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>DECLARATION OF THE JURY OF CONSCIENCE
>WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ – ISTANBUL 23RD -27TH JUNE 2005
>27th June 2005, Istanbul
>In February 2003, weeks before an illegal war was
>initiated against Iraq, millions of people protested
>in the streets of the world. That call went unheeded.
>No international institution had the courage or
>conscience to stand up to the threat of aggression of
>the US and UK governments. No one could stop them. It
>is two years later now. Iraq has been invaded,
>occupied, and devastated. The attack on Iraq is an
>attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our
>future, on us all. We, people of conscience, decided
>to stand up. We formed the World Tribunal on Iraq
>(WTI), to demand justice and a peaceful future.
>The legitimacy of the World Tribunal on Iraq is
>located in the collective conscience of humanity.
>This, the Istanbul session of the WTI, is the
>culmination of a series of 20 hearings held in
>different cities of the world focusing on the illegal
>invasion and occupation of Iraq. The conclusions of
>these sessions and/or inquiries held in Barcelona,
>Brussels, Copenhagen, Genoa, Hiroshima, Istanbul,
>Lisbon, London, Mumbai, New York, Östersund, Paris,
>Rome, Seoul, Stockholm, Tunis, various cities in Japan
>and Germany are appended to this Declaration in a
>separate volume.
>We, the Jury of Conscience, from 10 different
>countries, met in Istanbul. We heard 54 testimonies
>from a Panel of Advocates and Witnesses who came from
>across the world, including from Iraq, the United
>States and the United Kingdom.
>The World Tribunal on Iraq met in Istanbul from 24-26
>June 2005. The principal objective of the WTI is to
>tell and disseminate the truth about the Iraq War,
>underscoring the accountability of those responsible
>and underlining the significance of justice for the
>Iraqi people.
> I. Overview of Findings
>1. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is
>illegal. The reasons given by the US and UK
>governments for the invasion and occupation of Iraq in
>March 2003 have proven to be false. Much evidence
>supports the conclusion that a major motive for the
>war was to control and dominate the Middle East and
>its vast reserves of oil as a part of the US drive for
>global hegemony.
>2. Blatant falsehoods about the presence of weapons of
>mass destruction in Iraq and a link between Al Qaeda
>terrorism and the Saddam Hussein régime were
>manufactured in order to create public support for a
>“preemptive” assault upon a sovereign independent
>nation.
>3. Iraq has been under siege for years. The imposition
>of severe inhumane economic sanctions on 6 August
>1990, the establishment of no-fly zones in the
>Northern and Southern parts of Iraq, and the
>concomitant bombing of the country were all aimed at
>degrading and weakening Iraq’s human and material
>resources and capacities in order to facilitate its
>subsequent invasion and occupation. In this enterprise
>the US and British leaderships had the benefit of a
>complicit UN Security Council.
>4. In pursuit of their agenda of empire, the Bush and
>Blair governments blatantly ignored the massive
>opposition to the war expressed by millions of people
>around the world. They embarked upon one of the most
>unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history.
>5. Established international political-legal
>mechanisms have failed to prevent this attack and to
>hold the perpetrators accountable. The impunity that
>the US government and its allies enjoy has created a
>serious international crisis that questions the import
>and significance of international law, of human rights
>covenants and of the ability of international
>institutions including the United Nations to address
>the crisis with any degree of authority or dignity.
>6. The US/UK occupation of Iraq of the last 27 months
>has led to the destruction and devastation of the
>Iraqi state and society. Law and order have broken
>down, resulting in a pervasive lack of human security.
>The physical infrastructure is in shambles; the health
>care delivery system is in poor condition; the
>education system has virtually ceased to function;
>there is massive environmental and ecological
>devastation; and the cultural and archeological
>heritage of the Iraqi people has been desecrated.
>7. The occupation has intentionally exacerbated
>ethnic, sectarian and religious divisions in Iraqi
>society, with the aim of undermining Iraq’s identity
>and integrity as a nation. This is in keeping with the
>familiar imperial policy of divide and rule. Moreover,
>it has facilitated rising levels of violence against
>women, increased gender oppression and reinforced
>patriarchy.
>8. The imposition of the UN sanctions in 1990 caused
>untold suffering and thousands of deaths. The
>situation has worsened after the occupation. At least
>100,000 civilians have been killed; 60,000 are being
>held in US custody in inhumane conditions, without
>charges; thousands have disappeared; and torture has
>become routine.
>9. The illegal privatization, deregulation, and
>liberalization of the Iraqi economy by the occupation
>regime has coerced the country into becoming a client
>economy that is controlled by the IMF and the World
>Bank, both of which are integral to the Washington
>Consensus. The occupying forces have also acquired
>control over Iraq’s oil reserves.
>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.
>11. There is widespread opposition to the occupation.
>Political, social, and civil resistance through
>peaceful means is subjected to repression by the
>occupying forces. It is the occupation and its
>brutality that has provoked a strong armed resistance
>and certain acts of desperation. By the principles
>embodied in the UN Charter and in international law,
>the popular national resistance to the occupation is
>legitimate and justified. It deserves the support of
>people everywhere who care for justice and freedom.
> II. Charges
>On the basis of the preceding findings and recalling
>the Charter of the United Nations and other legal
>documents indicated in the appendix, the jury has
>established the following charges.
> A. Against the Governments of the US and the UK
>1. Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime
>of a war of aggression in contravention of the United
>Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles.
>Evidence for this can be found in the leaked Downing
>Street Memo of 23rd July, 2002, in which it was
>revealed: “Military action was now seen as inevitable.
>Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action,
>justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But
>the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the
>policy.” Intelligence was manufactured to willfully
>deceive the people of the US, the UK, and their
>elected representatives.
>2. Targeting the civilian population of Iraq and
>civilian infrastructure by intentionally directing
>attacks upon civilians and hospitals, medical centers,
>residential neighborhoods, electricity stations, and
>water purification facilities. The complete
>destruction of the city of Falluja in itself
>constitutes a glaring example of such crimes.
>3. Using disproportionate force and weapon systems
>with indiscriminate effects, such as cluster
>munitions, incendiary bombs, depleted uranium (DU),
>and chemical weapons. Detailed evidence was presented
>to the Tribunal by expert witnesses that leukemia had
>risen sharply in children under the age of five
>residing in those areas that had been targeted by DU
>weapons.
>4. Using DU munitions in spite of all the warnings
>presented by scientists and war veterans on their
>devastating long-term effects on human beings and the
>environment. The US Administration, claiming lack of
>scientifically established proof of the harmful
>effects of DU, decided to risk the lives of millions
>for several generations rather than discontinue its
>use on account of the potential risks. This alone
>displays the Administration’s wanton disregard for
>human life. The Tribunal heard testimony concerning
>the current obstruction by the US Administration of
>the efforts of Iraqi universities to collect data and
>conduct research on the issue.
>5. Failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during
>military activities and during the occupation period
>thereafter. This is evidenced, for example, by “shock
>and awe” bombing techniques and the conduct of
>occupying forces at checkpoints.
>6. Actively creating conditions under which the status
>of Iraqi women has seriously been degraded, contrary
>to the repeated claims of the leaders of the coalition
>forces. Women’s freedom of movement has severely been
>limited, restricting their access to the public
>sphere, to education, livelihood, political and social
>engagement. Testimony was provided that sexual
>violence and sex trafficking have increased since the
>occupation of Iraq began.
>7. Using deadly violence against peaceful protestors,
>including the April 2003 killing of more than a dozen
>peaceful protestors in Falluja.
>8. Imposing punishments without charge or trial,
>including collective punishment, on the people of
>Iraq. Repeated testimonies pointed to “snatch and
>grab” operations, disappearances and assassinations.
>9. Subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture
>and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Degrading
>treatment includes subjecting Iraqi soldiers and
>civilians to acts of racial, ethnic, religious, and
>gender discrimination, as well as denying Iraqi
>soldiers Prisoner of War status as required by the
>Geneva Conventions. Abundant testimony was provided of
>unlawful arrests and detentions, without due process
>of law. Well known and egregious examples of torture
>and cruel and inhuman treatment occurred in Abu Ghraib
>prison as well as in Mosul, Camp Bucca, and Basra. The
>employment of mercenaries and private contractors to
>carry out torture has served to undermine
>accountability.
>10. Re-writing the laws of a country that has been
>illegally invaded and occupied, in violation of
>international covenants on the responsibilities of
>occupying powers, in order to amass illegal profits
>(through such measures as Order 39, signed by L. Paul
>Bremer III for the Coalition Provisional Authority,
>which allows foreign investors to buy and takeover
>Iraq’s state-owned enterprises and to repatriate 100
>percent of their profits and assets at any point) and
>to control Iraq’s oil. Evidence was presented of a
>number of corporations that had profited from such
>transactions.
>11. Willfully devastating the environment,
>contaminating it by depleted uranium (DU) weapons,
>combined with the plumes from burning oil wells, as
>well as huge oil spills, and destroying agricultural
>lands. Deliberately disrupting the water and waste
>removal systems, in a manner verging on
>biological-chemical warfare. Failing to prevent the
>looting and dispersal of radioactive material from
>nuclear sites. Extensive documentation is available on
>air and water pollution, land degradation, and
>radioactive pollution.
>12. Failing to protect humanity’s rich archaeological
>and cultural heritage in Iraq by allowing the looting
>of museums and established historical sites and
>positioning military bases in culturally and
>archeologically sensitive locations. This took place
>despite prior warnings from UNESCO and Iraqi museum
>officials.
>13. Obstructing the right to information, including
>the censoring of Iraqi media, such as newspapers
>(e.g., al-Hawza, al-Mashriq, and al-Mustaqila) and
>radio stations (Baghdad Radio), the shutting down of
>the Baghdad offices of Al Jazeera Television,
>targeting international journalists, imprisoning and
>killing academics, intellectuals and scientists.
>14. Redefining torture in violation of international
>law, to allow use of torture and illegal detentions,
>including holding more than 500 people at Guantánamo
>Bay without charging them or allowing them any access
>to legal protection, and using “extraordinary
>renditions” to send people to be tortured in other
>countries known to commit human rights abuses and
>torture prisoners.
>15. Committing a crime against peace by violating the
>will of the global anti-war movement. In an
>unprecedented display of public conscience millions of
>people across the world stood in opposition to the
>imminent attack on Iraq. The attack rendered them
>effectively voiceless. This amounts to a declaration
>by the US government and its allies to millions of
>people that their voices can be ignored, suppressed
>and silenced with complete impunity.
>16. Engaging in policies to wage permanent war on
>sovereign nations. Syria and Iran have already been
>declared as potential targets. In declaring a “global
>war on terror,” the US government has given itself the
>exclusive right to use aggressive military force
>against any target of its choosing. Ethnic and
>religious hostilities are being fueled in different
>parts of the world. The US occupation of Iraq has
>further emboldened the Israeli occupation in Palestine
>and increased the repression of the Palestinian
>people. The focus on state security and the escalation
>of militarization has caused a serious deterioration
>of human security and civil rights across the world.
>B. Against the Security Council of the United Nations
>1. Failing to protect the Iraqi people against the
>crime of aggression.
>2. Imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iraq, despite
>knowledge that sanctions were directly contributing to
>the massive loss of civilian lives and harming
>innocent civilians.
>3. Allowing the United States and United Kingdom to
>carry out illegal bombings in the no-fly zones, using
>false pretenses of enforcing UN resolutions, and at no
>point allowing discussion in the Security Council of
>this violation, and thereby being complicit and
>responsible for loss of civilian life and destruction
>of Iraqi infrastructure.
>4. Allowing the United States to dominate the United
>Nations and hold itself above any accountability by
>other member nations.
>5. Failure to stop war crimes and crimes against
>humanity by the United States and its coalition
>partners in Iraq.
>6. Failure to hold the United States and its coalition
>partners accountable for violations of international
>law during the invasion and occupation, giving
>official sanction to the occupation and therefore,
>both by acts of commission and acts of omission
>becoming a collaborator in an illegal occupation.
> C. Against the Governments of the Coalition of the
>Willing
> Collaborating in the invasion and occupation of Iraq,
>thus sharing responsibility in the crimes committed.
>D. Against the Governments of Other Countries
>Allowing the use of military bases and air space, and
>providing other logistical support, for the invasion
>and occupation, and hence being complicit in the
>crimes committed.
>E. Against the Private Corporations which have won
>contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq and which
>have sued for and received “reparation awards” from
>the illegal occupation regime.
>Profiting from the war with complicity in the crimes
>described above, of invasion and occupation.
>F. Against the Major Corporate Media
>1. Disseminating the deliberate falsehoods spread by
>the governments of the US and the UK and failing to
>adequately investigate this misinformation, even in
>the face of abundant evidence to the contrary. Among
>the corporate media houses that bear special
>responsibility for promoting the lies about Iraq’s
>weapons of mass destruction, we name the New York
>Times, in particular their reporter Judith Miller,
>whose main source was on the payroll of the CIA. We
>also name Fox News, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, the BBC and
>ITN. This list also includes but is not limited to,
>The Express, The Sun, The Observer and Washington
>Post.
>2. Failing to report the atrocities being committed
>against Iraqi people by the occupying forces,
>neglecting the duty to give privilege and dignity to
>voices of suffering and marginalizing the global
>voices for peace and justice.
>3. Failing to report fairly on the ongoing occupation;
>silencing and discrediting dissenting voices and
>failing to adequately report on the full national
>costs and consequences of the invasion and occupation
>of Iraq; disseminating the propaganda of the
>occupation regime that seeks to justify the
>continuation of its presence in Iraq on false grounds.
>4. Inciting an ideological climate of fear, racism,
>xenophobia and Islamophobia which is then used to
>justify and legitimize violence perpetrated by the
>armies of the occupying regime.
>5. Disseminating an ideology that glorifies
>masculinity and combat, while normalizing war as a
>policy choice.
>6. Complicity in the waging of an aggressive war and
>perpetuating a regime of occupation that is widely
>regarded as guilty of war crimes and crimes against
>humanity.
>7. Enabling, through the validation and dissemination
>of disinformation, the fraudulent misappropriation of
>human and financial resources for an illegal war waged
>on false pretexts.
>8. Promoting corporate-military perspectives on
>“security” which are counter-productive to the
>fundamental concerns and priorities of the global
>population and have seriously endangered civilian
>populations.
>
> III. Recommendations
>Recognizing the right of the Iraqi people to resist
>the illegal occupation of their country and to develop
>independent institutions, and affirming that the right
>to resist the occupation is the right to wage a
>struggle for self-determination, freedom, and
>independence as derived from the Charter of the United
>Nations, we the Jury of Conscience declare our
>solidarity with the people of Iraq.
>We recommend:
>1. The immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the
>Coalition forces from Iraq.
>2. That Coalition governments make war reparations and
>pay compensation to Iraq for the humanitarian,
>economic, ecological, and cultural devastation they
>have caused by their illegal invasion and occupation.
>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.
>4. That the Guantánamo Bay prison and all other
>offshore US military prisons be closed immediately,
>that the names of the prisoners be disclosed, that
>they receive POW status, and receive due process.
>5. That there be an exhaustive investigation of those
>responsible for the crime of aggression, war crimes
>and crimes against humanity in Iraq, beginning with
>George W. Bush, President of the United States of
>America, Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United
>Kingdom, those in key decision-making positions in
>these countries and in the Coalition of the Willing,
>those in the military chain-of-command who
>master-minded the strategy for and carried out this
>criminal war, starting from the very top and going
>down; as well as personalities in Iraq who helped
>prepare this illegal invasion and supported the
>occupiers.
>
>We list some of the most obvious names to be included
>in such investigation:
><sum> prime ministers of the Coalition of the Willing,
>such as Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, Jose Maria Anzar
>of Spain, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, José Manuel
>Durão Barroso and Santana Lopes of Portugal, Roh Moo
>Hyun of South Korea, Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark;
>
><sum> public officials such as Dick Cheney, Donald H.
>Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Colin L. Powell, Condoleezza
>Rice, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Alberto Gonzales,
>L. Paul Bremer from the US, and Jack Straw, Geoffrey
>Hoon, John Reid, Adam Ingram from the UK;
><sum> military commanders beginning with: Gen. Richard
>Myers, Gen. Tommy Franks, Gen. John P. Abizaid, Gen.
>Ricardo S. Sanchez, Gen. Thomas Metz, Gen. John R.
>Vines, Gen. George Casey from the US; Gen. Mike
>Jackson, Gen. John Kiszely, Air Marshal Brian
>Burridge, Gen. Peter Wall, Rear Admiral David Snelson,
>Gen. Robin Brims, Air Vice-Marshal Glenn Torpy from
>the UK; and chiefs of staff and commanding officers of
>all coalition countries with troops in Iraq.
><sum> Iraqi collaborators such as Ahmed Chalabi, Iyad
>Allawi, Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed
>Jassem Mohan, among others.
>
>6. That a process of accountability is initiated to
>hold those morally and personally responsible for
>their participation in this illegal war, such as
>journalists who deliberately lied, corporate media
>outlets that promoted racial, ethnic and religious
>hatred, and CEOs of multinational corporations that
>profited from this war;
>7. That people throughout the world launch nonviolent
>actions against US and UK corporations that directly
>profit from this war. Examples of such corporations
>include Halliburton, Bechtel, The Carlyle Group, CACI
>Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root
>(subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing,
>ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following
>companies have sued Iraq and received “reparation
>awards”: Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell,
>Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such
>actions may take the form of direct actions such as
>shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and
>pressure on shareholders to divest.
>8. That young people and soldiers act on conscientious
>objection and refuse to enlist and participate in an
>illegal war. Also, that countries provide
>conscientious objectors with political asylum.
>9. That the international campaign for dismantling all
>US military bases abroad be reinforced.
>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.
>We, the Jury of Conscience, hope that the scope and
>specificity of these recommendations will lay the
>groundwork for a world in which international
>institutions will be shaped and reshaped by the will
>of people and not by fear and self-interest, where
>journalists and intellectuals will not remain mute,
>where the will of the people of the world will be
>central, and human security will prevail over state
>security and corporate profits.
>
>Arundhati Roy, India, Spokesperson of the Jury of
>Conscience
>Ahmet Öztürk, Turkey
>Ay_e Erzan, Turkey
>Chandra Muzaffar, Malaysia
>David Krieger, USA
>Eve Ensler, USA
>François Houtart, Belgium
>Jae-Bok Kim, South Korea
>Taty Almeida, Argentina
>Mehmet Tarhan, Turkey
>Miguel Angel De Los Santos Cruz, Mexico
>Murat Belge, Turkey
>Rela Mazali, Israel
>Salaam Al Jobourie, Iraq
>
>
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Paola Manduca, Prof.
Dipartimento di Biologia
Università di Genova
4°piano, Palazzo delle Scienze
26, C.Europa
16132, Genova
Tel.& Fax 0039-010-353 8240
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