[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 34 Introduced in Senate (IS)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. CON. RES. 34

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 8, 2003

 Mr. Specter (for himself and Mr. Biden) submitted the following 
        concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
        Foreign RelationsYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


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

    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the governments of the United States, the United 
        Kingdom, and other nations comprising the coalition conducting 
        Operation Iraqi Freedom should ensure the prosecution by 
        tribunal of persons in the Government of Iraq, persons in the 
        armed forces of Iraq, and any other persons, regardless of 
        nationality, who order, direct, solicit, procure, coordinate, 
        participate in, or support acts in violation of the 
        international law of armed conflict (including the aspects of 
        such law set forth in 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, including by means of 
                suicide bombing by which a combatant appearing to be a 
                civilian operator of a car detonates explosives 
                concealed in the car;
                    (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>