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From: Elias Davidsson <edavid@itn.is>
Statement regarding Iraqi and other war crimes
16 March 1998
With regards to the international campaign launched by the United States
labelling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as a war criminal and demanding
his prosecution, the undersigned wish to make the following statement.
The actions for which President Saddam Hussein is charged for,
particularly the attack on Kurdish civilians with chemical weapons, took
place in 1988, that is ten years ago. The evidence about this attack was
widely disseminated but beyond verbal disapproval no state has formally
demanded the prosecution of those responsible for these sordid attacks.
International law requires though the prosecution of individuals
responsible for such crimes.
Ten years and the Gulf War have elapsed without any legal action being
taken by the United Nations or by the United States against the person of
Saddam Hussein. No member of the United Nations has ever requested such
action.
While not fulfilling their legal requirements in this matter, the United
States and its allies have imposed conditions of life on the entire Iraqi
people which have caused the death of over million Iraqi civilians,
thereof 750,000 children. They are thus themselves not only committing
war crimes but an act of genocide, largely surpassing in the extent of
death and devastation those measures attributed to Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein.
The invocation of Iraqi war crimes from 1988, now in 1998, have little to
do with respect for the rule of law but serve primarily to deflect
attention from the horrendous consequences of acts committed by the United
States and its alles against the Iraqi civilian population.
While the demand for the prosecution of war crimes, both Iraqi and others,
is justified both from a moral and legal point of view, such demand should
include all those who by their acts and omissions have contributed through
military and economic warfare to the death of thousands of civilians in
Iraq and elsewhere.
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Statement open for endorsement. Please send endorsement back to me: Elias
Davidsson
fax +354-552-6579 , email: edavid@itn.is
Signatories
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Elias Davidsson, composer, ICELAND
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Elias Davidsson - Post Box 1760 - 121 Reykjavik - Iceland
Tel. (354)-552-6444 Fax: (354)-552-6579
Email: edavid@itn.is URL: http://www.nyherji.is/~edavid
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