Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Sta11lpa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
u~s.prepares for trials of Iraqi leaders
By PeterSlevin
l'be WlsblngtOD
Post
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration
is' building cases
against Saddam Hussein and
more than a dozen members of
his '"inner circle who could be
chaq;ed with crimes against human,tyifthe
Iraqi governm~nt is
IaccOrding ~o V.S."o~-
~ii&~ed,
The Iraqi president is at ~e top
of avrorking list of war crimes
. suspects,:joined by his sOnS;Udài
and QJ1sai, each ofwhoDi liaS a
reputationJor brutaHty.' . .'.
• Also on the list are Ali Hassan
Majeed, ,knOWn as ".themical Ali"
for hisusè of. chemical weapons .
against Kurds in northern Iraq,
and Izzat Ibrahim, deputy chairman
of the Iraqi Revolutionary
Command CounciL
Saddam's two SODS: Qusal, left, and Udal, are on tbe list.
Those five belong to a core .
group of about a dozen Iraqis whose actions the possibility that high-ranking scribing a growing consensUs in favor of ta r-
on behalf of the Iraqi government are suspects fearing prosecution geting Saddam and his senior lieutenants
deemed by U.S. officials and human rights would fight to retain power. De- and relatives, including a group U.S. officials
groups to merit charges of genocide or bate continues within the admin- have referred to since 1993 as "the dirty
crimes against humanity. Dozens of other istration about how to handle the dozen." The administration favors trials in
Iraqi officials also are considered badly tainted
and could face charges in a post-Hussein
issue.
"You want to get into Iraq the
Iraqi courts staffed in part by international
judges and lawyers. .
'Iraq after further investigation, sources said. message that you're not going to "We'll take the lead in setting the tone.
The likelihood of U.S.-backed war crimes kill everybody in the Ba'ath Party," a U.S. of- From there, it's hard to say," said Pierre-Richtrials
for the I.raqi leadership, if Saddam is 'ficial said, referring to the unchallenged Iraqi ard Prosper, the State Depa rtment's war
overthrown, recalls the Nuremberg prosecu- ruling party. . crimes ambassador. "We know that Saddam
tions that followed the defeat of Nazi Ger- The venue for prosecution bas not been de- and his dirty dozen are believed to be the
many in World War II and the international termined, but U.S. officials say a consensus is leaders responsible for all the atrocities that
tribunal now. prosecuting the former forming around establishing courts in a post- . have occurred there for well over a decade.
" ,Saddam
YugosÎav leader Slobodan MiloseVic in The
Iraq that would be staffed in part by
international jurists. Such courts would draw
We know that over 100,000 people have been
killed."
HagUe. ...' . . upon ongoing evidence-gathering efforts in Prosper said of Saddam, "He will be sus-
The fate of Iraq's leadership cadre is con- ..other countries, including projects supporsidered
crucial to the success of any U.S.-led ted in recent years with $10.8million in U.S.
peet number one brought before a court, any
COll rt."
operation against Saddam and central to the funds. __ The U,S.inquiry began during the Clinton
way Iraqis would rebound from three de- The International Criminal Court is not an administration, after the Gulf War and wide-
.cades of dictatorship. option, because it does not have jurisdiction spread reports of Saddam's use of chemical
The Bush administration has not yet de- over events ~at happened before it came in- weapons against Kurdish villages.
cided how deeply to target the Iraqi leader- to existence 'on July 1. Nor is Iraq a signatory Since 1999, the State Department has
ship and who would lead any criminal.case. to the convention that created it. channeled $10.8million to opposition groups
But as U.S. war planning intensifies, so does Iraqi opposition groups have been urging and nongovernmental organizations to gaththe
urgency of identifying friend and foe in U.S. officials to build cases more quickly. er evidence, examine documents and inter-
Iraq, officials said, adding that'U.S; military "Regardless of who prosecutes, they view.witnesses. according to Gregg Sullivan.
cciinmanders woul~ be required to make should be prosecuted," said Rend Rahim a State Department spokesman.
sWift choices about whom to arrest
and whom to welcome as a
partner.
Undersecretary of State John
Bolton said that the "top people"
around' Hussein would have to
go. Likening the situation to de-
Nazification in postwar Germany,
Bolton said the rebirth of
-Iraq would require the removal
of people "who are so fundamentally
part of Saddam's entourage
that their' remaining in power
would have the problem persist."
By deciding in advance to hold
biâls ;-Cdr the Iraqi leadership,
however, the administration risks
Francke, director of the Iraq Foundation,
,which receives federal funds to examine
seized Iraqi documents. "There is a great
temptation for the United States to deal with
persons who are indictable. and there is a
great danger for Iraq if the United States
yields to this temptation." . .... .
. Two Pentagon lawyers have been assembling
evidence in a form that could be useful
to prosecutors, accoI:ding to U.S. officials
and people they have cOntacted. A working
group of about 30 Iraqi exiles and Iraqi
. Americans, supervised 'by the State Department,
is developing'plans for transitional
justice, including criminal prosecution of a
larger array ofIraqis. .
The approach contemplates several tiel'Sùf
prosecutions, with several U.S. officials de-
Jitra1b~mribunt.
Tllllrst/uy: Octobër31. 2(J()]
102