Global Policy Forum

By Christine Delphy

The Iraqi people are protected by a substantial body of law:

First, the Geneva Conventions, in particular the 4th, which dates from 1951 and has since been reinforced by multiple treaties: the Protocol regarding refugee status in 1967, the conclusions of the UN High Commission on refugees, as well as the Guidelines on Internal Population Displacement approved by the AG of the UN in 1998; finally, they are covered under what is known as the humanitarian conventions of international law.

What does this body of law state? That the lives and property of civilians must be protected as far as possible. A measure of collateral damage is permissible only in the case of legitimate military action. But that action to authorise a measure of collateral damage must be legitimate. Is the intervention of the American and British military in Iraq legitimate? Kofi Annan is doubtful (Le Monde March 13); a growing chorus of world legal authorities have declared that intervention which defies the UN charter is totally illegal. In this case, civilian deaths are simply war crimes. In all likelihood, the US will occupy Iraq. On this point, international law is very clear: as soon as the USA becomes an occupying power, they become at the same time accountable for the totality of injuries suffered by civilians. Any failure to protect civilians would be a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. Article 55 of the 4th Convention obliges the US, if they occupy Iraq, to assure the civilians population's need for food, but also to guarantee their fundamental rights to care, education, freedom of movement and settlement. Wherever the occupying power fails to respect or assure respect for these rights, it will be guilty of a serious violation of the Geneva Convention, and such a violation is considered a war crime.

As soon as December 2002, the UN Predicted a Devastating Humanitarian Crisis : 23 million civilians in danger How does the US plan to fulfil their obligations? And what are those obligations, that is, what will be the population's needs? Without speaking of direct effects of bombing by terrifying weapons - weapons of mass destruction which the US possesses and might yet use - the American military predicts the near-total destruction of Iraqi infrastructure. UN experts predict the destruction of communication centres (telephone), land and sea transportation, roads and ports, trucks and boats, the railways, all bridges (which will cut off east-west links) and all power plants. Oil production will be paralysed or totally stopped. Drinking water is produced by filtration plants which depend on pumping stations which in turn are dependent on the electrical network. Without electricity, 10 million and in the long term 18 million people will be deprived of drinking water. Furthermore, five million people depend on the sewage network. This system will cease to work. Consequences: epidemics of meningitis, measles, and pan-epidemics of cholera and dysentery. This scenario is already coming true in Bassorah, where the 2 million civilians are deprived of drinking water and electricity since March 22 and epidemics threaten the lives of 100 00 children. As in all wars, in all likelihood, part of the population will flee amid great chaos. It has not happened yet, but there's no certainty that it won't. A portion will attempt to enter neighbouring countries, principally Iran. In the end, a million people could be displaced within Iraq, while another million or so will attempt to reach bordering countries without success, as they will be placed in transit camps at the borders. Those who do not move will fare no better. In effect, the Iraqi population no longer benefits from the affluence and state services which were available to them at the time of the first Golf War. This is not be the same kind of war, but a ground war, and since March 25, an all-out war. Baghdad will soon be under siege : five million civilians will be hostages. The Coalition is using hunger as a weapon. For Bagdadis will have no drinking water, no lights, telephones, sanitation facilities; and what will they eat? Twelve years of embargo has brought unemployment and poverty, making the Iraqi people dependent upon the regime and the state. Of 23 million inhabitants, 60 per cent that is 16 million, depend for their daily sustenance on rations distributed under ics and injuries. UN agencies estimate emergency needs: water and food for 5 and a half million Iraqis immediately, 10 million after six weeds, care for 2 million refugees and internally displaced people; medical supplies and chemical toilets for 5.5 million people, medical supplies for 100,000 wounded (though estimates reach 500,000), tent shelters for 1.5 million, reconstruction of bridges and reorganisation of trucks. But these urgent needs are insignificant en comparison with what must be done in the year following invasion: food and medication for 23 million people, care for 2 million refugees, "therapeutic food" for 3 million pregnant and nursing women and children suffering from malnutrition; water for 18 million people, emergency shelter for 3.5 million people, care for some 60,000 people now in institutions and hospitals, mine clearing materials, materials to reconstruct bridges, all sorts of vehicles, and above all, hundreds of electrical generators.

Sharing of Financial and Penal Responsibilities

It is difficult to see how an apocalyptic situation such as is described by UN agencies, the rights of 23 million Iraqis will be protected, because their basic right to life is far from certain. The USA has marshalled 3 million individual rations - that is, one day of food for 3 million people - in terms of food aid, and have earmarked $52 million, whereas hundreds of millions of dollars will be required. They do not hide the fact that they are counting on the rest of the world to pay the bill, although most other countries have declared their opposition to destruction - a questionable division of international labour. The US makes cynical assumptions about the way the rest of the world will behave. Ultimately, the Iraqi population will pay: to date, due to lack of funds, the UN High Commission on Refugees has only been able to purchase 20 per cent of the necessary materials for refugees. We only spoke about the Iraqi people in terms of how they would welcome "liberation" : it has proven false, they don't. But wasn't it anyway a little premature? Shouldn't we have been and still be first concerned with how they will stay alive, when neither logistical necessities nor money is in place?

Appeals attempting to declare this war illegal are underway in Canada and Great Britain; other countries could follow the same example. But no judicial action will happen in time to save civilian Iraqis. It is up to governments opposed to the war to show the aggressors their responsibilities. The states prepared to provoke this catastrophe will be guilty, but those which allow them to do it are also from now on and already accomplices to war crimes against an entire population.

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