The information and images in this document were taken from
the Information Clearinghouse web site – specifically on page www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3450.htm. The war crimes charges that have been
brought against US forces fall into four primary areas – the use of cluster
bombs in civilian areas, the destruction of infrastructure vital for public
health, protection and organization of looting, and the causing of indiscriminate
civilian casualties. The four main
headings below are hyperlinks to documents giving the specific charges in that
heading’s area.
a.
The dangers of cluster bombs
(1)
Each cluster bomb is composed of 200 to 700 bomblets. When each bomblet explodes it fragments into
about 300 pieces of jagged steel - sending out virtual blizzards of deadly
shrapnel. People are decapitated, arms,
legs, hands, and feet are severed from their bodies – anyone and anything alive
in the immediate vicinity is shredded into a bloody mess.
(2)
Cluster bombs cause damage over a very large and imprecise
area. Once released from a U.S. Air
Force or Navy jet, cluster bombs fall for a pre-set amount of time or distance
before their dispensers open, spreading the bomblets widely so they can
effectively slaughter people over a wide area.
The wide dispersal pattern of cluster munitions makes them difficult to
target accurately.
(3)
Since 5% to 30% fail to explode at the time set for them,
unexploded bombs litter every target area, silent and nondescript. Until picked up by an unfortunate child or
accidentally kicked by a passerby. In
this way they become hidden killers, blending into their surroundings like land
mines. And over time cluster bombs
become unstable – they explode more easily.
b.
Cluster bombs and the Geneva conventions
(1)
Although cluster bombs are not explicitly forbidden by the
Geneva Law, the rules of war prohibit the use of inherently indiscriminate
weapons or weapons that are incapable of being used in a manner that complies
with the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Those who use them in civilian areas
therefore open themselves to charges of war crimes.
c.
Dud rates
(1)
The United States stockpiles over one billion submunitions in
weapons currently in service. Nearly
three-quarters of this stockpile of submunitions are contained in MLRS rockets
and 155mm artillery projectiles. Given
reported failure rates, a stockpile of that size creates the specter of well
over 100 million explosive duds, each posing a danger to civilians similar to
antipersonnel landmines.
(2)
The U.S. Department of Defense has acknowledged using nearly
1,500 air-dropped cluster bombs, but has not revealed any information about
ground-launched cluster munitions, which may have been much more numerous. An unnamed U.S. defense official told a
reporter for Los Angles Times that the U.S. does not keep track of ground
launched cluster munitions.
d.
On-the-Ground Reports
(1)
From The Independent, April 03, 2003:
The scenes at al-Hilla’s hospital on 1 April showed that something terrible had
happened. The bodies of the men, women,
and children – both dead and alive – brought to the hospital were punctured
with shards of shrapnel from cluster bombs.
Robert Fisk of The Independent wrote: “Terrifying film of women
and children later emerged after Reuters and the Associated Press were
permitted by the Iraqi authorities to take their cameras into the town. Their pictures – the first by Western news
agencies from the Iraqi side of the battlefront – showed babies cut in half and
children with amputation wounds, apparently caused by American shellfire and
cluster bombs. Much of the videotape
was too terrible to show on television and the agencies’ Baghdad editors felt
able to send only a few minutes of a 21-minute tape that included a father
holding out pieces of his baby and screaming, ‘cowards, cowards’ into the
camera. Two (truck)loads of bodies, including
women in flowered dresses, could be seen outside the Hilla hospital.”
(2)
From www.arabnews.com:
Six days after the “lliberation” of Najaf, Iraqis of all ages continue to pack
the corridors of Saddam Hussein General Hospital. They are mostly victims of unexploded munitions that are strewn
throughout various residential neighborhoods – along streets, in family homes,
in school playgrounds, in the fields belonging to farms .... US forces have been using cluster bombs
against Iraqi soldiers. But the majority
of the victims are civilians, mostly children curious about the small shiny
objects which are the same size as a child’s hand. Cluster bombs, as explained by an administrator at the hospital,
have been dropped by the hundred. They
are supposed to explode on impact.
However, many do not, and lie on the street exposed to the
elements. A young Iraqi in Najaf told
Arab News yesterday: “They are everywhere, and they are going off
periodically. We don't even have to
touch them – they just go off by themselves, especially as the temperature
rises throughout the day.” In a
residential neighborhood where nine civilians were killed by heavy US shelling
last week, a sudden explosion sent this correspondent and civilians running for
cover. Back at Saddam Hussein General
Hospital, a seven-year-old boy, the skin burned off his legs, was being turned
away by the doctors. The burns extended
from the soles of his feet to midway up his little thighs. His father, distraught and with a look of
desperation on his face, told Arab News as he held his son in his arms: “They
say his injuries are minor compared with others here. They say that they can't waste their medication on him. They won't even give him painkillers.” …
“He was playing at his school when somehow a munition exploded,” the
father explained. “They need to come
and clear our schools and homes of these explosives.” Arab News visited several of the hospital's wards and saw victims
of the “liberation” of Najaf. A
six-year-old girl suffering from shrapnel injuries, whose leg was drilled to
accommodate a bone brace for her broken thigh, started crying as the doctor
explained to the journalists present that her right foot had become gangrenous
and so would have to be amputated.
Saddam Hussein General Hospital alone has seen 307 deaths and treated
920 injuries. Of those, only 20 of the
dead and 50 of the injured were soldiers.
e.
Pictures of children who were victims of cluster bombs
a.
The Geneva Convention
(1)
The public health consequences of war go far beyond the direct
casualties caused by weapons. Water,
for example, is essential to prevent health problems including malnutrition,
gastro-intestinal infections, and other communicable diseases. Without access to safe water sources the
civilian population, especially children, are at risk. Therefore Protocol II of the Geneva
Conventions explicitly states: “It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or
render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian
population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of
foodstuffs, crops, livestock, (or) drinking water installations and supplies.”
b.
Destruction of water and sewer infrastructure
(1)
Basra was the first city that suffered a humanitarian crisis
because of the U.S.-British belligerence.
On March 21, air raids destroyed high voltage lines and knocked out
Basra's electrical power. That in turn
disabled Basra's water and sanitation systems, including the Wafa’Al Qaed Water
Pumping Station, which pumps water from the Shatt al-Arab river to five water
treatment plants that supply piped water to over 60 percent of Basra's 1.5
million residents.
(2)
A spokesperson of the World Health Organization warned already
on April 6 that Iraq was facing the risk of an outbreak of cholera or other
infectious illnesses, as clean drinking water was scarce and hospitals were
overwhelmed. This assessment was echoed
by UNICEF on April 21 when they reported a huge increase in child diarrhea
cases in Baghdad. Although water was
being supplied to most parts of Baghdad by the end of April, the sanitation
situation remained extremely critical and threatened public health.
c.
Destruction of hospitals and ambulances
(1)
Medical infrastructure and personnel enjoys particular
protection under the rules of war as laid down in the Geneva Law. Article 12 of Protocol II states: “Medical
units shall be respected and protected at all times and shall not be the object
of attack,” while Article 15 adds that “Civilian medical personnel shall be
respected and protected.” Article 21
extends the protection also to medical vehicles, including ambulances.
(2)
Several hospitals sustained severe damage in air raids. On April 2, for example, U.S. aircraft hit a
building opposite the Red Crescent maternity hospital in Baghdad and the blast
was so strong that the hospital's roof collapsed. The maternity hospital is part of a Red Crescent compound that
also includes their headquarters and a surgical hospital. Patients and at least three doctors and
nurses working at the hospital were wounded.
(3)
On April 9, (Belgian) doctors Geert Van Moorter and Harrie
Dewitte were at the Saddam Center for Plastic Surgery, which was functioning as
a frontline hospital for the war-wounded.
They witnessed how one of their ambulances that had left to transport
patients to another hospital came back after a couple of minutes, after it had
been under fire by U.S. troops. Two of
the patients it transported were dead and the driver and his co-driver had
gunshot wounds. When Dr. Van Moorter
went up to a U.S. officer to denounce their attitude, he answered that “the
ambulance could contain explosives.”
d.
Pictures of destroyed hospital and mosque
e.
Pictures of man in an attacked ambulance
(1)
This man was with his pregnant wife and another pregnant woman
in an ambulance going to the hospital.
When they arrived at a checkpoint, American soldiers shot at the
ambulance. The man got out of the
vehicle and was wounded in both legs.
At that time, Americans shot until the ambulance caught fire, with the
two pregnant women inside. The man
tried to escape, but they continued to shoot at him. He took a bullet in his hand from that. Afterwards, two civilians tried to help him, but the Americans
shot at them, also. Two hours later he
was rescued by bringing him to the hospital.
When he arrived, it was to late; he had lost his wife, his newborn
child, and both his legs. Here are
pictures of the ambulance and the man in the hospital:
a.
The Geneva Conventions
(1)
More damaging than the direct impact of the fighting was the
looting and arson that erupted as soon as the U.S. and British troops had
gained control over the cities. This is
particularly alarming as the occupying powers have the responsibility to ensure
public order and safety. Moreover, the
Fourth Geneva Convention states that an occupying power has the duty "of
ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local
authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public
health and hygiene in the occupied territories." US and UK authorities were repeatedly warned before the conflict
by Amnesty International and others that there was a grave risk of widespread
disorder, humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses, including revenge
attacks, once the Iraqi government's authority was removed. Now that US/UK forces are occupying
substantial parts of Iraq, they must live up to their specific responsibilities
under international human rights and humanitarian law to protect the rights of
Iraqi people.
b.
Inaction by US forces concerning looting
(1)
As US and UK tanks swept into the centre of major Iraqi cities
in recent days, numerous observers on the ground reported on the chaos and
lawlessness that filled the political vacuum created. Beginning in Basra on 7 April, followed by Baghdad on 9 April and
Kirkuk the following day, crowds of desperate people have taken to the streets,
looting, burning, and destroying government offices and, more ominously,
institutions vital to their future, including schools, universities, and
hospitals. In most cases, the occupying
forces have stood by, apparently unwilling to take on policing functions.
(2)
The occupying forces are also obliged to ensure the supply of
food and medical supplies. Therefore
the protection and rehabilitation of the medical infrastructure should be one
of their priorities. On April 11 Islam
Online reported that the Al-Kindi hospital in Baghdad had been looted the day
before. Medicines and two ambulances
were stolen, and all staff had fled except for two doctors. U.S. troops called to assist replied that
they had no orders to intervene.
(3)
The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of
civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more
than 7,000 years ago. But once American
troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's
government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed,
with at least 50,000 artifacts carried away by looters. Officials with crumpled spirits fought back
tears and anger at American troops, as they ran down an inventory of the most
storied items that they said had been carried away by the thousands of looters
who poured into the museum after daybreak on Thursday and remained until dusk
on Friday, with only one intervention by American troops, lasting about half an
hour, at lunchtime on Thursday. Nothing
remained, museum officials said, at least nothing of real value, from a museum
that had been regarded by archaeologists and other specialists as perhaps the
richest of all such institutions in the Middle East.
(4)
Khaled Bayomi is PhD student in Sweden. He went to
Baghdad as a human shield, and arrived on the same day the fighting began. Here is his eyewitness account, edited for
length and clarity, of an incident of looting he witnessed:
“On the afternoon of April 8, the fighting was so heavy I couldn't make it over
to the other side of the river. On the
afternoon it became perfectly quiet, and four American tanks pulled up in
position on the outskirts of the slum area.
From these tanks we heard calls in Arabic, which told the population to
come closer.
“During the morning everybody that tried to cross the streets had been fired
upon. But during this strange silence,
people eventually became curious. After
three-quarters of an hour the first Baghdad citizens dared to come
forward. At that moment the US solders
shot two Sudanese guards, who were posted in front of a local administrative
building, on the other side of Haifa Avenue.
“I was just 300 meters away when the guards where murdered. Then they shot the building entrance to
pieces, and their Arabic translators in the tanks told people to run and grab
things inside the building. Rumors
spread rapidly, and the house was cleaned out.
Moments later tanks broke down the doors to the Justice Department, in a
neighboring building, and it was also looted.
“I was standing in a big crowd of civilians that saw all this together with
me. They did not take part in the
looting, but were to afraid to take any action against it. Many of them had tears of shame in their
eyes. The next morning looting spread
to the Museum of Modern Art, another 500 meters to the north.
c.
Pictures of looting and US inaction
a.
International humanitarian law
(1)
International Humanitarian Law, particularly the Law of Geneva
consisting of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the two 1977 Additional
Protocols, obliges the belligerents to make a distinction between persons
taking part in the hostilities and the civilian population. The latter should be spared as much as
possible. Therefore, indiscriminate
attacks and use of indiscriminate weapons are prohibited. International humanitarian law is a body of
rules and principles that seek to mitigate the effects of war. It prohibits attacks which do not attempt to
distinguish between military targets and civilians or civilian objects
(indiscriminate attacks). It also
prohibits attacks which, although aimed at a legitimate military target, have a
disproportionate impact on civilians or civilian objects.
(2)
According to the Statute of the International Criminal Court,
"war crimes" include:
(a)
Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian
population as such or against
individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; and
(b)
Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such
attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to
civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural
environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and
direct overall military advantage anticipated.
b.
Civilian casualties
(1)
Many civilian injuries and deaths are reported in the sections
above, so we won’t report details here – just point you to several resources to
find more information.
(3)
The web site www.iraqbodycount.org
reports that between 5,530 and 7,200 civilian deaths have been reported. That web site says, “Casualty figures are
derived solely from a comprehensive survey of online media reports.”
(4)
An article on the web site of the British newspaper The
Herald reports that the civilian death count could go as high as 10,000;
the article is at
www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/23-5-19103-23-48-54.html.
