Testimony of John Norton Moore/page 6

such "old thinking" after World War I. Perhaps the horror of World War II might at least have been lessened if the allies had stuck with the Versailles Treaty and their convictions and insisted that those who committed war crimes were criminals to be placed meaningfully on trial rather than national heroes.

In considering this choice, I would particularly urge reflection on the following three points. If we are serious about the important humanitarian and environmental standards embodied in the laws of war, do we not have a responsibility to hold accountable those who commit grave breaches of these laws? Is it not important to live up to our existing international legal obligations under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions to seek out and either try or extradite those alleged to have committed grave breaches of these important Conventions? And if we seek peace more broadly, is it not important that we seek to add deterrence at a more personal level to the regime elites actually engaged in planning and ordering aggressive war and brutal war crimes?

Thank you.

"[W]hile the laws shall be obeyed all will be safe."

Thomas Jefferson, Original draft of first Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1801.

"Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Statement by Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Speech,
February 27, 1860.

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Annex on Potential Iraqi

Violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention

Any full accounting of Iraq's violations of the laws of war, and particularly of its violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention during its brutal illegal occupation of Kuwait, will likely await reparations proceedings or war crimes trials following the Gulf crisis. There have been, however, widespread allegations of continuing violations of the following provisions, among others, in Iraq's attack against and brutal occupation of Kuwait:

seizure and destruction of property in Kuwait and pillage of Kuwait in violation of the 1907 Hague IV Regulations;

disregard for the obligation to facilitate enquiries made by members of families and to encourage the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as provided by article 26 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Iraq refused all access to Kuwait by international observers such as the International Committee of the Red Cross);

inhumane treatment of protected persons, as prohibited by article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, including willful killing and the protection of women against rape;1

physical coercion exercised against protected persons to obtain information, as prohibited by article 31 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;

torture and brutality directed against protected persons, as prohibited by article 32 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;2

collective penalties, pillage, and reprisals, as prohibited by article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;3

the taking of hostages, as prohibited by article 34 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;

mass transfers, detention of protected persons in areas particularly exposed to the danger of war, or transfers of part of an occupying power's own population into the territory it occupies, as prohibited by article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;

compelling protected persons to serve in the armed forces of the occupying power, as prohibited by article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;

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destruction of property where not absolutely necessary for military operations, as prohibited by article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly the sickening destruction of Kuwait City and the torching of over 600 oil wells even after Iraqi forces had agreed to withdraw from Kuwait;*

setting up places of internment in areas particularly exposed to the danger of war, as prohibited by article 83 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;5

the use of foreign civilian hostages and prisoners of war to immunize military objectives in violation of article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and article 23(1) of the Third Geneva Convention;

compelling persons in occupied territories to swear allegiance to the occupying power, as prohibited by article 45 of the 1945 Hague Regulations; and

refusal to provide information concerning internees and prisoners of war pursuant to the Third Geneva Convention.

NOTES

1. For an initial preliminary report on widespread charges of Iraqi torture, willful killing, rape, pillage, and collective reprisals, see Amnesty International News Release, "Iraqi Forces Killings [sic] and Torturing in Kuwait, Says Amnesty International FactFinding Team," AI Index: MDE 14/15/90, Distr: SC/PO (Oct. 3, 1990) (hereinafter Amnesty International News Release of Oct. 3, 1990); see also Amnesty International Report, "Iraq/Occupied Kuwait Human Rights Violations Since 2 August," AI Index: MDE 14/16/90, Distr: SC/CO/GR (Dec. 19, 1990) (hereinafter Amnesty International Report of Dec. 19, 1990).

And for a personal testimony to the brutality of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the courage of the Kuwaiti people, see A Letter from Kuwait, N.Y. Times, Jan. 14, 1991, at A17, col. 1.

2. See the sources listed in note 1.

3. Id.

4. The intentional dumping of millions of barrels of Kuwaiti (and Saudi) oil into the Gulf and the torching of 600 to 700 oil wells in Kuwait would seem to be particularly egregious examples of Iraq's violation of article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

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5. Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention lists the provisions of the Convention the violation of which is a “grave breach.” Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), Aug. 12, 1949, art. 147, 75 U.N.T.S. 287, at 388, 6 U.S.T. 3516, T.I.A.S. No. 3365.