ICTJ in the News

December 6, 2003

UN concern over Iraqi war crimes tribunal plan

Financial Times

By Mark Turner

excerpt

Experts said the tribunal would cover the period from 1968 to May 2003, spanning the Iran-Iraq war and the two Gulf wars. The coalition had advocated limiting its jurisdiction to around 50 people, but Iraqi calls for it to cover thousands appear to have prevailed. It will be able to pass the death penalty.

"The establishment of this tribunal should be welcome, but, sadly, it is not," said Paul van Zyl, from the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice. "Any tribunal established on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority will not be able to rid itself of the fact that it is an instrument of American power. These trials will all too easily be discredited as hypocritical exercises in victor's justice."