[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 18 (Monday, March 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S1206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION #78--RELATING TO THE INDICTMENT AND 
              PROSECUTION OF SADDAM HUSSEIN FOR WAR CRIMES

  Mr. SPECTER submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                            S. Con. Res. 78.

       Whereas the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg 
     was convened to try individuals for crimes against 
     international law committed during World War II;
       Whereas the Nuremberg tribunal provision which held that 
     ``crimes against international law are committed by men, not 
     by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who 
     commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be 
     enforced'' is as valid today as it was in 1946;
       Whereas, on August 2, 1990, and without provocation, Iraq 
     initiated a war of aggression against the sovereign state of 
     Kuwait;
       Whereas the Charter of the United Nations imposes on its 
     members the obligations to ``refrain in their international 
     relations from the threat or use of force against the 
     territorial integrity or political independence of any 
     state'';
       Whereas the leaders of the Government of Iraq, a country 
     which is a member of the United Nations, did violate this 
     provision of the United Nations Charter;
       Whereas the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of 
     Civilian Persons in Times of War (the Fourth Geneva 
     Convention) imposes certain obligations upon a belligerent 
     State, occupying another country by force of arms, in order 
     to protect the civilian population of the occupied territory 
     from some of the ravages of the conflict;
       Whereas both Iraq and Kuwait are parties to the Fourth 
     Geneva Convention;
       Whereas the public testimony of witnesses and victims has 
     indicated that Iraqi officials violated Article 27 of the 
     Fourth Geneva Convention by their inhumane treatment and acts 
     of violence against the Kuwaiti civilian population;
       Whereas the public testimony of witnesses and victims has 
     indicated that Iraqi officials violated Articles 31 and 32 of 
     the Fourth Geneva Convention by subjecting Kuwaiti civilians 
     to physical coercion, suffering and extermination in order to 
     obtain information;
       Whereas, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, from 
     January 18, 1991, to February 25, 1991, Iraq did fire 39 
     missiles on Israel in 18 separate attacks with the intent of 
     making it a party to war and with the intent of killing or 
     injuring innocent civilians, killing 2 persons directly, 
     killing 12 people indirectly (through heart attacks, improper 
     use of gas masks, choking), and injuring more than 200 
     persons;
       Whereas Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states 
     that persons committing ``grave breaches'' are to be 
     apprehended and subjected to trial;
       Whereas, on several occasions, the United Nations Security 
     Council has found Iraq's treatment of Kuwaiti civilians to be 
     in violation of international law;
       Whereas, in Revolution 665, adopted on August 25, 1990, the 
     United Nations Security Council deplored ``the loss of 
     innocent life stemming from the Iraq invasion of Kuwaiti'';
       Whereas, in Revolution 670, adopted by the United Nations 
     Security Council on September 25, 1990, it condemned further 
     ``the treatment by Iraqi forces on Kuwait nationals and 
     reaffirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applied to 
     Kuwait'';
       Whereas, in Resolution 674, the United Nations Security 
     Council demanded that Iraq cease mistreating and oppressing 
     Kuwaiti nationals in violation of the Convention and reminded 
     Iraq that it would be liable for any damage or injury 
     suffered by Kuwaiti nationals due to Iraq's invasion and 
     illegal occupation;
       Whereas Iraq is a party to the Prisoners of War Convention 
     and there is evidence and testimony that during the Persian 
     Gulf War, Iraq violated articles of the Convention by its 
     physical and psychological abuse of military and civilian 
     POW`s including members of the international press;
       Whereas Iraq has committed deliberate and calculated crimes 
     of environmental terrorism, inflicting grave risk to the 
     health and well-being of innocent civilians in the region by 
     its willful ignition of 732 Kuwaiti oil wells in January and 
     February, 1991:
       Whereas President Clinton found ``compelling evidence'' 
     that the Iraqi Intelligence Service directed and pursued an 
     operation to assassinate former President George Bush in 
     April 1993 when he visited Kuwait;
       Whereas Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials have 
     systematically attempted to destroy the Kurdish population in 
     Iraq through the use of chemical weapons against civilian 
     Kurds, campaigns in 1987-88 which resulted in the 
     disappearance of more than 182,000 persons and the 
     destruction of more that 4,000 villages, the placement of 
     more than 10 million landmines in Iraqi Kurdistan, and ethnic 
     cleansing in the city of Kirkuk;
       Whereas the Republic of Iraq is a signatory to 
     international agreements including the Universal Declaration 
     on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and 
     Political Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and 
     Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the POW Convention, 
     and is obligated to comply with these international 
     agreements;
       Whereas section 8 of Resolution 687 of the United Nations 
     Security Council, adopted on April 3, 1991, requires Iraq to 
     `unconditionally accept the destruction, removal, or 
     rendering harmless, under international supervision of all 
     chemical and biological weapons and all stocks of agents and 
     all related subsystems and components and all research, 
     development, support, and manufacturing facilities;
       Whereas Saddam Husseinn and the Republic of Iraq have 
     persistently and flagrantly violated the terms of Resolution 
     687 with respect to elimination of weapons of mass 
     destruction and inspections by international supervisors;
       Whereas there is good reason to believe that Iraq continues 
     to have stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions, 
     missiles capable of transporting such agents, and the 
     capacity to produce such weapons of mass destruction, putting 
     the international community at risk;
       Whereas, on February 22, 1993, the United Nations Security 
     Council adopted Resolution 808 establishing an international 
     tribunal to try individuals accused of violations of 
     international law in the former Yugoslavia;
       Whereas, on November 8, 1994, the United Nations Security 
     Council adopted Resolution 955 establishing an international 
     tribunal to try individuals accused of the commission of 
     violations of international law in Rwanda;
       Whereas more than 70 individuals have faced indictments 
     handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
     Former Yugoslavia in the Hague for war crimes and crimes 
     against humanity in the former Yugoslavia, leading in the 
     first trial to the sentencing of a Serb jailer to 20 years in 
     prison;
       Whereas the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has 
     indicted 31 individuals, with three trials occurring at 
     present and 27 individuals in custody;
       Whereas the United States has to date spent more than $24 
     million for the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
     Former Yugoslavia and more than $20 million for the 
     International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda;
       Whereas officials such as former President George Bush, 
     Vice President Al Gore, General Norman Schwarzkopf and others 
     have labeled Saddam Hussein a war criminal and called for his 
     indictment;
       Whereas a failure to try and punish leaders and other 
     persons for crimes, against international law establishes a 
     dangerous precedent and negatively impacts the value of 
     deterrence to future illegal acts;
       Resolved, by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring,)
       That the President should--
       (1) call for the creation of a commission under the 
     auspices of the United Nations to establish an international 
     record of the criminal culpability of Saddam Hussein and 
     other Iraqi officials;
       (2) call for the United Nations to form an international 
     criminal tribunal for the purpose of indicting, prosecuting, 
     and imprisoning Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials who 
     are responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide, and 
     other violations of international law; and
       (3) upon the creation of such an international criminal 
     tribunal, seek the reprogramming of necessary funds to 
     support the efforts of the tribunal, including the gathering 
     of evidence necessary to indict, prosecute and imprison 
     Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials.

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