Exode (des Kurdes d'Irak) - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REvIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RlVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZET;
The world has
'legal duty to
protect Kurds.
The U!'Tis obliged by internationallaw to prevent
genocIde and to promote self-determination for a
~clearly separate' people, writes Robert McCorquodale
;
;THE DECISION. by the. United .~
States, Britain, and their allies to ' other statës to intenere in the do.
i"protect" the Kurds by creathlgmestic jurisdiction of Iraq, In.
,for, tJtem supervised refugeedeed, there Is an obligation to do
~amps must be commended.How. So.This action can take the form
ever, It does not adequately fulmof contln\llngeconomicsanctions,
,the responsibilities of states un.
.'derinternatlonallaw.
withdrawing 'recognition of the
Iraqi g~vernment as the legiti.
i The development of Interna. ,mate gov~nment ofIraq and giv.
'.llonal human rights law has' Ing humänltarlan aid to the'
reached the stage where the treat. :Kurds and others alTected.Fui".
:lDentof an Individual or 8 group :ther, UNforces - rather thim 'US
'!lfpeople by a state Is no longer a' Qr.Brltishtroops - should be lit:,
Platter purely within the domestic troduced to protect the Kurds; ,
jurisdiction of a state. It Is a mat.' ", A decision by the Security
"terof International concern; Council to provide UN forces
" The Iraqi government's actions ,could also be justifleiin this in.
iagainst the Kurds may be acts o( ,stance on the grounds that they
:genocide. Genocide Is defined in ,are needed to maintain "interna.
fthe Convention on the Preventlontional peace "nd security" - the
','andPunishment of the Crime of primary responsibility of the Se.
;~nocide 1948asbeing the acts of curity Council under the United
:~iIIing,serious bodily or mental, 'Nations Charter.
,.harm,prevention of births, forc.' :' And" the UN is already in.
Jble transfer of children or dellb.. volved:action has been taken
~rate infliction of conditions of. :~gainst Iraq under the aegis of
, )ife calculated to bring about the pte Security Council. This distin.
/physicaldestruction of a group, if .guishes the present crisis from
!those acts are "committed with~'any other situations' where
lintent to destroy, in whole or in, :t~',ereare groSs violations of hu.
)Jart, a national, ethnical, racial '~.n rights against groups - by
'or religious group".
,theChinese in Tibet or byIndone.
, ' Individuals are liable in inter.' ~ll,in East1'imor, for example.
:~ational law for these acts. The ,,'fllis, together with the present
çonvention, to which more thanJegree of reconciliation between'
;100 nations - including Iraq -:' i..~US and the SovietUnion, may'
;'are party, obliges states "to pre. enable Security Council members
:vent and to punish" the Crimeof ~ ..accept their obligations under
,'genocide.In addition, genocideis illternational iaw and to order UN'
,nowgenerally accepted to be also: peacekeeping forces into Iraq to
:a crime agahtst the international'
community. '
'p'~otectthe Kurds. ' ,
',,'There is an additional obliga.
, There is, of course, the dim.. flon on all states where those
:cully"of "obtaining "evidence'ot ; whosehuman rights are breached
genocide and of determining the' ',are a clearly separate people to
appropriate tribunal in which to' t~osewho comprise their govern.
try the individualsresponsible _~ent, who live in a defined terri.:
there is no international criminal tory and who seek independence
court. But shuming Kurds able tofrom the oppressor state.
escape Iraq into refugee camps ',This refers to the right of self.
does,little to prevent the genocide determination, which is defined'
of t,hoseKurds who remain. Audas beingthe right ofpeoples freely
it does not relieve the obligation to "determine their political sta.,
of s~atesto punish those responsi.
ble for genocidal acts.
:lus and freely pursue their eco.
,nomic, social alld cultural devel.
Even If Iraq's actions do not 'Opment". This right has been
amount to genocide, it has cer. accepted by most of the interna~
tainly abused the human rights of tlonal communityin regatd to the
many citizens. This is acknowl.
,edged in UN Resolution 688.
blacks in South Africa and to the
Palestinians, and it is beihg per.'
, Accordingly,there Is Clearjus. suasively argued by the \Baltic'
,tlfication i111,J..1temaJlonal II!~for ' states,,~~ someother reputi,licsof
THE INDEPENDENT
April 20, 1991
the'SoViet Union. This i~t.~
self.determination places a coitsê;
quent obligation on all states tel.
take no action which denies o~
hinders the exercise of that right.'
This position seems to have
been recognised by both the Brit.;
ish PrIme Minister and his For.
eign Secretary in recent state.
ments which indicated the possH
bility of using force to preserve
the legitimate aspirations of the
Kurdish people.
The Kurds seem to have olTeredl
some sound arguments for the as.
sertion of their right of self.deter.
:mination. their case is not with.'
out difficulties, but they are a,
,clearly separate people with ,a,'
:Iong'heritage'and .aconnection .to"
a particular territory. ;
However, they lacked powerful
friends when the present Middle'
,East bOUndarieswere drawn. The
.Kurds livein Iran, Turkey aDdthe'
Soviet Union as weil as in Iraq.
.They do not have one state from
,which to demand their rights. The.
Kurds, even more than the Soviet
'republics, need the international:,
,community to accept its obliga.,
tions and to...@.ssert their right of
.self.determination.
'
However, the US and Britain
wish to maintain the support of.
Turkey, Iran and the SovietUnion
for thejr actions in the Gulf. Thus'
there is no likelihood at present of'
recognition by the Security Coun. '
cil, or by any relevant state, of the'
right of the Kurds to self.deter.
mination. Any argument that 'the
area of Iraq where many of the
:Kurds live should be recognised
.as a Kurdish state, or even be di.
vided from the 'rest of Iraq by a
.UN force is rapidly dismissed:
These states prefer to uphold the
right to territorial integrity of
,Iraq and other states in the region"
.(such as Kuwait) at the expense of
the rights of the Kurdish people.
Bydeciding to establish refugee
camps for those Kurds who are
fleeing persecution in Iraq, the
US, Britain and their allies are at
least taking some action to pro.
tect the Kurds. However,the clear
violations of the Kurds' human
rights and their claims for self.
determination place further inter •.
national legalobligations on ;
those states.
'
These duties are not being com.
plied with. A Se51.rlty Council'
,resolution establishing a UN
peacekeeping force to separate
the area of Iraq inhabited by the
Kurds from the rest of Iraq would
go a considerable way towards
fulfilling those internationallegal
,obligations.
The author is a Fellow and Lecturer
in Law at St John's College, Cambridge,.
,
289