[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 203 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 203

  Calling for the prosecution of Iraqis and their supporters for war 
                    crimes, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 11, 2003

 Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. Weller) submitted the 
     following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Calling for the prosecution of Iraqis and their supporters for war 
                    crimes, and for other purposes.

    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the governments of the United States, the United 
        Kingdom, and other nations comprising the coalition conducting 
        Operation Iraqi Freedom should prosecute by tribunal persons in 
        the Government of Iraq, persons in the armed forces of Iraq, 
        and any other person, regardless of nationality, who orders, 
        directs, solicits, procures, coordinates, participates in, or 
        supports acts in violation of the international law of armed 
        conflict (including the aspects of such law known as the Hague 
        and Geneva Conventions) that are directed at members of the 
        armed forces of the coalition nations or at the people of Iraq 
        or any other nation;
            (2) in the determination of appropriate persons to be 
        charged and tried by such tribunal on the basis of command 
        responsibility for any violation, consideration should be given 
        to identifying responsible persons throughout the full range of 
        the chain of command, and not only persons within formal chains 
        of command of the government and armed forces of Iraq, but also 
        persons integral to any informal link by which a person in the 
        government of Iraq or the armed forces of Iraq, or any other 
        person, directs paramilitary, political, or guerrilla forces;
            (3) in the determination of appropriate persons to be 
        charged and tried by such tribunal, consideration should also 
        be given to identifying persons who use political position or 
        mass media in any of the violations; and
            (4) in the determination of the violations of the 
        international law of armed conflict to be tried by the 
        tribunal, particular attention should be given to acts in the 
        nature of those that, as of the date of this resolution, have 
        already been committed by Iraqi directed forces, such as--
                    (A) the abuse of places protected from military 
                attack under international law of armed conflict, such 
                as the use of mosques and hospitals as military 
                headquarters or for other military purposes;
                    (B) the ruse by which Iraqi combatants wear 
                civilian clothing instead of, or over, uniforms to 
                conceal their status as combatants and, while so 
                clothed, attack coalition forces;
                    (C) the ruse by which Iraqi combatants feign 
                surrender to coalition forces to gain advantage used by 
                the Iraqi combatants to attack personnel of the 
                coalition forces;
                    (D) the use of civilians or other persons protected 
                under international law of armed conflict as human 
                shields for Iraqi combatants on the battlefield;
                    (E) assault, murder, kidnapping, or torture of 
                civilians or other persons protected under 
                international law in order to terrorize those persons 
                or others or to prevent them from gaining the 
                protection of coalition forces;
                    (F) abuse, torture, assault, or murder of personnel 
                of coalition forces entitled to treatment as prisoners 
                of war or of civilians entitled to a protected status 
                under international law; and
                    (G) recruitment or encouragement of non-Iraqi 
                foreign nationals to engage in violations of the 
                international law of armed conflict.
                                 <all>