In a World Like This: Where Justice is Silenced and Power Prevails

After the 1995 Dayton Agreement to end the war with the Serbs, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović said, “In a world like this.” With these words, he encapsulated the state of the so-called free and civilized world, which appeared morally bankrupt—referring to Western European countries. They besieged the Bosnians while opening all channels for the Serbs to arm themselves. Serbia received diplomatic support, while Bosnia was isolated, and forced to accept the Serbs’ terms in order to end the war.

Izetbegović used this statement to expose a lopsided world that had lost its sense of humanity, abandoning the principles it had once established regarding human rights, and replacing them with the law of power in international relations. It is a world that supports aggressors with weapons of destruction while besieging victims. A world where innocent lives are taken and starvation is used as a weapon. In such a world, all Izetbegović and his people could achieve after immense sacrifices was this unjust agreement.

Injustice and Oppression Dominate

In this world, the Security Council ceases to function, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice are paralyzed, and their officials are threatened. The United Nations is humiliated, its resolutions cast into the sea within Israel’s territorial waters, its forces bombed, and its Secretary-General declared persona non grata.

In a world like this, injustices are rampant:

• The rightful are forced to surrender their rights to usurpers.
• Innocent lives are lost unjustly.
• The weak are violated, dignity is trampled, and starvation becomes a weapon of war.
• Entire cities and villages are destroyed, hospitals are reduced to rubble and overturned cemeteries stand as ruins visited by those mourning their dead.

In this world, a grieving father is handed 18 kilograms of human remains, identified as his son’s body to bury. Torn apart by the missiles of the so-called “free” world, the remains are unidentifiable, while animals receive dignified burials. Some people are even imprisoned for neglecting or mistreating animals.

The so-called civilized powers, confronting what they label the “world of evil,” obstruct all the institutions founded after World War II to manage global tensions and prevent future wars. Yet, they have dragged humanity back two centuries, reviving the same horrors of corpses piled high from bloody conflicts.

In this world, hypocrisy becomes the language of diplomatic missions. At the same time, double standards regarding democratic rights, intervention, and non-interference in internal affairs are applied according to power and interests—not public welfare.

In this world, oppressive regimes are sustained while elected governments are overthrown. Sectarianism is planted, and terrorist groups are protected and funded to maintain relevance and balance of power in regions—all at the cost of thousands of innocent lives lost in bloodshed.

The Return of Bloodthirsty Spirits

The same bloodthirsty spirit has returned, shedding fresh blood in rivers of death. It is the same spirit that slaughtered Native Americans, traded African slaves across the seas, and fed them to whales when their weight endangered ships. Even churches were built from the skulls of the free human.

In this world, massacres occur in schools, shelters, and refugee camps, with corpses left in the streets to be devoured by wild dogs.

Here, prisoners are raped, captives are humiliated, and treaties guaranteeing prisoners’ rights are trampled. What governs this world is not merely the law of the jungle but the laws of the Amazon forests, where inhuman beasts rule—laws that now dominate the world.

Boats of Death and Selective Rights

In such a world, boats of death carry hundreds of Rohingya fleeing the horrors of Buddhist oppression in Myanmar, only to reach safe shores and be turned away under the pretext of illegal immigration, forced back into the sea to die of hunger and thirst, or sentenced to years in jail.

In this world, homosexuality is promoted as a right to be normalized, with governments threatened if they fail to comply. Meanwhile, the right to self-determination and the right to expel occupiers remain mere words on paper in international treaties.

A Monumental Historic Disgrace

What is happening today is not just a passing scandal limited by time or place but a monumental and historic disgrace. Yet those accustomed to disgrace no longer feel the burden of these endless scandals. Perhaps accepting disgrace has become intrinsic to how they practice politics and exercise power.

Author Bio : Farid Abu Ahmed, Independent writer from Malaysia

* This represents the writer’s own opinion only it doesn’t necessarily reflect organizational stance.*