Release 4-03

[Christian Bartolf <mkgandhi at snafu.de>]

PRESS RELEASE 20 April 2003

Folk legend Pete Seeger (born 1919) signed the "Manifesto against
conscription and the military system" on 25 March 2003 - see
http://www.snafu.de/~mkgandhi/manifesto.htm -  Throughout his life, folk
singer, song writer and environmentalist Pete Seeger composed famous
anti-war-songs like e.g. "Where have all the flowers gone?" (which
Marlene Dietrich and Joan Baez performed) and "Last Train to Nuremberg"
(recollecting the Nuremberg Principles). During the last decade Pete
Seeger was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal, the National Medal of Arts
and Kennedy Center Honors for his life-long
commitment for peace, civil rights, ecology, labor and music education.

For more information on Pete Seeger - Pete Seeger Appreciation Page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jimcapaldi

Manifesto against conscription and the military system
(with complete list of signatories, date: 20.04.2003):
http://www.snafu.de/~mkgandhi/manifest.htm

(sgd.)
Christian Bartolf (Chair)
Gandhi Information Center
Research and Education for Nonviolence
P.O. Box 210109
10501 Berlin
Germany
email: mkgandhi at snafu.de
http://www.snafu.de/~mkgandhi

NUREMBERG PRINCIPLES

Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the
Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, adopted by the
International Law Commission, July 29, 1950:

"Principle I.   Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime
under international law is responsible therefor and liable to
punishment.

Principle II.   The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for
an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not
relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under
international law.

Principle III.   The fact that a person who committed an act which
constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or
responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility
under international law.

Principle IV.   The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his
Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility
under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to
him.

Principle V.   Any person charged with a crime under international law
has the right to a fair trial on the facts and law.

Principle VI.   The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes
under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression
or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or
assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment
of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
(b) War crimes:
Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not
limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for
any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory;
murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the Seas,
killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton
destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified
by military necessity.

(c) Crimes against humanity:
Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts
done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political,
racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such
persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any
crime against peace or any war crime.

Principle VII.   Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace,
a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is
a crime under international law."