DATE=8/2/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=US-GULF ANNIVERSARY (L-ONLY)(CQ)
NUMBER=2-265070
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

INTRO:  The United States marked the 10th anniversary 
of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait by beginning the release 
of documents on Iraqi human rights abuses during the 
Gulf War period.  State Department officials say they 
hope the process generates global support for the 
prosecution of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and key 
associates on war crimes charges.  V-O-A's David 
Gollust has details.

TEXT:  The State Department has translated, 
declassified, and is now beginning the public release 
of thousands of pages of Iraqi documents giving 
details of a reign of terror by Iraqi forces during 
their seven-month occupation of Kuwait.

The papers -- original records of the Iraqi armed 
forces and security services -- were found by U-S 
forces and Kuwaiti officials after the Iraqis were 
forced out of the Gulf state in 1991.

At a briefing for reporters, the State Department's 
ambassador-at-large for war crimes, David Sheffer, 
said terms like brutality and war crimes barely begin 
to describe the reality of the Iraqi occupation.

He said U-S officials believe on the basis of the 
documents and other evidence that Iraqi troops and 
agents killed about one-thousand Kuwaiti civilians 
during the occupation and ran two dozen torture sites 
in Kuwait, using electric shocks and drills and even 
acid baths to kill their victims.

And he said that in a systematic campaign of looting 
and destruction as they left Kuwait in the face of the 
U-S-led counter invasion, Iraqi forces set fire to, or 
otherwise destroyed, nearly 600 Kuwait oil wells, 
releasing as much as nine-million barrels of oil into 
the environment.

Mr. Sheffer says Saddam Hussein must not escape 
accountability and that he hopes the document release 
will propel efforts for an international prosecution 
along the lines of those already underway for war 
crimes in Bosnia and Rwanda:

            /// Sheffer Act ///

      Some way, the international community has to 
      face up to more than 20 years of some of the 
      most egregious criminal conduct of the 20th 
      century that Saddam Hussein is responsible for.  
      So our hope is that as this evidence becomes 
      more and more compelling, as it is clearly 
      available, translated and unavoidable, that it 
      will simply make the compelling case that one 
      way or another, there has to be a court of law 
      before which these individuals are investigated, 
      indicted, and some day, brought to justice.


            /// End Act ///

Mr. Sheffer said the United States will step-up 
diplomatic contacts with the hope of having an 
international tribunal on Kuwait underway within six 
months.

The first of handful of translated Iraqi documents 
were made public through the non-governmental group, 
the Iraq Foundation on its Internet website [at 
www.iraqfoundation.org]. The papers include Iraqi 
orders for the detention of certain Kuwaitis and the 
preparation of oil well heads for destruction and are, 
in Mr. Sheffer's words, "just the tip of a very large 
iceberg."

Administration officials say the United States favors 
prosecuting Iraqi leaders for war crimes in countries 
where such action is possible, or through an 
international tribunal set up for that purpose by the 
U-N Security Council.

Statute-of-limitations rules preclude such a 
prosecution by a U-S court and the United States has -
- for technical reasons -- opposed creation of a 
standing, permanent international court for handling 
such cases.   (Signed)

NEB/DAG/JP




02-Aug-2000 14:25 PM LOC (02-Aug-2000 1825 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.