People find U.S. guilty for Iraq war and occupation

Latest News

ASEAN People's Forum

13-15 December 2008
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
EXTENDED UNTIL 30 OCTOBER 2008
Prior to the 14th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, civil society organizations and social movements from all over the region will gather together for the ASEAN Peoples' Forum, a People-to People platform to discuss common issues confronting the region, and to articulate and strategize around peoples' aspirations and alternatives for ASEAN and the ASEAN people.

EU-ASEAN Stream

Focus Job Openings

DRTS Intern

Home

Programmes

Peace and security

People find U.S. guilty for Iraq war and occupation

By John Catalinotto, New York

A year ago anti-war activists worldwide began to discuss holding the WTI,
basing it on the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Vietnam held in 1967.

Turkish activists organized a meeting in the fall of 2003 in Istanbul, which
began to set an international framework for holding hearings of people's
tribunals.

There have now been forums or hearings in Mexico, Japan, India, Denmark, a
three-day session in Brussels, Belgium, and now New York. Related legal
initiatives have been held in Britain and the Philippines, and more hearings
are scheduled June 19 in Berlin, in December in Rome and on Aug. 26 in New
York, three days before the Republican National Convention.

With moving testimony before hundreds in the auditorium here, witnesses
showed how U.S. forces used illegal weapons during the March-April 2003
assault. Attorney Jennifer Ridha questioned Dr. April Hurley, who was in
Iraq during that period, about injuries to a 10-year-old Iraqi boy Ali
Esmaeel Abbas. A slide showed Abbas in a metal hospital bed, having lost
most of his arms, his body blackened by burns.

Some in the audience gasped, and some sobbed as Dr. Hurley told them that
Abbas had said that if he had no use of his limbs he would kill himself.
Answering Ridha's questions, Dr. Hurley explained that the nature of the
burns showed that they were caused by incendiary material that stuck to his
body as it burned.

Abbas and his family were in a civilian area. As it is impermissible to use
incendiary bombs against civilian targets, this was a clear war crime the
Pentagon committed, Ridha explained.

California journalist David Martinez said: "During the siege in Falluja I
saw an American sniper shoot an older man who was obviously a civilian. He
was bleeding to death on the sidewalk. His family could not go to get him,
as the U.S. snipers killed anyone who was outside. They had to watch him
slowly die."

Agitated, Martinez described his own change of opinion regarding the
occupation. He said this paralleled that of Iraqis he met. Last summer, many
said they "would give the Americans a chance to help Iraq. But then they
should leave. Other wise, we will resist."

Martinez too thought at that time the U.S. invasion might lead to some good.
Now he says, "End the occupation. Leave Iraq now."

A local Iraqi leader in Baghdad told him it was time to go: "I can no longer
control my own people."

No health care

Belgian emergency room doctor Geert van Moorter had visited Iraq in 2002,
under sanctions. He was in Baghdad again in March-April 2003 during the
intense bombing and the U.S. takeover. He visited in July

2003 and again this March.

"Frankly, there is no respect for the Geneva Convention," he told jurors.
"Last year during the takeover of Baghdad I saw wounded Iraqi children sent
out in an ambulance to a better equipped hospital, only to come back 10
minutes later with additional wounds when U.S. troops fired on their
ambulances. I could only reach out and hold their hands as they died."

Dr. van Moorter said there is high childhood mortality in Iraq now "because
of the general decline of living conditions under the occupation, the lack
of food, the lack of purchasing power. Much of the health-related
infrastructure was degraded by the sanctions. Now, after a year without
sanctions, there has been no significant improvement in the availability of
medicines."

The Belgian doctor, who works with "Medical Aid for the Third World,"

called on the movement to "mobilize in the streets to demand an immediate
end to occupation. The legal approach," he said, "can be useful but only
when it is combined with mobilizing people. You can't count on legality
alone." The audience gave him a standing ovation.

A seven-minute film clip showed U.S. troops raiding a home and arresting all
the men. That this was done so cruelly while being videotaped by a European
crew and troops were on their best behavior gave a chilling idea of what
these nightly raids mean to the Iraqis living under the occupation.

Guilty!

On the jury were Rabab Abdulhadi, Sinan Antoon, Dennis Brutus, Hamid
Dabashi, Bhairavi Desai, Eve Ensler, Jenny Green, Lisa Hajjar, Motarilavoa
Hilda Lini, Elias Khoury, Ibrahim Ramey, Kiyoko McCrae and Robert van
Lierop. They concluded that the U.S. was guilty and

recommended:

"1. That the U.S. and its coalition partners immediately cease all
violations of the civil, political and human rights of the people of Iraq;

"2. That the military occupation of Iraq be immediately ended;

"3. That all parties guilty of war crimes against the Iraqi people be
brought to justice under international law;

"4. That reparations be paid by all responsible parties to the people of
Iraq for the damages caused by both the war and the occupation;

"5. That we work to strengthen the mobilization of the global antiwar
movement;

"6. That the occupation of Palestine, Afghanistan and all other colonized
areas are illegal and should be brought to an end immediately."

The final tribunal is scheduled for Istanbul on March 20, 2005, two years
after the start of the U.S.-British aggression. The organization that pulled
together the New York meeting included many students, with much of the
initiative coming from two women students from Turkey, Ayca Cebukcu and
Basak Ertur.

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]