Law Suit against 4 US Presidents & 4 UK Prime Ministers for War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity & Ge
Law Suit in Spanish Court directed
against George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack
H. Obama, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Anthony Blair and Gordon Brown
MADRID/CAIRO:
Public inquiries on the decision to wage war on Iraq that are silent
about the crimes committed, the victims involved, and provide for no
sanction, whatever their outcome, are not enough. Illegal acts should
entail consequences: the dead and the harmed deserve justice.
On
6 October 2009, working with and on behalf of Iraqi plaintiffs, we
filed a case before Spanish law against four US presidents and four UK
prime ministers for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in
Iraq. The case presented spanned 19 years, including not only the
wholesale destruction of Iraq witnessed from 2003, but also the
sanctions period during which 1.5 million excess Iraqi deaths were
recorded.
We brought the case to Spain because its laws
of universal jurisdiction are based on principles enshrined in its
constitution. All humanity knows the crimes committed in Iraq by those
we accused, but no jurisdiction is bringing them to justice. We
presented with Iraqi victims a solid case drawing on evidence contained
in over 900 documents and that refer to thousands of individual
incidents from which a pattern of accumulated harm and intent can be
discerned.
When we brought our case, we knew that the
Spanish Senate would soon vote on an amendment earlier passed by the
lower house of parliament to curtail the application of universal
jurisdiction in Spain. We were conscious that this restriction could be
retroactive, and we took account of the content of the proposed
amendment in our case filing. As we imagined, 2009 turned out to be a
sad year for upholding universal human rights and international law in
Spain. One day after we filed, the law was curtailed, and soon
thereafter our case closed. Serious cases of the kind universal
jurisdiction exists to address became more difficult to investigate.
One more jurisdiction to fall
Despite
submitting a 110-page long referenced accusation (the Introduction of
which is appended to this statement), the Spanish public prosecutor and
the judge assigned to our case determined there was no reason to
investigate. Their arguments were erroneous and could easily have been
refuted if we could have appealed. To do so we needed a professional
Spanish lawyer — either in a paid capacity or as a volunteer who wished
to help the Iraqi people in its struggle for justice. As we had limited
means, and for other reasons mostly concerning internal Spanish
affairs, which were not our concern, we could not secure a lawyer in
either capacity to appeal. Our motion for more time to find a lawyer
was rejected.
We continue to believe that the violent
killing of over one million people in Iraq since 2003 alone, the
ongoing US occupation — that carries direct legal responsibility — and
the displacement of up to a fifth of the Iraqi population from the
terror that occupation has entailed and incited suggests strongly that
the claims we put forward ought to be further investigated.
In
reality, our case is a paramount example of those that authorities in
the West — Spain included — fear. To them, such cases represent the
double edge of sustaining the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Western states used universal jurisdiction in the past to judge Third
World countries. When victims in the global South began using it to
judge Israel and US aggression, Western countries rushed to restrict
it. Abandoning universal jurisdiction by diluting it is now the general
tendency.
Call for wider collective effort to prosecute
We
regret that the Spanish courts refused to investigate our case, but
this will not discourage us. We have a just cause. The crimes are
evident. Those responsible are well known, even if the international
juridical system continues to ignore Iraqi victims. Justice for victims
and the wish of all humanity that war criminals should be punished
oblige us to search for alternative legal possibilities, so that the
crimes committed in Iraq can be investigated and accountability
established.
At present, failed international justice
allows US and UK war criminals to stand above international law.
Understanding that this constitutes an attack — or makes possible
future attacks — on the human rights of everyone, everywhere, we will
continue to advocate the use of all possible avenues, including UN
institutions, the International Criminal Court, and popular tribunals,
to highlight and bring before law and moral and public opinion US and
UK crimes in Iraq.
We are ready to make our experience
and expertise available to those who struggle in the same direction. We
look forward to a time when the countries of the global South, which
are generally victims of aggression, reinforce their juridical systems
by implementing the principle of universal jurisdiction. This will be a
great service to humanity and international law.
Millions of people in Iraq have been killed,
displaced, terrorised, detained, tortured or impoverished under the
hammer of US and UK military, economic, political, ideological and
cultural attacks. The very fabric and being of the country has been
subject to intentional destruction. This destruction constitutes one of
the gravest international crimes ever committed. All humanity should
unite in refusing that law — by failing to assure justice for Iraqi
victims — enables this destruction to be the opening precedent of the
21st century.
Ad Hoc Committee For Justice For Iraq
Press contacts:
Hana Al Bayaty, Executive Committee, BRussells Tribunal
+20 10 027 7964 (English and French) hanaalbayaty@gmail.com
Dr Ian Douglas, Executive Committee, BRussells Tribunal, coordinator, International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq
+20 12 167 1660 (English) iandouglas@USgenocide.org
Serene Assir, Advisory Committee, BRussells Tribunal (Spanish) justiciaparairak@gmail.com
Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Executive Committee, BRussells Tribunal
+20 11 181 0798 (Arabic) albayaty_abdul@hotmail.com
Dirk Adriaensens, Executive Committee, BRussells Tribunal
+32 494 68 07 62 (Dutch) dirkadriaensens@gmail.com
Web:
www.brusselstribunal.org
www.USgenocide.org
www.twitter.com/USgenocide
www.facebook.com/USgenocide
This statement:
http://brusselstribunal.org/LegalCaseSpain070210.htm
INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGAL CASE FILED BEFORE THE AUDIENCIA NACIONAL ON 6 OCTOBER 2009
The following is the introduction to a legal case
filed 6 October 2009 before the Audiencia Nacional in Spain against
four US presidents and four UK prime ministers for commissioning,
condoning and/or perpetuating multiple war crimes, crimes against
humanity, and genocide in Iraq. The case was filed under laws of
universal jurisdiction.
This case, naming George H W Bush, William J
Clinton, George W Bush, Barack H Obama, Margaret Thatcher, John Major,
Anthony Blair and Gordon Brown, was brought by Iraqis and others who
stand in solidarity with the Iraqi people and in defence of their
rights and international law.
Introduction
The respondents herein identified in this complaint
have all held or hold high public office in the administrations of the
United States and the United Kingdom, and/or commanding authority in
the respective armed forces of these countries, and whilst in command
or in office actively instigated, authorized, supported, justified,
executed and/or perpetuated:
1. A 13-year sanctions regime on Iraq known and
proven to have an overwhelmingly destructive impact on Iraqi public
health, especially child mortality
2. The use of disproportionate
and indiscriminate military force, including numerous extra-legal
strikes and bombing campaigns throughout the 1990s, entailing the
purposeful destruction of Iraq’s water and health facilities, and
defence capacities, and the widespread contamination of Iraq’s
ecosphere and life environment by the unjustified and massive use of
depleted uranium munitions
3. The prevention by means of
comprehensive sanctions, and/or military strikes, of the reconstruction
of Iraq’s critical civil infrastructure, including its health, water
and sanitation systems, and the decontamination of Iraq’s
ecosphere/life environment, backed by the threat of Security Council
veto where unanimity was not present for such strikes and/or the
continuance of the sanctions regime
4. The launching of an illegal
war of aggression against Iraq based on deliberate falsification of
threat assessment intelligence and systematic efforts to conceal from
the general public in the United States and the United Kingdom, and
other countries, along with parts of the military command structure of
the respective armed forces deployed, the true aims and objectives of
that war
5. Establishing by design an occupation apparatus that by
its incompetence, inexperience, corruption and/or ideological or
sectarian alignment and actions would finalize the destruction of the
Iraqi state and the attempted destruction of Iraqi national unity and
identity, entailing an attack upon Iraqis as a whole and the intended
destruction of the Iraqi national group as such.
The acts ordered and/or continued and perpetuated by
the respondents identified in this complaint were unlawful in nature,
were known to be and/or ought reasonably to have been known to be
unlawful in nature, and were based on manifest and purposive lies,
manipulations, deliberately misleading presentations of facts, and
baseless assertions and other false justifications. The consistency of
the propaganda effort that supported and contextualized these unlawful
acts was such — and was aimed and known to be so — that it constituted
an international campaign of demonization and dehumanization of Iraqis,
the Iraqi nation, the Iraqi state, Iraq’s civil and military
leadership, Iraq’s civil administrative apparatus, and Iraq in its Arab
context. As such, and through actions taken and summarized below, the
respondents:
1. Deprived the Iraqi people of all or the majority
of their fundamental rights as established and protected by
international human rights law and international humanitarian law,
expressed in the UN Charter and conventions, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions, including the right of
defence
2. Structured and implemented policies that continue to
deprive the Iraqi people of their sovereignty and the exercise of their
freedom, human rights, and civil, political, economic, social and
cultural rights, as established and guaranteed by international human
rights law and international humanitarian law, including the UN Charter
and conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
Geneva Conventions
3. Consistently gave political and legal cover to
these acts, even as these acts were known to be and/or ought reasonably
to have been known to be in violation of international law, including
peremptory or jus cogens standards of law
4. Asserted and defended
extra-legal immunity for all those engaged in acts that have attacked
the protected rights of the Iraqi people, and established a pattern of
impunity for those accused of such attacks by failing to adequately
investigate and prosecute specific and general allegations of grave
abuses, and/or to ensure responsibility is assumed throughout the chain
of command that permitted or failed to prohibit such attacks, and/or
dismissed or distorted numerous customary legal standards, including
the laws of war and those that outlaw the preemptive use of force in
international relations
5. Abused and overran international law, the
guarantor of international order, peace and security, which the United
Nations System exists to protect and is deemed to embody, enshrined in
the UN Charter, and upon whose foundation the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights gains positive affect and final meaning.
Opportunity for redress for Iraqi victims in their
own national jurisdiction is non-existent as Iraq remains occupied, its
sovereign institutions dismantled and non-functioning. Despite numerous
individual petitions submitted to its chief prosecutor, the
International Criminal Court (ICC) has stated that it has no
jurisdiction to hear cases of abuses and violations of human rights
standards and international humanitarian law in Iraq. In light of US
and UK threats to use permanent member veto power in the past, it is
not foreseeable that the Security Council in the future will refer
complaints in Iraq to the ICC, and nor can Iraqis wait for Security
Council reform. Without effective investigation and prosecution of
these abuses and violations, the international community runs the risk
of allowing a precedent of unlawful action of such grave magnitude to
be set without censure, thereby endangering the rights and dignity not
only of Iraqis but also of people the world over. Such a precedent
would be contrary to the UN Charter and the principles upon which the
international order of states is deemed to be founded. The basis for
public acceptance of a state of law is that it protects peace and
defends the wellbeing of the people. Failure to investigate and
effectively prosecute the catalogue of grave abuses and violations
perpetrated by the respondents in Iraq, and against the Iraqi people,
would constitute an ongoing and inherent threat to the basis of the
international order in general and to international peace and security
specifically.
Alongside those in official positions of authority,
key political advisers, lobbyists, strategists and corporate
representatives have also played a crucial role in the ideological and
political justifications and legitimization sought and falsely proposed
in order to execute the overall policy embraced, inclusive of an
accumulated pattern of attacks, military and otherwise, that has lasted
19 years to date, culminating in the 2003 illegal war of aggression
waged on Iraq and that continues to be executed despite wide and
ongoing condemnation. Though there are nuances of responsibility
inherent to the nature of policy construction and execution, the
personal relations and interconnections between primary and secondary
level individuals involved, and the groups or common circles to which
they belong, testify to a large degree of cohesion present in intent
and action among the respondents identified and those who support and
benefit from the policies they have pursued. At the least, this shared
intent is one of deliberate harm; at worst, it amounts to an objective
intent to destroy for definable, and at times publicly enunciated,
strategic, geopolitical and geo-economic reasons. Furthermore, none of
the respondents can reasonably claim they did not have knowledge of the
likely outcome of their policies, and those they supported, as all had
not only participated in the design and execution of these policies,
but they continued to execute said policies once their effects were
widely known and had been proven to be detrimental to — and destructive
of — the health, sovereignty and rights of the Iraqi people, and
further have defended these policies and in majority continue to do so.
From the start of the implementation of a
US-instigated and dominantly administered sanctions regime up to the
present day, an approximate total of 2,700,000 Iraqis have died as a
direct result of sanctions followed by the US-UK led war of aggression
on, and occupation of, Iraq beginning in 2003. Among those killed
during the sanctions period were 560,000 children. From 2003 onwards,
having weakened Iraq’s civil and military infrastructure to the degree
that its people were rendered near totally defenceless, Iraq was
subject to a level of aggression of near unprecedented scale and nature
in international history, occurring in parallel with the promotion of a
partition plan for Iraq, the substantial direct funding of sectarian
groups and militias that would play a key role in fragmenting the
country under occupation, both administratively and in terms of
national identity, the cancellation of the former state apparatus and
the dismissal of its personnel entailing the collapse of all public
services and state protection for the Iraqi people, the further
destruction of the health and education systems of Iraq, and the
creation of waves of internal and external displacement totaling nearly
5,000,000 Iraqis, or one fifth of the Iraqi population. By December
2007, the Iraqi Anti-Corruption Board reported that there were up to
5,000,000 orphans in Iraq, while the Iraqi Ministry of Women’s Affairs
counts 3,000,000 widows as of 2009.
Such massive destruction of life, having as context
a 19-year period of accumulated attacks, with numerous warnings and
opportunities for remedy and a reversal of policy ignored, cannot be
mere happenstance. Indeed, the paramount charge that must be
investigated, and that plain fact evidence suggests, is that this level
of destruction has been integral to the US and UK’s shared
international policy for Iraq. The destruction in whole or in part of
the Iraqi people as a national group, and depriving this group of all
or the majority of its rights, appears from a reasoned account of the
catalogue of violations, abuses and attacks to which the Iraqi people
have been subject to be the unlawful means pursued purposely by the
respondents in order to redraw by force the strategic and political map
of the Arab region and Iraq’s place within that context, and to
capture, appropriate and plunder, via the cancellation of the
sovereignty of the Iraqi people and the destruction and fragmentation
of their identity and unity as a national group, Iraq’s substantial
natural energy resources. Historically, the Iraqi national group,
variegated yet cohesive, was and continues to be, despite the
aggression faced, firmly rooted in its overwhelming majority in the
concept of citizenship of the Iraqi state — a state founded on public
provision of services and a nationally owned energy industry. The
policy that the respondents have sought and continue to seek to impose,
that has entailed privatizing and seizing ownership of Iraqi citizens’
resources, along with the administrative and political partition of the
former unitary state, is contrary to the basis of, and cohesion of, the
Iraqi people as a national group.
Until prevented by effective legal investigation and
precautionary action, it is highly likely that the combined US/UK
strategy in Iraq will continue, though its tactics may change. Iraqis
in the majority show no sign of surrendering their right to and belief
in Iraqi citizenship, including sovereign control over Iraq’s natural
resources. Between a belligerent foreign aggressor and a resilient,
resistant people legal action is crucial to end the ongoing and by all
likelihood perpetual slaughter of Iraqis and the destruction of their
national identity and rights. We are before immoral and unlawful acts,
contrary to the basis on which the international order of state
sovereignty and peace and security rests, and that brought about and
continue to pursue the destruction of the Iraqi state and attempted
destruction of the Iraqi nation. Whereas 1,200,000 Iraqis, according to
credible estimates, have lost their lives to violence since 2003 alone,
the Iraqi people continue to lose their lives or at best live under
constant fear of death, mutilation, detention, exile and lack of access
to their rightful resources and freedoms. The sum of these conditions,
the outcome of a pattern of purposeful action whose consequences could
be foreseen, and of which detailed and compelling notice was served,
situated in a context of false justifications, deceptions, and outright
lies, and matched by the unlawful use of force, and disproportionate
and indiscriminate use of force, amounts to substantive violations of
the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide.
As proof of the widespread impact of past and
current US and UK policies, in 2009 the American Friends Service
Committee, in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), reported that some 80 per cent of Iraqis surveyed in Iraq had
witnessed a shooting, 68 per cent had been interrogated or harassed by
militias, 77 per cent had been affected by shelling/rocket attacks, 72
per cent had witnessed a car bombing, 23 per cent of Iraqis in Baghdad
had had a family member kidnapped, and 75 per cent had had a family
member or someone close to them murdered.
Military operations in Iraq from 2003 have already
cost for the United States an estimated $800 billion, with long-term
costs estimated at $1.8 trillion. By 2009, the estimated cost for the
United Kingdom, according to figures released by the UK Ministry of
Defence, was £8.4 billion ($13.7 billion). The United States continues
to spend $12 billion on the war per month. There has been a total of
513,000 US soldiers deployed to Iraq since 2003. Some 170,000 were
stationed during the “Surge” campaign of 2007, and 130,000 remain
deployed as of June 2009. In addition to regular armed forces, the US
administration is believed to employ up to 130,000 additional private
security contractors and has refused to release official numbers in
this regard. Security companies have been granted blanket immunity
under Iraqi law. Equally, there is no effective mechanism, or hope, for
Iraqis to hold US and UK forces to account directly.
The narration of facts that follows is substantiated
with evidence detailed in the Annex. Other facts to be investigated
while reported are not mentioned in the following.
For further information:
www.brusselstribunal.org
www.USgenocide.org
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www.facebook.com/USgenocide
Source > Global Research