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Accepting
the Gandhi International Peace Award in 2003, I explained my
resignation from the United Nations as head of the UN Humanitarian
Programme in Iraq at end 1998. I indicated that resignation was
necessary because of my refusal to accept Security Council orders that
continued to impose genocidal sanctions on the innocent of Iraq. My
continuation would have implied my complicity in human catastrophe.
And, in addition, my innate sense of justice was outraged — as yours
would have been in my position — by the violence that UN sanctions had
brought upon the lives and wellbeing of children, families, and the
many loved ones of Iraq. There can be no justification for killing the
young, the aged, the sick, the rich, the poor anywhere, under any
circumstances, least of all by the United Nations.
Some
will tell you that the Iraqi leadership was punishing the Iraqi people.
That was not my perception or experience when living in Baghdad in
1997-98 and traveling throughout the country. And were that to be the
case, how could that possibly justify collective punishment — that is
sanctions, by the United Nations? The UN Charter and international law
have no provision for the murderous consequences of a UN embargo, over
12 long years in the case of the people of Iraq.
After
leaving, sometimes I explained the impact of sanctions to the media,
and to university and public meetings by describing Iraqi children as
being on death row without hope of reprieve. By the end of 1998, we —
the UN — had killed hundreds of thousands without any apparent
hesitation on the part of the permanent member states of the Security
Council.
The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003
has only worsened the overall situation for Iraqi children, women and
men. Contrary to what the mainstream media has been and is reporting, a
whole nation is being terrorized, killed, driven into exile. The
humanitarian situation in Iraq is catastrophic according to the ICRC
(The Red Cross) and other international organizations. American
imposition of “democracy and freedom” has failed as law, order and
economic and social wellbeing is increasingly elusive. Health and
educational systems are about to collapse; the human rights situation
is disastrous; human security and opportunities have vanished; the
fearful, the refugees and the displaced outnumber those enjoying normal
lives.
Since the Iraqi government reintroduced capital
punishment in 2004, an unknown number of people have been hanged. None
of the condemned appears to have had a fair trial. Sadly, the Iraqi
judicial system has been deemed by responsible international agencies
and human rights organizations to be corrupt, dysfunctional and plagued
by sectarianism.
And now the Presidential Council of Iraq has
reportedly ratified the death sentences of some 900 detainees
languishing on death row. Some 17 of them are confirmed to be women.
The apparent collapse of justice in Iraq today needs to be seen in the
context of an almost total breakdown of law and order since the US/UK
invasion, including the war crimes, atrocities, killing of civilians by
invading and occupying US mercenaries and military forces.
I
oppose the use of the death penalty wherever it occurs on the grounds
that it is contrary to fundamental human rights. The international
community that has already totally failed the Iraqi people has a
compelling obligation to condemn the appalling human consequences of
illegal invasion and occupation, and condemn — surely the Iraqis have
suffered enough — one of the highest rates of execution in the world.
Without your voice the deadly increasing spiral of killing will continue. That’s why I join the BRussells
Tribunal in denouncing executions. I would very much appreciate it if
you would read the following statement against the imminent hanging of
900 detainees: http://brusselstribunal.org/DeathPenalty121209.htm and sign the call to stop these executions and request that the Iraqi government impose a moratorium on the death penalty.
Thank you on behalf of the BRussells Tribunal and all of us who care about justice and human life.
Denis J. Halliday
Former UN assistant secretary general and UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, 1997-98
Recipient of the 2003 Gandhi International Peace Award — Ireland
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