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A STOP THE WAR INITIATIVE
Letter to UN and UK Attorney General
Bringing War Criminals to account
(email: to add your name to 'in support' list - see bottom)
On 7th December 2005 Tony Benn and forty three others, including Rose Gentle, Reg Keys, Harold Pinter, and Michael Mansfield QC, sent a letter to The UN and to the UK Attorney General asking them to investigate breaches of The Nuremberg Charter and Geneva and Hague Conventions during the Iraq
War, and to bring those responsible to account. The UK is obliged as a Signator to The Conventions to investigate these charges. STOP THE WAR asks you to join as supplementary signatories by e-mail, or post. We want these signatures to be without end or time limit, and, as citizens of the UK, to make it clear, that the Attorney General must fulfill his obligations. Alternatively we risk these Conventions being torn up, and in the words of Harold Pinter, we will have "torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder," without cease. We want to restore dignity, and humanity to our country, not the rule of Abu Ghraib, the dog lead, and Fallujah
If you agree with the Tony Benn Submission which follows, can you please send your name to the Stop The War e-mail site ([email protected]), or by post to Stop The War, 27 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JP, where it will be recorded and passed to the UN and Attorney General. Your e-mail address will be kept secret.
Lindsey German, and Nicholas Wood on behalf of Tony Benn.
I.........???????????????????????
AGREE WITH THE TONY BENN SUBMISSION OF 7 DEC 2005
Dated ............................
REQUEST TO KOFI ANNAN, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS, AND TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
With Reference to The Iraq War 2003 - 20005
This is a request to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN that he should instigate an investigation into the claims listed in the attachment to this memorandum. It is also jointly addressed to Lord Goldsmith the Attorney General of the UK. The UK is a High Contracting Party and Signatory to The Geneva and Hague Conventions and Protocols and The Nuremberg Charter of 1945, and of The Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court. It is thus appropriate that The Attorney General should investigate what appear to be grave breaches of these Conventions and Protocols, and of UN General Assembly Resolution No 95, before and during the Iraq War 2003 - 2005.
We are concerned that, should these breaches be established, those responsible should be held to account. This is urgent. It appears that many breaches, even now, are continuing to take place.
Submitted by: Tony Benn, Mrs Rose Gentle MFSO mum of Gordon Gentle killed in Iraq 28:7:04, Reg Keys, Harold Pinter, Prof. Richard Dawkins, Bruce Kent, Lindsey German Convenor Stop The War Coalition, Michael Mansfield QC, Corin Redgrave, Jemma Redgrave, Andrew Burgin, Mark Steel, Brian Sewell Columnist on the London "Evening Standard", Professor Ted Honderich, Dr Martha Mundy Reader in Anthropology LSE, David Halpin FRCS, Sara Wood , Nicholas Wood RIBA FRGS, Andreas Whittam Smith, Lord Nicolas Rea, Hywel Williams MP for Caernarfon, Peter Day, Anabella Pellens, Nicolas Kent, Theatre Director, Alan Plater, Jonathan Price, Willy Russell, Writer, Ralph Steadman, Anna Steadman, Dr C.J.Burns-Cox, Consultant Physician MD FRCP, Michael Naish, Richard Gott, Celia Mitchell, Adrian Mitchell, Una Doyle, NUT, Geoff Evans Bsc Hons Dip LP, Dr Margaret Evans Phd BSc Hons, David Levitt, David Gentleman, Artist, Julian Rea, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Salmond MP, Leader SNP.
Supplementary signatories: George Galloway MP, Cicely and Ian Herbert, Elfyn Llwyd MP, Parliamentary Leader Plaid Cymru, Maureen Hinton, Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Baroness Dr Jenny Tonge, Roger Lloyd Pack, Actor, Jehane Markham Writer, Vanessa Redgrave, Adam Price MP, Bill Paterson, Angela Flowers, Ken Loach, Dr Eric Herring, John McDonnel MP, Paul Mackney General Secretary NATFHE, Martin Rowson Cartoonist, Michael Gambon,
Submission: We allege that the breaches committed by the UK Government and the USA in coalition partnership during the period 2002 - 2005 outlined as a selection in summary are as follows:-
1 Crimes Against Peace: Planning and Conducting an Aggressive War using deceit, including deliberately falsifying reports to arouse passion in support of this war .
2 Failure to ensure public order and safety by disbanding the army and police of Iraq, without properly replacing those functions.
3 Extensive destruction of service infrastructure, including drinking water, sewage systems, telephones and electricity supply, with grave consequences to the inhabitants of Iraq, especially in hospitals.
4 Deliberate damage to hospitals and medical facilities and personnel including the shooting up of Red Crescent ambulances, and prevention of movement of ambulances.
5 Failure to prohibit looting and arson resulting in the despoliation and pillage of museums, libraries, archaeological sites, hospitals, administrative buildings and state records.
6 Failure to respect cultural property including the use of the Babylon archaeological site as a military camp.
7 Economic exploitation of occupied territories by orders of The Provisional Coalition Administration to the benefit of foreign interests, including the use of Production Sharing Agreements, and IMF rules, even
though warnings were made by the Attorney General that these may be construed as contrary to International Law.
8 Seizing botanical assets by Provisional Coalition Administration Order 81, which ends the prohibition of private ownership of biological resources, and introduces foreign monopoly rights over seeds.
9 Political persecution by initially sacking all Baath Party members, thereby very severely reducing the administrative and professional class who had been obliged to be members.
10 Religious persecution: US Defence Secretary memo of 2 December 2002 sanctioned the use of religious humiliation against detainees.
11 Use of cable ties as a restraint to detainees' wrists causing injury and unnecessary suffering .
12 Use of hooding detainees, wilfully causing mental suffering, especially when used for prolonged periods, or when combined with assault.
13 Use of dogs as a means of obtaining information authorised by US Defence Secretary memo of 2 Dec 2002.
14 Forcing detainees to stand for many hours as a means of obtaining information authorised by US Defence Secretary memo of 2 December 2002, and practised at Abhu Ghraib and other US prisons.
15 Sexual and bodily humiliation of detainees, including rapes, and stripping naked for long periods.
16 Aggressive patrolling with indiscriminate mass arrests of males, including 14 year olds, indiscriminate destruction of property, and invasion of women's' quarters contrary to tenets of the Koran.
17 Killing and wounding treacherously by indiscriminate shooting at check points, strafing of groups of obvious civilians, and disproportionate use of force in residential areas.
18 Degrading treatment of detainees by marking foreheads and bodies with indelible marker pens as a means of identification and control.
19 Use of cluster bombs on grounds of military expediency. As well as being munitions causing random unnecessary suffering by steel spicules, incendiary and depleted uranium bomblets, a large number don't explode, effectively becoming land mines.
20 Use of depleted uranium shells, on the grounds of military expediency, causing a very long term legacy of radioactive damage to the environment, cancers and birth defects.
21 Use of white phosphorous (WP) chemical munitions.
22 Collective penalties in Fallujah during the first assault of April 2004 when 1,000 Iraqis including 600 women and children were killed.
23 Evacuation of Fallujah, ( a city nearly the size of Cardiff) in preparation for a second disproportionate assault in November 2004, which employed the use of starvation and thirst on an entire population, targeting of hospitals, medical staff and ambulances, indiscriminate shooting of non combatants and destruction of private and state property
24 Failure to keep a proper record of POW names and locations.
25 Failure to treat POWs humanely, especially those held in the open in the sun.
26 Abolition of Habeas Corpus: holding an estimated 30,000 prisoners without charge or trial over an indefinite period:
27 Failure to record Iraqi deaths and injuries with consequent failure to determine proportionality or medical requirements of survivors. Also causing unnecessary suffering to relatives of the deceased.
28 Unilaterally holding that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to certain actions, especially to the use of private security contractors, and mercenaries and to the detention of certain types of enemy combatants.
EVIDENCE
Much of the evidence for these actions, which we believe are contrary to International Law, are now in the public domain: for instance: The Secret memo from David Manning to The Prime Minister dated 14 March 2002, The Confidential and Personal memo from The British Ambassador to the USA to the Prime Minister dated 18 March 2002. Clare Short's book "Honourable Deception?" Greg Dyke's "Inside Story", Robert Fisk's " The Great War for Civilisation", President Chirac's interview of 10 March 2003, Hansard, the British Museum sponsored book on the looting of Iraq's National Museum and use of Babylon as a US base, the report on the destruction of "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation" by Dahr Jamail, Lee Gordon's eye witness account in 'Camden New Journal' of the shooting up of ambulances in Fallujah, The Peacerights Report of the Inquiry into the alleged Commission of War Crimes by Coalition Forces in The Iraq War During 2003 ", The Rumsfeld memo of 2 December 2003, gun film footage of the F16 strike against civilians in Fallujah, photographs of mistreatment of POWs at Abhu Ghraib.
More detailed evidence for all these atrocities will be provided by us if so required.
Signed.....................................Tony Benn, 7th December 2005
Letters in identical terms have been signed and approved by those listed above.
In support: Ricky Thamman, Randolph Riddle (USA), Timothy Pinney, Mark McGovern, Roger Nettleship, Niall Taylor, Tony Dowling, Richard Wilson, Philip Challinor, Susan Pishgar (USA), Theodore Turner, Damuel Rowlands, Charles Jenks (US), Averil Parkinson, James Williams, Andrew Seal, Scott Bush, John Downing, Richard Searle, Chris Shaw, Shaun Tinsley, Alan Brunsdon, David Kilczycki, Simon Banfield, MJ Deva, Michael Bentley, Angie Roche, Florence Durrant, Patricia Sheerin, Maggie Richman, Sylvia Fernandes-DeMelo, Carlos Soto, Stewart McCafferty, Marie Xenophontos, Kathleen Charlton, Valerie Duncan, Barbara Mastropino, Sanjeev Chowdhury, Peter Green, Alan Ledger, Julie Nicholson, Fiona Evans, Michael T. Darwyne, Helen Towers, Tom Wills, David Wilson, Steve Parsons, Marianne Bennett, Sarah Meyer, Alys Elica Zaerin, Kevin Joseph Duckworth, Gillian Hitchcock, Graham Gavin
iraqbodycount.org
CIVILIAN DEATHS
Latest updates:
Dec 06: 40-43 by suicide bombers at Baghdad police academy
Dec 06: 2 Islamic Union members in Zakho
Dec 06: Two council employees in Al-Rashad
Dec 06: Three oil company guards nr. Sherqat
Dec 06: Three by bomb at cafe, Zafaraniya, Baghdad
Dec 06: One in crossfire in Ramadi
Dec 01: Electoral board member in Baquba
Dec 05: 9 men found shot dead near Fallujah
Dec 06: 9 men found shot dead near Mussayyib
Dec 05: Eleven bodies found shot dead in Rutba
Dec 05: Electoral Commission official nr. Baquba
Dec 04: University professor in Sadr City, Baghdad
Dec 04: Police official shot dead, Al-Adil, Baghdad
Dec 04: Two by bomb in Tahrir Square, Baghdad
Dec 04: Shiite cleric in Zayouna, Baghdad
Dec 03: Policeman shot dead in Kirkuk
Dec 01: Political candidate in Amarah
Dec 01: 3 crushed in car near Kifl
Dec 01: 4 found shot dead between Qaim and Rutba
Nov 30: 9 labourers near Abu Saida
Nov 29: 2 Christian political party members, Mosul
Nov 28: Sunni cleric and friend, Al-Ubaydi, Baghdad
Nov 28: Baghdad mayor's guard, Albaya, Baghdad
Nov 28: Guard of Interior Ministry official, Mahaweel
Nov 27: Sunni cleric shot dead in Fallujah
Nov 28: 2 political officials, driver near Abu Ghraib
Nov 28: 2 TV journalists in Adil, Baghdad
Nov 28: Three pilgrims shot dead, Dora, Baghdad
Nov 27: Tribal leader shot dead in Baiji
Nov 27: Crimes Unit officer in Kerbala
Nov 26: One shot dead in southwestern Baghdad
Nov 26: 3-5 by suicide car bomb near Samarra
Nov 26: Four by bomb, Qahtan Square, Baghdad
Nov 25: One by roadside bomb in Samarra
Nov 25-26: Sunni cleric kidnapped, shot, in Basra
Nov 24: 20-31 by suicide car bomb, Mahmudiya iraqbodycount.org
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has added a new journalThe government's anti-terror bill, which introduces a new criminal offence of "glorifying terrorist acts", is still so widely drawn that it is incompatible with the Human Rights Act and will face challenges in the courts, a committee of MPs and peers warned yesterday.
Parliament's joint human rights committee also warns peers debating the terror bill this week that the 28 days detention without charge compromise still leaves the measure vulnerable to court challenges, even if the risks are less than when the original 90 days was proposed.
The highly critical report from a committee which includes some of parliament's leading human rights campaigners came as ministers prepare to drop their plan to give the police powers to close down mosques and other places of worship used to foment extremism.
The government also tabled amendments to the bill yesterday making clear that academics and librarians will not be caught by its provisions designed to outlaw the training of terrorists. University vice-chancellors had raised concerns over the proposed new criminal offence of giving instruction or training to an individual they know or suspect to be planning to use the knowledge to carry out a terrorist attack. The amendments tabled yesterday make clear that professional scientists or university librarians will not face prosecution if they lecture or lend books which contain material which could be useful to terrorists unless they know, and not merely suspect, that the student involved has malign intentions.
The proposal to close mosques which foment extremism has met fierce criticism from Muslims, who regard it as a form of collective punishment, and from senior police officers who say they would rather target individuals. It is expected that the proposal, which is not included in the bill but was floated by Tony Blair, will be quietly dropped.
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is also believed to be prepared to amend the proposed "glorification" offence if opposition parties unblock the incitement to religious hatred legislation, which is facing strong criticism in the House of Lords. However, opposition peers see similar problems with both measures.
The joint human rights committee report published yesterday said that the new offence of indirect incitement to terrorist acts or encouraging terrorism was insufficiently "legally certain" in the way it is drafted to escape a human rights challenge. The peers and MPs say "glorification" is too vague a legal concept, and the definition of terrorism is too wide and lacks any reference to the intention of the accused. It recommends that a "reasonable excuse" or "public interest" defence needs to be added to make it acceptable.
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has added a new journalMemorizing Quran:
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Learning Quran meanings/Memorizing:
Break down for quran words and their meanings, pdf document titled "Dictionary of Quran"
(u will have to login in your yahoo account and become member... then it will apear)
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Understand the Holy Quran They Easy Way www.understandquran.com)1.asp
Online Quran Mushaf: -->http://www.qurancomplex.org/Quran/display/Display.asp?TabID=1& special=1& SubItemID=3& l=arb
Rules of Recitation: -->http://quran.al-islam.com/Ahkam/Tree.asp?ID=1& t=TreeSub& l=eng& RecNo=2& Parnt=0
Study Guide with tafseer for Juz Amma: www.emanrush.com
Tafsir for full quran (Ibn Katheer): tafsir.com
Praying like the Prophet:
Pray like the Prophet (pbuh) book available free online: www.qss.org
Duas of Prophet :
www.muslimaccess.com makedua.com www.thedua.net
Learning Arabic:
Medinah University Books: www.fatwa-online.com
Arabic Book online/audio:-->http://www.mediu.org/emaahad/ebooks/level1/index.htm#
The Complete Islamic University Of Medinah Two Year Arabic Curriculum: www.memphisdawah.com
Translate English to arabic: translate.sakhr.com
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has added a new journalUS Forces Starving Iraqi Civilians: UN
BAGHDAD, October 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) ? The UN special rapporteur on the right to food has accused the US-led occupation forces of starving Iraqis civilians in besieged cities and depriving them of water to force them.
"A drama is taking place in total silence in Iraq, where the coalition's occupying forces are using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population," Jean Ziegler told a press conference Friday, October 14, reported Reuters.
He stressed that Iraqi and US-led forces cut off or restricted food and water to force residents in Fallujah, Tal Afar and Samarra to flee before onslaughts allegedly targeting entrenched resistance fighters.
The Iraqi army announced Thursday, September 22, the end of the "successful" Tal Afar offensive, which involved 6,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by 4,000 US troops and claimed the lives of 157 "rebels".
US air strikes and bombardment have sent residents into panicky flight from the city, ending up in a refugee camp on the city?s peripheries where they faced serious shortages of clean water, food and medicine.
Resistance hub Fallujah was the scene of one of the bloodiest US raids in November 2004 with at least 700 people killed, including children and women, and thousands injured.
Amnesty International has harshly criticized the US for killing dozens of civilians in a number of deadly consecutive air strikes into the war-battered city.
Law-breaching
Ziegler, a former Swiss sociology professor, lashed out at the American practice as "a flagrant violation of international law".
He underlined that the Geneva Conventions on warfare, which form the basis of international humanitarian law, not only forbid starving civilians, but actually make the occupying force responsible to provide it.
Two 1977 protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which lay down rules of conduct in armed conflicts, ban using deprivation of food or water as a weapon of war.
They also prohibit destruction of food stocks or interruption of food supply lines.
Ziegler said that he had been in touch with British authorities on the issue, and "a channel seems to be opening", but that attempts to start a dialogue with US authorities had been fruitless.
He would present a report on 27 October at the UN General Assembly in New York expressing his personal "outrage" at the practice and calling on countries to "condemn this strategy" in a resolution.
The UN official presents an oral report each autumn at the UN General Assembly and a written report each spring at the 53-nation UN Human Rights Commission.
Denial
The UN official said Iraqi and US-led forces cut off or restrict food and water to force residents in besieged towns to leave.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt-Col Steve Boylan, dismissed the criticism as inaccurate.
"Any accusations of coalition forces refusing basic needs from the citizens of Iraq are completely false," he said.
Boylan maintained that they "take all precautions to ensure that the Iraqi people are taken care of".
"There have in the past ... been some supplies that have been delayed due to combat operations, but they were due to transit the area once it was deemed safe. It does not do relief supplies any good if you have them going into a firefight."
Yet, Ziegler insisted that civilians who could not leave besieged cities and towns for whatever reason should not suffer as a result of this strategy.
In a report to the UN Human Rights Commission in September, Ziegler concluded that twice as many children are malnourished in Iraq now as there were when the US invaded Iraq in March 2003.
"Malnutrition rates in children under five have almost doubled since the US-led intervention - to nearly 8 percent by the end of 2004," the report said.
link: www.islamonline.net
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has added a new journalA friend of mine has drafted a petition about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan. We have gathered nearly 5000 hard copy signatures and another 2000 online. Below is the link to the online version of the petition. If you would not mind, please email, IM, etc. this link to anyone you know. Our goal is 50000 signatures by September (my friend will be traveling to DC to deliver the petition to several Congresspeople). Thank you for your help and I hope you are all doing well.
www.petitiononline.com