By John Catalinotto

New York

Thirteen international jurors at a session of the World Tribunal o­n Iraq (WTI) held here at Cooper Union May 8 found the U.S. government guilty of war crimes. Their decision followed a full day of presentations establishing both the existence of a body of law defining these war crimes and dramatic eyewitness accounts demonstrating U.S. guilt.

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.