Congressional Record, Volume 144 Issue 27 (Friday, March 13, 1998)

[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 27 (Friday, March 13, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1907-S1913]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

INDICTMENT AND PROSECUTION OF SADDAM HUSSEIN

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now
proceed to a vote on S. Con. Res. 78, as amended, which the clerk will
report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 78) relating to the
indictment and prosecution of Saddam Hussein for war crimes
and other crimes against humanity.

The Senate resumed consideration of the concurrent resolution.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the concurrent
resolution, S. Con. Res. 78, as amended. The yeas and nays have been
ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi), the
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Faircloth), the Senator from Oklahoma
(Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Jeffords), the Senator from
Arizona (Mr. Kyl), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain) are
necessarily absent.
Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye) is
necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
who desire to vote?
The result was announced, yeas 93, nays 0, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 32 Leg.]

YEAS--93

Abraham
Akaka
Allard
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bryan
Bumpers
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee
Cleland
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Coverdell
Craig
D'Amato
Daschle
DeWine
Dodd
Domenici

[[Page S1908]]

Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Ford
Frist
Glenn
Gorton
Graham
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Helms
Hollings
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Johnson
Kempthorne
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lott
Lugar
Mack
McConnell
Mikulski
Moseley-Braun
Moynihan
Murkowski
Murray
Nickles
Reed
Reid
Robb
Roberts
Rockefeller
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (NH)
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Torricelli
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden

NOT VOTING--7

Enzi
Faircloth
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Kyl
McCain
The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 78), as amended, was agreed
to.

Amendment No. 1934 to the Preamble

(Purpose: To provide substitute language)

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, amendment No. 1934,
offered by the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, and the Senator
from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan, is agreed to.
The amendment (No. 1934) was agreed to as follows:

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
be 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
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 humanitarian law
establishes a dangerous precedent and negatively impacts the
value of deterrence to future illegal acts: Now, therefore,
be it

The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 78), as amended, with its
preamble, as amended, was agreed to, as follows:

S. Con. Res. 78

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
be 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;

[[Page S1909]]

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
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
$24,000,000 for the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia and more than $20,000,000 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
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 any 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.

Mr. KEMPTHORNE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which
the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
Mr. STEVENS. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I want to commend Senator Specter for his
leadership in championing the resolution passed overwhelmingly by the
Senate a short time ago.
Our action has put the Senate on record in support of establishing an
international commission and criminal tribunal for the purpose of
investigating, prosecuting, and ultimately punishing Saddam Hussein and
other Iraqi officials for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Through his genocidal campaigns against the Kurds and the Shi'a, the
brutal treatment of Kuwaiti civilians, and the repeated use of chemical
weapons, Saddam Hussein has earned his place as one of this century's
most odious tyrants.
Perhaps the best documented case of Saddam's genocidal policies is
the infamous Anfal campaign launched in February 1988 against Iraqi
Kurdistan. The purpose of Anfal was to break the back of the Kurdish
resistance using whatever means necessary. Large tracts of rural
Kurdistan were declared off-limits and forcibly depopulated. Those who
remained were branded ``traitors'' and ``saboteurs'' and were
systematically liquidated during a ruthless six and a half month
campaign. Human Rights Watch estimates that, in all, between 50,000 and
100,000 innocent civilians were killed during Anfal.
On March 16, 1988--nearly ten years ago to the day--Saddam unleashed
a deadly cocktail of chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of
Halabja. Wednesday's Washington Post piece by Christine Gosden is a
poignant reminder of the suffering that the innocent men, women, and
children of Halabja endure to this day as a result of that cowardly
attack ten years ago. I ask unanimous consent that Dr. Gosden's account
be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See Exhibit 1.)
Mr. BIDEN. The weak international response that followed Halabja
emboldened Saddam. In August 1988, he launched his final offensive
against dozens of other villages, killing hundreds, and causing tens of
thousands to flee to neighboring countries. A staff report prepared for
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, based on interviews with
survivors, described the atrocities in vivid detail:

The bombs . . . did not produce a large explosion. Only a
weak sound could be heard and then a yellowish cloud spread
out from the center of the explosion. . . . Those who were
very close to the bombs died almost instantly. Those who did
not die instantly found it difficult to breathe and began to
vomit. The gas stung the eyes, skin and lungs of the
villagers exposed to it. Many suffered temporary blindness.

[[Page S1910]]

After the bombs exploded, many villagers ran and submerged
themselves in nearby streams to escape the spreading gas. . .
. Many of those who made it to streams survived. Those who
could not run from the growing smell, mostly the very old and
the very young, died. The survivors who saw the dead reported
that blood could be seen trickling out of the mouths of some
of the bodies. A yellowish fluid could also be seen oozing
out of the noses and mouths of some of the dead. Some said
the bodies appeared frozen. Many of the dead bodies turned
blackish blue.

Saddam's outrageous act prompted only a muted response from the world
community. One of the few sounds of protest came from this body, where
Senators Pell and Helms promptly introduced legislation to impose
sanctions against Iraq.
The bill sailed through the Senate on a voice vote, a day after it
was introduced. Unfortunately, the Reagan Administration, still under
the delusion that it could deal with Saddam, denounced the bill as
``premature,'' and later succeeded in blocking its enactment in the
final days of the One Hundredth Congress.
The Kurds are not the only victims of Saddam's atrocities. The
``Marsh Arabs'' of Southern Iraq have seen hundreds of their villages
destroyed. They have been subjected to arbitrary killings and forcibly
relocated. The mainstay of their ancient culture--the marshes of
Southern Iraq--have been drained so that military operations can be
carried out against them and other rebels with greater ease.
In addition to terrorizing his own citizens, Saddam Hussein has
unleashed his wrath against Iraq's neighbors on numerous occasions. He
used chemical weapons repeatedly during the Iran-Iraq War in clear
violation of the 1925 Geneva Convention. His troops raped and murdered
with impunity during the occupation of Kuwait. And he has rained scud
missiles on the civilian populations of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran,
and Israel.
It is high time that the international community stop looking the
other way when presented with these blatant crimes against humanity. It
is time to systematically compile the evidence of Saddam Hussein's
atrocities and undertake criminal proceedings to deliver the punishment
that he so richly deserves.
Our action in passing this resolution presents a challenge to the
international community to join the United States in putting the wheels
of justice into motion.
We should not underestimate the difficulty of physically delivering
Saddam Hussein to a tribunal, but it would be unconscionable to abandon
the quest for justice. Silence and inaction would be a grave injustice
to the hundreds upon thousands of his victims.

[From the Washington Post, Mar. 11, 1998]

Why I Went, What I Saw

(By Christine Gosden)

We have all talked so long and so reflexively about
``weapons of mass destruction'' that the phrase has lost much
of its immediacy and meaning. It has become, like ``nuclear
devastation'' and ``chemical and biological warfare,'' an
abstract term of governmental memos, punditry and political
debate. For many it calls forth neither visual imagery nor
visceral revulsion.
Two Sundays ago, the TV program ``60 Minutes'' got a good
start on changing that when it broadcast the story of the
Iraqi city of Halabja 10 years after its civilian population
had been the target of a chemical attack by Saddam Hussein.
That population is mainly Kurdish and had sympathized with
Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. The gassing of its people was
in retaliation for that sympathizing.
``60 Minutes'' has given us permission to make still
pictures from the film, which was originally shot, both in
1988 and 1998, by the British film maker, Gwynne Roberts. The
``60 Minutes'' staff also helped us to get in touch with the
remarkable Dr. Christine Gosden, a British medical
specialist, whose efforts to help the people of Halabja is
documented. Dr. Gosden, who went out to Halabja 10 years
after the bombing, agreed to write a piece for us, expanding
on what she saw in Iraq. People around the world have seen
the evidence of deformity and mutation following from the
nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It shaped their
attitude toward the use of atomic weapons. Maybe if more
evidence of the unimaginable, real-life effects of chemical
warfare becomes available, a comparable attitude toward those
weapons will develop.
On the 16th of March 1988, an Iraqi military strike
subjected Halabja, a Kurdish town of 45,000 in northern Iraq,
to bombardment with the greatest attack of chemical weapons
ever used against a civilian population. The chemical agents
used were a ``cocktail'' of mustard gas (which affects skin,
eyes and the membranes of the nose, throat and lungs), and
the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX. The chemicals to which
the people were exposed drenched their skin and clothes,
affected their respiratory tracts and eyes and contaminated
their water and food.
Many people simply fell dead where they were, immediate
casualties of the attack estimates put these deaths at about
5,000. A few were given brief and immediate treatment, which
involved taking them to the United States, Europe and Iran.
The majority of them returned to Halabja. Since then, no
medical team, either from Iraq, Europe or America or from any
international agency has monitored either the short- or long-
term consequences of this chemical attack. Gwynne Roberts, a
film director, made the award-winning film ``The Winds of
Death'' about the attack in 1988. I saw this film, and it had
a tremendous effect on me. Gwynne revisited Halabja in 1997
and was concerned that many of the survivors seemed very ill.
He could not understand why no one had tried to find out what
was happening to them. He convinced me that this was
something I had to do.
Why would a female professor of medical genetics want to
make a trip like this? I went to learn and to help. This was
the first time that a terrible mixture of chemical weapons
had been used against a large civilian population. I wanted
to see the nature and scale of the problems these people
faced, and was concerned that in the 10 years since the
attack no one, including the major aid agencies, had visited
Halabja to determine exactly what the effects of these
weapons had been.
My medical specialty was particularly apt. My principal
field of research is directed toward trying to understand the
major causes of human congenital malformations, infertility
and cancers including breast, ovarian, prostate and colon
cancers. I am carrying out studies on a group of about 15
genes called tumor suppressor genes, which include breast/
ovarian cancer genes BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 colon cancer genes and
the Retinoblastoma and Wilm's tumor genes associated with
childhood cancers. When these genes are disrupted or mutate,
they have a number of effects. Alterations lead to congenital
abnormalities or pregnancy loss. Their role after birth is to
try to prevent cancers from forming. Later in life, loss or
mutation may lead to infertility and cancers.
I was particularly concerned about the effects on the women
and children. Most of the previous reported exposures to
chemical weapons and mustard gas had involved men involved in
military service; chemical weapons had never been used on
this scale on a civilian population before. I was worried
about possible effects on congenital malformations, fertility
and cancers, not just in women and children but in the whole
population. I also feared that there might be other major
long-term effects, such as blindness and neurological damage,
for which there is no known treatment.
What I found was far worse than anything I had suspected,
devastating problems occurring 10 years after the attack.
These chemicals seriously affected people's eyes and
respiratory and neurological systems. Many became blind. Skin
disorders which involve severe scarring are frequent, and
many progress to skin cancer. Working in conjunction with the
doctors in the area, I compared the frequency of these
conditions such as infertility, congenital malformations and
cancers (including skin, head, neck, respiratory system,
gastrointestinal tract, breast and childhood cancers) in
those who were in Halabja at the time with an unexposed
population from a city in the same region. We found the
frequencies in Halabja are at least three to four times
greater, even 10 years after the attack. An increasing number
of children are dying each year of leukemias and lymphomas.
The cancers tend to occur in much younger people in Halabja
than elsewhere, and many people have aggressive tumors, so
that mortality rates are high. No chemotherapy or
radiotherapy is available in this region.
I found that there was also a total lack of access to
pediatric surgery to repair the major heart defects, hare lip
and cleft palate or other major malformations in the
children. This meant that children in Halabja are dying of
heart failure when children with the same heart defects could
have had surgery and would probably have survived in Britain
or the United States. It was agonizing for me to see
beautiful children whose faces were disfigured by hare lip
and cleft palate when I know that skilled and gifted surgeons
correct these defects every day in North America and Europe.
The neuropsychiatric consequences are seen as human tragedy
on every street, in almost every house and every ward of the
hospital. People weep and are in great distress because of
their severe depression, and suicidal tendencies are
alarmingly evident. The surgeons often have to remove bullets
from people who have failed in their suicide attempts. In
collecting data from the Martyrs Hospital in Halabja, the
doctors said that they are not able to see patients with
psychiatric and neurological conditions because there is a
lack of resources and there is no effective treatment. Many
people have neurological impairment or long-term
neuromuscular effects. Most people cannot afford even the
cheapest treatment or drugs and so are reluctant to come to
the hospital. At present, even for those with life-
threatening conditions, there is no effective therapy for any
of these conditions in Halabja.

[[Page S1911]]

On the first day of my visit to the labor and gynecological
ward in the hospital, there were no women in normal labor and
no one had recently delivered a normal baby. Three women had
just miscarried. The staff in the labor ward told of the very
large proportion of pregnancies in which there were major
malformations. In addition to fetal losses and perinatal
deaths, there is also a very large number of infant deaths.
The frequencies of these in the Halabjan women is more than
four times greater than that in the neighboring city of
Soulemaneya. The findings of serious congenital malformations
with genetic causes occurring in children born years after
the chemical attack suggest that the effects from these
chemical warfare agents are transmitted to succeeding
generations.
Miscarriage, infant deaths and infertility mean that life
isn't being replenished in this community, as one would
expect if these weapons had no long-term effects. The people
hoped that after the attack they could rebuild the families
and communities that had been destroyed. The inability to do
so has led to increasing despair. Their lives and hopes have
been shattered. One survivor described being in a cellar with
about a hundred other people, all of whom died during the
attack. Not only do those who survived have to cope with
memories of their relatives suddenly dying in their arms,
they have to try to come to terms with their own painful
diseases and those of their surviving friends and relatives.
For instance, many people have more than one major
condition, including respiratory problems, eye conditions,
neurological disorders, skin problems, cancers and children
with congenital malformations and childhood handicaps such as
mental handicap, cerebral palsy and Down's syndrome. The
occurrences of genetic mutations and carcinogenesis in this
population appear comparable with those who were one to two
kilometers from the hypocenter of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
atomic bombs and show that the chemicals used in this attack,
particularly mustard gas, have a general effect on the body
similar to that of ionizing radiation.
Ten years after the attack, people are suffering a wide
spectrum of effects, all of which are attributable to long-
term damage to DNA. A radio broadcast was made the day before
our arrival to ask people who were ill to come to the
hospital to record their problems. On the first day, 700
people came; 495 of them had two or more major problems. The
cases we encountered were extremely sad.
The people of Halabja need immediate help. There is a need
for specialists (such as pediatric surgeons), equipment and
drugs. Even more basic than this, though, is the need for
heat, clean water and careful efforts to safeguard them
against further attacks. We have to realize that there is
very little medical or scientific knowledge about how to
treat the victims of a chemical weapons attack like this
effectively. We need to listen, think and evaluate with
skill, since many of these people have had exposures to
strange combinations of toxic gases. They have conditions
that have not been seen or reported before. We may severely
disadvantage a large group of vulnerable people and deny them
effective diagnosis and treatment if we are intellectually
arrogant and fail to admit that we have virtually no
knowledge about how to treat the problems resulting from
these terrible weapons, which have been used to more powerful
and inhumane effect than ever before.
The pictures beamed around the world after the attack in
1988 in newspapers and on TV were horrifying. One picture was
of a father who died trying to shield his twin sons from the
attack. The statue in the road at the entrance to Halabja is
based on that picture. This is not a traditional statue of
someone standing proud and erect, captured in stone or bronze
to represent man triumphant and successful, but of a man
prostrate and agonized dying in the act of trying to protect
his children. A deep and lasting chill went through me when I
entered the town and saw the statue, and it settled like a
toxic psychological cloud over me. This proved hard to
dispel; it intensified as I met the people, heard their
stories and saw the extent of the long-term illnesses caused
by the attack. The terrible images of the people of Halabja
and their situation persist and recur in my nightmares and
disturb my waking thoughts. Perhaps these thoughts persist so
vividly as a reminder to me that the major task is now to try
and get help for these people.

Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. President, today's vote for prosecuting Saddam
Hussein as a war criminal is important for at least two reasons. First,
it highlights again the outrageous and murderous actions Saddam Hussein
has taken over the past seven years. Second, it injects new thinking
into the U.S. approach toward Iraq--something that has been sorely
lacking.
Much commentary has been offered among the general public--and in
this body--about the wisdom of the latest deal between U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan and Saddam Hussein. Much of this commentary has
focused on whether or not that agreement is a ``good'' one--one that
will really curb Saddam. In my view, this question is misdirected.
Almost certainly, the latest deal will do little but buy time. As long
as Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction, there's going to be
another showdown somewhere down the road. So the real question becomes
what we are going to do in the meantime to develop a comprehensive,
long-term policy to protect our interests even as Saddam uses the time
to further build up his arsenal and weaken international resolve.
Trying Saddam for war crimes could be a step in that direction.
There is little doubt in most American's minds that Saddam Hussein
negotiated the latest agreement to his own advantage. His standard M-O
is to agree to some set of conditions, set himself up in the court of
world opinion as some sort of victim, and then violate the agreements
when it's advantageous for him to do so. He weakens the international
coalition arrayed against him by creating, and then expanding, gray
areas in the interpretation of international agreements in an effort to
keep his most coveted weapons, while wiggling out of the economic
sanctions imposed against his country--a strategy which, I am sorry to
say, has worked pretty well for him so far.
So far, Saddam Hussein has been in control of the situation. He
decides what disputes arise and when they come about. And because the
United States has developed no creative alternatives to direct
conflict, and because we have few international supporters, Saddam
forces the U.S. to deploy large amounts of military forces to the
Gulf--each time further eroding international cohesion, costing
American taxpayers billions of dollars, and weakening our ability to
defend other interests. Then, at the last moment, Saddam promises to
behave within certain parameters which he negotiates. Later, at a time
of his choosing, he tests those parameters and another round of
military buildup and feverish hand-wringing among the world's diplomats
begins.
Mr. President, Saddam is pretty much calling the shots. This is far
too serious a business for us to settle for such little administration
planning as we have seen. Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are quite
real, and quite deadly, but our posture against this threat is almost
entirely reactive. We engage in a loose strategy of containment,
running pretty much on autopilot, until Saddam decides to challenge the
status quo. Then we hear a lot of hot rhetoric about ``a modern
Hitler'' and ``grave consequences'' accompanied by military
deployments. But after a flurry of diplomatic activity, Americans are
told there can be ``peace in our time.'' Mr. President, I am reminded
of the boy who cried wolf, and I would remind the Administration that
they can only go to the well so many times before the American people--
and the rest of the world--ceases to take them seriously on this
matter.
Our credibility is one of our first lines of defense. We don't make
idle threats or rattle sabers--or rather, we shouldn't make such
threats. Otherwise, this roller coaster of international gamesmanship
ends up putting dents in our credibility, and that's destructive to our
security. And rather than advancing America's security and our
interests in the Middle East, this cycle of military build-up and
appeasement plays right into Saddam's hands.
Our foreign policy needs to be made firmly and unequivocally by the
President with the discrete counsel of Congress. Instead of forceful
leadership in this matter, we have seen the administration attempt to
insulate itself from the consequences that might come from a conflict
with Iraq by staging public relations opportunities. The fiasco at Ohio
State University marked a new low. Mr. President, this nation's foreign
policy should not be set on the basis of pep rallies. When Americans
are sent to war, it must be done on the basis of sober and rational
decisions. Sadly, it appears that for this administration, we've
reached the point where stagecraft has replaced statecraft.
Americans are uneasy with the lack of a comprehensive plan for Iraq.
Untended sanctions, followed by military build-ups, followed by a
return to sanctions, do not constitute a serious foreign policy. The
President needs to take action, and he needs to make the case for that
action confidently and truthfully to the American people, and then he
needs to carry out exactly what he says he'll do.

[[Page S1912]]

Mr. President, Saddam Hussein is a brutal authoritarian who oppresses
the Iraqi people, menaces his neighbors, and threatens the
international community by developing weapons of mass destruction and
potentially interrupting oil trade. Sadly, the United States currently
has only two options for confronting him, both of them poor choices:
(1) maintaining sanctions and continuing diplomacy in an environment of
eroding international support, and; (2) launching military strikes,
which Saddam has thus far been able to withstand.
Obviously, Americans are always glad when loss of life can be
avoided, and there's no question that military strikes would have cost
lives. But if by putting off a confrontation with Saddam we have
enabled him to grow stronger and perhaps emboldened him to use chemical
or biological weapons somewhere in the world, then delaying strikes
will have been short-sighted with tragic consequences for many, many
innocent people. Given the lack of a comprehensive strategy for dealing
with Iraq, however, the result of strikes would have been a collapse of
any remaining international cooperation on Iraq, the end of weapons
inspections, a politically strengthened Saddam Hussein, and the
continuation of Iraq's WMD program. At least the current agreement buys
time. It's now up to the Administration to use this window of
opportunity to develop better options for the next time Saddam becomes
belligerent.
Building an international record of war crimes against Iraqi leaders
could be one way to expand options for dealing with Iraq. Members of
this body have also suggested other ideas like supporting an Iraqi
opposition; developing, in cooperation with our Middle Eastern allies,
better chemical and biological defenses; working more closely with
allies to develop sustainable sanctions targeted against the Iraqi
Government and its WMD program; and, working to convince other Gulf
countries that, if we strike, they will not be left to confront a
wounded but still-in-power Saddam who will grow even stronger. These
may provide kernels of alternative policies. But Mr. President, every
plan that works begins with leadership, accountability, and a
seriousness of purpose. So far, these qualities have largely been
lacking in the Administration's Iraq policy. I hope they take to heart
the ideas offered today by the Senate.
Whatever we do, the U.S. must have more options than sanctions and
military strikes the next time Saddam flouts his agreements. If the
Administration does not develop new alternatives, we will soon repeat
the well-worn cycle of military build-up and stand-down, and the next
time we're at these crossroads with Iraq, our options will be even
fewer and support both at home and abroad will be even more scarce. Mr.
President, we cannot afford to leave American interests open to that
kind of risk. And we will have no excuse for our position if the
administration comes to these crossroads again in six months or a year
no better equipped--and with no better planning--than we have just
seen.
We must stand up to Saddam with confidence, clear goals, and resolute
purpose. And we have to do it soon, or the time bought by the latest
agreement will be solely to Saddam's advantage.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I congratulate the Senator from
Pennsylvania for introducing this resolution, which I supported when it
was considered by the Committee on Foreign Relations and again
supported on the vote just taken.
Our world has come a long way since the dawn of civilization. As
human beings have evolved biologically and eventually socially, we have
come to realize that we can safely and happily live together on this
globe only if we abide by certain rules of behavior. The course of
civilization is, in large measure, the history of humankind's
increasing and increasingly sophisticated efforts to define acceptable
and unacceptable behavior--for individuals, groups, and nations, and
our successes and failures to abide by those definitions and the
consequences of those successes and failures.
Other Senators, Mr. President, particularly the resolution's
principal sponsor and a key cosponsor, the Senator from North Dakota
[Mr. Dorgan], have set forth in considerable detail the bill of
particulars against the dictator of Iraq. Those include documented
chemical weapons attacks against Iranian troops and civilians in the
Iran-Iraq War. They include chemical weapons attacks against Kurds in
Iraq--Iraqi citizens, keep in mind--leaving behind the most revolting
human injuries imaginable. Men, women, children, infants--no one was
spared. Many died immediately. Many who managed to survive wished they
had died. Some of them died later with no interruption in their agony--
blindness, peeling skin, gaping sores, asphyxiation. And others, even
if they did not evince the same signs of injury, have transmitted the
horror of those attacks across time and even generations. Terrible
birth defects have afflicted the offspring of many who survived Saddam
Hussein's attacks. The rate of miscarriages and stillbirths has soared
for those survivors.
We do not know why Saddam Hussein chose not to use these weapons
against the Coalition troops in the Gulf War that resulted from his
invasion and occupation of Kuwait. We do know that he had them in his
inventory, and the means of delivering them. We do know that his
chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons development programs were
proceeding with his active support.
We have evidence, collected by the United Nations's inspectors during
those inspections that Saddam Hussein has permitted them to make, that
despite his pledges at the conclusion of the war that no further work
would be done in these weapons of mass destruction programs, and that
all prior work and weapons that resulted from it would be destroyed,
this work has continued illegally and covertly.
And, Mr. President, we have every reason to believe that Saddam
Hussein will continue to do everything in his power to further develop
weapons of mass destruction and the ability to deliver those weapons,
and that he will use those weapons without concern or pangs of
conscience if ever and whenever his own calculations persuade him it is
in his interests to do so.
Saddam Hussein has not limited his unspeakable actions to use of
weapons of mass destruction. He and his loyalists have proven
themselves quite comfortable with old fashioned instruments and
techniques of torture--both physical and psychological. During the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Kuwaiti women were systematically raped and
otherwise assaulted. The accounts of the torture chambers in his
permanent and makeshift prisons and detention facilities are gruesome
by any measure.
Mr. President, Saddam Hussein's actions in terrorizing his own people
and in using horrible weapons and means of torture against those who
oppose him, be they his own countrymen and women or citizens of other
nations, collectively comprise the definition of crimes against
humanity.
I have spoken before this chamber on several occasions to state my
belief that the United States must take every feasible step to lead the
world to remove this unacceptable threat. He must be deprived of the
ability to injure his own citizens without regard to internationally-
recognized standards of behavior and law. He must be deprived of his
ability to invade neighboring nations. He must be deprived of his
ability to visit destruction on other nations in the Middle East region
or beyond. If he does not live up fully to the new commitments that
U.N. Secretary-General Annan recently obtained in order to end the
weapons inspection standoff--and I will say clearly that I cannot
conceive that he will not violate those commitments at some point--we
must act decisively to end the threats that Saddam Hussein poses.
But the vote this morning was about a different albeit related matter
today. It was about initiating a process of bringing the world's
opprobrium to bear on this reprehensible criminal--to officially
designate Saddam Hussein as that which we know him to be.
We are realists, Mr. President. Even if this process leads as we
believe it will to the conviction of Saddam Hussein under international
law, our ability to carry out any resulting sentence may be constrained
as long as he remains in power in Baghdad. But Saddam Hussein will not
remain in power in Baghdad forever. Eventually, if we

[[Page S1913]]

persist out of dedication to the cause that we must never permit anyone
one who treats other human beings the way he has treated tens of
thousands of human beings to escape justice, we will bring Saddam
Hussein to justice. And in the meantime, his conviction on these
charges may prove of benefit to our efforts to isolate him and his
government, and to rally the support of other nations around the world
to the effort to remove him from power.
I am pleased, Mr. President, that this resolution was agreed to
unanimously, and hopeful that soon the machinery of international law
will be applied as it was designed to label Saddam Hussein as the
horrific murderer and torturer he is, recognition he richly deserves.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I express my strong support of Senate
Concurrent Resolution 78, which would call on the President of the
United States to work toward the establishment of the legal mechanisms,
under the aegis of the United Nations, necessary for the prosecution of
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, including
the infliction upon the people of Kuwait and his own Kurdish population
of genocidal policies. The resolution further encourages that the
President seek the funding required to support this effort.
Senator Specter is to be commended for taking the lead in this
morally and legally essential exercise in holding Saddam Hussein
accountable for a long history of brutality that places him squarely
among the worst human rights offenders of the post-World War II era.
While none of us are under any illusions about the nature of this
individual, I nevertheless urge my colleagues to read the text of this
resolution carefully. It is a concise, comprehensive list of human
rights abuses and war crimes committed by the Iraqi leader against the
neighboring country of Kuwait, which he invaded and upon which imposed
a brutal occupation, and against the Kurdish occupation of northern
Iraq. It reiterates the degree to which Saddam Hussein has willfully
and repeatedly failed to comply with United Nations and other legal
mandates pertaining to his treatment of those who have suffered the
misfortune of falling under his grip and to the international
inspection regimes to which he is subject.
The text of the resolution is self-explanatory, but even that omits
mention of the incalculable acts of wanton cruelty Saddam Hussein, and
his sons, has committed against the Iraqi people, in addition to
actions against the country's Kurdish population. Such a discussion is
beyond the purview of a resolution oriented towards holding Saddam
accountable for war crimes. I mention this only to ensure that the fate
of the Iraqi people is not forgotten. The purpose of S. Con. Res. 78 is
to establish the legal framework for further isolating Saddam Hussein
diplomatically and for working toward his removal from power. This is a
resolution that may seem obvious and elementary in some respects, yet
which reflects my colleague from Pennsylvania's astute grasp of the
legal imperatives involved in pursuing far-ranging policies designed to
bring down a ruthless and belligerent dictator.

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