Family separations is a crime against humanity- condemn the cruel Trump policy

Echo from Independent by Mythili Sampathkumar

Last surviving prosecutor at Nuremberg trials says Trump's family separation policy is ‘crime against humanity’

"The administration separated the children because they are unable to enter the US criminal justice system and placed them in detention centres."

Born in 1920, Ben Ferencz is a Hungarian-born American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the Chief Prosecutor for the United States Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the twelve military trials held by the U.S. authorities at Nuremberg, Germany

The last surviving member of the Nuremberg trials prosecuting team has said Donald Trump committed “a crime against humanity” with the recent family separation policy.

Ben Ferencz, age 99, made the comment during a recent interview with outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

The lawyer said it was “painful” when he heard about how the Trump administration had separated more than 2,000 children from their families after they had crossed the US-Mexico border.

Mr Ferencz had been just 27 when he served as the chief prosecutor at the Einsatzgruppen trial, during which 22 Nazi officials were found guilty of killing more than a million people.

The administration separated the children because they are unable to enter the US criminal justice system and placed them in detention centres.

“I knew the Statue of Liberty. I came under the Statue of Liberty as an immigrant,” Mr Ferencz said during the interview, which was posted on the UN website. His family came to the US from Romania when he was a child.

Referencing a line from the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed at the base of the statue – “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” – Mr Ferencz said “the lamp went out when [Trump] said no immigrants allowed unless they meet the rules that we laid down”.

“We list crimes against humanity in the Statute of the International Criminal Court. We have ‘other inhumane acts designed to cause great suffering’. What could cause more great suffering than what they did in the name of immigration law? It’s ridiculous,” the prosecutor of war criminals said regarding the family separation policy.

Mr Ferencz’s comment comes after Mr Hussein – a Jordanian prince, former ambassador, and UN political officer during the Bosnian war – announced he would not seek another term as the world body’s top human rights official.

He had become known for taking a stand against Mr Trump in particular, calling the US leader “grossly irresponsible” when he implemented the Muslim travel ban.
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