17 "it would be a disastrously retrograde step for humanity to try to fight terrorism with its own weapons"32. The harbingers and apologists of brute force today do not realize the deeply uncivilizing effect of their attitude, its harmful or ominous effects on humanity. 52. The fact that cases of massacres are currently being heard not only by international criminal courts, but also by international human rights courts, to establish the respective responsibilities, suggests, on the other hand, an awakening of human awareness, of universal juridical awareness, to the need to seek solutions within the framework of the Law. May the message and the bitter lessons of the instant case of the Mapiripán Massacre, and its tragic consequences, echo elsewhere, and especially north of the equator, in the minds of those who exercise power. 53. And may international jurists (most of whom are still afflicted by the old Statecentered approach) awaken from their mental lethargy, characteristic of their extremely outdated dogmatism. And, ultimately, may they serve as a warning against noxious and spurious pseudo-“doctrines” that today seek to favor the undue use of brute force, setting aside the Law. We must assert, as often as necessary, the primacy of Law over force. Terror is not combated with terror. I trust that Colombia, with its respectable and valuable juridical tradition, will find, within the Law, the means to overcome the vast human tragedy in which it lives, or in which it has survived for so long, and to move beyond it, giving the international community one more testimony of its faith in the Law, as it has in times past. Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade Judge Pablo Saavedra Alessandri Secretary 32 . J. Pictet, The Principles of International Humanitarian Law, 1st. ed., Geneva, ICRC, 1966, p. 36.