009 and rid their country of a malignant cancer once and for all bringing peace to their people.

The Ethiopian defense forces shall soon defeat the TPLF Hyenas and rid their country of a malignant cancer and bring peace to their people.

Kaari Betty Murungi (Kenya)

Betty Murungi is the chairperson of the Ratner hit team.

Murungi replaced former International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda who resigned on June 22, 2021, four months after the Ratner hit team was established.

Murungi has long been a longtime apostle, cheerleader and defender of the  terrorist TPLF.

On April 2, 2021, when Murungi tweeted, “If there was a time for application of R2P in Tigray, the time is now,” she was advocating for humanitarian military intervention.

 

 

“R2P” is an acronym for “responsibility to protect” by international community in cases of mass atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

(Interestingly, Murungi deleted her Twitter account to destroy all trace of her tweets advocating for the terrorist TPLF, but her efforts were not entirely successful.)

Murungi got her chance to put her wishes into effect on June 22, 2021, when she replaced Fantou Bensouda as chairperson of the ICHREE.

Murungi was handpicked for the job by the president of the Human Rights Council because she had a solid track record of supporting the terrorist TPLF.

What is so shocking to the reasonable mind is that the president of the HRC did not even bother to do  the MINIMAL DUE DILIGENCE to screen Murungi for simple things like bias, conflict of interest, appearance of impartiality, neutrality, etc.

Indeed, it is highly likely Murungi was selected precisely because she can be trusted to deliver a body blow to Ethiopia on behalf of the terrorist TPLF come what may.

“R2P! Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

In the end, Murungi torpedoed the UN Human Rights Council with her blatant partisan support for terrorist TPLF.

Murungi had been on the Council for less than three months when the ICHREE report on Ethiopia was issued.

It is interesting that Murungi has a history of sabotaging human rights investigations.

Between 2009 and 2010, Murungi served as Vice Chairperson and Commissioner of the Kenya Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in her own country Kenya.

That Commission was established after Kenya’s 2007 Presidential election which  sparked violent clashes over electoral fraud allegations.

In that violence, nearly 1,500 people were killed and almost 300,000 were forced to flee their homes.

Following the violence, a power-sharing coalition government was established which authorized the creation of a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).

The mandate of the TJRC was “to investigate and recommend appropriate action on “human rights abuses” committed between December 12, 1963 and February 28, 2008.” The TJRC was also tasked to establish as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the post-election violence.

As Vice Chairperson and Commissioner of the Kenya Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission, Murungi proved to be divisive and ineffective.

Murungi resigned claiming she “was unable to continue  given the public position I have expressed with regards to matters facing the Commission’s Chair.”

Murungi said she was resigning because the Commission’s Chair was “unfit to hold such an office due to his past record as a senior government official.”

However, the hypocrite Murungi did not refuse to accept nor offer to resign after her PAST RECORD showed she is a dyed-in-the-wool terrorist TPLF supporter!

So, what happened to the TJRC?

In its 2013, the TJRC reported, among many other things:

1) Between 1963 and 1978, the government of President Jomo Kenyatta was responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights including killings, torture, and collective punishment, denial of basic needs and arbitrary detention of political opponents and activists;

2) Between 1978 and 2002, the government of President Daniel Moi was responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights including unlawful detentions, widespread torture and ill-treatment of political opponents;

3) Between 2002 and 2008, the government of President Mwai Kibaki was responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights, including unlawful detentions.

4) Security operations in Northern Kenya were accompanied by systematic and widespread torture, rape and sexual violence against girls and women.

In spring 2009, the Kenyan Parliament turned down a Constitutional Amendment Bill for a Special Tribunal for post-election violence.

On March 31, 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into the post-election violence.

Six individuals, including the deputy prime minister, an ex-minister, and an ex-police chief were ordered to appear before the Court in The Hague.

Ironically, while I engaged global public opinion to fully prosecute Kenyatta and Ruto before the ICC, Murungi did not utter a word!

Now, Murungi becomes a champion of human rights in Ethiopia while she callously turned a blind eye to the deaths of 1,500 Kenyans and displacement of 300 thousand of her own brothers and sisters!

Kenyan Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai wrote:

“The real intention of the just-formed Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) therefore, is to facilitate impunity, hoodwink and massage the victims and yet again, sweep the crimes under the carpet. None of the leaders has ever been made to account for crimes they commit against the state. Why now?

Radhika Coomaraswamy and the Myanmar hit job

Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan, is the third member of the Ratner Hit Team sent to Ethiopia.

Coomaraswamy is the former UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict. She also served as Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka from 2003-2006.

Coomaraswamy’s claim to fame is that she was the lead author of the 418-page Global Study on the Implementation of Resolution 1325 (full involvement of women in all efforts for maintaining and promoting peace and security) published in 2015.

In 2017, after alleged atrocities against the Rohingya people in Myanmar, Coomaraswamy was appointed a member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.

In 2018, the Coomaraswamy expert panel accused Myanmar authorities of committing

1) crimes against humanity including murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, and enslavement;

2) crimes against humanity which meets the legal requirements of war crimes (murder, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, attacking civilians, displacing civilians, pillaging, attacking protected objects, taking hostages, sentencing or execution without due process);

3) rape and other forms of sexual violence on a massive scale; and

4) arbitrary and frequent denial of humanitarian assistance to people in need and blocking movement of relief personnel for long periods of time.

Coomaraswamy
https://zehabesha.com/the-daylight-lynching-of-ethiopia-by-the-dirty-hiired-guns-of-the-unhrc-exposed/