DATE=8/2/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=US-GULF ANNIVERSARY (L-ONLY)(CQ)
NUMBER=2-265070
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United States marked the 10th anniversary
of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait by beginning the release
of documents on Iraqi human rights abuses during the
Gulf War period. State Department officials say they
hope the process generates global support for the
prosecution of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and key
associates on war crimes charges. V-O-A's David
Gollust has details.
TEXT: The State Department has translated,
declassified, and is now beginning the public release
of thousands of pages of Iraqi documents giving
details of a reign of terror by Iraqi forces during
their seven-month occupation of Kuwait.
The papers -- original records of the Iraqi armed
forces and security services -- were found by U-S
forces and Kuwaiti officials after the Iraqis were
forced out of the Gulf state in 1991.
At a briefing for reporters, the State Department's
ambassador-at-large for war crimes, David Sheffer,
said terms like brutality and war crimes barely begin
to describe the reality of the Iraqi occupation.
He said U-S officials believe on the basis of the
documents and other evidence that Iraqi troops and
agents killed about one-thousand Kuwaiti civilians
during the occupation and ran two dozen torture sites
in Kuwait, using electric shocks and drills and even
acid baths to kill their victims.
And he said that in a systematic campaign of looting
and destruction as they left Kuwait in the face of the
U-S-led counter invasion, Iraqi forces set fire to, or
otherwise destroyed, nearly 600 Kuwait oil wells,
releasing as much as nine-million barrels of oil into
the environment.
Mr. Sheffer says Saddam Hussein must not escape
accountability and that he hopes the document release
will propel efforts for an international prosecution
along the lines of those already underway for war
crimes in Bosnia and Rwanda:
/// Sheffer Act ///
Some way, the international community has to
face up to more than 20 years of some of the
most egregious criminal conduct of the 20th
century that Saddam Hussein is responsible for.
So our hope is that as this evidence becomes
more and more compelling, as it is clearly
available, translated and unavoidable, that it
will simply make the compelling case that one
way or another, there has to be a court of law
before which these individuals are investigated,
indicted, and some day, brought to justice.
/// End Act ///
Mr. Sheffer said the United States will step-up
diplomatic contacts with the hope of having an
international tribunal on Kuwait underway within six
months.
The first of handful of translated Iraqi documents
were made public through the non-governmental group,
the Iraq Foundation on its Internet website [at
www.iraqfoundation.org]. The papers include Iraqi
orders for the detention of certain Kuwaitis and the
preparation of oil well heads for destruction and are,
in Mr. Sheffer's words, "just the tip of a very large
iceberg."
Administration officials say the United States favors
prosecuting Iraqi leaders for war crimes in countries
where such action is possible, or through an
international tribunal set up for that purpose by the
U-N Security Council.
Statute-of-limitations rules preclude such a
prosecution by a U-S court and the United States has -
- for technical reasons -- opposed creation of a
standing, permanent international court for handling
such cases. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/JP
02-Aug-2000 14:25 PM LOC (02-Aug-2000 1825 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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