hatsoever of towns, villages, awelilings 0 ens erohibited (Art. 25). " puring pombardments all pepren ate maa? be
j ildi devoted to religion, ;
to spare, so far as possible, buildings PTrAEe Sr shack table purposes, historical momuments hospitals or — where sick and injured persons are assembled, provided that these plac are not used for military purposes (Art.27).
prohibits the use of
Article 6 of the Statutes of the Tribunal of Nuremberg has — as war crimes the destruction without reason of towns and villages or devastation not justified by military requirements. The Geneva Convention of the 2 August 1949 also laid down the principle of absolute prohibition of attack on civilian hospitals (Art.16) and private and collective property not rendered absolutely necessary by the conduct of the operations (Art.53). The government of the United States cannot override such Treaties, to which it has subscribed, whilst its own constitution (Article 6, para. 2) gives them pre-eminence over domestic law. Furthermore, the Official Manual (Department of the Army Field Manual) entitled "The Law of Land Warfare" published by the U.S. Ministry of War in 1956, under reference F.M. 27-10, refers to all of the foregoing provisions as being obligatory on all members of the American army. In consequence, the Tribunal considers that in subjecting the civilian population and civilian targets of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to intensive and systematic bombardment, the United States of America has committed
@ war crime. Apart from condemnation of this war crime,.the Tribunal makes a point of declaring that fragmentation bombs of the C.B.U. type, which have no other purpose than to injure to the maximum the civilian population, must be regarded as arms prohibited by the laws and customs of war. Meeting with the resistance of a people who intended to "exercise peacefully and freely its right to full independence and to the integrity of its territory" (United Nations resolution of the 14 December 1960), the government of the United States of America has given these war crimes, through their extent and frequency, the character of crimes against humanity (Article 6 of the Statute of Nuremberg). These crimes cannot be regarded merely as a consequence of a war of aggression, whose prosecution is determined by them. Thanks to their systematic employment with the object of destroying the fundamental rights of the people of Vietnam, their unity and their wish for peace, the crimes against humanity of which the government of the
es
United States of America has rendered itself guilty, become a fundamental
constituent part of the crime of aggression, a supreme crime which embraces
all the others according to the Nuremberg verdict.