ICTJ in the News

December 6, 2003

Council plans to form Iraqi tribunal

Austin American-Statesman (Texas)

By Larry Kaplow

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi Governing Council will move to finish a law to establish a tribunal to prosecute members of Saddam Hussein's regime, a member of the U.S.-appointed council said Friday.

Also Friday, a roadside bomb killed an American soldier and at least two Iraqis, breaking a period of relative calm in the capital on the eve of a visit by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The defense secretary was scheduled to visit with troops in Baghdad today.

Governing Council member Mahmoud Othman said the planned law would allow Iraqis to prosecute hundreds of cases against people in Saddam's former regime.

"There will be more trials than only the 55 (in the) deck of cards," he told The Associated Press, referring to the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis.

The law calls for Iraqi judges to hear cases presented by Iraqi lawyers, with international experts serving as advisers.

Some human rights groups criticized the plans, saying Iraq's U.S. occupiers have too much of a hand in them and that Iraqi judges and prosecutors might not have the experience needed to hear the cases.

"Any tribunal established on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority will not be able to rid itself of the perception and the fact that it is an instrument of American power," said Paul van Zyl of the International Center for Transitional Justice. "Any justice it dispenses will be of dubious legality and questionable legitimacy."

Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said he was concerned officials didn't consider bringing in international judges who have worked on major war crimes trials in other countries.

But Sandra Hodgkinson, director of the coalition authority's human rights and justice office, said she thought an Iraqi court system -- with some training from international experts -- will work.

"Iraqis want it that way, and they're capable of doing it that way," she said. "There is no need to have an international tribunal when the local population is willing and able to do it."

Meanwhile, Friday's explosion in Baghdad came after a lull in attacks against U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians during the past two weeks.

A bomb planted in a roadway median detonated as the last of three Army vehicles passed by, witnesses said. A civilian Iraqi bus was nearby, and many of its passengers were hurt.

One hospital reported that there were 13 Iraqis injured.

The U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, told The Associated Press that he expected an increase in attacks in the coming months.

He said militants will seek to derail the process for handing over sovereignty from the U.S.-led occupation to a new Iraqi government next year.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said on Friday that the number of attacks on American troops had averaged about 19 a day over the past week, compared with a rate of nearly 40 a day a month ago.

This article contains material from wire services.

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U.S. deaths in Iraq

There have been 443 U.S. troops killed -- including 306 combat deaths -- since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.