16 executions and other grave violations of International Humanitarian Law 27 and International Human Rights Law, the transformation of human beings into mere instruments of confrontation and destruction –opening wounds that will require generations to heal. 48. As I noted in my Separate Opinion in the case of the Plan de Sánchez Massacre (reparations, Judgment of 19.11.2004), "the ancient Greek were already aware of the devastating effects of the use of brute force and of war, both on the victors and on the vanquished, revealing the great evil of substituting ends with means” (para. 29); since the times of Homers Iliad to the present day, all those in favor of brute force have become cogs in the killing machine. As in Homers Iliad, “there are neither victors nor vanquished, they are all taken over by force, possessed by war, degraded by the devastation of brutality and massacres” (para. 30), perpetuating themselves, multiplying their innocent victims. 49. Long after Homer, in the 3d century of our age, Plotinus (204-270), in his Enneads, argued that the fate of human beings cannot be left to chance, to fortune, because human beings are gifted with reason, which must prevail 28 under all circumstances, at it is not just any type of reason, but a noble one, above the natural state, and which guides everyone. 29 In our somber times, we must remember Plotinus’ enduring lesson, that of one who sought the “liberation” or “emancipation” of the soul so much.30 50. I fear, however, as I stated in my aforementioned Separate Opinion in the case of the Plan de Sánchez Massacre (reparations, 2004), that the brutality and the massacres of previous decades and the dark times that we are experiencing in this year 2005, in various parts of the world, have an uncivilizing effect, and that the dangerous spiral of violence in the early 20th century suggests that "human beings seemed to have learned little or nothing from the suffering of generations past, which can only be contained by faithfully adhering to the Law and to its basic principles. The Law is above force, just as conscience is above will31 (conscience being the ultimate source of all Law). The instant Judgment of the Inter-American Court speaks eloquently of the necessary primacy of Law over brute force" (para. 30). 51. We cannot combat terror with its own weapons. J. Picted pertinently warned us of this, in an almost premonitory tone, in the first edition of his Principles of International Humanitarian Law, almost four decades ago. In his own words, . Cf. J. Cardona Lloréns, "Libération ou occupation? Les droits et devoirs de l'État vainqueur", in L'intervention en Irak et le Droit international (eds. K. Bannelier, O. Corten, Th. Christakis and P. Klein), Paris, Pédone/CEDIN, 2004, pp. 221-250; G. Abi-Saab, "Les Protocoles Additionnels, 25 ans après", in Les nouvelles frontières du Droit international humanitaire (ed. J.-F. Flauss), Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2003, pp. 33-36; Y. Sandoz, "L'applicabilité du Droit international humanitaire aux actions terroristes", in ibid., pp. 71-72. 27 28 . Plotinus, The Enneads, London, Penguin, 1991 [repr.], p. 522. 29 . Ibid., p. 33. 30 . Cf. ibid., pp. 51 and 115. . A.A. Cançado Trindade, "El Primado del Derecho sobre la Fuerza como Imperativo del Jus Cogens", in Doctrina Latinamericana del Derecho Internacional, vol. II (eds. A.A. Cançado Trindade and F. Vidal Ramírez), San Jose, Costa Rica, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2003, pp. 62-63. 31