Home > WTI, world tribunal on iraq - Brussells
Questioning the New Imperial World Order
A Hearing on the Project for the New American Century ( PNAC)
[hosted by Beursschouwburg and Les Halles]
Conclusions of the commission
Saturday April 17 2004.
"To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace." - Tacitus
The Brussells Tribunal is a hearing committee composed of academics, intellectuals and artists in the tradition of the Russell Tribunal, set up in 1967 to investigate war crimes committed during the Vietnam War. The hearing is scheduled for 14-17th April 2004 at The Beursschouwburg and Les Halles in Brussels. It will be presided by Professor François Houtart, one of the founding fathers of the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre. It is directed against the war in Iraq and the Imperial war policies of the Bush II administration. Its main focus will be the ŒProject for the New American Century¹, the think tank behind this war, in particular three of the co-signatories of the mission statement: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, as they are the physical link between the discourse and the brutal practice of the New Imperial World Order as designed by PNAC. Read more...
"Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. Your wealth has been stripped of you by unjust men ... The government of Iraq , and the future of your country, will soon belong to you. ... We will end a brutal regime ... so that Iraqis can live in security.²
General F. S. Maude, commander of the British forces, to the people of Mesopotamia , 1917
The BRussells Tribunal:
Conclusions of the commission
Consistent with the tradition of the 1967 Russell Tribunal on the Vietnam War and the work of the People¹s permanent tribunal and other similar tribunals such as the one held in Brussels in 1991, the BRussells Tribunal met on 14-17 April 2004. This Tribunal is the opening session of the World Tribunal on Iraq, a series of hearings scheduled to conclude in Istanbul in 2005.
The BRussells Tribunal focused on the programs and policies proposed by ³The Project for the New American Century² (PNAC), a predominantly neo-conservative ³think-tank² that has advocated global US hegemony, primarily through the threat or use of military power. The objective of the Tribunal, working as a commission of inquiry, was to establish whether there was a link between PNAC¹s proposals and the foreign and military strategy of the current US government, and the subsequent invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Commission also examined the impact of policies and programs advocated by PNAC on the stability and security of international relations.
To establish its findings and shape its report the Commission heard testimony from specialists on international affairs and witnesses knowledgeable about the current conditions in Iraq. The Commission also relied on PNAC¹s reports and official US government documents, as well as written analyses (*). The Commission came to the following conclusions:
First. The PNAC program consists of three main components:
to establish US hegemony in the new century, relying primarily on military and technological superiority; to prevent the emergence of any competing global or regional powers by imposing what is sometimes termed a ³Pax Americana²; to exercise pre-emptive action against all perceived threats to American ³interests² and security.
Second. A significant number of signatories to PNAC¹s 1997 founding Statement of Principles² became senior members of the current US administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. The adoption of those principles by this administration is evidenced by official White House documents such as ³The National Security Strategy² of September 2002. These principles have been put into action through the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Third. According to a clear majority of States and a large consensus of legal experts, the invasion of Iraq constitutes an act of aggression, a breach of one of the most fundamental norms of the international legal order. This demonstrates that the implementation of policies emanating from PNAC and endorsed by the current administration runs counter to the principles of the UN Charter and undermines the United Nations itself, which bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Fourth. The invasion of Iraq has resulted in more than 10.000 civilian deaths. With each passing day of occupation, the number of victims grows, as do the gross violations of humanitarian law and human rights, such as arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and deprivation in regard to basic needs. The situation of the Iraqi people has clearly deteriorated and the promises of democracy and freedom have proved to be illusory. The constant use of the words ³democracy², ³freedom² and ³human rights² in such a context amounts to a complete perversion of those terms.
Fifth. Far from bringing stability and peace in Iraq and the region, the invasion and occupation have created instability and chaos. Moreover, the deliberate destruction of Iraq has effectively promoted the Israeli government¹s policies of further unlawful expansion and de facto annexation of territories as well as further annihilation of the rights of the Palestinian people. The Tribunal noted that PNAC itself called explicitly in 2002 for the US administration to align itself with the views of the Israeli government. These developments increase hostility between the peoples of the region and the West, contrary to the proclaimed objectives of making the world a safer place.
Sixth. There is evidence of a consistent US strategy, as envisioned by the PNAC report entitled ³Rebuilding America¹s Defences², to establish global domination by military means. Contrary to claims that this domination would be a ³benevolent hegemony², it is more likely to lead to a state of permanent war. PNAC policies are based on brutal unilateralism and disregard for legality. As such, the ideas of PNAC constitute an intellectual crime. The war in Iraq is only one element of a global agenda which is linked with logics of the dominant economic system, inspired by neo-conservative ideology and supported by religious fundamentalism.
Seventh. Due to the growing resistance encountered by the occupying powers in Iraq and other unanticipated difficulties, the United States and United Kingdom have made cynical requests for the involvement of the United Nations in Iraq, thereby pre-empting the sovereign rights of the Iraqi people to determine their future. The United Nations should avoid complicity with — let alone legitimise in any way — the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Any such action would further discredit this world body. The UN should restore its legitimacy through ensuring the complete withdrawal of all occupying forces and assisting the Iraqi people in recovering their full sovereignty. Any involvement of the European Union or of NATO to help the occupying powers should be refused.
Finally, the Tribunal calls upon the peoples of the world to demand that their governments deny military, political, financial or any other support to the occupying powers; and oppose the illegal implementation by occupation forces or their surrogates of any plans for the wholesale privatization of the Iraqi economy. The Tribunal also expresses its solidarity with the Iraqi people and its support for their attempts at recovering their full sovereignty.
Saturday April 17 2004.
François Houtart, Prof. Emeritus UCL, director of Centre Tricontinental;
Pierre Klein, prof. International Law at ULB;
Ludo Abicht, Prof. Emeritus UA, author
Samir Amin, author and director of "Forum du Tiers Monde";
Denis Halliday, Former UN assistant secretary general to Iraq;
Sabah Al Mukhtar, president of the Arab Association of Democratic Lawyers;
Nawal El Saadawi, medical doctor and novelist
François Houtart (Chairman) - Belgium
Director of the Tricontinental Center (Cetri), which purpose is to "bring to knowledge the point of view of the South in the actual context of globalization, to diffuse alternative proposals, elaborated by the South, and to contribute to an in depth thinking on social movements ".
After graduating in Philosophy and Theology, he was ordored priest in 1949. Licensed in Political and Social Sciences as well as from the Higher International Applied Urbanism Institute of Brussels, he is the author of numerous publications concerning socio-religious researches, and participated as an expert to the works of Concile Vatican II (1962-1965). He is a spiritual father and a member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum of Porto Alegre, Executive Secretary of the Alternative World Forum, and President of the International League for rights and liberation of people.
Unavoidable character of the alter-globalization movements, he participated to numerous works on globalization, social stuggles, and regularly collaborates with Le Monde Diplomatique. More...
Pierre Klein (Secretary) - Belgium
Professeur de droit international à l’Université libre de Bruxelles et directeur du Centre de droit international de cette Université. Il a dispensé divers enseignements de droit international public à l’Université d’Ottawa, à l’Université McGill, à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, à l’Université catholique de Louvain, à l¹Université d¹Abomey-Calavi (Bénin) et à l¹Université nationale du Vietnam à Hanoï. Il est l¹auteur ou le co-auteur de trois ouvrages (Droit d’ingérence ou obligation de réaction ? - Les possibilités d’action visant à assurer le respect des droits de la personne face au principe de non-intervention, La responsabilité des organisations internationales dans les ordres juridiques internes et en droit international et Bowett’s Law of International Institutions et de plus de trente-cinq études de droit international publiées dans la Revue belge de droit international, l’Annuaire français de droit international, le Journal européen de droit international/European Journal of International Law, la Revue québécoise de droit international, la Revue de droit de l’U.L.B., ainsi que dans des ouvrages collectifs. Parallèlement à ses activités académiques, il intervient également en qualité de conseil dans plusieurs affaires portées devant la Cour internationale de Justice. More...
Samir Amin (Commission) - Egypt / Senegal
Egyptian-born and trained in Paris, one of the better known thinkers of his generation, both in development theory as well as in the relativistic-cultural critique of social sciences. Between 1957 and 1960, worked for the economical development administration in Egypt. From 1960 to 1963, councellor for the governement of Mali. In 1970 Director ot the African Institute for the Economical Development and Planification. Currently Director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal, an international pool of academics from Africa, Asia and South-America.
Promotor of the conscious self-reliance of developing countries, he has written extensively on economics, development and international affairs. More...
Jean Bricmont (Commission) - Belgium
Jean Bricmont is professor in theoretical physics at the University of Louvain, Belgium. Researcher in statistic physics, he is also President of the French Scientific Information Association, and shares his time between his scientific research and his involvment in the struggle against imperialism.
Strong critic of the intellectual world, he is the co-writter with Alan Sokal, of Les impostures intellectuelles which denounces the drifts of post-modernism, especially the systematic abuses of words and theories barrowed from science lexical by authors of this stream.
Recognized as a specialist of United States¹ foreign policy, he regularly contributes to discussions and thinking platforms dealing with the alternatives to neoliberalism, and resistance to the United States¹ diplomacy.
Author of numerous books, he co-writed with Noam Chomsky, Anne Morelli and Naomi Klein : La fin de¹la fin de l¹Histoire¹ (The end of ŒThe end of History). This book was in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and to Francis Fukuyama¹s thesis. More...
Denis Halliday (Commission) - Ireland
Appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annanto the post of United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq as of 1 September 1997, at the Assistant Secretary-General level, and served as such until end September 1998. During this period, the Security Council Resolution 986 ³Oil for Food² Programme, introduced in 1996/97 to assist the people of Iraq under the Economic Sanctions imposed and sustained by the Security Council, was more than doubled in terms of oil revenues allowed. This enabled the introduction of a multi-sectoral approach, albeit modest, to the problems of resolving malnutrition and child mortality. Mr Halliday resigned from the post in Iraq and from the United Nations as a whole effective 31 October 1998 after serving the Organisation since mid 1964 - some 34 years. More...
Sabah Al Mukhtar (Commission) - Iraq / UK
President of the Arab Lawyers Association (UK).
Partner and founder of the Arab Lawyers Network, London.
Acts as a consultant of Arab law in London.
Vice chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, Legal Affairs Committee.
Secretary of PRICE, a Fund established under UK law with the aim of promoting remedies for injurious consequences of economic sanctions and other forms of economic coercion. More...
Nawal El Saadawi (Commission) - Egypt
Leading Egyptian feminist, socialist, medical doctor and novelist. Director of Health and Education in Cairo, editing a magazine called ³Health² and focusing on preventive medicine. But her wrinting¹s on women¹s issues and her fearlessness in confronting cultural taboos led her being fired from her post in 1972.
In 1981 she was imprisoned by Anwar Sadat for ³alleged crimes against the State² and was not released until after Sadat¹s assassination by his successor, Hosni Mubarak.
In 1992, the Arab Women¹s Solidarity Association she had founded was closed down for opposing Egypt¹s role in the U.S.-led Persian Gulf War.
Nawal El Saadawi is one of the most widely translated contemporary Egyptian writers, her work available in 12 languages. More...
Haifa Zangana (Witness) - Iraq / UK
Haifa Zangana, writer and humanist, grew up between the Baghdad of her mother and the Kurdistan of her father: a seamless mix of identity between the overwhelmingly male society of Baghdad, and the cool mountains of Kurdistan, where women never covered their faces and could inherit property.
Haifa was imprisoned by the Ba¹ath regime in the early 1970s. She escaped execution, released because the Ba¹athists needed the help of the Left to consolidate their supremacy.
"You are "either with us or against us", they say. As an Iraqi that means choosing between war and the dictator. To be on the side of the oppressed does not mean we are unaware of the complexity of the situation. To campaign for the lifting of sanctions, for an end to the paralysing bombardment and daily threat of war is to stand by the Iraqi people; it is that policy which will help them to change the oppressive regime. Any change should be initiated from within Iraq, not imposed by Bush or Blair." More...
Karen Parker (Prosecution) - USA
Attorney who practices human rights and humanitarian law fulltime. She is responsible, in part, for the evolution of international law in such areas as economic sanctions, weaponry, environment as a human right, and the rights of the disabled. She also consults and serves as an expert witness in legal disputes involving the application of armed conflict law. As for affiliations, she is currently the chief delegate forInternational Educational Development - Humanitarian Law Project, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) accredited by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). She has also represented or served as a consulting attorney for Disabled Peoples International, Human Rights Advocates, and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. More...
Felicity Arbuthnot (Prosecution) - UK
Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist specialising in social and environmental issues with special knowledge of Iraq, a country which she has visited thirty times since the 1991 Gulf war.
With former UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Co-ordinator in Iraq, Denis Halliday, she was senior Iraq researcher for John Pilger©-s Award winning documentary: "Paying the Price - Killing the Children of Iraq (Carlton/ITV March 2000)
Arbuthnot has been nominated for a number of Awards for her coverage of Iraq, including the (EC) Lorenzo Natali Award for Human Rights Journalism, the Millenium Prize for Women; the Courage of Conscience Award and an Amnesty International Media Award. More...
Haifa Zangana (Witness) - Iraq / UK
Haifa Zangana, writer and humanist, grew up between the Baghdad of her mother and the Kurdistan of her father: a seamless mix of identity between the overwhelmingly male society of Baghdad, and the cool mountains of Kurdistan, where women never covered their faces and could inherit property. Haifa was imprisoned by the Ba¹ath regime in the early 1970s. She escaped execution, released because the Ba¹athists needed the help of the Left to consolidate their supremacy. "You are "either with us or against us", they say. As an Iraqi that means choosing between war and the dictator. To be on the side of the oppressed does not mean we are unaware of the complexity of the situation. To campaign for the lifting of sanctions, for an end to the paralysing bombardment and daily threat of war is to stand by the Iraqi people; it is that policy which will help them to change the oppressive regime. Any change should be initiated from within Iraq, not imposed by Bush or Blair." More...
Ramsey Clark (Witness / Video testimony) - USA
Director of the American Judicature Society in 1963. Assistant Attorney General of United States by President John F. Kennedy, served to 1965; From 1964 to 1965: national president of the Federal Bar Association. Nominated Deputy Attorney General by President Lyndon B. Johnson, served to 1967; On March 2, 1967, President Johnson appointed him Attorney General of the United States. He served in that capacity until January 20, 1969. Founder and chairperson of the International Action Center. After the Gulf War, in 1991, initiated a war-crimes tribunal, which tried and found guilty President George Bush and Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, among others. He went on to write a book, The Fire This Time, describing the crimes he says were committed by U.S. and NATO forces during the Gulf War.
Ramsey Clark is a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award. More...
Armand Clesse (Witness) - Luxemburg
Director of the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies. He has published and edited various books on European and international affairs.
Armand Clesse is part of the Luxembourg-Harvard Association, established in 1987 at the invitation of Jacques Santer, Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
In October 1990, Clesse founded the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies which provided an institutional framework for activities that were previously organized by the Luxembourg-Harvard Association. More...
Michel Collon (Witness) - Belgium
Auteur du livre ’Attention Médias! Les médias-mensonges du Golfe’, Bruxelles, EPO, 1992
Spécialiste des stratégies de guerre
Pour développer un journalisme alternatif, à la base, il donne régulièrement des formations à des non-professionnels.
Auteur des livres : attention médias, poker menteur, monopoly (édition EPO)
Liar’s Poker illuminates the fundamental interests of the Great Powers and their strategic interests in controlling oil routes and key areas of the world. It offers the reader an efficient guide for understanding international policy for next 20 years. And the true long-term goals of these powers: dominating Russia and China. More...
Sara Flounders (Witness) - USA
International Action Center national co-director, was part of the prosecutor team of the International Tribunal for U.S./NATO warcrimes in Yugoslavia. She visited Yugoslavia with Ramsey Clark while the bombs were falling, and participated in the tribunal hearings in over a half-dozen U.S. cities and in Berlin and Rome.
Flounders, an activist for over three decades, is a spokesperson and organizer for International ANSWER
Ms. Flounders edited and co-authored two books: "The Children Are Dying-The Impact of Sanctions on Iraq" and "Challenge to Genocide: Let Iraq Live." She also helped produce the videos: "Blockade-The Silent War Against Iraq," "Genocide by Sanctions" and "Let Iraq Live." Ms. Flounders coordinated research and helped to edit Ramsey Clark’s groundbreaking 1992 book "The Fire This Time: U.S. War Crimes in the Gulf" (recently republished by the IAC).
Sara Flounders also coordinates the Depleted Uranium Education Project of the IAC to expose the use of radioactive depleted uranium weapons during the Gulf War. More...
Geoffrey Geuens (Witness) - Belgium
Assistant at the Communication and Information Section of the University of Liège (Belgium). He is the author of l¹Information sous contrôle (Information under control), Médias et pouvoirs économiques en Belgique (The Media and economical power in Belgium) Labor/Espace de Libertés, 2002, and Tous pouvoirs confondus-Etat, Capital et Médias à l¹heure de la mondialisation (All powers confounded State, Capital and Media at the time of Globalization), EPO, 2002.
Discover the members of the biggest elitist circles and the principle lobbies acting from the backstage to confront the actual confi guration of ³globalization²: The trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, Aspen France,Š You were never invited? Of Course! Top secret and reserved to industrials, fi nancers, ministers, European commissioners, famous journalists and top graded militariesŠ
2003 : Cyril Berneron, administrateur de l¹ Association les Amis du Monde Diplomatique annonce que le livre "Tous pouvoirs confondus" de l’auteur belge Geoffrey Geuens est retenu parmi les cinq finalistes qui concourent pour le Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique. More...
Amal Al-Khedairy (Witness) - Iraq
AMAL AL-KHEDAIRY is the founder and director of Al-Beit Al-Iraqi, "Iraqi House’, an arts and cultural center in Baghdad. Amal is a widely traveled expert in Iraqi history, regional culture, arts, archeology and music. She is fluent in French and English, in addition to Arabic. She is a powerful speaker and an excellent debater with a superior grasp of public affairs and international history. More...
Saul Landau (Witness) - USA
Internationally known scholar, author, journalist, poet and activist. An Emmy-award-winning film maker, he does frequent radio and TV shows, and his work on human rights and Latin America have won him acclaim the world over.
Known for his work on foreign and domestic policy issues, Native American and South American cultures, and science and technology. Saul Landau’s most widely praised achievements are the forty films he has produced on social, political and historical issues, and worldwide human rights. He has written over ten books, short stories, poems and novels and received an Edgar Allen Poe Award for "Assassination on Embassy Row," His last book is, ³The Pre-Emptive Empire : A Guide to Bush’s Kingdom². More...
Michael Parenti (Witness) - USA
Internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. He is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. His highly informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.
His latest book ³The Assassination of Julius Caesar² was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize Oct 2003. He is the author of seventeen books. Some 250 articles of his have appeared in scholarly journals, political periodicals and various magazines and newspapers. He appears on radio and television talk shows to discuss current issues and ideas from his published works. More...
Hans von Sponeck (Witness) - Germany / Switserland
Joined the UN Development Program in 1968, and worked in Ghana, Turkey, Botswana, Pakistan and India, before becoming Director of European Affairs. Serving thirty-six years with the organization, his last post succeeded Denis Halliday as UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq in October 1998, overseeing roughly 500 international staff and 1,000 Iraqi workers.
He was responsible for directing all UN operations in Iraq, managing the distribution of goods under the Oil-for-Food program and verifying Iraqi compliance with that program, Von Sponeck resigned in February 2000, in protest of the international policy toward Iraq, including sanctions. More...
Immanuel Wallerstein (Witness / written testimony) - USA
He has since 1976 been Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Binghamton. Founder and director of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations in Binghamton. He also is the former President of the International Sociological Association.
He has published countless books and articles in three domains of world-systems analysis : the historical development of the modern world-system, the contemporary crisis of the capitalist world-economy and the structures of knowledge. His so called "World-Systems Theory" is a poltico-economic and comparative macro-theory of social development, in particular capitalism. More...
Jim Lobe (Defense) - USA
He has worked as a correspondent for Inter Press Service (IPS) for most of the last 23 years.
As an analyst and political adviser for Foreign Policy in Focus, Jim Lobe has followed the ups and downs of neo-conservatives since the well before their rise in the aftermath of the attacks of Al Qaeda on New York and the Pentagon on September 11. His expertise has been recognized by major international media, including the BBC¹s ³Panorama² news magazine and the London-based Al Hayar newspaper, among others.
His articles can be read on many web site which are dedicated to strengthen and support independent and alternative journalism, such as ³antiwar.com², presentdanger.org² , ³why-war.com² and ³alternet.org². More...
Tom Barry (Defense) - USA
Policy Director of the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC).
Based in New-Mexico and founded in 1979, the IRC is a nonprofit policy studies center whose overarching goal is to help forge a new global affairs agenda for the U.S. government and people-one that makes the United States a more responsible global leader and partner.
Policy Director ot Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), a joint project of the IRC and the Institute for Policy Studies. More...