P A SEBASTIAN

T

International law has evolved over centuries. At this stage of its evolution one country does not charge the president of another country with crimes against humanity, arrest him, try him and punish him to death. The US action against Saddam Hussein is an act of war, which violates every canon of international law. This process of aggression was built up and perpetrated on two premises: (1) Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which could be launched within 45 minutes notice; and (2) Iraq was in collusion with Al Qaida, which was held responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in New York City. The US congressional committees have investigated and found that both the allegations were totally unfounded. George W Bush and Tony Blair have themselves dropped these arguments. Now they say that they attacked Iraq to put paid to the dictatorship of Saddam and to usher in democracy there.

This alibi of democracy for the aggression on Iraq has been retrospectively forged to justify the war in the light of disasters that stare Bush and Blair in their faces. If this was the reason that motivated Bush and Blair, they would have attacked Saudi Arabia first. What are the credentials of America to cultivate democracy in the world? They carpet-bombed, napalmbombed and defoliated Vietnam with Agent Orange and killed three million Vietnamese to install and retain puppet regimes there. The Central Intelligence Agency of the US organised a military coup in 1973 in Chile to overthrow and kill Salvador Allende, the elected president. In Indonesia, America masterminded and executed a violent deposition of the popular Sukarno government and, which in its wake, led to the massacre of 5,00,000 communists, only to instate Suharto, a corrupt autocrat who misappropriated the wealth of Indonesia for personal aggrandisement. Instances of American assault on democracy are galore. America invaded Iraq and unseated Saddam for the reason that he came in the way of America’s hegemonic ambition in west Asia.

The Dujail Case

There is more than one set of charges against Saddam Hussein and separate trials are being conducted against him. In the first trial, which is complete, Saddam was accused of killing 148 people from Al Dujail village after an attempt to assassinate him there in 1982. This was when Iran and Iraq were locked in the second year of a major war that threatened the sovereignty of each country and killed about a million people. The automobile in which the president was riding was hit by gunfire. The assailants who made the attempt were seen fleeing towards Iran. The announcement of the assassination attempt on his life first came from Tehran. This was one of the episodes in the war.

Both Iran and Iraq had large segments of their population whose loyalty in the war was uncertain. Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile in Iraq from 1964 to 1978. Many shias in Iraq identified strongly power after the occupation, were then considered a threat to his government and his war efforts. To secure Dujail and the surrounding areas and to protect the nation, persons suspected of participating in, or supporting, the assault on the president and the violence that followed, were arrested. Many more people were interrogated. The prosecutions were initiated by the late spring of 1984, nearly two years after the act occurred. During the interrogation of major offenders, 148 males had confessed to participation or providing support to the assassination attempt and related hostile acts in the Dujail area in July 1982.

There were no trials because the defendants admitted guilt. The offence charged was treason – taking up arms against one’s own country in time of war and supporting its violent overthrow. The death penalty was mandatory. The court had no discretion under the law. A prominent committee of Iraqi judges reviewed the death sentences and affirmed them. In the time of war the risk of summary executions for their deterrent effect is high. President Saddam Hussein, as required by Iraqi law, reviewed and approved the orders of execution. It is common for the law to require the highest official of a state to approve and sign death warrants. George Bush signed 152 such warrants as governor of Texas. His reviews took about 30 minutes for each case. He never granted clemency or pardon. Women, minors, retarded people and aliens were executed.

Violations of International Law

It is a truism that a fair trial requires an independent judiciary. Presumption of innocence and the right of self-defence are other indispensable conditions that a fair trial entails. However, Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) is a creature of the 2003 US war against Iraq. It was conceived of and constituted by the US during the illegal occupation of Iraq. The US lawyers wrote the statutes creating the IST. The IST is financed by the US. Its personnel were selected, trained and are protected by the US military. The US directly influences

Economic and Political Weekly December 30, 2006 the conduct of the IST. Three of the chief judges of its trial chamber have been removed at critical points in the trial by overt external political pressure because the judges’ conduct in court displeased the ruling establishment. Four defence attorneys have been kidnapped, tortured and executed. Court personnel and their families have been killed.

At the end of the first world war when the Ottoman empire in west Asia collapsed, the US president Woodrow Wilson promised to create a Kurdish state within two years. This promise, however, was soon forgotten, as western powers competed to control the region’s oil. Instead of granting freedom, the British planes gassed and bombed Kurdish villages in Iraq in order to enforce the borders, which the colonial rulers in London wanted. “I do not understand their squeamishness about the use of gas”, said Winston Churchill, Britain’s war secretary at the time. “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes”. It is one of the ironies of history that the western powers today accuse Saddam of using poisoned gas against Kurds.

In the last 15 years or so, the US has invaded Iraq twice and bombed Iraq to the stone age. A committee of American and Iraqi public health experts estimate that some 7,00,000 Iraqis have died in the invasions of 2003. During the sanctions against Iraq, over 6,000 children died every month due to sanctions-related reasons. According to UNICEF, over half a million children died between 1991 and 2001. These deaths could be attributed to reasons like anaemia and cancer caused by uranium and lack of medicines due to sanctions. During the 1991 war the US and its allies dropped 88,500 tonnes of explosive, the equivalent of seven Hiroshima bombs. Many of them were laced with depleted uranium. Experts link the high incidence of leukaemia and cancer with this. This carnage has been immortalised by Madeleine Albright “60 minutes” interview in 1996, when she told Leslie Stahl that the US’ strategic interests could possibly justify such a price.

Probably the world has not moved forward much since the time of Alexander. A pirate captured by him was asked, “How dare you molest the sea?” He replied, “How dare you molest the whole world? Because I do it with just a little ship, I am called a thief. You, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor”. So that is where we are. Saddam Hussein is a terrorist. George Bush is a liberator. Will the world accept this “logic” in the 21st century?

EPW

Email: cpdr@rediffmail.com

[The facts regarding the trial of Saddam Hussein have been taken from the brief sent by Ramsey Clark, the former US attorney general, to the Iraqi Special Tribunal.]