THE HANDSTAND |
AUGUST-OCTOBER2009
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War Crimes,
Crimes Against Humanity And Genocide In Iraq
Legal Case
Filed Against 4 U.S. Presidents and 4 UK Prime Ministers
By The Brussels Tribunal
October 08, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- MADRID: Today
the Spanish Senate, acting to confirm a decision already
taken under pressure from powerful governments accused of
grave crimes, will limit Spains laws of universal
jurisdiction. Yesterday, ahead of the change of law, a
legal case was filed at the Audiencia Nacional against
four United States presidents and four United Kingdom
prime ministers for commissioning, condoning and/or
perpetuating multiple war crimes, crimes against humanity,
and genocide in Iraq.
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, is brought by
Iraqis and others who stand in solidarity with the Iraqi
people and in defence of their rights and international
law.
Iraq: 19 years of intended destruction
The intended destruction
or genocide of Iraq as a state and nation
has been ongoing for 19 years, combining the imposition
of the most draconian sanctions regime ever designed and
that led to 1.5 million Iraqi deaths, including 500,000
children, with a war of aggression that led to the
violent deaths of over one million more.
- Destroying Iraq
included the purposeful targeting of its water
and sanitation system, attacking the health of
the civilian population. Since 1990, thousands of
tons of depleted uranium have been dropped on
Iraq, leading in some places to a 600 per cent
rise in cancer and leukaemia cases, especially
among children. In both the first Gulf War and
Shock and Awe in 2003, an air
campaign that openly threatened total
destruction, waves of disproportionate
bombing made no distinction between military and
civilian targets, with schools, hospitals,
mosques, churches, shelters, residential areas,
and historical sites all destroyed.
- Destroying Iraq
included promoting, funding and organizing
sectarian and ethnic groups bent on dividing Iraq
into three or more sectarian or ethnic entities,
backed by armed militias that would terrorize the
Iraqi people. Since 2003, some 4.7 million Iraqis
one fifth of the population have
been forcibly displaced. Under occupation,
kidnappings, killings, extortion and mutilation
became endemic, targeting men, women and even
children and the elderly.
- Destroying Iraq
included purposefully dismantling the state by
refusing to stop or stem or by instigating mass
looting, and by engaging in ideological
persecution, entailing manhunting,
extrajudicial assassinations, mass imprisonment
and torture, of Baathists, the entire educated
class of the state apparatus, religious and
linguistic minorities and Arab Sunnis, resulting
in the total collapse of all public services and
other economic functions and promoting civil
strife and systematic corruption.
- In parallel,
Iraqs rich heritage and unique cultural and
archaeological patrimony has been wantonly
destroyed.
In order to render Iraq
dependent on US and UK strategic designs, successive US
and UK governments have attempted to partition Iraq and
to establish by military force a pro-occupation Iraqi
government and political system. They have promoted and
engaged in the massive plunder of Iraqi natural resources,
attempting to privatize this property and wealth of the
Iraqi nation.
Humanity at stake
This is but the barest
summary of the horrors Iraq has endured, based on lies
that nobody but cowed governments and complicit media
believed. In 2003, millions worldwide were mobilized in
opposition to US/UK plans. In going ahead, the US and UK
launched an illegal war of aggression. Accountability has
not been established.
The persons named in this case have each played a key
role in Iraqs intended destruction. They instigated,
supported, condoned, rationalized, executed and/or
perpetuated or excused this destruction based on lies and
narrow strategic and economic interests, and against the
will of their own people. Allowing those responsible to
escape accountability means such actions could be
repeated elsewhere.
It is imperative now to establish accountability
for US and UK war crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide in Iraq because:
Every Iraqi victim deserves justice.
Everyone responsible should be accountable.
We are before immoral and unlawful acts, contrary to the
basis on which the international order of state
sovereignty and peace and security rests. Whereas the
official international justice system is closed before
the suffering of those that imperialism makes a target,
through this case we try to open a channel whereby the
conscience of humanity can express its solidarity with
justice for victims of imperial crimes.
Ad Hoc Committee For
Justice For Iraq
Press contacts:
Hana Al Bayaty, Executive Committee, BRussells Tribunal
34 657 52 70 77 or +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
Amanda Nuredin, +34
657 52 70 77 (Spanish) justiciaparairak@gmail.com
Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Executive Committee, BRussells
Tribunal
+33 471 461 197 (Arabic)
albayaty_abdul@hotmail.com
Web:
www.brusselstribunal.org
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