An
incredible travesty of justice is about to be unleashed on the Iraqi
people. After 35 years of living under the repressive and brutal rule
of Ba’athism, enduring three wars and 13 years of sanctions, the
Iraqi people are about to be shortchanged yet again.
The
war crimes tribunal, which was created with much hoopla and fanfare by
the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) and was designed by a team of US
lawyers and legal experts (not Iraqi, not Arab), is a farce because it
does not universally address the crimes that the Iraqis committed
against one another in the past 35 years. If Iraq is to become a
pluralistic society, if it is to move forward and leave behind its
bloodied, ruthless past, it must address all crimes, all crimes
committed in Iraq. These crimes go far and beyond just Saddam, his
henchmen, and the Ba’ath regime.
While
the court must hear charges of detention, torture, execution and exile
of political opponents committed by Saddam’s forces, it must also
hear charges against various Iraq opposition groups (The Dawa Party,
The Communist Party of Iraq, and the Islamic Revolutionary Council
based in Iran) for their attacks in Iraq which may have targeted the
Ba’athist regime but maimed, wounded, and killed scores of Iraqi and
Arab citizens. Collateral damage is not acceptable. Neither is the
fancy exchange that the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians is a small
price to pay for removing Saddam. If every innocent life (taken
swiftly by terrorism or violence) is not addressed at the war crimes
tribunal, then it is negligible and forfeit.
Collateral
damage is not acceptable. |
|
While
the court must hear charges of rape, abduction, disappearance, murder,
cleansing and forced relocation of Kurds in the North and Shiites in
the South committed by Saddam’s forces, it must also hear of the
various attacks of rogue Kurdish rebels on Arab villages, abduction of
Assyrian Christian women, killing of Turkomen Shiites, robbery and
highwaymanism which culminated in the deaths of innocent Iraqi
civilians who were caught in the crossfire between the Iraqi Army and
the peshmerga. It must also hear of the revenge killing
initiated by the Shiites in 1991, when they overtook Basra and
slaughtered entire families of Ba’athists - from the head of a
household down to every man, woman and child. Am I to understand that
the killing of families because the father is a Ba’athist is
vinidicated or justified by Saddam’s ironclad repression of Shiites
and Kurds? That, quite frankly is absurd, and if such an argument is
to be made then the new Iraq is one of revenge, pillage and plunder,
murder and purgery. Hardly the epitome of democracy in the Middle
East.
The
nations that supported US-enforced economic sanctions
must also stand trial. |
|
The
court must also hear the plea of the Assyrian Christian community in
Iraq who claim that the Kurds are unleashing a strategy of ethnic
cleansing in the North of Iraq, bringing in Iranian and Turkish Kurds
to populate areas, initiated a land-grab and change the demographics
of the region.
If
Saddam is to be charged with embezzling the state’s monies and
robbing his people blind, then the nations that participated in the
horrendous US-sponsored and US-enforced economic sanctions must also
stand trial. More than 1.7 million people died (according to UN
estimates), 500,000 which were children. Who addresses their concerns?
Do they not deserve a hearing? Nearly 3,000 innocent people from 80
different countries died on September 11th. The number of
dead Iraqi civilians because of the sanctions is 566 times the number
of people who died on 9/11. That is 9/11 repeated 566 times. Yet, the
memory of their plight has been forgotten. That is one million seven
hundred injustices too many.
The
number of dead Iraqis in the sanctions is 566 times the
number of the dead on 9/11. |
|
On
Tuesday, Iraq’s foreign minister-by-appointment Hoshyar Zebari said
“The UN as an organization failed to help rescue the Iraqi people
from a murderous tyranny of 35 years. The UN must not fail the Iraqi
people again.” The statement is an overwhelming jab in the face of
history. It does not address the sanctions. It does not address the
“smart bomb technology” of war that was waged on Iraq. It does not
mention the 12,000 Iraqis who died in March, or the 3,000 who died
since Iraq’s “liberation.” It does not mention the 998 Iraqis
who died because of nearly 10,000 cluster bombs dropped in Iraqi
civilian areas. Or the number of Iraqis who died because of
trigger-happy US soldiers, anxious and nervous because of a populace
growing ever hateful. Will these issues be addressed in a war crimes
tribunal? No, US forces are considered immune to any such charges. The
US has not signed on to the International Crimes Court for fear of its
military being held accountable for the very acts committed in Iraq
each and every day.
Who
kept Saddam in power? Will US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie (1990)
be a star witness to Saddam’s idiotic invasion of Kuwait? Will
former US President Ronald Reagan appear in court to validate why the
US gave Saddam Anthrax and other bio-weapons? How about intelligence
to use against Iran during the war? Will we hear of secret
negotiations between Iraq and Israel? Will US companies who helped
Iraq boost its stock of chemical weapons also stand trial?
Will
US acts in Iraq be addressed in a war crimes tribunal? |
|
Saddam
was a butcher, he did slaughter thousands, and he did foolishly purge
Iraq of its wealth. His policies bear the bulk of why Iraqis have
suffered in the past 20 odd years. The list of crimes he and his
people (chiefly, his sons) committed against the Iraqi people is
expansive. However, if other grievances are not addressed and Saddam
is given the death penalty, it will prove the Iraqis have learned
nothing in the past and are cursed to repeat history. Every Iraqi
ethnicity deserves justice: Sunnis, Shiites, Jew, Kurd, Catholics,
Assyrians, Sabaeans, Yazidi, Zoroastrian...the list must be complete
and comprehensive. Addressing the problems of one ethnicity and ignore
those of another will simply widen the sectarian divide. Saddam’s
capture and ultimate “removal” will not solve Iraq’s problems.
To think so is foolish and a poor judgment of history.
