If she were tried by a conventional court, what would have been the appropriate punishment?

In this tribunal, we applied the international conventions of the law to this case so we did not have a trial different from the international law. If the case were taken to the international court, then the decision wouldn’t change because we were objective, we have the evidence, and we conducted the trial according to international law. So the ICC would most probably decide in the same way.

In the [conventional] international criminal court, those responsible will be isolated. They will be resigned from their positions. And if they were convicted, they will be exiled to another country but not in detention. In this kind of international tribunals, the governments responsible for the crimes are exhibited in front of the eyes of the community that they are guilty.

According to the Rome Statute, Macapagal-Arroyo should be exiled from the Philippines. She cannot live in the Philippines anymore because of human rights violations.

In Turkey, it is difficult to sue the president. The law prohibits this kind of trial. There is a need for a rebellion, like a military attack, to put on trial people for human rights violations. For instance, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was hanged after a military coup. The latter overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.

What are your views on terrorism?

All nations have class struggles. Imperialists and the bourgeoisie use terrorism as a rogue for the struggle of people. While they associate the people’ struggle with terrorism, they also use organized terrorist attacks for quelling the people’s struggle.

For example, they use events like Al Qaida-related or the London subway attack to accuse the people for their struggle. And they support these “terroristic” activities in order to blame people for their struggle.

Terrorism for me is the government’s violations. The government authorities are the real terrorists.

There are national liberation movements. These kinds of movements cannot be evaluated as terrorist activities as long as they are not against civilian people. Even if they are against armed forces, they cannot be called terrorists because they are national movements for freedom. (Bulatlat.com)

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