Iraqis need real not politicised justice

The US Presidential Election has sent a clear and unequivocal message to the world. The American people have rejected the foreign and domestic policies of President George W. Bush.

In Britain, the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, found his position unsustainable and resigned, leaving the invasion of Iraq and its awful consequences as his political legacy. The new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has talked about the need to be open and transparent in order to win the trust of the British public.

Justification

To justify the invasion of and war against Iraq, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair cited two violations by the Iraqi regime: those of human rights and those of UN Security Council resolutions passed just before and after the first Gulf War of 1991. The purpose of the war, it was claimed, was to hold the Iraqi regime accountable under international law.

But by invading Iraq, the US Administration and the British Government were themselves violating UN resolutions and international law, as stated in a Report by Lord Bingham, and published in the Guardian on November 18 2008. The Iraqi people's human and civil rights were - and remain - swept aside by the acts of war and the continuing occupation.

Devastation

Today, Iraq's sovereignty has been destroyed, its wealth of cultural heritage looted or vandalised. Iraq's natural resources have been squandered, and its once-elaborate, sophisticated infrastructure has been laid to waste. Safety, security, and the rule of law are virtually non-existent. The legal and moral authority of the UN has been undermined. Terrorism is on the increase. To all intents and purposes Southern Iraq is under the control of the Tehran Government.

To get rid of one man, the two Anglo-American powers have brought the entire nation to the brink of devastation. The man, Saddam Hussain, was not at war with the US or the UK, and could not realistically have threatened them, at any level. Iraq did not pose any threat to American or British national interests or security.

More than three million Iraqis have left their homes, most having to flee to neighbouring Arab countries or the West.

Iraqis now form one of the largest refugee communities in Europe.

More than 600,000 civilians have been killed, tens of thousands more are rotting in American and Iraqi run jails, simply for being born Iraqis; while others are maimed, injured, traumatised or homeless.

Wild dogs feast on Iraqi remains, holy places have been desecrated, hundreds of people are assassinated or kidnapped every day.

Puppet Iraqi governments under the occupation are prevented from publishing the details and numbers of dead Iraqis.

During the 13 years of the US-led economic and general sanctions - imposed by the Security Council - Iraqi children began suffering from malnutrition and genetic disorders caused by depleted uranium (DU).

Some eminent western medical authorities estimated in the early 1990s that Iraqi children, babies, toddlers and infants, were dying at the rate of one every six minutes. All the most telling evidence from UN agencies, NGOs and visiting experts in the medical and scientific fields were ruthlessly ignored by the US- and British-dominated sanction authorities.

Sanctions

Between 1991 and 2003 the lifeblood of the nation was drained.

Sanctions have been replaced by anarchy, institutionalised sectarian division, mayhem and murder.

Children remain in fear for their lives, with no hopes, no dreams, no education, and no health care.

For the lucky ones, play time is spent on rubbish dumps, seeking food amongst the filth. Many others are kept at home for fear of being kidnapped or blown up.

Modern Iraq, if such a term can be used, is now a permanent and shameful scar on the conscience of those who conspired to invade and occupy Iraq to further both national and personal ambitions.

President-elect Barack Obama's message to the American public is that of change. The most fundamental change needed is honesty, transparency and accountability with respect to the war in Iraq. The American public deserve to know what their loved ones died for.

Iraqis want to know the Bush administration's hidden agenda for the invasion, destruction and continuing occupation of Iraq.

In Britain, bereaved parents deserve to be told for whom their sons and daughters died. This was no war for the greater good, Queen and country. It was for oil.

In March, 2005, it was revealed by The Sunday Times that three years before, the then head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, told Tony Blair and his leading advisers after a visit to Washington that "the facts and intelligence" were being "fixed round the policy" by George W Bush's Administration.

In his resignation speech, Tony Blair said: "I did what I thought was right for our country", all this in the face of irrefutable evidence that he and his closest aides deliberately misled the British public and the Labour Party into believing there was palpable national risk to Britain at the hands of Saddam Hussain.

Accountability

To date, the British Government has ignored all attempts to set up a proper public, judicial or parliamentary inquiry into what led to the Anglo-American invasion.

There has been no independent judicial or political process in the US or UK to hold anybody accountable for the violations and crimes of invading Iraq and what has happened since - what is still happening. Those responsible for these crimes walk the streets of London and Washington in the knowledge that they have literally got away with murder.

Real not politicised justice must be seen to be done, to right the wrongs committed by the Bush Administration against the Iraqi people. The first step for President-elect Obama is to announce a date for the withdrawal of American forces and their imports of Iranian and Iraqi cronies.

Dr Burhan Al Chalabi is a member of The Royal Institute of International Affairs.