Talk of Professor Munther Al Fadhal, PhD of law given on 'Crimes against Kurd in Iraq' at Poznan University in 20-23/10-2003 Poland
Genocide is an International Crime. It is killing or aiming to kill people by different means and is considered as an act that threatens security and safety of society because it results in extermination and persecution of people for the nature of their nationality, race or religion. Genocide is not a political, but a deliberate crime even if it is committed for political motivation.
Genocide committed by the Iraqi regime was always comprehensive and against all factions of Iraqi people regardless of ethnic, religious or cultural backgrounds. For instance, the Assyrians who are the indigenous people of Iraq and a tiny and peaceful Christian minority have been subjected to ethnic and religious cleansing although they are not forming any threat or danger to the Iraqi regime.
Denominational repression policy is another kind of genocide that the Iraqi regime has committed in central and southern Iraq. Discrimination and humiliation of Shia through a series of articles that were published in the government newspapers following the uprising in March 1991 was a part of this crime, especially when it was declared that the Marshland residents are not Arabs or Iraqis and therefore the regime had the right to bomb their cities and destroy their homeland. These people live in an area where the oldest human civilizations began and where the old laws of Sumerians and Babylon were written.
In Iraq, violations of human rights have been committed since 1968, when the Baath regime came to power, especially against the Shias, Kurds and Turkmens. The situation became worse when the war between Iraq and Iran broke out. Tens of thousands of Shias were rounded and mass executed. Chemical weapons were used in 1988 against the Kurds. Draining of the Marshlands, destructing the environment, poisoning the waters and burning complete villages in the South are clear violations of international laws and agreements. This paper comprises three sections:
1.) Concept of genocide crime
2.) International crimes against humanity in southern Iraq
3.) Recommendations
1. CONCEPT OF GENOCIDE CRIME
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 was concerned with the extermination of human beings for their race or religion. The word ‘genocide’ became associated with Nazism because of massacring people for their race and religion and that was considered as a crime against humanity even though it was not considered as a crime under national law.
1.1. Forms of Genocide
Killing members of the groups;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in parts;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
1.2. Forms of killing the groups
Bodily genoocide and ethnic cleansing: it is about killing people by poison gas, executing and burying them alive. This happened in 1991 in Iraq and later on against the Shia inhabitants in southern Iraq. The Iraqi regime killed in one day 2000 Shias through a process called “cleaning of prisons”. The crime against southern Iraq including the destruction of Marshlands by constructing dams and draining the Marshlands has been so horrendous that was filmed and shown to people all over the world through media. This caused forcible migration of tens of thousands of local population. In 2002, the Europeans Parliament and the Human Rights Committee condemned these crimes as they were international crimes as declared by the ambassador David Shiver in USA.
Biological genocide: it is about sterilising men and aborting women in order to wipe out the race of that group.
Cultural geenocide: it is about forbidding a nation to converse in their own native language which happened to the Kurds in Iraq. Although this crime has resulted in assimilation and destruction of the group’s existence, the international community has not given adequate attention to this crime. This crime has been committed for the following reasons:
Religious reaason: the worst crime in our time has been the crime of the Iraqi regime against the religious figures, who have been arrested and executed.
Political andd social reasons: it is bout assimilation and Arabisation of non-Arab people in Iraq. This has been carried out by a series of resolutions against the Kurds, particularly the Faily Kurds, for their nationality and their Shia belief.
2. INTERNATIONAL CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN KURDISTAN AND SOUTHERN IRAQ
Before reporting the international crimes in southern Iraq, it is crucial to clarify the following:
2.1. Crime against humanity
The crimes against humanity have been considered by Vatican as they are crimes not only against humanity, but against God. These crimes were specified by Nuremberg Court as International crimes and must be punishable. Such major crimes have been committed by Saddam regime by killing and wiping out the civilians in Kurdistan, destroying 4500 villages, and forcing hundreds of thousands of southern Iraqi Shias to leave Iraq for Iran because of their belief, torturing and killing their religious leadership in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.
Legal basiss: The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 1948 condemned all forms of genocide such as what the Iraqi regime has committed against Shia in southern Iraq and the Kurds in the north, where thousands of people were buried alive and thousands of people were killed in Halabja as well as during the campaign of Anfal and the uprising in 1991.
Material basis: it is about acts that constitute an International crime like destructing environment, disappearing people and using people for biological and chemical experiments. More than 300.000 people were forced to abandon their places and now more than 100,000 of them are living in Iran as refugees due to the destruction of their habitat by poisoning water. This has also caused the extinction of some species of birds and fishes in that area.
2.2. War crimes
Although war results in a serious violation of human rights, the international conventions which refer to the rules of war must be taken into consideration. These are:
Den-Hague convention in 1899 – 1907
The Geneva Protocol of 1925, which forbids using poison gas and biological weapons. The international Security Council condemned the Iraqi regime for using chemical weapons in 1988 against the Kurds as stated in the resolution on 26 August 1988. Using chemical weapons, drying and poisoning the marshlands committed against the inhabitants in southern Iraq as well as storing chemical weapons in the venicity of Najaf and Karbala by the Iraqi regime are all considered as war crimes.
Examples of the international war crimes in Iraq:
The crime of genocide committed against the Kurds in Kurdistan as well as other parts of the country. Also the forcible deportation of the Faily Kurds, who have become victims for their Shia belief.
Genocide against humanity such as using chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1988 and Shias in 1991.
Bombing the civil Kurdish villages, inhabitants of Najaf, Karbala, Basra, Simawah and Diwaniya as well as the villages in Iran.
Burying people alive. Hundreds of thousands of the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan and Shias in the south were buried alive. This is a war crime and does not fall by time. Moreover, the international criminal can not claim any political excuse for committing that crime and must not be granted any sort of asylum.
Executing prisoners of war and burying them alive is an international crime and the accuser must be prosecuted as a war criminal.
Torturing the prisoners of war and interrogating them by force is a war crime.
The crime of violation against women which was committed in Kurdistan and in Kuwait during the occupation.
10 Millions of mines, which the Iraqi regime has implanted against people in Kurdistan.
2.3. Crimes against peace
People at time of peace have many rights that should not get violated such as civil, political, economical, social and cultural rights. These rights during peace must be taken into consideration, otherwise the International crime would be in force such as an offensive against other countries as in the case of Kuwait in 1990.
3. RECOMMENDATIONS
Due to the brutality of repression of human rights in Iraq, it is necessary to carry out the following recommendations:
Activating and revising resolution 688 in order to be introduced according to chapter seven of the UN Convention to set up teams to investigate the situation of human rights in Iraq.
Establishing a special court for International crimes to try those responsible for committing the International crimes against the Shias and Kurds in Iraq.
Paying compensation to victims whose lives got ruined because of the International crimes in Iraq.
Nullifying the death penalty imposed by the Iraqi regime.
Establishing a high constitutional court to oversee the implementation of the constitution.
Activating the UN´s role to assist the Iraqi people.
Freezing all assets stolen by the Iraq regime.
The UN has to pay a part of the oil for food programme as compensation to Iraqi people, who have become refugees before and after the Gulf war.
Establishing a high committee of Iraqi experts in law in order to investigate the crimes that have been committed against Iraqi people and decide on the compensation for those people.
Acquainting the world public opinion through media with all crimes against Iraqi people and focusing on the role of International Community to stop the continuous ethnic cleansing of Iraqi people.
Rehabilitation of the environment in the marshlands of southern Iraq and working for renovating all damages in the Marshlands by removing all dams and helping the refugees to return to their place of origin.
