17/5/2002
European Parliament Prepares to Confront Saddam Hussein

Members of the European Parliament called this week for the establishment of an ad-hoc tribunal to try Iraqi officials accused of human rights violations inside and outside Iraq.

Powerful agents of Saddam Hussein are known to be operating in Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Britain and other EU member states. These agents threaten the lives and peaceful existence of legitimate Iraqi refugees, say members of the ELDR (Liberal) group in the European Parliament. In response to the threat posed by such agents and continued gross human rights violations in Iraq, the European Parliament is expected to sanction the setting up of an ad-hoc tribunal to try Iraqi officials accused of human rights violations.

According to an ELDR statement, since the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 the Iraqi Government has continued to commit massive and gross human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests of political opponents, mass executions of political prisoners and forced relocations of sections of the population. Iraq has also used weapons of mass destruction against opposition groups in the north and the south of Iraq, as well as against her neighbours.

ELDR member, Emma Nicholson MEP, author of a European Parliament report on Iraq, said this week: "A United Nations Security Council Resolution allows concerned or injured states to establish an ad-hoc international tribunal to bring those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law to justice. Tomorrow we will call on the EU to throw the book at Saddam and his agents overseas. We also want the European Union to set up an Office for Inquiry to prepare the necessary evidence and produce an official register of the numerous violations perpetrated by the Iraqi regime. We want this to be set up without delay."

"Whilst the situation in Palestine is of course crucial to stability in the region, Iraq remains the real monster lurking in the depths of the troubled Middle East pond. The Middle East can't hope to emerge from its miserable turmoil without slaying the Iraqi dragon. If we can do that, peace will flow more easily back to Palestine."

The report compiled by the Emma Nicholson MEP recognises also the failure of the international community to mitigate the immense humanitarian problems brought about by Saddam and the UN embargo. Over three and half million refugees have fled Iraq since the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. On the environmental front, it says that Baghdad-sponsored drainage works have reduced the Marshlands of Southern Iraq to about 15% of what they had been and destroyed the local ecosystem, causing the global extinction of species' and a humanitarian tragedy.