[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 23 (Monday, March 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1655-S1656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON SADDAM HUSSEIN
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SPECTER (AND DORGAN) AMENDMENT NOS. 1933-1934
(Ordered to lie on the table.)
Mr. SPECTER (for himself and Mr. Dorgan) submitted two amendments
intended to be proposed by them to the concurrent resolution (S. Con.
Res. 78) relating to the indictment and prosecution of Saddam Hussein
for war crimes and other crimes against humanity; as follows:
Amendment No. 1933
Strike all after the resolving clause and insert the
following:
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
may be found responsible for crimes against humanity,
genocide, and other violations of international humanitarian
law; and
(3) upon the creation of a commission and international
criminal tribunal, take steps necessary, including the
reprogramming of funds, to ensure United States support for
efforts to bring Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials to
justice.
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Amendment No. 1934
Strike out the preamble and insert the following:
Whereas the International Military Tribunal at Nurenberg
was convened to try individuals for crimes against
international law committed during World War II;
Whereas the Nuremberg tribunal provision which stated 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, 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 humanitarian law;
Whereas, in Resolution 665, adopted on August 25, 1990, the
United Nations Security Council deplored ``the loss of
innocent life stemming from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait'';
Whereas, in Resolution 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, adopted by the United Nations
Security Council on October 29, 1990, the 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 over 700 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 150,000 persons and the
destruction of more than 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 paragraph 8 of Resolution 687 of the United Nations
Security Council, adopted on April 8, 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 Hussein 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
[[Page S1656]]
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 humanitarian 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 humanitarian law in Rwanda;
Whereas more than 70 individuals have been indicted 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; and
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: Now, therefore, be it
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