War Crimes in the 21st
Century
Pierre-Richard Prosper, Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
Remarks at Pepperdine University
Malibu, California
October 26, 2004
President Benton, Dean Starr, distinguished guests, members of the faculty
and student body, thank you. It is a pleasure for me to be here, and I am
grateful to Pepperdine for the opportunity to speak today. I want to thank
today’s moderator, Professor Lee Boyd for organizing this panel, and Rajika
Shah for helping to coordinate this event.
It is great to return home to Pepperdine, and to see so many friends, Vice
Chancellor Ron Phillips, and many others who have been critical to my development
as a professional. I am honored to be here with an impressive group of panelists.
I look forward to a thoughtful and maybe lively discussion. I am delighted
to be here at the new Drescher facilities. It is a wonderful place to talk
about serious topics and to shape the public discourse.
Let me begin by saying that it is a joy to be back here at Pepperdine, a university
that has greatly influenced my life. This university has a unique influence
on those who come here through the fulfillment of its motto of “strengthening
lives for purpose, service, and leadership.”
I am pleased to take part in the inaugural series of “Lives in the Law.” I
think that this is an important series because it will allow us to examine
the role that lawyers and all of us can play to help better society. For me,
this series is an opportunity to share knowledge that will challenge you, the
student, to pursue a cause greater than yourself. Our topic today is: “War
Crimes in the 21st Century.” As you can imagine, we have a lot to talk about.
It is my hope that you will receive greater insights as I cover some of the
more important areas and discuss what we are doing to address these problems.
Today, we find ourselves living in a time when humanity is under assault. There
are cultures of hate that have killed millions of innocent men, women and children.
Greed, lust for power, and ideological extremism are driving conflicts and
are destroying fabrics of civilization. We only need to look to several hotspots
around the world to see that there are those who would not hesitate to destroy
entire peoples for demented goals. In taking on these challenges, steadfast
leadership is required and vision is needed to overcome problems that may seem
insurmountable. But unfortunately even when the cause is just, leadership in
the world is often resisted because of politics or because the action needed
is deemed unpopular or too difficult.
I believe that we are at a pivotal point in the history of the world. We are
at a point where we must either confront these threats to humanity or concede.
Act or turn a blind eye. As an administration, we recognize this responsibility.
President Bush understands these historic times and has chosen to fulfill this
responsibility. I am proud of the record of the United States and the steps
this administration has taken to shape the justice landscape. We are committed
to ending atrocities and pursuing accountability, and are leading the world
in these efforts.
Accomplishments
When asked to take this job over three years ago the world was a different
place. Indicted war criminals moved more freely, states took their responsibility
to hold perpetrators accountable less seriously, and tyrannical regimes oppressed
and abused their citizens. In the beginning of 2001, several dozens of persons
indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
were at large including Slobodan Milosevic and the infamous “Vukovar Three.”
Over two dozen persons indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR) were fugitives and were fueling the conflict in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, where millions have lost their lives since 1998. Serbia,
Croatia, and Bosnia were not pursuing domestic justice for the actions of their
officials and citizens during the Balkans conflicts. In 2001, the ICTY and
ICTR did not have a strategy to reach a successful completion and their budgets
ballooned to a combined total of $798 million dollars which has now exceeded
$2 billion.
Sierra Leone was emerging from conflict. The idea of a Special Court for Sierra
Leone to detain and prosecute those who had brutalized the population through
widespread rape, hacked off countless limbs of men, women and children, and
perpetrated other abuses was one only on paper. Saddam Hussein ignored the
rule of law with brutal results, and Charles Taylor as President of Liberia
continued to destabilize the West African region. Terrorists, al Qaida, moved
freely. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime terrorized its population, killed
civilians, subjected women to second or third class status, and sponsored terrorists.
Today we have a dramatically different and better picture due to our leadership.
Because of U.S. leadership and policies, 52 ICTY indictees, including former
president Slobodan Milosevic and the infamous “Vukovar Three,” have gone to
The Hague in the past 31 years more than any other period. Twenty-one leaders
of the Rwanda genocide, including the former army Chief-of-Staff, have been
apprehended and transferred to the ICTR, bringing the total number of indictees
rendered to both tribunals to a record 73. In the Balkans, domestic trials
of war criminals are now taking place with international support and backing.
The two ad hoc tribunals are more efficient, have controlled their budgets,
have increased the pace of their work, and now have completion strategies with
the aim of ending initial trials by 2008 and all appeals by 2010.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone, is now in existence and has started trials
that will help the population heal. In Liberia, U.S. troops were deployed.
Working with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), we have
brought peace. Charles Taylor is out of power, faces a war crimes indictment
before the Special Court, and we are working to bring him to justice soon.
The regime of Saddam Hussein is no more, a point I will discuss later. And
75% of known al Qaida leadership has been brought to justice.
In Afghanistan the regime of the Taliban has fallen. And the first direct presidential
election in Afghanistan’s history was held on October 9, where 18 presidential
candidates, including one female candidate, ran. There, more than 10 million
Afghans registered to vote. Forty-one percent of registered voters were women.
The dramatic nature of this can be seen in a picture I saw of a woman covered
by a burkha dropping her ballot into the box. The only part of her that was
visible were her hands and her vote. Others traveled far, waded through icy
rivers, stood in long lines at polling stations, and overcame fears of attacks.
Democracy has arrived in Afghanistan and its citizens have tasted freedom.
While throughout the world more work needs to be done, we have begun to change
the course of events for the better. The United States has demonstrated leadership
even when difficult and even when unpopular. Allow me at this time to focus
on three areas which are current and important: Sudan, Iraq, and the war on
terror.
Sudan
Sudan has long been a problem state. It has been engulfed in a brutal North-South
civil war since 1983, and for years, the Government of Sudan engaged in a policy
to destroy the predominately Christian and animist south. Death and destruction
reached staggering proportions. Credible estimates from human rights organizations
suggest that two million people have perished, four million have been internally
displaced, and nearly 400,000 have been forced to live in neighboring countries
as refugees. While there is improvement in the North-South conflict, with a
peace agreement reached on June 5, there continues to be despair.
Darfur Atrocities
Within the last year the Government of Sudan has repeated its pattern of atrocities
that we have seen in the North-South conflict in the western region of Darfur.
Sudan and its proxies, the Arab militias known as the Jingaweit, have carried
out a scorched-earth policy toward the African civilian population. The Jingaweit
and Sudanese military forces have murdered, raped and assaulted non-Arab individuals.
They have pillaged and destroyed villages, foodstuffs, and other means of survival.
The government has obstructed needed humanitarian aid and food from reaching
affected populations, thereby leading to further deaths and suffering. And
despite having been put on notice multiple times, they have not stopped the
violence.
Last week the United Nations issued a report stating that 70,000 people have
died in Darfur in the last year. In addition, 1.7 million have been displaced
or are refugees and hundreds of thousands more have been affected.
U.S. Assistance and Efforts to Raise Awareness
Many in the international community were reluctant to get involved or recognize
the true magnitude of the atrocities. We decided to engage last year decided
to lead. Early this year, Secretary Powell sent a team into Sudan to begin
to deal with the crisis. We helped broker a ceasefire between the Government
of Sudan and the rebels, which unfortunately did not hold. But talks continue.
In April, President Bush publicly condemned Sudan he was the first to do so
and urged the international community to intensify efforts to end the violence.
We increased our flow of aid, now totaling $211 million. We went to the UN
Security Council and asked for a resolution on Sudan one that would be firm.
We were able to obtain one on July 30, 13-0 with 2 abstentions, which demanded
that Sudan disarm the Jingaweit militia, bring them to justice and open up
the humanitarian corridor. It additionally warns that the Security Council
will take further actions and measures as necessary.
We also launched an investigation as to whether genocide was occurring. In
June, I testified before the Congress that there were indicators of genocide.
My conclusions were based in good part on the work of a Pepperdine University
School of Law student, Jon Derby. In July, our investigative team visited refugee
camps to interview victims and survivors. As a result of their work, we publicly
concluded that genocide has been committed, and may still be occurring, in
Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Jingaweit bear responsibility.
We were the first country to do so. We then returned to the Security Council
and called for and got a UN investigation into the matter as specified by the
Genocide Convention. We hope the UN team will be deployed soon.
When I was in Rwanda in April on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the
Rwandan genocide, as part of the commemoration, African heads of state stated
their desire to see Africans take more of a leadership role in responding to
genocide on the African continent. We encourage this. In the case of Sudan,
we are leading by building a coalition around the African Union (AU) so that
they can help end the atrocities and bring peace. To ensure that the AU had
the mandate to secure Darfur we returned to the Security Council and gave them
the authority to act.
We are now working with other international partners, including Australia,
Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the European
Union to support the African Union. We are providing $20.5 million to help
fund the AU mission. Nigerian and Rwandan troops are going to Sudan and we
are scheduled to airlift troops hopefully this week. This mission is vital
to restoring security so that the dislocated, starving, hunted people can avail
themselves of the humanitarian aid.
We are continuing to press the Government of Sudan and we continue to monitor
its actions. While we are pleased that Sudan and the rebels have agreed on
a protocol to facilitate delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance and
have engaged in discussions on security issues, more is needed.
Iraq
In Iraq, we press for progress as well. We are fighting for humanity and the
rule of law. We are supporting the Iraqi people in their work to prosecute
Saddam Hussein and his regime for war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly
genocide because President Bush saw that the Iraqi people were crying for justice.
They want to do this themselves and feel that they have something to prove.
America’s task in Iraq, as the President has said: “is not only to defeat an
enemy; it is to give strength to a friend that serves its people and fights
on their behalf.”
Last year I visited Halabja, the site of one of the worst chemical weapons
attacks where between 3,500 and 5,000 people were killed. I met people who
are still suffering today from the chemical ingestion and burns that they received
over fifteen years ago. I heard their stories. I saw how they continue to be
inflicted with lung diseases and other illnesses. They cried before me, literally,
for justice. For some, it is their only hope. For others it is their salvation
a cure. I do not know if the people I saw are still alive, but I do know that
they do not want to die without knowing that the truth of the past will be
fully revealed and that evil will be called by its given name.
Just two weeks ago, on October 7, we worked with the Iraqis to exhume 192 bodies
from a mass grave that potentially has up to several thousand more. Among the
victims was a woman holding a baby in a blanket. The infant had a bullet wound
to the back of the head, the mother to the face. Children ages 1-12 were found,
all with bullet holes in the back of their skulls. Some in the grave had their
hands tied behind their backs. Toys, shoes, cooking supplies, food, women’s
bags, jewelry, and other household items were also discovered in the graves
leaving the unmistakable impression that the victims were forced to march out
of their homes into the desert not knowing their fate.
Saddam Hussein and his regime ruled with terror and brutality. The regime institutionalized
violence, torture, rape, murder, and mass extermination. They gassed and killed
up to 100,000 Kurds in 1988. They brutally oppressed, tortured, and killed
over 1,000 Kuwaitis during the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait and
displaced 1.5 million people there.
Saddam’s regime brutally attacked and killed up to 60,000 Shi’a Muslim in
southern Iraq and drained the southern marshes that supported their
livelihood dry. Saddam’s regime also committed an untold number of atrocities
during the war with Iran. Saddam’s son, Uday, is reported to have raped and
murdered young women, some of whom it is said were later fed to his lions.
It is also reported that Uday would torture Iraqi soccer players after a poor
performance. And these are the crimes that we know of.
Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 290,000 Iraqis disappeared at
the hands of the Iraqi government. These people have not been found, but over
270 mass graves many containing thousands of bodies each have been discovered
or reported. Ladies and Gentlemen, Saddam was a genuine threat, a madman, and
a menace to civilization. When I was in Iraq last, a month ago, I went to the
detention facilities and saw the core leaders of the Saddam Hussein regime.
I looked them in the eyes. They were sick, nasty, evil men who would take a
human life in a minute. So when you consider the depth of the inhumanity, the
world and the future of the world are better, safer, and more humane without
Saddam Hussein. Removing him was the right thing to do.
Now, in the current season, there is a healthy debate as to the merits of going
into Iraq. While many countries have supported us, we saw others in the international
community who did not. But as you assess the opposition, I recommend you read
the Duelfer Report, prepared by the Iraqi Survey Group, which sheds light on
Saddam’s intentions regarding weapons of mass destruction. It also discusses
how Saddam implemented a strategy aimed at manipulating and dividing the United
Nations Security Council members by effectively buying off people through the
oil for food program.
The report names dozens of individuals and firms including prominent French
and Russian ones as well as the former chief of the UN oil-for-food program,
who according to the report repeatedly received and exploited oil vouchers
from Iraq vouchers that allowed the recipients to buy oil from Iraq and resell
it at a profit totaling $1.78 billion in contracts to the French companies.
And a $12 billion deal for Russian companies had been planned.
* * *
Iraq has a long legal tradition that dates back to the time of the Code
of Hammurabi (the first king of the Babylonian Empire who ruled from 1792
to 1750 BC). Our job is to help them get it back. The Iraqi Governing Council
established the Iraqi Special Tribunal which will try Saddam and others.
The statute of the tribunal calls for international advisers and monitors
to bolster the effort. Last week I attended a training conference in London
for judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. In attendance were 41 jurists,
judges and lawyers who are dedicated to move forward towards impartial justice.
Our purpose was to help inform them of international law, standards and procedures
that they had been deprived of and help them create a society where justice
triumphs.
What was clear to me during this conference is that the Iraqis have a thirst
for justice and want to administer it themselves. We believe the international
practice should be to support sovereign states seeking justice domestically
when it is feasible, so that the society takes ownership over the process and
feels a part of the effort.
We asked the UN international tribunal in The Hague to help with the training
in London. Kofi Annan said no, claiming that it is doubtful the process will
meet international standards. The purpose of the conference itself was to help
raise the standards. Additionally, I do not know how the UN could form such
an opinion having never met with the Iraqis assigned to this court. He also
said that it was not desirable for the UN to assist a court that could administer
the death penalty, which the Iraqi process could. Yet the UN has assisted Rwanda
and Afghanistan in their justice efforts, and both have the death penalty.
With or without them, I am confident that justice will be properly and credibly
served.
* * *
I am hopeful for the future of Iraq. The Iraqi Government is now running
the day-to-day operations of its country. Nearly 2,500 schools have been
renovated;
32,000 secondary school teachers have been trained. Iraq has a free press with
over 100 newspapers and numerous broadcast outlets. NATO will provide training
to Iraqi security forces. Like Afghanistan, Iraq will have historic elections
in January.
Iraq also now has a stable currency, the value of which has risen 25 percent.
Donor conferences are bringing in needed funds, and fifty-five countries participated
in the one that just occurred two weeks ago in Tokyo. While terrorists, foreign
fighters from neighboring countries, attack and plot in the Sunni triangle
with the objective of preventing progress, they will be defeated. Their goal
is to stop the spread of democracy, the freeing of a people, because their
biggest fear is that success in Iraq is the start of reform elsewhere.
War on Terror
The last issue I want to raise is the war on terror. There has been much discussion
on how best to deal with terror. Do we respond to terrorism as a law enforcement
matter or a military one?
The war on terror is not a metaphorical war. A private network is engaged in
catastrophic levels of violence that threaten humanity and democracy, and its
sole objective is to destroy human life. These are not ordinary crimes, and
the perpetrators are not common criminals. Therefore we must break way from
our pre-9/11 way of thinking and recognize that this is an unconventional yet
actual war.
For over a decade, Bin Laden and his co-conspirators issued statements calling
upon Muslims everywhere “to kill U.S. citizens civilian or military and their
allies everywhere” and calling their offensive a “war.” They actively launched
attacks against the United States that have killed thousands.
In 1993, Al Qaida bombed the World Trade Center and attacked U.S. service members
in Somalia. They killed and injured hundreds of others in the bombing of our
embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998. They bombed
the U.S.S. Cole in 2000. And there have been other attacks or attempted attacks
that I have not listed. Then of course there was the four-pronged, coordinated
attacks of September 11.
I can tell you that being in Washington, having been evacuated, having had
to work out of an undisclosed location, sitting down at the drawing board to
determine what our response would be, it felt like a war. These attacks I described
though periodic have been sustained in their strategic sense. They were not
sporadic acts of violence. The international reaction understood this. NATO,
the Organization of American States, Australia and New Zealand invoked their
respective mutual defense provisions. UN Security Council Resolutions recognized
our right to self-defense. And, our Congress authorized the use of force.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this war continues. Since 9/11 we can catalogue at least
17 major attacks committed by al Qaida against the international community
that have resulted in at least 3,313 persons being injured or killed. These
attacks span the globe in places like Pakistan, Tunisia, Philippines, Yemen,
Spain, Indonesia, Jordan, Russia, Kenya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and elsewhere.
And this figure does not include the countless innocent civilians killed by
these terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq.
* * *
During the war on terror we have detained people whom we view as enemy combatants.
Currently there are 556 detainees at Guantanamo Bay from 38 different countries.
We believe that the laws of war permit the United States to detain enemy
combatants for the duration of hostilities, as has been done in all wars.
Our foremost objective is to ensure that the enemy combatants who pose an
ongoing threat are not released only to strike again.
In the end these detainees will be prosecuted by the United States, returned
to their own country for prosecution or detention, or released if they no longer
pose a threat. To date, 202 detainees have already been transferred out of
Guantanamo to about 15 different countries. Some were sent back for investigation
and prosecution and others were outright released. Some of those released from
Guantanamo have returned to battle in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The question of whether we are correctly interpreting the law is now before
the courts. The courts will have to reconcile competing views. We are at a
moment in history where we are facing issues of first impression. Time and
history will judge our efforts.
* * *
I would like to close with a message to the students who are here today.
Fifteen years ago I was where you are now. At that time, I thought the problems
of the world were too great for me, the individual, to make a difference.
I assumed that my ability to contribute was minute.
I had no idea that I would go on to literally make history. I did not know
that the work that I would do would help entire societies achieve peace, come
to terms with their past, and save lives. If you told me that I would sit at
the table with the President of the United States, the Secretary of State and
the National Security Advisor, and they would say, “Pierre, what do you think?”
I would have called it a nice dream.
The lesson of my experiences is that the individual can make a difference.
The lesson is that if you want to contribute you can. While to do so may require
leading, taking risks, leaving your comfort zone and doing what may be difficult
or unpopular, it may be what is required for the betterment of society and
for the sake of humanity. So I encourage you urge you to strengthen your lives
for purpose, for service, and for leadership in the world.
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