Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 7. Oktober 2009 / Time Line October 7, 2009
Version 3.56. Oktober 2009, 8. Oktober 2009
10/07/2009
Afghanistan invaderes
2001.
10/07/2009
For justice for iraq:
Legal case filed against four US presidents and four UK prime
ministers for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in
Iraq
MADRID: Today the Spanish Senate, acting to confirm a decision
already taken under pressure from powerful governments accused of
grave crimes, will limit Spain’s 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 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, Iraq’s 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
Iraq’s 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
www.USgenocide.org
www.twitter.com/USgenocide
www.facebook.com/USgenocide
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