[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 51 (Monday, March 31, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4577-S4579]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
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SENATE RESOLUTION 101--CALLING FOR THE PROSECUTION OF IRAQIS AND THEIR
SUPPORTERS FOR WAR CRIMES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Mr. SPECTER submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 101
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
[[Page S4578]]
(1) the governments of the United States, the United
Kingdom, and other nations comprising the coalition
conducting Operation Iraqi Freedom should prosecute by trial
by tribunal each person in the Government of Iraq, each
person 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 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, 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 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.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I was alarmed over the past weekend to
note the suicide bombing which was perpetrated on Saturday where four
United States soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division were murdered by a
suicide car bomb, with a bomber driving a taxi filled with explosives
to a highway checkpoint in central Iraq. This is the first such attack
on American troops in this war, a war in which Iraqi forces have been
accused of dressing as civilians and employing so-called human shields.
In an interview which appeared on ABC Television on Sunday, March
30th, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz stated that this was to be the
policy of Iraq. This statement was in response to a question by ABC
News correspondent Richard Engel, a question related to the comment by
the Vice President of Iraq the preceding day, Saturday, March 29th, and
then again by a Defense Ministry spokesman on March 30th, that Iraq is
``welcoming the use of [such] suicide attacks.''
I am today introducing a resolution which condemns this practice as a
war crime, to put the government of Iraq on notice that the United
States, Great Britain, and coalition forces will be prosecuting these
atrocities as war crimes. Human Rights Watch commented on this matter,
condemned the act in a press release issued just today, saying:
``Feigning civilian or noncombatant status to deceive the enemy is a
violation of the laws of war. . . .''
On March 29, that is last Saturday, at a U.S. military roadblock near
Najaf, an Iraqi noncommissioned officer, reportedly posing as a taxi
driver, detonated a car bomb that killed him and four U.S. soldiers.
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said in a Baghdad news
conference that such attacks would become ``routine military policy.''
The executive director of the Human Rights Watch, Mr. Kenneth Roth,
said: ``When combatants disguise themselves as civilians or
surrendering soldiers, that is a serious violation of the laws of war.
Any such blurring of the line between combatant and noncombatant puts
all Iraqis at greater risk.''
International law prohibits attacking, killing, injuring, capturing,
or deceiving the enemy by resorting to what is called perfidy. A
``perfidious attack'' is one launched by combatants who have led
opposing forces to believe that the attackers are really noncombatants.
Acts of perfidy include pretending to be a civilian who cannot be
attacked, or feigning surrender. Surrendering soldiers cannot be
attacked, so it is perfidious to use that protected status to attack as
the opposing forces let down their guard as they try to take the
``surrendering'' soldiers into custody.
Now, this technique, this tactic, has been sanctioned, as noted, at
the highest level of the Iraqi government by the Vice President of Iraq
and by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Minister Aziz has been the
leading Iraqi spokesman for more than a decade, going back, actually,
before the gulf war in 1991. When Minister Aziz speaks, there is no
doubt that he is speaking at the highest level of the Iraqi government.
The Iraqi government awarded the suicide bomber two posthumous medals
and the Vice President said the suicide attacks will become routine
military policy in Iraq and in the United States unless the Bush
administration abandons the (then) 10-day-old war and pulls back its
troops.
The interview by ABC TV news correspondent Richard Engel went on to
question Deputy Prime Minister Aziz about the nature of such attacks in
the future, and Minister Aziz commented: ``There will be others.
Iraqis, Arabs, maybe Muslims, yes. We welcome them.''
Minister Aziz took pride in pointing out: ``[T]he first one who did
it was an Iraqi. He was not a foreigner.''
It is my view that this is one of a series of acts by the Iraqi
Government in violation of the laws of war itemized in the Hague and
Geneva Conventions, and that more and varied types of atrocities may be
expected by the desperate Iraqi Government.
That is why I have prepared today this resolution which calls upon:
. . . the governments of the United States, the United
Kingdom, and other nations comprising the coalition
conducting Operation Iraqi Freedom [to] prosecute by trial by
tribunal each person in the Government of Iraq, each person
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) . . . .
The resolution specifies a series of circumstances where there is:
. . . abuse of places protected from military attack under
international law, such as the use of mosques and hospitals
as military headquarters or for other military purposes;
. . . 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;
. . . 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;
. . . the use of civilians or other persons protected under
international law as human shields for Iraqi combatants on
the battlefield;
. . . 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;
. . . 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
. . . recruitment or encouragement of non-Iraqi foreign
nationals to engage in violations of the international law of
armed conflict.
We are saying what has occurred in Iraq today are the actions of a
desperate nation.
I believe it is very important that the upper echelon of the Iraqi
Government, people such as the Vice President, people such as Deputy
Prime Minister Aziz, be put on notice that these acts in violation of
The Hague and Geneva Conventions will be dealt with very forcefully by
a tribunal which is yet to be established.
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I do not specify at this time the kind of tribunal. That will require
some further analysis. It could be a military tribunal to try those
offenses where the victims are soldiers of the U.S. Army, or of the
British Army, or soldiers of the coalition forces.
It might be an international tribunal such as that which was
established for the former Yugoslavia, or Rwanda.
It is worth noting, and the Iraqi officials ought to be watching,
what has happened at The Hague and what happened in Rwanda. The former
head of state of Rwanda is now serving a life sentence--notwithstanding
that he was the head of state of Rwanda--for crimes against humanity.
In a well-publicized case, former Yugoslavian President Milosevic is
now on trial in The Hague for violations of international law and
crimes against humanity. Many have been sentenced for criminal conduct,
for violations of international law in Bosnia and in Kosovo. So at this
early stage I believe it is important that the word go out to the Iraqi
high command and to those who follow orders of the Iraqi high command
that they will be prosecuted as war criminals.
It is not a defense that someone says that he or she is operating
under an order from a superior officer. In a very celebrated case in
World War I, a German U-boat sank an Allied ship. As it went down,
those in lifeboats were machinegunned by the submarine, which had
surfaced. The perpetrator of the machinegunning entered a defense that
the machinegunner was operating under superior's orders. That was
soundly rejected. So the principle has been established as a matter of
international law that it is no defense to say a person operates under
superior's orders.
Of course, it is not a defense at all for ranking officials such as
the Iraqi Vice President and the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, who know
better, who are engaging in these violations of international law.
Those who carry out the orders of these Iraqis ought to be on notice,
too, that these matters will not be over when we win the war, when the
war stops, because these individuals will be pursued in trials just as
the head of state of Rwanda was pursued and is serving a life sentence;
just as former President Milosevic is being pursued and prosecuted; as
so many others are being pursued.
This word ought to go out in a very forceful way to the Iraqis that
this conduct in violation of international law will not be tolerated.
In 1998 I introduced S. Con. Res. 78 calling for a war crimes
tribunal to try Saddam Hussein as a war criminal. On March 13, 1998,
that was passed unanimously, 93 to nothing, by the Senate. So there is
a demonstrated interest on the part of this body in acting very
forcefully to give notice to, not only Saddam Hussein, but other Iraqi
officials and those who carry out their orders that they will be
prosecuted as war criminals if they continue to violate international
law.
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