DATE=9/14/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=IRAQI WAR CRIMES
NUMBER=5-44253
BYLINE=PAMELA TAYLOR
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A non-governmental organization that hunts
down alleged Iraqi war criminals says it is tightening
its net around some of Saddam Hussein's closest
advisers and family members. Last month, the group
came close to organizing the arrest of two senior
Iraqi officials in Italy and Austria. The United
States and Britain are strongly backing the effort to
hunt down Iraqi war criminals. V-O-A's Pamela Taylor
has more:
TEXT: In August, a London-based group known as
"Indict" tried to persuade Italian authorities to
detain Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, when
he arrived for an international conference. But
officials at "Indict" say Mr. Aziz learned of the
attempt and cancelled his trip. Earlier that same
month, "Indict" filed a criminal complaint against
another senior Iraqi official (Izzat Ibrahim Douri),
who was in Vienna for medical treatment. Officials say
the Austrian government took no action, and Mr.
Douri fled to Jordan.
Members of "Indict" on the trail of the Iraqi
officials, who they say are war criminals, say the
next time they will be successful.
Members of Iraqi expatriate organizations joined
together with U-S and British officials (in 1997) to
form "Indict", which has the backing of the U-S
Congress and the British Parliament. Earlier this
year, the group received the first installment of a
three-million-dollar U-S commitment of support.
Loosely based on groups that track Nazi war criminals
around the globe, "Indict" hopes to eventually see the
creation of an International War Crimes Tribunal for
Iraq, similar to the tribunals for Yugoslavia and
Rwanda.
The former U-S ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith,
is a board member at "Indict." He says the group is
compiling evidence against more than 10 high-level
Iraqi officials. The plan is to turn over "Indict's"
findings to other governments and eventually to a war
crimes tribunal, if and when one is created.
/// FIRST GALBRAITH ACT ///
That evidence consists of the systematic
destruction of four-thousand small cities and
villages, which we can document, and it consists
of the use of chemical weapons for which we have
testimony from hundreds of survivors, as well as
physical evidence on the ground. There are mass
graves, some of which have been excavated by
Physicians for Human Rights. There are people
who were tortured in prison and have survived.
We also have videotapes, because the Iraqi
regime liked to videotape itself committing
crimes.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Galbraith has been tracking Iraqi war crimes since
the late 1980's. He says "Indict" has 18 tons of
files, captured from the Iraqi Secret Service after
the aGulf War (in 1991), which document crimes against
Iraq's Kurdish and Shi'ite minorities, Kuwaitis,
Iranians and the people of Iraq themselves.
David Wermser of the conservative American Enterprise
Institute says the purpose behind "Indict's" mandate
is to put governments around the world on notice that
the rule of Saddam Hussein is illegitimate and based
on terrible war crimes. He says this is necessary
because some governments are calling for the lifting
of economic sanctions against Iraq, and the resumption
of trade with the country.
/// WERMSER ACT ///
The purpose of "Indict" is to label a lot of the
leadership of Iraq -- specifically Tariq Aziz
and Saddam Hussein and some of the other
military officers -- as war criminals and that
will make it an illegal act to deal with them in
the long run. It locks them in isolation.
There's a great deal of fear that with time
people will tire of the whole conflict with
Iraq, and the temptation will be there both with
business and with countries to begin to deal
again with Saddam Hussein.
/// END ACT ///
//OPT// Peter Galbraith says the creation of groups
like "Indict" demonstrates one lesson the world has
learned from the war in the former Yugoslavia -- that
there can be no durable peace without justice.
/// SECOND GALBRAITH ACT ///
I think that "Indict" is part of an
extraordinary expansion of international law in
the 1990's, in which people who have committed
gross human-rights violations, including
genocide and crimes against humanity, can no
longer get away with those crimes. And the
dictators of the world should be on notice.
/// END ACT /// /// END OPT ///
Mr. Galbraith and Mr. Wermser agree that organizations
like "Indict" are indispensable in preparing iron-clad
cases before criminal complaints are filed and cases
are brought to court. Confronted with compelling
evidence of war crimes, they say, most governments are
going to find it difficult not to act, even those
governments with friendly relations with Baghdad.
(Signed)
NEB/PAM/WTW
14-Sep-1999 16:36 PM EDT (14-Sep-1999 2036 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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