WAR CRIMES AND ATROCITIES (True Crime) (37 page)

Hussein, his half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq’s former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander were being charged with crimes against humanity following a wave of revenge killings in 1982 in the northern city of Dujail, after an assassination attempt on Hussein. On 5 November, 2006, celebratory gunfire was heard across parts of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, as Hussein and his two former top Iraqi officials were sentenced to death by hanging.

On the day of the sentencing Hussein walked calmly into court wearing his usual dark suit and white shirt, with his Koran in his hand. Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered him to stand as he read out the verdict, but Hussein refused and had to be forcibly removed from his seat by court attendants. As the judge read out the death sentence, Hussein shouted, ‘Allahu Akbar! (God is Great). Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors!’

The celebrations in Baghdad were in defiance of a 12-hour curfew that had been placed on city, because of expected retaliatory violence from Hussein’s Sunni Arab supporters. Since the trial began, there has been soaring sectarian violence which has brought Iraq on the brink of civil war. Few Iraqis believe that the verdict will help to ease the conflict in any way, while US President, George Bush, welcomed it as a ‘milestone . . . to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law’. The question, however, that is in the back of many peoples’ minds, is will his death really bring justice for his hundreds of thousands of victims?

Invasion Of Iraq: A War Crime In Itself?

2003–2004

The invasion of Iraq in 2003, codenamed ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, will always remain a controversial subject and, as more and more hideous pictures and stories were released by the media worldwide, it exposed the horrors that were being inflicted under the name of ‘war’. The invasion of the century officially started on 20 March, with the objective of ‘disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism and to free the Iraqi people’. All good reasons to go to war – but it has since been deemed a violation of international law, breaking the UN Charter. Since the horrific attacks of 11 September, 2001, on the Twin Towers in New York, it is easy to see why the USA wanted to take action in its fight against global terrorism. The wrong weapons in the wrong hands can threaten people worldwide, but what is inconceivable is the treatment of Iraqi civilians and soldiers in the effort to rid the world of these weapons. Pictures that were broadcast on Australian television showed pictures of Iraqi soldiers – naked, wounded, covered with blood, women’s underwear draped over their heads – in painful and degrading positions. Is this really how prisoners of war should be treated? Other footage revealed soldiers brutally assaulting a group of youths, dragging them into a compound and beating them with batons and kicking them until they lost consciousness.

Estimated civilian deaths at the end of the war amounted to 50,000, and many more were made homeless. The subsequent environmental consequences as the result of malnutrition and other serious health problems caused further civilian devastation. This, and the fact that no ‘weapons of mass destruction’ were actually uncovered, has opened arguments that attacking Iraq may have involved committing not only war crimes, but crimes against humanity as well.

WAR CRIMES FROM ABOVE

According to the terms of the Nuremberg Convention:

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law: wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or destruction not justified by military necessity.

The Geneva Convention quite clearly states that it is a war crime to launch indiscriminate attacks affecting the civilian population or their property. If this is the case, why do the ordinary people of Iraq still have nightmares about the constant air attacks on their homes during the Iraqi War. Time and time again, US planes bombed peasant villages where they knew full well that there were no military bases. Added to this, the use of depleted uranium causes poisoning by radiation, and this too has destroyed the lives of untold numbers of civilians and soldiers alike. For example,

13 members of staff at the Basra Training Hospital, who were all present when the building was bombed with armour-piercing shells covered with uranium, are now all suffering from cancer. The use of depleted uranium is most certainly a war crime, the horrific consequences of which are still to run their course.

The cluster bomb is one of the most heinous, unpredictable and deadly weapons of modern warfare. It is a 4-m (14-ft) weapon that weighs about 453 kg (1,000 lbs). When it explodes it sprays literally thousands of smaller bomblets over a large area. These were dropped on populated areas, not only maiming and killing civilians, but also farm animals and wildlife – in fact, anything they came into contact with. In addition, the small bombs are bright yellow and, because they look like playthings, thousands of children have been killed by dormant bomblets, which then explode spraying shards of metal that can tear through a 6-mm (G-in) sheet of steel. Under the Geneva Convention, it is a war crime to use weapons in the knowledge that they ‘will cause an excessive loss of life or injury to civilians’, which definitely makes cluster bombs criminal weapons.

The Iraqi War was the deadliest campaign for non-combatants since the Vietnam War. Reports that have been gathered from hospitals and morgues show a level of civilian casualties that far exceeds the First Gulf War, which in itself cost more than 5,000 civilian lives.

FALLUJAH MASSACRE

In November 2004, there was a major assault on the Sunni city of Fallujah when US and Iraqi military forced out the town’s residents, bombed hospitals and buildings, attacked whole neighbourhoods and then denied the entry of relief workers into the area. The attack was so severe it made the Mai Lai massacre that took place in Vietnam seem pale by comparison. Using the deadly Lockheed Ac-130 ‘Spectre’, which is a deadly weapon that pumps out thousands of rounds of high-explosive ammunition every minute, US forces destroyed 10,000 buildings, and as a result made over 100,000 residents homeless.

The day started peacefully when approximately 200 demonstrators turned up outside a school that had been taken over by about 100 US soldiers the previous day. The demonstrators had come in peace to ask the soldiers to leave so that they could reopen the school. The US soldiers claimed that they were fired upon and acted accordingly, but there is absolutely no evidence to corroborate their story. Witnesses have described a scene of complete mayhem, as the soldiers fired on unarmed demonstrators who were fleeing in fright. The road was stained with large patches of blood, and shoes lay discarded as the people ran to get away from the massacre.

There have also been reports that the USA used white phosphorous as a weapon in the Fallujah attack. This would be consistent with the stories that the refugees related afterwards, describing the phosphorous weapons, horribly burnt bodies and fires that were impossible to put out with water. Almost one year after these allegations came to light, a new harrowing documentary entitled
Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre
was produced, which provided fresh evidence of the use of chemical weapons.

It is believed that the death toll of the Fallujah massacre was 600, with another 1,000 injured. Local hospitals reported that the majority of the victims were women, children and the elderly, and that more than 60,000 women and children fled the city in panic. After the attack many of bodies were buried in the city’s football stadium because the US forces had blocked the road leading to the cemetery.

Unfortunately, the Fallujah massacre was not just an isolated incident and the atrocities committed there will never be forgotten by the Iraqi people. The words of the US government that they were there to help ‘liberate’ the Iraqis seems to be slipping away into oblivion to reveal the crude reality of foreign occupation and violent oppression.

THE WEDDING MASSACRE

In the remote village of Mukaradeeb, wedding celebrations had only just finished on 19 May, 2004, and at 10.30 p.m. the guests were hurrying back to their homes at the end of a lovely day. The wedding was the biggest event to take place that year in the small village of just 25 houses, and it had brought a lot of people together. The bride and groom, Ashad and Rutba Rakat, had already settled in their tent for the night when they heard the first sound of a fighter jet in the sky above. Then some of the guests saw the headlights of what appeared to be a military convoy heading their way.

The bombing started at about 3.00 a.m. and the first place to be hit was the tent that had been used for the ceremony. People started running out of the main house where the wedding took place as bombs fell, destroying the entire area. By this time, the armoured vehicles had reached the village and started firing machine guns at the people outside the house.

Just before dawn, two large Chinook helicopters dropped off many more soldiers. They set explosives in the main wedding house and the building next door. Just a few minutes later, the two buildings exploded, leaving just a pile of rubble. Everywhere lay bodies of women, children and men, all badly mutilated. By sunrise the death toll was 42, with 27 of them being members of the now extended Rakat family. Remarkably, the bride and groom were among the survivors because they had been sleeping in tents away from the main house.

The explanation by the US military was that they had been targeting a ‘suspected foreign fighter safe house’, during which time they had come under hostile fire. Despite the fact that there was no evidence to back their story, the US military continued to claim that the Mukraradeeb was a legitimate military target. At the end of the day, 27 small mounds of dirt and one crudely cut marble headstone bearing the words ‘The American Bombing’ are grim reminders of what once again appears to have been a pointless attack on innocent civilians.

AND
 
SO
 
IT
 
GOES
 
ON
 . . .

Previously, in early April, night-time raid on a farm in the Al Janabin suburb on the edge of Baghdad killed

20 civilians, including 11 children. The following day Al Jeezera television showed footage of a predominantly Christian town, Bartallah, having received heavy civilian casualties after a night of intense bombing.

Just three weeks into the war, the Americans dropped bombs on a residential area of Baghdad. This killed 14 civilians, most of them members of a Christian family. The wanton destruction of cities and villages went on and on, leaving a trail of carnage behind them.

In a way it was an unusual war because US President George W. Bush announced on 1 May, 2003, that it was all over – the American mission had been accomplished – and yet three years on it is obvious that the conflict is far from over. It is obvious that the struggle is losing credibility if it is used to justify acts that would otherwise be deemed as offensive, such as the killing of innocent people who are in no way involved in the hostilities.

Camp X-Ray: Guantanamo Bay

2001

The US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay is the oldest and only detention centre in Cuba. The primary job of Guantanamo Bay is to serve as a stratetic logistics base for the Navy’s Atlantic fleet and to support counter drug operations in the Caribbean. In 1991, the base was expanded as some 34,000 Haitian refugees passed through Guantanamo Bay. The refugees fled Haiti after a violent coup brought on by political and social upheaval in their country. In May 1994, Operation Sea Signal began and the naval base was given the job of supporting Joint Task Force 160, providing humanitarian assistance to thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants. In late August and early September 1994, 2,200 family members and civilian employees were evacuated from the base as the migrant population climbed to more than 45,000 and the Pentagon began preparing to house up to 60,000 migrants on the base. Separate camps were erected on the south side, each one being given a name to correspond with the phonetic alphabet used for official military radio communication – Camp Alpha, Camp Bravo, right up to Camp Golf. When additional sites were added on the north end of the base, they were named using letters from the opposite end of the alphabet, and this included Camp X-Ray.

Following the attacks on the Twin Towers on 11 September, 2001, and military operations in Afghanistan, numerous individuals who were alleged to be members or fighters associated with al-Qaeda were taken captive. It was decided to transfer these detainees to Cuba to the Camp X-Ray facility. The base was to serve as a temporary holding prison under the jurisdiction of the USA during their war on terrorism.

Since Camp X-Ray was closed on 29 April, 2002, it has drawn strong criticism both in the USA and worldwide for its alleged mistreatment of the detainees. Although officials from the Department of Defence stressed that the holding conditions at Guanatanamo Bay would be humane and in accordance with the Geneva Convention, the validity of this claim has since been in dispute. Foremost among the issues raised was the question of the detainees legal status. While the majority of the people felt that they should be given the status of prisoners of war, which gave them certain rights under the Geneva Convention, the USA refused to give them that designation, preferring instead to hold them as ‘illegal combatants’.

ALLEGED
 
MISTREATMENT

When the detainees arrived at Guatanamo Bay they were given jumpsuits to wear made out of reddish cloth, which, in the Arab world, is a colour reserved for condemned men. It is alleged that the US guards at Camp X-Ray played on the men’s fear and took advantage of their ‘freedom from restrictions’ to abuse basic human rights.

After their arrest, prisoners were taken to the camp, blindfolded, ear-muffed and gagged. Their arms and legs were tethered, their hands covered with mittens, their beards shaved off and their heads covered by masks. The US Army later stated that these measures were ‘for the prisoners’ own safety and well-being’.

Two accounts of Afghanistan arrests given to Amnesty International read as follows:

They were beating us on the head and back and ribs. They were punching us with fists, kicking me with their feet. They said: ‘You are a terrorist! You are al-Qaeda! You are Taliban!’

I was down on my knees, bent over, and they kicked me in the chest. I heard my ribs crack. Then I was lying on my side and they kicked me in the back, in the kidneys and I fainted.

The prisoners were allegedly detained in conditions that amounted to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of a fellow human being. The open-air cells were approximately 2 m (6 ft 8in) by 2.4 m (8 ft), and surrounded by barbed wire. This at least afforded the inmate the luxury of being able to lie down. They were given a bucket for their toilet needs, a paper-thin foam mat to sleep on, a single blanket, one bucket for water, two red/orange jumpsuits, one pair of flip-flops and a towel for bathing. According to British newspapers, more than 30 of the inmates were driven to pathetic lengths to commit suicide, even to using a plastic spoon to slit their wrists.

CAMP DELTA

When the detainees at Camp X-Ray reached maximum occupancy, i.e. 320, it was necessary to build a larger enclosed long-term detention facility. The construction of Camp Delta was started on 9 April, 2002, about 8 km (5 miles) from Camp X-Ray. When Camp X-Ray was officially closed down on 29 April, the detainees were moved to the new camp.

Although the conditions at the new camp were supposed to be superior to Camp X-Ray – with running water, flushing toilets and a bed raised off the floor – by 10 June, 2006, three Guantanamo Bay detainees had committed suicide. The military reported the men hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes. One of the men was first detained when he was a juvenile, and each had been imprisoned for the past four years but never charged with a crime.

When 24-year-old Murat Kurnaz was released from the base on 24 August, 2006, he claimed to have been exposed to water torture, sexual harassment and desecration of Islam while staying on Guantanamo.

The detainees are kept in isolation for the majority of the day, blindfolded when moved about the camp, and forbidden to talk in groups of more than three. There have been many allegations of torture, including sleep deprivation, the use of truth drugs, beatings, being locked in cold, inhumane cells and also being forced to maintain uncomfortable positions for long periods of time.

A US soldier who once worked as an interpreter at Camp Delta during the interrogation sessions, talked openly to the press about what went on inside the camp. He told of fake interrogations to try and impress visiting administration and military officials. Prisoners that had already been subjected to interrogation were placed behind one-way mirrors and asked the same questions again in front of the visitors. He also talked of interrogators resorting to sexual techniques to get what they wanted out of the prisoners. One female interrogator was supposed to have removed all her clothes and rubbed her naked body up against the prisoners. Pornographic magazines and videos were also used as rewards to confessing.

WORLDWIDE
 
CRITICISM

The use of Guantanamo Bay as a military prison has received much criticism from human rights organizations worldwide, who state there is strong evidence of mistreatment of prisoners. In response, the Bush administration argued that the Third Geneva Convention does not apply to possible al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters, it is only for uniformed soldiers of a recognized government. The UN and Amnesty International have called the whole situation a ‘human rights scandal’, questioning the legal status and physical condition of the detainees at Guantanamo.

Since 2002, hundreds of the detainees have been released or handed over to their national governments. Reports have been put together from the prisoners who have been released from Guatanamo, describing in detail the treatment they received while being detained. Out of the approximate 750 detainees, only 10 have ever been tried and none has ever been proven guilty. The camp still holds about 460 detainees from 40 different countries, and is said to include terrorist suspects picked up in Eastern Europe and Africa. It wasn’t until March 2006 that the US defence department actually released the names and nationalities of the people being held.

To date, the only organization that has been allowed full access to the camp is the International Red Cross. There has been constant pressure from organizations around the world to have the prison camp closed down as more and more allegations of torture come to light. One inmate, who had been on hunger strike, complained of being force-fed through nasal tubes and that he had been the constant victim of unfair interrogation techniques, including solidary confinement and exposure to extreme temperatures, noise and light. There are also reports that many of the inmates have suffered from mental breakdowns, and Amnesty International described the camp as ‘the gulag of our times’.

There have been no new inmates since September 2004, but the department of defence has fought against the closure of the camp, stating that ‘many of the detainees are still dangerous and would attack the USA if they were released’. The status of inmates is reviewed each year through a system of military administrative review boards, which recommends whether the detainee should remain in captivity or is eligible for release. Finally on 17 October, 2006, a law was passed that set the standard for the interrogation and prosecution of foreign terror suspects, but although many reports have been issued regarding the alleged mistreatment of prisoners at Guatanamo Bay no one has ever been prosecuted.

Many of the practices developed by the USA since 11 September, 2001, in relation to detainees captured in the ‘global war on terror’ appear designed to evade judicial or other scrutiny. The prime example of this is the creation of offshore prisons, the most well known of which is at Guantanamo Bay. It is thought that the US authorities deliberately chose Guantanamo as a detention centre in an attempt to put the detainees beyond the jurisdiction of the US courts and consequently courts in other parts of the world as well.

It is evident that prisoners held under the label of ‘terrorism’ need to be treated more humanely as anti-Americanism in nations all over the world has surged to an all time high. The atrocities that have occurred at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib have done more harm than good in cementing relationships between the USA and Muslim-speaking countries, or indeed in lessening the threat of attack from terrorists.