Fwd: [ NOLA_C3_Discussion] Open Letter to Amnesty International on the Iraqi Constitution

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les evenchick <piratefish

Oct 8, 2005 8:05 PM

[NOLA_C3_Discussion] Open Letter to Amnesty International on

the Iraqi Constitution

 

 

 

I generally agree with the letter below: -Les

Evenchick,(New Orleans- temp in NYC due to Katrina)

 

October 08, 2005

Open Letter to Amnesty International on the Iraqi

Constitution

The following letter was composed by members of the

Brussels Tribunal, one of the groups from the World

Tribunal on Iraq. For those interested in

international law and the upcoming referendum vote on

the Iraqi constitution, this is a must read:

 

 

We would like to congratulate Amnesty International on

its courageous stand against the massive human rights

violations inflicted upon the people of Iraq by the

US-led occupation forces, as stated in the Amnesty

International annual report of 2005.

 

" Armed groups committed gross human rights abuses,

including targeting civilians, hostage-taking and

killing hostages. Women continued to be harassed and

threatened amid the mounting daily violence. The death

penalty was reinstated in August by the new interim

government. "

 

The recommendations made by Amnesty International's

chief Mr. Schulz in the aftermath of this report were

very clear:

 

" If the US government continues to shirk its

responsibility, Amnesty International calls on foreign

governments to uphold their obligations under

international law by investigating all senior US

officials involved in the torture scandal, " said

Schulz, who added that violations of the torture

convention, which has been ratified by the United

States and some 138 other countries, can be prosecuted

in any jurisdiction. "

 

On August 9, 2005, Amnesty International launched a

" Call for a human rights based constitution " . This

action alert calls on people to write to Jaafari,

asking him to make sure that the constitution is one

that respects human rights. Of course, we embrace the

idea that Iraqi's human rights will be much better

protected in the future than they are today.

Nevertheless, everyone who cares about human rights

should question the validity of a constitution that is

written under the current situation. A call we

received from a well-know human rights activist from

Baghdad, who has strong reservations against Amnesty

International's action alert, should illustrate our

concern. For security reasons we can't reveal the

author's name. We apologize for this, but in our

opinion, people in a war zone should still have the

right and opportunity to speak out without risking

death. It also shows how grievous the situation in

Iraq is, and how far the so-called 'Salvador option',

the state-directed terror against the population, is

now in action.

 

" I hear Amnesty International is campaigning for Human

Rights in the new Iraqi draft constitution? How

wonderful that they are concerned about our human

rights in the future... but what about now? Why

doesn't Amnesty International campaign or at least say

something about the hundreds of thousands of innocent

Iraqis who are held for months, years in the American

prisons, without the least rights? The known and the

unknown prisons inside and outside Iraq? Why don't

they do something about the hundreds of Iraqis, whose

bodies are found every day on the garbage piles, with

evidences of horrible torture on their bodies after

they had been disappeared for a few days? What about

the miserable life the Iraqi government is giving the

Iraqis for months now, in every field? Does Amnesty

International consider the rewriting of the

constitution now a legal process? Obviously it does,

but on what bases? The war and occupation of Iraq are

illegal (even Kofi Annan said it). Who wrote the

draft? A member of the writing committee admitted that

a draft was sent from the US. So, how far is this

legal?

 

I would like to ask Amnesty International one

question: why is it so necessary to write a new

constitution for Iraq now? All the political parties,

the government, the National Assembly, the media ..etc

are preoccupied with the (controversial points) in the

constitution for months now, and will be for the next

few months. Meanwhile, the country is full of

problems: the security, the services, the economy, the

environment, the corruption, the Human Rights conduct

of the Iraqi government... to mention only few ..two

days ago I went to a dentist compound, one of the

biggest in Baghdad, where at least 50 dentists work.

They could not pull out my tooth because they did not

have anesthetic...a very common problem in the Iraqi

hospitals for months. Too bad for my teeth, but

imagine with emergency cases?

 

In Tallafar families did not get the food ration,

neither any other food since the beginning of this

year. In many Iraqi towns, the majority, there is no

authority, no law, no police, no courts, only the

armed militias and their political parties. Racial

cleansing has begun in many parts of Iraq. The

government in the heavily fortified Green Zone is very

busy working on the constitution.

 

During the last attack on Haditha, for more than two

weeks, all the news programs, the dialogue, the forums

were focused on the constitution and in the meantime

an Iraqi major city was practically slaughtered. No

one said a word about it as if it was happening on the

moon. Do you think that this is just a coincidence?

And, by the way, it happened and is happening

continuously in other places.

 

There are so many problems in Iraq now, so many crimes

committed daily, where innocent people are killed,

arrested, tortured… Why is it so important to neglect

all these crimes and be busy with the constitution?

Why is it so urgent?

 

Saddam did not write the Iraqi constitution, and if

there were some changes or resolutions added to it

during the last 30 years, they can be cancelled,

simple. We can keep our constitution until we have a

proper government and national assembly. After we are

done with the most urgent problems, we can take our

time writing the most humanitarian and progressive

constitution in the world!

 

Maybe more dangerous is the fact that rewriting the

constitution now is deepening the divisions between

the Iraqis and pushing them to the verge of civil war,

because some of them were given guarantees to

participate in the political process, which they

refused in the beginning, and after they agreed, the

guarantees proved to be untrue.

 

Now these groups are saying that they were deceived,

and they reject the draft presented to the National

Assembly. All these problems are for what? Just to

help Bush look more successful in Iraq, to give him

more diplomatic credit?

 

To hold the election, thousands of people were killed

and the entire city of Fallujah was demolished. Now,

what is needed to impose a constitution? A civil war

? "

 

Can't you see that it is a game? The political parties

and ethnic, sectarian groups are taking the chance of

imposing a constitution convenient to their interests,

and their masters interests, not the interests of

Iraq. I am not saying this out of my own prejudice,

no, they admit it themselves, openly. And by the way,

there is a very unhealthy, non-objective atmosphere in

which this constitution is written, which is something

very expected and normal in the current situation. But

it is not the right way to write a constitution.

 

I know very well who are the friends and the enemies

of Iraq and its people. I have nothing against any

international organization. On the contrary, I,

personally, am badly in need of an international

organization that can help me in my campaign on the

Missing. I want these organizations to come here and

work on the violations that the occupation did and is

doing in Iraq. We need them badly to see what the

occupation is covering by rewriting the constitution.

We need them to campaign for releasing the innocent,

or at least giving them some rights in prison, not to

campaign for a political process built on the wrong

basis.

 

The problem is that the world is asking somebody who

is burning in fire to scream in a low voice. Have you

experienced living with death all around you, with

fear of everything and everybody, with the horrible

stories and pictures of what some Iraqis are facing?

Excuse my frustration, with my respect to all the

international organizations which defend Human Rights.

"

 

An article, written on August 17th by Haifa Zangana,

an Iraqi novelist and columnist of 'The Guardian',

reflects the essence of this message we received from

inside Iraq:

 

" perhaps we need to remember that this constitution is

being written in a war zone, in a country on the verge

of a civil war. This process is designed not to

represent the Iraqi people's need for a constitution

but to comply with an imposed timetable aimed at

legitimising the occupation. The drafting process has

increasingly proved a dividing, rather than a

unifying, process. Under Saddam Hussein, we had a

constitution described as " progressive and secular " .

It did not stop him violating human rights, women's

included. The same is happening now. The militias of

the parties heading the interim government are

involved in daily violations of Iraqis' human rights,

women's in particular, with the US-led occupation's

blessing. Will the new constitution put an end to this

violence? "

 

We do agree that a " constitution should make a

specific reference to international law as one of the

sources of national legislation and that in case of

conflict between national law and international law,

the Constitution should specify that international law

should prevail " , as it is stated in the second of a

set of recommendations Amnesty International published

on August 11, 2005. We regret that Amnesty

International, which is a noted human rights

organisation, doesn't seem to acknowledge that the war

of aggression, the subsequent occupation, the changing

of any law under occupation and this entire process of

writing a new Constitution are fully in breach of

international law. May we remind Amnesty International

of the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal

at Nuremberg, Germany 1946: " To initiate a war of

aggression, therefore, is not only an international

crime; it is the supreme international crime differing

only from other war crimes in that it contains within

itself the accumulated evil of the whole. " How can " a

human rights based constitution " possibly emanate from

" the supreme international crime " ?

 

Just a few weeks ago, a highly significant judicial

decision, comprising more than 130 pages, was handed

down by the German Federal Administrative Court. With

careful reasoning, the judges ruled that the assault

launched by the United States and its allies against

Iraq was a clear war of aggression that violated

international law.

 

The occupation itself constitutes the gravest

violation of human rights and dignity. The legitimacy

and autonomy of this government, installed and

completely controlled by the US occupation forces

after an illegal and illegitimate war of aggression,

is not only challenged by a large part of the Iraqi

population, but also by the international peace

movement and international lawyers.

 

At the culminating session in Istanbul, June 23-26,

2005, the World Tribunal on Iraq, a network of

independent groups and individuals form across the

world, who cooperated in order to investigate the

US-led war of aggression against Iraq and the crimes

committed by the occupying forces, resulted in a

Declaration of the Jury of Conscience. This jury

concluded that the invasion was illegal under

international law, as is the subsequent occupation.

 

Some excerpts:

 

Overview of Findings

 

10. Any law or institution created under the aegis of

occupation is devoid of both legal and moral

authority. The recently concluded election, the

Constituent Assembly, the current government, and the

drafting committee for the Constitution are therefore

all illegitimate.

(…)

We recommend:

3. That all laws, contracts, treaties, and

institutions established under occupation, which the

Iraqi people deem inimical to their interests, be

considered null and void.

(…)

10. That people around the world resist and reject any

effort by any of their governments to provide

material, logistical, or moral support to the

occupation of Iraq.

(… )

International Law Appendix

 

III. The occupation of Iraq has fragrantly violated

The Right of Self-Determination of the People of Iraq:

 

• Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic,

Social, and Cultural Rights and of the International

Covenant on Political and Civil Rights (1966): " (1)

All peoples have the right of self-determination. By

virtue of that right they freely determine their

political status and freely pursue their economic,

social and cultural development " ;

 

• It is evident that the occupation, by its decrees,

practices, imposition of an interim government,

managed elections, and administered

constitution-making process has violated the right of

self-determination of the Iraqi people, a fundamental

element of international human rights law.

 

The full version of the conclusions of the Jury of

Conscience can be read at

http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=91. These

conclusions are – as already mentioned above 

supported by many Human Rights activists, a large

fraction of the global Peace Movement and a

considerable number of experts in International law.

 

In the above mentioned document of August 11, Amnesty

International pleaded for an extension of article 44

of the Constitution draft, regarding international

law. Today, in chorus with AI and many Iraqi human

rights organisations, we deplore the removal of this

article from the final Constitution draft. In the same

document, Amnesty International emphasised the

importance to " establish universal jurisdiction for

the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war

crimes, torture, extra-judicial executions an

'disappearances', in order that Iraqi national courts

can investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible

evidence, prosecute anyone who enters Iraqi territory

suspected of these crimes, regardless of where the

crime was committed or the nationality of the accused

or the victim. " These crimes have been and are

committed by the occupying forces, the US forces in

particular, who are controlling the country of Iraq

until now, and by the Iraqi institutions that were

established under US supervision. Wasn't it the

present US government, which threatened to invade the

Netherlands in case one of the members of the US

government would be prosecuted by the International

Criminal Court of The Hague?

 

We are not surprised about the removal of article 44

under the current situation, neither do we believe

that the new Constitution will ever contain any

provisions that could lead to prosecution of those,

who ordered crimes against the Iraqi people, like the

president of the US and other government officials and

Army generals.

Therefore, it should be argued that the basic

condition for drafting a constitution for Iraq is the

swift ending of the occupation, with a scheduled

withdrawal of all foreign troops. Only then, and under

the full sovereignty of the Iraqi people, can an

independent government of Iraq be formed. Such a

government can then decide if and when a constitution

should be drafted.

 

With the above in mind, we consider it suitable if

Amnesty International would concentrate its efforts on

denouncing the grave violations of human rights

inflicted upon the Iraqi people by the occupying

forces in order to bring the responsible war criminals

to justice, instead of starting a campaign that de

facto gives some legitimisation to this inhumane

occupation and its Quisling government, whose legality

is highly questionable. We strongly recommend that

Amnesty International focuses on humanitarian law to

ensure that grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions

are properly addressed.

 

Prof. Lieven De Cauter, Prof. Jean Bricmont, Prof. Em.

François Houtart, Patrick Deboosere, Hana Al Bayaty,

Dirk Adriaensens, Inge Van de Merlen.

 

For The BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee:

 

Hans von Sponeck (Former UN Assistant Secretary

General & United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for

Iraq 1998-2000 - Germany)

Michael Parenti (author – USA)

Nermin Al-Mufti (Former co-director of Occupation

Watch - Journalist - Iraq)

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar (Engineer - Iraq)

Abdul Ilah Al-Bayaty (Writer - Iraq / France)

Haifa Zangana (Novelist - Iraq / UK)

Sabah Al-Mukhtar (President of the Arab Lawyers

Association - Iraq / UK)

Dr. Imad Khadduri (Nuclear scientist - Iraq / Canada)

Sami Ramadani (Senior lecturer in sociology at London

Metropolitan University - Iraq / UK)

Mundher Al-Adhami (Research Fellow at Kings College

London - Iraq / UK)

Mohammed Aref (Science writer - Iraq / UK)

Amal Al-Khedairy (Expert on Iraqi History, Culture,

Archeology Arts and Crafts - Iraq)

Niloufer Bhagwat (Vice President of Indian Lawyers

Association - Mumbai / India)

Dahr Jamail (Journalist - USA)

Karen Parker (Attorney - USA)

Jan Fermon (Lawyer of the Court case against General

Tommy Franks in Brussels)

Amy Bartholomew (Law professor - Canada)

Nadia McCaffrey (Leading personality within the US

anti-war movement - USA)

Gabriele Zamparini (independent filmmaker - Italy/UK)

Jeffrey Blankfort (Former editor of the Middle East

Labor Bulletin and currently hosts radio programs -

USA)

Jeff Archer/Malcom Lagauche (Journalist - USA)

Carlos Varea (coordinator of SCOSI - Spanish Campaign

against Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq -

Spain)

Joachim Guilliard (Journalist, Anti-war movement -

Germany)

Sigyn Meder (Anti-war movement - Sweden)

Manuel Raposo (the Portuguese hearing of WTI)

Ludo De Brabander (Vrede – Belgium)

Peter Algoet (Humanistisch Verbond)

Jos Hennes (EPO publishers)

Frank Vercruyssen (actor - TG Stan)

 

Posted by Dahr_Jamail at October 8, 2005 08:40 PM

 

 

Les Evenchick

New Orleans

piratefish