[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 101 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 101
Calling for the prosecution of Iraqis and their supporters for war
crimes, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 31, 2003
Mr. Specter submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Calling for the prosecution of Iraqis and their supporters for war
crimes, and for other purposes.
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the governments of the United States, the United
Kingdom, and other nations comprising the coalition conducting
Operation Iraqi Freedom should prosecute by trial by tribunal
each person in the Government of Iraq, each person in the armed
forces of Iraq, and any other person, regardless of
nationality, who orders, directs, solicits, procures,
coordinates, participates in, or supports acts in violation of
the international law of armed conflict (including the aspects
of such law known as the Hague and Geneva Conventions) that are
directed at members of the armed forces of the coalition
nations or at the people of Iraq or any other nation;
(2) in the determination of appropriate persons to be
charged and tried by such tribunal on the basis of command
responsibility for any violation, consideration should be given
to identifying responsible persons throughout the full range of
the chain of command, and not only persons within formal chains
of command of the government and armed forces of Iraq, but also
persons integral to any informal link by which a person in the
government of Iraq or the armed forces of Iraq, or any other
person, directs paramilitary, political, or guerrilla forces;
(3) in the determination of appropriate persons to be
charged and tried by such tribunal, consideration should also
be given to identifying persons who use political position or
mass media in any of the violations; and
(4) in the determination of the violations of the
international law of armed conflict to be tried by the
tribunal, particular attention should be given to acts in the
nature of those that, as of the date of this resolution, have
already been committed by Iraqi directed forces, such as--
(A) the abuse of places protected from military
attack under international law, such as the use of
mosques and hospitals as military headquarters or for
other military purposes;
(B) the ruse by which Iraqi combatants wear
civilian clothing instead of, or over, uniforms to
conceal their status as combatants and, while so
clothed, attack coalition forces;
(C) the ruse by which Iraqi combatants feign
surrender to coalition forces to gain advantage used by
the Iraqi combatants to attack personnel of the
coalition forces;
(D) the use of civilians or other persons protected
under international law as human shields for Iraqi
combatants on the battlefield;
(E) assault, murder, kidnapping, or torture of
civilians or other persons protected under
international law in order to terrorize those persons
or others or to prevent them from gaining the
protection of coalition forces;
(F) abuse, torture, assault, or murder of personnel
of coalition forces entitled to treatment as prisoners
of war or of civilians entitled to a protected status
under international law; and
(G) recruitment or encouragement of non-Iraqi
foreign nationals to engage in violations of the
international law of armed conflict.
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