Hague Regulations

[NyChe21]

I was looking at some of the art posted and I would just like to know a little more about the Hague Regulations and how they are being violated by the Iraq situation.

[cormacobear]

The Hague conventions represent a vast archive of international law dating back centuries. Everyting from specific treaties to general articles of intl. law.

Here is a link to the 1907 declaration of the laws of land war. There are further texts regarding, air war, Naval Military Law, Biological weapons, Nuculear arms, etc.. I beleive youll find that the U.S. has broken them all at one time in the last 100 years. In regards to the articles of land war, most have been broken in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague04.htm

More recent are the Geneva Conventions. Whose articles the U.S. has also broken virtually all of. In particulair conventions 3 and 4, also the Universal Declaration of Human rights, Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954, Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity of 1968., Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects. Geneva of 1980. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984
Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction of 1993
Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997



http://www.genevaconventions.org/


In 1945, at the initiative of the United States of America, the General Assembly of the United Nations affirmed unanimously “the Principles of International Law recognized by the charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal.” In 1950, the International Law Commission formulated the Principles of Nuremberg.. In particular we can point to Principal III; The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him of responsibility under international law., Principal IV; The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible for him. Principle VI; The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law: a. Crimes against peace: (I) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances: (ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (I). B. War crimes: Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labour or for any other purpose of civilian population, of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity. C. Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation ant other inhuman acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried out on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or war crime.

This is hardly the most accurate site, but it gives you the gist of it, and I'm getting tired, so good night.

http://www.rise4news.net/Nuremberg_Principles.html

And this doesn't even touch on the United Nations. If I get time tommorow, i'll try and give a list of specific Iraqi war incidents and how they violate intl. law.

[cormacobear]

This page is a page of links to News stories regarding the War, I've selected a few that clearly show War crimes.

http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq.htm

Fallujah's Refugees

By Dahr Jamail
With over 300,000 homeless residents of Fallujah scattered about central Iraq, daily life for these refugees is a reality filled with searching for food, medical attention, warmth and clean water

The Quiet Of Destruction And Death

By Dahr Jamail
“I need another heart and eyes to bear it because my own are not enough to bear what I saw. Nothing justifies what was done to this city. I didn’t see a house or mosque that wasn’t destroyed.”
02 December, 2004

'Improved' Napalm For Falluja
With 'Improved' Effect

By Mike Whitney
The United States is using napalm in Falluja. So far, the military has denied the allegations, but the proof is mounting
01 December, 2004

Covering Up US War Crimes

By James Petras
The US mass media “reports”, the style, content and especially the language, echo their Nazi predecessors of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence?
30 November, 2004

'Unusual Weapons' Used In Fallujah

By Dahr Jamail
Eye witnesses testify that the U.S. military has used poison gas and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah

Allawi's Dictatorship

By Dahr Jamail
The rule of Ayad Allawi, the U.S. appointed interim prime minister of Iraq, is now more in the style of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein than a leader of a supposedly democratic state

Fallujah And The Laws Of War

By Richard Hoffman
Even as US forces launch new offensives against Iraqi cities, the flow of reports of serious war crimes committed by the American military in the assault on Fallujah continues

US Forces Raid A Mosque And
Murder The Worshippers

By Dahr Jamail
U.S. soldiers raided the Al- Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers

Congratulations American Heroes

By Baghdad Burning
They killed a wounded man. It's hard to believe. They killed a man who was completely helpless- like he was some sort of diseased animal. I had read the articles and heard the stories of this happening before- but to see it happening on television is something else

800 Civilians Feared Dead In Fallujah

By Dahr Jamail
According to estimates by a Red Cross official at least 800 civilians are believed to have been killed during the U.S. offensive in Fallujah

Mass Slaughter In Fallujah

By Doug Lorimer
The deliberate destruction of Falljuah hospitals was a clear indication that the US military wants to ensure that dead or injured Fallujah residents are not brought to the city's hospitals — so as to conceal the scale of civilian casualties

Children Pay A Price For Assault On Falluja

By Rory McCarthy and Osama Mansour
Evidence began to emerge of civilians, including children, who were seriously injured in the US assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja
16 November, 2004

Aid Convoy Turned Back From Falluja

By Aljazeera
An aid convoy has been forced to turn back from the beleaguered city of Falluja as more evidence emerged of a mounting humanitarian crisis on the eighth day of a US offensive to crush resistance forces

AP Photographer Flees Fallujah

By Katarina Kratovac
Bilal Hussein watched horrified as a family of five was shot dead as they tried to cross the Euphrates. Then, he "helped bury a man by the river bank, with my own hands."

Doctor Is Haunted By Siege Of Fallujah

By Alissa J. Rubin
"I think if the Americans let us treat the injured, even in the streets," Dr. Ahmed Ghanim said, "we could have saved hundreds."

Falluja's Looming Gendercide

By Adam Jones
"U.S. troops sealed all roads to Falluja and urged women, children and non-fighting age men to flee, but said they would arrest any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the city."

100,000 Iraqi Civilians Dead

By Sarah Boseley
About 100,000 Iraqi civilians - half of them women and children - have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces
October 2004(more than 3 months ago)

Iraq: 'Liberation' or War Crimes?

By Ghali Hassan
The Duelfer report also Confirm earlier reports, including the UNSCOM's, that Iraq had no WMD and that the war was unnecessary and illegal. This alone should be enough ground to indict George Bush, Tony Blair and their "coalition" with war crimes committed since 1991 against the Iraqi people
08 October, 2004

29 September, 2004
Anyone Remember Abu Ghraib?

By Robert Fisk
Kidnappers demand the release of women held prisoner by the Americans. Abu Ghraib is what they are talking about. Abu Ghraib? Anyone remember Abu Ghraib? Remember those dirty little snapshots?
28 September, 2004

Toxic Pollution And Mass Killings In Iraq

By Ghali Hassan
The American use of "depleted" uranium (DU) munitions to attack Iraq in the 1991 and 2003 wars has unleashed a toxic disaster that is much more dangerous and deadly than the crimes committed on Vietnam by the use of Agent Orange
24 September, 2004

Abuse, Torture And Rape Reported At
Unlisted U.S.-Run Prisons In Iraq

By Lisa Ashkenaz Croke
"Nobody talks about it. All everyone talks about is Abu Ghraib because of the pictures," said Alomari. "But in these other places, there’s tons of acts of torture, abuse, rape."

"Take Pictures - Show The World
The American Democracy"

By Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
On Sunday, 13 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in Baghdad when US helicopters fired on a crowd of unarmed civilians. G2 columnist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who was injured in the attack, describes the scene of carnage - and reveals just how lucky he was to walk away
31 July, 2004

The Secret File Of Abu Ghraib

By Osh Gray Davidson
New classified documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners

Etc. Etc. Etc.

The following page deals specifically with U.S. war crimes an their attempts to avoid Justice.

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-wendland220604.htm

Here's an excerpt from the Ohio Gren Parties Endictment.

"A. Whereas, the current Defense Policy of the United States is to wage “preemptive war” against countries who are deemed a threat; and,
B. Whereas, this Defense Policy was put into action by the Presidential Administration of George W. Bush, with active involvement of Vice President Richard Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and others, during the March, 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq; and,
C. Whereas, the United States is a signatory of the Charter of the United Nations, whose Chapter 7, Article 51, declares the only legal justification for engaging in military action without Security Council authorization is self-defense, or collective security actions, as authorized by the Security Council (Chapter 7 reproduced in its entirety, below); and,
D. Whereas, initiating a war of aggression was declared during the 1945-49 War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremburg to be a War Crime (see Article 6 of War Crimes Tribunal Charter, reproduced below); and,
F. Whereas, the Bush Administration’s rationale for embarking on the 2003 invasion of Iraq was that Iraq posed a threat to the United States and Iraq was in violation of multiple Security Council disarmament resolutions (none of which specifically authorized a military invasion); and
G. Whereas, the rapid dissolution of large-scale Iraqi resistance to the United States invasion with very light casualties among US forces is extremely strong evidence that Iraq was incapable of threatening the security of the United States; and,
H. Whereas, the United States failed to find substantial physical evidence that Iraq was in violation of the Security Council disarmament resolutions, despite a significant effort from April, 2003 to September, 2003 by US Government Personnel inside Iraq, to find such proof; and,
4. The United Nations is called upon to establish a War Crimes Tribunal for Iraq & Kuwait (modeled after the The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) and this Tribunal should initiate a War Crimes investigation of the leaders of the United States who authorized the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, specifically President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, such investigation to determine if War Crimes indictments should be prepared against those individuals, and calls for an investigation to determine who else could be charged. (Note: the results of the Nuremburg trials regarding the counts addressing “war of aggression,” reproduced below, may be instructive in identifying those individuals who should be tried.)"

Here's another Endictment.

Iraqi civilians are preparing a complaint to present in court in Belgium accusing allied commander Gen. Tommy Franks and other U.S. military officials of war crimes in Iraq, according to the attorney representing the plaintiffs.
The complaint will state that coalition forces are responsible for the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians, the bombing of a marketplace in Baghdad, the shooting of an ambulance, and failure to prevent the mass looting of hospitals, said Jan Fermon, a Brussels-based lawyer. He is representing about 10 Iraqis who say they were victims of or eyewitnesses to atrocities committed during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
But the complaint, which Mr. Fermon said will be officially filed in about two weeks, will accuse coalition forces of numerous atrocities in Iraq. Among them:
•The failure to prevent the mass looting of hospitals in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
•Eyewitness testimony of U.S. troops firing upon an ambulance.
•The indiscriminate shooting and wounding its driver by U.S. armored vehicles of civilians in Baghdad.
•The bombing of a marketplace in Baghdad that killed scores of civilians.
• The attack on a civilian bus with an "energy weapon" in the town of al-Hillah, killing at least 10 passengers

The use of Napalm where civilians may be injured is a specific war crime in of itself
U.S. Admits Using Napalm Bombs In Iraq: Report
"The U.S. is the only country that has used napalm for a long time. I am not aware of any other country that uses it," Pike

WASHINGTON, August 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the "horrible" weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion.
An upgraded type of the weapon, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns, was used in March and April 2003, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river, south of Baghdad, the Independent reported Sunday, August 10.
"We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches," the paper quoted Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, as saying.
"Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die," said Alles.
On March 22 a correspondent for Sydney Morning Herald, traveling with U.S. marines reported that napalm was used in an attack on Iraqi troops at Safwan Hill, near the Kuwait border.
His account was based on statements by two U.S. marines officers on the ground.
"Safwan Hill went up in a huge fireball and the observation post was obliterated. I pity anyone who is in there," a Marine sergeant said
The Pentagon insisted at the time the statement was "patently false".
"The U.S. took napalm out of service in the 1970s. We completed the destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm," Lieutenant-Commander Jeff Davis, from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Defense had said.
'Generals Love Napalm'
But a Pentagon official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday that U.S. forces used the new type against Iraqi forces in their drive towards Baghdad and defended their use as legal and necessary.
The official, who did not wish to be identified, said that U.S. marines jets dropped the fire bombs at least once to destroy Iraqi positions at Safwan.
"It is like this: you've got [an] enemy that's hard to get at. And it will save your own lives to use it. There were no international conventions against it, the official said.
Marines used the bombs on at least two other occasions during the drive to Baghdad, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported this week.
"The generals love napalm… it has a big psychological effect," the paper quoted Alles as saying.
Marine Corps Maj-Gen Jim Amos confirmed to the paper that napalm was used on several occasions in the invasion.
A 1980 U.N. convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm. The U.S., which did not sign the treaty, is one of the few countries that makes use of the weapon, as it was employed notoriously against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam war, according to the Independent.
The revelation that napalm was used in the invasion of Iraq, while the Pentagon denied it, has outraged opponents of the war.
"Most of the world understands that napalm and incendiaries are a horrible, horrible weapon," Robert Musil, director of the organization Physicians for Social Responsibility, told the British paper.
"It takes up an awful lot of medical resources. It creates horrible wounds." Musil said denial of its use "fits a pattern of deception [by the U.S. administration]".

All this info took less than 60 minutes to find, can you imagine what a team of trained International Attourneys, and honest journalists could uncover in a few months, it boggles the mind and turns the stomach. Because the war itself was illegal, all following activity by U.S., Australian, and British Governments and their soldiers is thus Illegal.

[cormacobear]

Here is a copy of the Beliun endictment against the leadership of The U.S. and Gr. Britian. The Government of the U.S. used malicious preasure to make Belgium change it's law, however there are currently endictments under consideration in the Phillipines, Ireland, and a growing movement preasuring Canada.

Undermining the UN and preventing it from carrying through its professed role of establishing and maintaining peace in the world;
Imposing a food and medicine embargo on the Iraqi people, affecting especially children, elderly, sick and women and causing the death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of civilians;
Concentrating its military forces in the countries and seas around Iraq, threatening Iraq and world peace by declaring openly that this was preparation for war and carrying through its threat;
Taking control of Iraq’s oil wealth, redrawing the borders of the countries of this region and hiding the real reason for this war from its own people and the world secure the borders of Israel, which is the only country in that region to have nuclear weapons;
Making false statements and deceiving its own citizens and the other nations of the world with the aim of spreading fear and hatred and thus neutralizing opposition to its own policies of aggression and occupation;
Ignoring the will and liberty of the Iraqi people by appointing a governing council and using this council as a means to impose its own decisions from the top after having overturned by military means the Iraqi government, attempting to destroy the historical values and cultures and the liberty and freedom to govern their own faith of the Iraqi people;
Bringing about the death of thousands of innocent civilians, making millions of them homeless and refugees in their own countries;
Creating wide-ranging and long-term environmental damage with its bombing and missile attacks towards Iraq. Even the excessive number of military flights has created air pollution over the usual amount. The thousands of tons of explosive materials have polluted the air with dangerous chemicals and the explosions have created clouds of dust and fires which lasted for days;
Destroying basic foodstuffs essential for the people of Iraq. Carrying through missile attacks that systematically destroyed fundamental manufacturing, stocking, distribution, health and irrigation facilities related to the provision of food, water, electricity, medicines and health services to the people of Iraq;
Destroying or seriously damaging the buildings of the economic, social, cultural, health provision, diplomatic and religious institutions of Iraq. Organizing destructive and harmful attacks with the aim of destroying the economic and social structure of Iraq;
Looting and permitting the looting of the museums, libraries and ancient artifacts in Baghdad and Basra;
Using banned weapons analogous to weapons of mass destruction that cause mass killings.
Threatening with aggression, imposing economic pressure and sanctions and offering bribes, with the aim of gaining individual and governmental level support to its policies of aggression and occupation;
Arresting, kidnapping, murdering people in extra-judicial ways and subjecting them to physical and moral torture;
Preventing people that have been detained from sleeping, obliging them to stay in painful positions, keeping them for a long time with their heads covered, firing on detainees, damaging or confiscating objects found in houses during searches, keeping people in prisons under unacceptable conditions or in excessively hot tents, keeping them in camps without water and sanitary facilities;
Initiating bidding processes regarding the oil wealth of Iraq and taking other decisions about this, even though it has no right or authority;
Refusing to ratify the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court based in The Hague with the aim of escaping prosecution for the crimes its military troops and civilian authorities committed and are going to commit, including crimes against humanity, the crime of genocide, war crimes;
Using international media under its control to depict the Iraqi people as a primitive society requiring modernization and made up of potential terror supporters and murderers, with the aim of gaining support for its aggression.