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‘Judging war crimes and torture’ is a book on French policies confronted with justice for war crimes and torture.
Yves Beigbeder traces back the attitude of France vis-à-vis different crisis and wars: Indochina, Algeria, Nazi Germany and the collaboration, and, some years later, towards Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia. It is hard to provide an in-depth explanation of all these issues in only 380 pages. This is probably why the book targets mainly a non-French audience, and explains perhaps why the author wrote it in English.
Nevertheless, Beigbeder’s work is a very good one. Without any form of leniency towards the justice of his own country – or towards the attitude of the political authorities towards the demand for justice for war crimes or acts of torture committed or supported by France – he describes some of the dark pages of France’s colonial history and the sometimes schizophrenic behavior of French decision-makers in the context of Rwanda in particular, or of the former Yugoslavia.
So, a very instructive book indeed! One complaint though: its price (€125). Except for some law faculty’s libraries, not many people will be able to afford such a book.
>>> Orders to be placed at: www.brill.nl/product_id23848.htm
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