Casus belli

Casus belli adalah ungkapan bahasa Latin moden yang bermaksud sebab atau alasan untuk tindakan peperangan. Casus bermakna "peristiwa" atau "perpecahan", manakala belli bermakna "perang".

Casus belli sering salah dieja dan salah disebut sebagai "causus belli," kerana ia kelihatan seakan-akan perkataan bahasa Inggeris "cause" (serta perkataan bahasa Latin causa yang bermaksud 'sebab') dan kerana, dalam penggunaan umum, istilah ini biasanya bermaksud "sebab untuk perang".

Walaupun istilah ini telah amat lama digunakan dalam bahasa Latin, ia tidak digunakan secara meluas sehingga lewat abad ke-19 dengan kemunculan doktrin politik "jus ad bellum" atau "teori perang adil". Penggunaan tak formal di luar takrif teknikal merujuk kepada mana-mana "alasan adil" yang sesuatu negara mungkin akan menuntut untuk memulakan pertempuran. Oleh itu, ia digunakan untuk memerihalkan secara retroaktif keadaan-keadaan dalam sejarah sebelum istilah ini digunakan secara meluas, serta untuk masa kini ketika memerihalkan keadaan-keadaan apabila peperangan tidak diisytiharkan.

Secara rasmi, sebuah kerajaan akan mengemukakan alasan-alasannya untuk memulakan peperangan, berserta hajatnya dan langkah-langkah yang mungkin boleh diambil untuk mengelakkan peperangan. Dengan berbuat demikian, kerajaan itu cuba menunjukkan bahawa ia memulakan peperangan hanya sebagai langkah terakhir ("Ultima Ratio") dan bahawa ia sebenarnya mempunyai "alasan adil" untuk berbuat demikian.

Penyebab penggunaan

Casus belli boleh dipergunakan untuk mengelakkan kehilangan semangat di dalam negara, atau untuk memperoleh sokongan rakyat. Jika sebuah negara menyerang negara yang lain tanpa menyatakan sebabnya, ia mungkin akan mengakibatkan ketidakpuasan di kalangan rakyatnya atau kehilangan kepercayaan terhadap pemimpin-pemimpinnya. Dalam kes keterlaluan, ia boleh mengakibatkan pemberontakan.

Pada zaman moden, casus belli mungkin tidak bertujuan untuk meyakinkan rakyat tetapi sebaliknya, bertujuan untuk memberikan justifikasi kepada komuniti sejagat. Oleh itu, casus belli juga melibatkan kediktatoran dan negara yang dikuasai oleh tentera yang tidak perlu memberikan sebarang casus belli kepada rakyat-rakyatnya.

Sejarah Penggunaan

PDI

The Assassination in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 ultimately led to World War I. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria at Sarajevo in Austria-Hungary by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, Austrian subject and member of Young Bosnia, led to Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. The Russian Empire started to mobilise its troops in defence of its ally Serbia, which resulted in the German Empire declaring war on Russia in support of its ally Austria-Hungary. Very quickly, after the involvement of France and the British Empire, five of the six great European powers became involved in the first European general war since the Napoleonic Wars. (see Causes of World War I)

PDII

When Hitler decided to incorporate Czechoslovakia into his Third Reich, he used a Casus Belli called Lebensraum. This means, roughly, "room for living", and was based on Germany's poor condition after WWI, where the victorious Allies had demanded of Germany large payments in reparations, so that when the US withdrew loans provided to Weimar Republic, caused largely by the Wall Street Crash, Germany's economy collapsed. Because of this Germany was in a state of crisis when Hitler rose to power, and his plan was that if he could expand to areas with many resources, he could build up Germany's economic state and infrastructure. Instead of capturing colonies outside Europe, Hitler claimed that he needed resources close to him, so he could build Germany up fast. To help justify this he also claimed that he was merely reuniting Germany, since most of the areas he captured had formerly belonged to Germany (and had German-speaking people living in them).

The use of such a casus belli was well suited to the economic and political situation in Europe at the time. Britain, still exhausted from WWI, reacted to his claims by following a policy of Appeasement. Willing to make significant sacrifices to avoid another war, Britain did not stop the Germans when they started to remilitarize and expand. France was unenthusiastic about the appeasement policy, but was not willing to go to war alone [1]

The official casus belli of the Soviet Union for attacking Finland in the Winter War was the shelling of Mainila. The Soviets claimed Finnish troops had shelled the village of Mainila on the USSR territory. Investigations have revealed later that no Finnish artillery batteries were in range. The shots the Finnish sentries heard allow triangulation of the position of the battery, which was on the Soviet side. The reality was, that the Soviets had fired the shells over Finnish territory to their own territory. The losses the Soviets reported were forged.

Perang Enam Hari

Casus belli was also a prominent issue during the Six-Day War of 1967. The Israeli government had a short list of casus belli that would trigger military action by Israel in the event that an Arab state took one of the listed actions. The most notable casus belli was a blockade of the Straits of Tiran leading into Eilat, Israel's only port leading into the Arabian Sea from which its vessels could reach important markets in East Africa and Southeast Asia. Passage through the straits was important since at the time Egypt was also prohibiting any traffic bound to and from Israel from passing through the Suez Canal. Such a blockade of the straits, in contravention of international law, was undertaken by Egypt following its expulsion of UN peacekeepers from the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian military presence in Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai. The blockade was a major factor in the start of Israeli strike against Egypt's airforce only hours before Egypt was to attack. Syria and Jordan both attacked soon after. Israel asked Jordan to end its attack, telling the ambassador it would consider the Jordanian attack to be a "salvo of honor", necessary as an ally to Egypt. Jordan refused and Israel retaliated, conquering part of Jordan.

Perang Vietnam

Some historians have suggested that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a pretext for the Vietnam War. Vietnamese Naval officials have publicly stated that the USS Maddox was never fired on.

Turki dan Yunani

In 1995 the Turkish parliament issued a casus belli against Greece for the event that the latter extends her territorial waters from 6 to 12 nautical miles from the coast. Nevertheless, Turkey refuses to remove the casus belli despite initiation of preliminary negotiations in order for it to join the European Union.

Perang Iraq

There have been claims that the Weapons of Mass Destruction believed to be in Iraq were the pretext for the Iraq War.

Casus Belli dalam budaya popular

• Canadian Bacon was a satirical comedy by Michael Moore about a US president who used the CIA to create a phony attack on the United States and blame it on Canada, intentionally creating conflict with Canada.

• Wag the Dog is another such movie related to the topic of casus belli. In this movie, the president uses a pretext to attack Albania in an attempt to divert attention from a political scandal that he was involved in. It is supposed to be a reference to the indicident during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when President Clinton ordered an attack on the chemical factories in Sudan and on Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Sudanese protestors held up signs saying "Wag the Dog" referring to this attack as being a diversion to take away people's attention from the Lewinsky scandal.

• In the American sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine enters Jerry's apartment and sits at his table. As Jerry spies on the Pakistani restaurant, Elaine says "Casus Belli" in a humorous voice, saying she read it recently and just wanted to say it out loud.

• In the comic book series Lucky Luke, a crazy old judge accuses two of his personal enemies of different crimes, lastly he accuses them of (using the first words he randomly finds in his lawbook) Casus Belli. Next the two suspects try to blame each other of who actually killed this 'Casus Belly'

Rujukan

1. Gore Vidal: Imperial America. 2004.

Lihat juga

• Senarai frasa bahasa Latin