Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia - Societa italiana di storia ...

Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia 109
associated with his name “seve ral thousand Abyssinians, men, women, and child
ren, we re slaughtered,” and added: “Blackshirts armed with rifles, pistols,
bombs and flame-throwers, we re turned loose on the natives and an appalling
m a s s a c re was carried out for three day s . ” 4 0
T wo months later, on 8 August, Britain and the principal Allies signed the
London Agreement, for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major Wa r
Criminals of the European Axis. As a result of this agreement an International
Military Tribunal was set up for trial and punishment of suspected war crimi
n a l s . 41
N ews of this soon reached Addis Ababa. Less than two months later, on 3
O c t o b e r, the Ethiopian Government announced its adherence to the agre e m e n t ,
the eighth country to do so. Not long after this, on 20 May 1946, an Ethiopian Wa r
Crimes Commission was appointed, by Ethiopian Imperial Order No. 1784. 4 2
Negotiations for an Italian Peace Treaty, 1946
The ending of the European war had meanwhile hastened the need for a
Peace Treaty between Italy and the United Nations, and for resolution of the
war crimes issue. The Foreign Ministers of the Four Great Powers, the UK,
France, the USSR, and the USA, started preliminary discussions on the matter,
in Paris, in the early summer of 1946.
Ethiopia, like other Allies, was allowed to make recommendations for inclusion
in the Tre a t y. Acting on the advice of its American adviser, Professor John
H. Spencer, and displaying considerable ability, the Ethiopian delegation pre s s e d
the Council to agree to two important points. Firstly, that the war had begun, for
Ethiopia, on 3 October 1935, i.e., the date of the fascist invasion; secondly, to
accept the principle of postlimitium, i.e., the thesis that the Ethiopian gove r n-
ment exe rcised jurisdiction for the period after the 1935 invasion, as well as
b e f o re it. This principle holds that once an enemy occupation is terminated a
state may treat its existence as having survived without interruption. 4 3 S p e n c e r,
explaining his thinking, in a letter to the present writer, observe s :
My reasons were the fact that both the United Kingdom and France had
recognized the Italian “conquest” of Ethiopia. France had entered into
important agreements with Italy during the period of the occupation and