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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
heurter un mur et de s'effondrer. Les tétes
coupées regardent cette sœne. Et les va/~
queutS kIatBnt de rire •.•• Sur la terre afghane
où pdt'une haine irrésistible contre les vainqueurs,
on essaie d'attirer les Mehmetçiks
afin qu'Ils contiennent les affrontements qui
ne manqueront pas d'éclater. Tout cela avec
la bénédiction de Soros, qui distille, ses
conseils sur notre -me1neùr produit d'e)tpOFtation-,
Les hommes d'affaires, les grandes
plumes des joumaux, les membres exécutifs
du patronat, le président de la TES EV, tous
écoutent, béats d'admiration, le discours de
Soros, qui leur explique en substance: l'habileté
de \lOS hommes d'affaires, \lOS hoIdi~.
vos banques, les produits fabriqués par votre
secteur privé n'ont pas beaucoup de chance
sur les marchés mondiaux. Pas autant que les
Mehmetçiks en tout cas ... il exporter contre
paiement. NecatI Docru, Cumhlll1yet, Iltanbul
• Mehmetçiks : surnom donné aux recrues dans
l'armée turque,
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The Milosevic precedent • By Nicholas D. Kristof
To get rid of Saddam, indict him now
for war crimes
1!~
~ ~ 6-
11
~ -ë NEW YOIlK
~ ~ Whether or not the United States,
t
invades Iraq to topple Saddam
:s Hussein, let's go about this the
American way. Let's sue him.
The United States should launch an effort
to prosecute Saddam for crimes
!lPinst humanity. This would destabilize
hiS regime at hôme, encourage more def~
tions of Iraqi officials and military of~
fleers, and increase the prospect of a coup
that, in the best-case scenario, would
render an invasion unnecessary.
I came across this idea in refetenees in
books by Richard Butler, who led the UN
inspection effort in Iraq, and by Kanan
Makiya, author of the leading account of
Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It also turns out
that a British organization, Indict, is
already pursuing an indictment against
Saddam for war crimes.
Makiya writes that the best way to
topple an Iraqi leader is to make him lose
face. As an example, he cites the Ottomanera
practice of the people of 1àkrit (Saddam's
hometown) of seizing the governor
says of the Kurds: "I will kill them all with
for the area, humiliating him (often by chemical weapons!"
sexually abusing his women) and then re- The Bush administration is interested in
leasing him unharmed. the ideaofprosecuting Saddam, and it has
I would not recommend this precise ap- two lawyers sitting in the State Dèpartproach.
But a drive to indict Saddam for ment gathering evidence against him. But
genocide against the Kurds, alo~ with oth- the thinking there has been that the proseer
crimes, suggesting that he wdl end his cution would begin after Saddam is in cusdays
in a prison cell, will humiliate him in tody, rather than before.
a similar way, squeezing him and encour- Why? An administration official, acaging
those around him to look for an exit knowledging that there may be advantagés
while there is still time.
to a preemptive indictment and adding that
"In Washington, you either have the war no decision has been made, expressed conhounds
who want to bomb Iraq and take ' cern that a legal effort might distract from
Saddam out, or the folks who just want to the task of "regime change," a term that
contain Saddam beca,use at .l~~ he .keeps means "squash Saddam like a bug."
Iraq together," said Joost Hiltermann, who It's a fair concern. But in Yugoslavia
has examined 18 tons of Iraqi documents Slobodan Milosevic was indicted when he
seized in Kurdistan and brought to the was still in power, in 1999.The indictment
United States, and who is now writing a was one factor that h.elped result in his
book about Iraq and its use of chemical ouster from power in 2000. And in 2001 he
weapons. -But there is a third option" - a was sent to The Hague for triaL
legal case, with or without a military at~ In short, firing lawyers at Saddam would
tack. bolster the militaryoptions, not weaken
Along with those 18 tons of documents them.
were audio ta~ of ~~es by ~i Hassan One of the constraints that Washington
Majid. • eoUSlD of Sa~m~nd hiS former faces in organizing an attack on Iraq is cold
lieutenant for ilorthern lraq.ln ope tape he feet everywhere else on the planet except
those under Tony Blair; To forge a coalition
against Saddam, the United States must
build a case against him very publicly to
demonstrate that he is not just another
two-bit tyrant but a monster almost with-
,out parallel in recent decades.
, The police in other countries use tor-
,ture, but there are credible reports that
Saddam's police cut out tongues and use
electric drills.
Other countries gouge out the eyes of
dissidents; Saddam's interrogators have
been accused of gouging out the eyes of
hundreds of children to get their parents to
talk. Plus, he has tons of VX gas and defies
the United Nations.
There are three ways the United States
can pursue legal action against Saddam:
• An international tribunal can be established,
like the one now trying Milosevic.
This would require Security Council approval,
which would be difficult.
• Several countries could launch a case
before the International Court of Justice,
without Security Council agreement. This
would be against Iraq as a country, not Saddam
as a person.
• An individual country could indict Saddam.
This would be a country claiming
universal jurisdiction in genocide cases.
Now is the time. Let's throw'the book at
Saddam.
The New York TImes
59