Sixty years ago today, international justice was born, with the
beginning of the first war crimes trial at Nuremberg. Twenty-
four Nazi leaders were tried on various charges, from waging a
war of aggression to crimes against humanity. Nineteen were
found guilty, three were acquitted, one was declared medically
unfit to stand trial and one committed suicide before the
trial's end. Twelve of the guilty were sentenced to death. The
trial gave us the Nuremberg Principles defining war crimes in
international law, and the precedent that "only following
orders" is no defence. Since then, we've established war crimes
tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Cambodia, as
well as a permanant International Criminal Court to try future
crimes. And one day, hopefully, the criminals responsible for
waging a war of aggression on Iraq which has killed (to date) at
lest 30,000 innocent civilians will be dragged before it and
punished.