World Tribunal on Iraq Documenting War Crimes
World Tribunal on Iraq Documenting War Crimes
HAIFA
ZANGANA,
http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/020917_zangana.html
Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and former
political prisoner. She went back to Iraq for the first time
in 2004, after 25 years of exile. She was imprisoned in Abu
Ghraib by the Ba'athist regime and tortured. She said today:
"The U.S. managed in the last two years what Saddam Hussein
could not in the past 35, killing our hope for a democratic
future. There are many people from Iraq taking part in this
Tribunal because it is very important for us to document all
the crimes we are enduring: the random killings, the
collective punishments, the indiscriminate use of weapons,
including napalm, the looting, the torture. ... Advocates of
democracy like me are now finding their task harder, as the
occupation makes a mockery of any notion of democracy.
People in Iraq now laugh at us if we say democracy, indeed,
it has all become laughable with this carnage we are
experiencing, along with a stunning shortage of medicines,
of clean water, of electricity, and of freedom." Zangana can
also arrange interviews with other members of the Iraqi
delegation.
TIM GOODRICH, http://www.ivaw.net
Goodrich served in the US Air Force and was in the
Middle East during the invasion of Afghanistan and leading
up to the war in Iraq. He returned to Iraq in 2004 as part
of a fact-finding delegation. He said today: "I was there in
Iraq in fall of 2002 when the war was already happening even
though it was not officially announced. We were dropping
bombs then, and I saw bombing intensify as a part of the
'softening up' of Iraq's defenses. All the documents coming
out now, the Downing street memo and others, confirm what I
had witnessed in Iraq. The war had already begun while our
leaders were telling us that they were going to try all
diplomatic options first. ... The true picture on Iraq is
not what is shown on the American media. The situation is
getting much worse. The soldiers and Iraqis are suffering
more than people know."
BRENDAN SMITH,
Brendan Smith
is a lawyer and co-editor of the forthcoming book "In The
Name Of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond."
He is in Istanbul attending the Tribunal. He said today: "In
America's Wild West, citizens would seize criminals, hold
impromptu hearings, and hand the guilty over to officials.
With global enforcement of the Geneva Conventions blocked by
the U.S. at every turn, the World Tribunal on Iraq is here
to make such citizen's arrest."
JODIE EVANS,
Jodie
Evans is the co-founder of Code Pink. She is attending the
World Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul. She said today: “I’m
here to gather evidence to indict Bush. … I also just came
back from Iran where I did 400 interviews. Many people I
spoke with said that they do not like the domestic policies
of their own government, but actually like the fact that it
stands up to the United States. They told me that they will
stand behind even this government, however opposed to it
they may be, if the United States takes military action
against their nation.”
DAVID BARSAMIAN, Barsamian,
co-author of "Terrorism: Theirs & Ours", is in Istanbul for
the Tribunal. He said today: "The Nuremberg trials and the
U.N. charter have established in international law the idea
that aggression constitutes crime against peace and that
this is the supreme international war crime. The invasion of
Iraq is an example of violation of Nuremberg principles and
the U.N. charter."