DATE=9/14/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=IRAQI WAR CRIMES
NUMBER=5-44253
BYLINE=PAMELA TAYLOR
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

INTRO:  A non-governmental organization that hunts 
down alleged Iraqi war criminals says it is tightening 
its net around some of Saddam Hussein's closest 
advisers and family members.  Last month, the group 
came close to organizing the arrest of two senior 
Iraqi officials in Italy and Austria.  The United 
States and Britain are strongly backing the effort to 
hunt down Iraqi war criminals.  V-O-A's Pamela Taylor 
has more:

TEXT:  In August, a London-based group known as 
"Indict" tried to persuade Italian authorities to 
detain Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, when 
he arrived for an international conference.  But 
officials at "Indict" say Mr. Aziz learned of the 
attempt and cancelled his trip.  Earlier that same 
month, "Indict" filed a criminal complaint against 
another senior Iraqi official (Izzat Ibrahim Douri), 
who was in Vienna for medical treatment. Officials say 
the Austrian government took  no  action, and Mr. 
Douri fled to Jordan.  

Members of "Indict" on the trail of the Iraqi 
officials, who they say are war criminals, say the 
next time they will be successful.

Members of Iraqi expatriate organizations joined 
together with U-S and British officials (in 1997) to 
form "Indict", which has the backing of the U-S 
Congress and the British Parliament.  Earlier this 
year, the group received the first installment of a 
three-million-dollar U-S commitment of support. 

Loosely based on groups that track Nazi war criminals 
around the globe, "Indict" hopes to eventually see the 
creation of an International War Crimes Tribunal for 
Iraq, similar to the tribunals for Yugoslavia and 
Rwanda. 

The former U-S ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, 
is a board member at "Indict."  He says the group is 
compiling evidence against more than 10 high-level 
Iraqi officials.  The plan is to turn over "Indict's" 
findings to other governments and eventually to a war 
crimes tribunal, if and when one is created.

            /// FIRST GALBRAITH ACT ///

      That evidence consists of the systematic 
      destruction of four-thousand small cities and 
      villages, which we can document, and it consists 
      of the use of chemical weapons for which we have 
      testimony from hundreds of survivors, as well as 
      physical evidence on the ground.  There are mass 
      graves, some of which have been excavated by 
      Physicians for Human Rights.  There are people 
      who were tortured in prison and have survived.  
      We also have videotapes, because the Iraqi 
      regime liked to videotape itself committing 
      crimes.

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Galbraith has been tracking Iraqi war crimes since 
the late 1980's.  He says "Indict" has 18 tons of 
files, captured from the Iraqi Secret Service after 
the aGulf War (in 1991), which document crimes against 
Iraq's Kurdish and Shi'ite minorities, Kuwaitis, 
Iranians and the people of Iraq themselves.

David Wermser of the conservative American Enterprise 
Institute says the purpose behind "Indict's" mandate 
is to put governments around the world on notice that 
the rule of Saddam Hussein is illegitimate and based 
on terrible war crimes.  He says this is necessary 
because some governments are calling for the lifting 
of economic sanctions against Iraq, and the resumption 
of trade with the country.

            /// WERMSER ACT ///

      The purpose of "Indict" is to label a lot of the 
      leadership of Iraq -- specifically Tariq Aziz 
      and Saddam Hussein and some of the other 
      military officers -- as war criminals and that 
      will make it an illegal act to deal with them in 
      the long run.  It locks them in isolation.  
      There's a great deal of fear that with time 
      people will tire of the whole conflict with 
      Iraq, and the temptation will be there both with 
      business and with countries to begin to deal 
      again with Saddam Hussein.

            /// END ACT ///

//OPT//  Peter Galbraith says the creation of groups 
like "Indict" demonstrates one lesson the world has 
learned from the war in the former Yugoslavia -- that 
there can be  no  durable peace without justice.

            /// SECOND GALBRAITH ACT ///

      I think that "Indict" is part of an 
      extraordinary expansion of international law in 
      the 1990's, in which people who have committed 
      gross human-rights violations, including 
      genocide and crimes against humanity, can  no  
      longer get away with those crimes.  And the 
      dictators of the world should be on notice.

            /// END ACT ///   /// END OPT ///

Mr. Galbraith and Mr. Wermser agree that organizations 
like "Indict" are indispensable in preparing iron-clad 
cases before criminal complaints are filed and cases 
are brought to court.  Confronted with compelling 
evidence of war crimes, they say, most governments are 
going to find it difficult  not  to act, even those 
governments with friendly relations with Baghdad.   
(Signed)

NEB/PAM/WTW



14-Sep-1999 16:36 PM EDT (14-Sep-1999 2036 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.