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Read the full report: * War Crimes Committed by the US in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability (10 Oct 2006) [PDF] |
"The War Crimes Report is an extraordinarily comprehensive and important presentation of international law that governs the conduct of nations and their military forces. The Report documents the blatant violations of international and domestic law by the Bush administration and US military forces including the use of illegal military tactics and illegal weapons." - Ann Wright
Retired U.S. Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright today endorsed a new report on U.S. war crimes in Iraq, which was released on the same day of the publication in The Lancet of the study, by Johns Hopkins and Al Mustansiriya universities (in cooperation with the Center for International Studies/MIT), that found that approximately 655,000 people have been killed in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
U.S. War Crimes in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability documents U.S. war crimes in Iraq and calls on U.S. public to demand investigation and prosecution of violations of international law by military and civilian leaders.
The report is being published internationally on the internet organizations listed below, and has gained international support today from the International Anti-Occupation Network (which is publishing the report through The BRussells Tribunal) and the Stop the War Coalition (UK).
The report was prepared by Consumers for Peace.org with the advice of Karen Parker, noted lawyer in human rights and humanitarian law. Ms. Parker is President of the San-Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers and Chief Delegate to the United Nations for the Los Angeles-based International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project (IED/AHL), an accredited non-governmental organization on the U.N. Secretary-General’s list.
Ann Wright's full statement
Ann Wright,29-year US Army veteran who retired as a Colonel and US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war in Iraq commented on the War Crimes Report:
"While in the US Army at Ft Bragg, NC, I taught to US military officers and non-commissioned officers the responsibilities of military forces under the Geneva Convention and the Law of Land Warfare, as well as the obligations of an Occupying Power.
"The War Crimes Report is an extraordinarily comprehensive and important presentation?of international law that governs the conduct of nations and their military forces. The Report documents the blatant violations of international and domestic law by the Bush administration and US military forces including the use of illegal military tactics and illegal weapons.
"Because of a huge media failure in the United States, many Americans do not realize how many times the Bush administration has violated international law. But, the rest of the world knows very well the extent of these crimes.
"As a retired military officer, I know that accountability is one of the foundation elements of the US military. The Bush administration has undercut the professionalism of our military forces by encouraging and condoning the violation of international and domestic war in treatment of detainees, torture and use of illegal tactics and weapons. For the sake of our own military we must demand accountability from civilian leaders, as well as our military forces. This report provides specific mechanisms for much-needed accountability of criminal behaviour by Bush administration policy makers and by US military forces."
International Publishing Group for War Crimes Report
Consumers for Peace
http://www.consumersforpeace.org
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers
Traprock Peace Center
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Uruknet
Information Clearing House
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
AfterDowningStreet.org
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
Socialist Worker weekly newspaper
http://www.socialistworker.org
The BRussells Tribunal (for International Anti-Occupation Network)
http:/www.brusselstribunal.org
Stop the War Coalition (UK)
Ann Wright joined other individuals with extensive knowledge of Iraq in endorsing the report:
Dahr Jamail, noted independent journalist who spent more than eight months reporting from occupied Iraq, writes the following :
“I cannot endorse strongly enough this report prepared by Karen Parker regarding U.S. war crimes in Iraq. Having witnessed much of what is so well documented in this report, it is a clear and encompassing indictment of the Bush Administration for the war crimes they are directly responsible for in Iraq. Until evidence such as this begins to see the light of day in a court of law and the perpetrators brought to justice, the world remains unsafe and unstable from an administration determined to rule the world. After witnessing what they are capable of in Iraq, I have no doubt these people will not stop in their quest for world domination. Instead, they must be stopped.? And the only way to do that is bring the guilty to justice. This document will help achieve that goal.”
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, three-time nominee for the Noble Peace Prize, who has visited Iraq 28 times in the last 15 years, writes:
“After spending four days in the fortified and secure Green Zone, in Iraq, during September 06, former Secretary of State James Baker III assured that the investigative panel he led had not spent any time wringing our hands over what mistakes might or might not have been created in the past. (NYT, September 20, 2006). The Consumers for Peace report on war crimes committed in Iraq helps us understand our responsibility not to wring our hands but rather to demand accountability from elected representatives by delivering this report to them and to local media.? How many people killed? How many families torn apart? How many homes destroyed? How many livelihoods gone? How many lives ruined? How many cities sacrificed? We bear responsibility to end the war in Iraq, insist on just reparations for suffering caused, and promote careful, legal scrutiny of the crimes committed. This report beckons all who read it to stop collaborating with illegal, immoral warmongers who recklessly afflict Iraq.”
Neil MacKay, multi-award winning Home Affairs and Investigations Editor of the Sunday Herald (Scotland), writes:
"What has happened in Iraq is a great sin and a great crime. The invasion and occupation have stained the concepts of democracy, freedom and liberty; and disgraced the good name of the people of both the United States of America and Great Britain. As a journalist who has investigated the roots of this war, and the on-going horror of what is happening in Iraq, I fully commend this report to readers. It is an important reminder of the blood which is on the hands of our leaders, and the shame that the governments of the UK and the USA have brought to the British and American people by perpetrating a criminal war in our name."