US caused more deaths in Iraq than Saddam, says anti-war tribunal
25 June 2005 0447 hrs
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/154590/1/.html
ISTANBUL : The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), a grouping of NGOs, intellectuals
and writers opposed to the war in Iraq, on Friday accused the United States of
causing more deaths in Iraq than ousted president Saddam Hussein.
"With two wars and 13 years of criminal sanctions, the United States have been
responsible for more deaths in Iraq than Saddam Hussein," Larry Everest, a
journalist, told hundreds of anti-war activists gathered in Istanbul.
Founded in 2003, the WTI is modelled on the 1960s Russell Tribunal, created by
the British philosopher Bertrand Russell to denounce the war in Vietnam. It has
held about 20 sessions so far in different locations around the world.
A symbolic verdict was to be handed down on Monday by the 14 "jurors of
conscience" -- including the militant Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, winner of
the 1997 Booker Prize for "The God of Small Things."
The tribunal has for the past two years been gathering what it says is evidence
that the war launched in March 2003 to oust Saddam was illegal, and it has also
been gathering evidence of exactions allegedly committed by coalition troops.
Its verdict on Monday after its final session is expected to condemn both the
United States and Britain.
Roy told the gathering here: ""The evidence collated in this tribunal should
... be used by the International Criminal Court -- whose jurisdiction the
United States does not recognize -- to try as war criminals George Bush, Tony
Blair, John Howard, Silvio Berlusconi, and all those government officials, army
generals, and corporate CEOs who participated in this war and now benefit from
it."
She added that the tribunal was "an act of resistance," "a defense mounted
against one of the most cowardly wars ever fought in history."
Hans von Sponeck, former director of the UN's so-called oil-for-food programme
for Iraq, told the Istanbul gathering that the humanitarian programme "was
totally irrelevant."
Von Sponeck ran the programme until 2000 when he resigned because he said it
failed to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people.
The oil-for-food programme ran from 1996 to 2003. It allowed Baghdad to sell
oil in exchange for humanitarian goods the country lacked due to international
sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Critics said the sanctions led to the deaths of tens of thousands of children
and a drastic decline in living standards for almost the entire Iraqi
population.
The Iraqi government under Saddam swindled millions of dollars from the
64-billion-dollar scheme, and the scandal has become a huge embarrassment for
the United Nations.
"The UN handling of Iraq will be listed as a massive failure," von Sponeck
said. "We didn't speak out despite knowing what the economic sanctions had
created as a human disaster."
He singled out the United States and British governments for allegedly blocking
projects that would, he said, have allowed more people to survive.
Some 200 non-governmental organsiations -- including the environmentalist group
Greenpeace, the anti-globalization ATTAC and Vietnam Veterans Against the War
-- as well as a number of prominent intellectuals such as US linguist Noam
Chomsky and Egyptian sociologist Samir Amin are involved in the WTI.
- AFP /ls
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