Questioning the New Imperial World Order

The BRussells Tribunal:


*  A Hearing on the Project For The New American Century (PNAC) - Opening Session of the World Tribunal on Iraq
 

*  Member organisation of the International Anti-Occupation Network

Associate of the Perdana Global Peace Organisation 

We want to keep our independence. That's why we rely on your solidarity.

The BRussells Tribunal are intellectuals, artists and activists who denounce the logic of permanent war promoted by the American government and its allies, affecting for the time being particularly one region in the world: the Middle East. It started with a people's court against the PNAC and its role in the illegal invasion of Iraq, but continued ever since. It tries to be a bridge between the intellectual resistance in the Arab World and the Western peace movements.      Members of the BRussells Tribunal Committee

* Massive Israeli carnage leaves hundreds of Gaza victims

 

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) representing lawyers and jurists in over 100 countries and with consultative status with the United Nations, ECOSOC and UNICEF, condemns the current Israeli aggression against the people of Gaza in the strongest possible terms.  IADL calls on the international community to stop further Israeli aggression, and take action to hold Israel accountable for its crimes. 


* Statement by the President of the UN General Assembly,Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann on the Crisis in Gaza. 27 December 2008 [PDF]


Sign the Appeal to Stop the Attack on Gaza

Urgent Appeal for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza
Initiated by 2008 U.N. Human Rights Award winner Ramsey Clark



"Stop the Massacre in Gaza – Boycott Israel Now!"

Now, more than ever, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, calls upon international civil society not just to protest and condemn in diverse forms Israel's massacre in Gaza, but also to join and intensify the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ( BDS) campaign against Israel to end its impunity and to hold it accountable for its persistent violation of international law and Palestinian rights. Without sustained, effective pressure by people of conscience the world over, Israel will continue with its gradual, rolling acts of genocide against the Palestinians, burying any prospects for a just peace under the blood and rubble of Gaza, Nablus and Jerusalem.

* Un General Assembly President Calls for BDS against Israeli Apartheid State (26 Nov 2008)


*The UN Human Rights Council must urge the General Assembly to act under Resolution 377

... if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security. If not in session at the time, the General Assembly may meet in emergency special session within twenty-four hours of the request therefor. Such emergency special session shall be called if requested by the Security Council on the vote of any seven members, or by a majority of the Members of the United Nations ...

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 377 (V) "Uniting For Peace" 302nd plenary meeting, 3 November 1950

READ UNGA RESOLUTION 377 [pdf]


Warsaw Ghetto destroyed by Germans, 1945

Gaza destroyed by Israel, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Bush claims victory, he gets shoes

 

Demand for the immediate release of Muntather Al-Zaidi

Statement by The BRussells Tribunal Committee (15 December 2008)

In one magnificent act, Muntather Al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Al-Baghdadiya television, epitomized the truth of the defeat of the United States in Iraq and lifted the spirit of resistance within the hearts of all Arabs, matching that of the Iraqi people who continue to resist imperialism and colonialism and who refuse humiliation.

It is Bush who is humiliated, and from it he cannot recover. He had snuck into Iraq, unannounced, to sign an illegal treaty with his puppet stooge aimed at institutionalizing the US occupation. Two flying shoes destroyed the façade upon which he and his cronies claim victory in Iraq. [Further reading] - [FRANCAIS]

 

Read also: A lantern, a red rag and a pair of shoes (Dirk Adriaensens, 19 Dec 2008, with a foreword by Manuel Talens)

 

* On the death of Harold Pinter: A Giant Has Died (+ 25 Dec 2008)

"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading – as a last resort – all other justifications having failed to justify themselves – as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people. We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'."  Harold Pinter, honorary member of the BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee - Nobel Lecture - 07 Dec 2005

 

* ENTRY DENIED, DETENTION, AND EXPULSION

 

On March 26, 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Richard Falk to a six-year term as a special investigator on Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories. Professor Falk was Co-coordinator of the Panel of Advocates in the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq, Istanbul 2005.

 

"On December 14, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to carry out my UN role as special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. I was leading a mission that had intended to visit the West Bank and Gaza to prepare a report on Israel's compliance with human rights standards and international humanitarian law. Meetings had been scheduled on an hourly basis during the six days, starting with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the following day. I knew that there might be problems at the airport. Israel had strongly opposed my appointment a few months earlier and its foreign ministry had issued a statement that it would bar my entry if I came to Israel in my capacity as a UN representative..." Further reading.
 

 

* Congratulations to Ramsey Clark

Ramsey Clark receives UN Human Rights Award 2008

 

International Action Center founder Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General and internationally renown human rights defender, a witness of the BRussells Tribunal, received the respected United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 10 December 2008.
It is presented on December 10, International Human Rights Day, every five years.
Previous recipients have included Nelson Mandela, Amnesty International, Jimmy Carter, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Reverend Dr. Martin L. King.”
Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto said: "we acknowledge the tireless work and invaluable contribution of these individuals and organizations that have fought to see the rights and freedoms embodied in this historic document become a reality for people in all corners of the world.”

The UN announcement described Ramsey Clark as “a veteran human rights defender and rule of law advocate, played a key role in the civil rights and peace movements in the US, and more recently has spoken out against abuses committed in the name of “counter-terrorism.

 

* KEEPING THE SCORES OF A BRUTAL OCCUPATION

* The BRussells Tribunal partial list of 410 Iraqi academics murdered under US occupation (updated 27 Nov 2008) - Background articles

[See this List as PDF file]

Our campaign to save Iraq's academics - Sign the petition online

* The BRussells Tribunal partial list of 303 Iraqi and 30 non-Iraqi media professionals who died under US occupation (updated 25 Nov 2008) - Background articles

[See this List as PDF File]

 

 

* Peace in Iraq is an option

Le Feyt Declaration  -  Statement of the International Anti-Occupation Network (15 Sept 2008)

The US occupation of Iraq is illegal and cannot be made legal. All that has derived from the occupation is illegal and illegitimate and cannot gain legitimacy. These facts are incontrovertible. What are their consequences? 

Peace, stability and democracy in Iraq are impossible under occupation. Foreign occupation is opposed by nature to the interests of the occupied people, as proven by the six million Iraqis displaced both inside and outside Iraq, the planned assassination of Iraqi academics and professionals and the destruction of their culture, and the more than one million killed. READ the declaration.

International figures who join us in our commitment to a true end to the occupation and to a lasting, sustainable peace in Iraq.

 

Please express your solidarity with this campaign, click here to ENDORSE online.

 

* SOFA - Status of Forces Agreement: US occupation continues.

 

"The agreement lost its negotiability, and it is being forced and if it is not signed then the Iraqi people will pay an enormous price. But agreements are built on an exchange of free will, and built on sovereignty. As a result I believe that this agreement has no meaning, even if it is signed. Why? Because if America manages to stay in Iraq it would execute the contents of the agreement without an agreement: it would hold power. And if America leaves, then the first step the incoming patriotic power would do will be to throw this agreement in the rubbish bin." Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)

* Victory is the patience of an hour (Abdul Ilah Al Bayaty, 01 Dec 2008)

* Much ado about nothing (Abdul Ilah Al Bayaty, 20 Nov 2008)

* Why Washington’s surge in Iraq failed (Abdul Ilah Al Bayaty, 19 Nov 2008)

* "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America" (November 28, 2007)

* Read the SOFA in English (17 November 2008)

* Read the Strategic Framework and the SOFA in Arabic (October 2008)

 

* NO ATTACK ON MOSUL !

International Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists * - IAON - 05 February 2008.

The occupation declares that a new “decisive” success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. The imminent attack on Mosul - another urbicide - will only result, as with its precedents in Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha etc... in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement. Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn’t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 400 per cent  in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law. Read the statement.         [Arabic] - [Portuguese] - [Spanish]- [Dutch]

Update: The Security Situation In Mosul (10 Aug 2008) -  New Security Offensive In Mosul? (02 Nov 2008)

 Focus: Christians in Iraq face liquidation (Sept - Oct - Nov 2008)

 

 

No Belgian F16 warplanes for Afghanistan.

Sign the petition in Dutch | signez en français

 

* Click here for recent BRussells Tribunal articles and analyses....

 

* Click here to read Daily News from Uruknet, CLG, ICH...

 

* Messages to the People - Berichten aan de bevolking - Avis à la population

 

95  Statements commemorating five years of war in Iraq (10 March 2008) - [PDF: click here]

 

Abdul Ilah Al-Bayaty, Tariq Ali, Harold Pinter, Eduardo Galeano, Dahr Jamail, Henning Mankell, Michael Parenti, Felicity Arbuthnot, Hans von Sponeck, Haifa Zangana, Nawal El Saadawi, CEOSI a.o.

 

* IRAQI OIL FOR IRAQI REFUGEES - Sign the petition now!

More than 4.5 million Iraqis — a fifth of the population — have been displaced inside and outside their country due to the sectarian policies of the occupation and the governments it has installed since the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The international community, the occupation powers, and the government in Iraq are legally required to support and protect Iraqi refugees.

Iraqi refugees are Iraqi citizens who have a full right to live in dignity, a right to benefit equally from national resources, and a right to return to their homes.

The UN Security Council, as the highest body of the UN, has the power and legal duty to ensure that the needs of Iraqi refugees are met by passing a resolution to require that the Iraqi state allocate proportionate revenue to responsible agencies and hosting countries.

* Read also: Oil for Iraqi citizens  (Hana Al Bayaty, 10 January 2008)  Olie voor de Iraakse burgers

 

* ESSENTIAL STUDIES published by the BRussells Tribunal

* Crimes of the Century: Occupation & Contaminating Iraq with Depleted Uranium - Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi -15 June 2008.

* Deterioration of Iraqi Women's Rights and Living Conditions Under Occupation [PDF] - A survey by Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi - 19 Dec 2007 - Mujer iraquí y ocupación - Traducido del inglés para IraqSolidaridad por Consuelo Delgado [HTML]

* The effects of the American use of prohibited weapons on the health condition in Fallujah [PDF] - MHRI 10 Dec 2007

US Genocide In Iraq [PDF] - Dr. Ian Douglas July 2007 | Arabic [PDF] الولايات المتحدة في العراق جريمة إبادة جماعية

*  Iraq’s Lost Generation: Impact and Implications [PDF] Dr Ismail Jalili's Report to the House of Lords Commission on Iraq - 17 June 2007

* Research on Death Squads in  Iraq [PDF] Report of  Monitoring of Human Rights in Iraq Network (MHRI)  - Dec 2006

Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq [PDF]- Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi -  Aug 2006

* Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation [PDF]- Dahr Jamail  - June 2005

- More essential PDF Dossiers. Click here -

 

* READ MORE ABOUT  

Our campaign to save Iraq's academics. Sign the petition online   Partial list of 410 Iraqi academics murdered under US occupation   |   The Endangered Iraqi journalists: Partial list of 303 Iraqi and 30 non-Iraqi media professionals died under US occupation   |  The Children of Iraq   |  Iraq: the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet   |  Christians in Iraq face liquidation   |  Iraqi refugees  |  Petition  The situation of Iraqi Healthworkers   |  Torture and Prison Abuse in Iraq   |  Iraqi Women Under Occupation   |  The looting of Iraq's Cultural Heritage   |  Comments on the Lancet Survey and other mortality studies   |   Big Oil's Occupation of Iraq   |  The Salvador Option and Death Squads   |  Israeli Involvement in the Occupation of Iraq   |  Military Bases   |  Voices of Resistance   |  Remembering Falluja   |  The use of WMD by the US army   |  The Events in Samarra   |  The Iraqi Constitution   |  The Illegal trial and verdict of Saddam Hussein   |  Lieutenant Watada's War Against the War   |  Statements and articles of the BRussells Tribunal on Lebanon    'New Middle East' Borders   |  Opinion Polls   |   The BRussells Tribunal PDF Dossiers   |   MAPS   |   Breaking reports & Articles   De zaak Bahar Kimyongur   And even more background information...   |  Support the Palestinian Youth & Children Relief Centre in Shatila refugee camp   |

 

The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute. Defund the war in Iraq.
Refund human needs in Iraq and the rest of the world. Watch this 2 min. video.

 

Petition * THE WAY OUT

 

* BRussells Tribunal and International Anti-Occupation Network statement.

US forces must negotiate an immediate withdrawal with the Iraqi resistance *

The American people must hold their leaders responsible for the crime of aggressive war

 [ Endorse this statement online - [Arabic] - [Spanish] - [French] - [Dutch]  - [Swedish] - [Portuguese]

 

* THIS WALL IS THEIR GRAVE

 

Statement by The BRussells Tribunal Committee (25 April 2007)

 

- Plans for Al-Adhamiyah confirm that the US occupation and its puppets in Iraq can build nothing but open-air prisons. It will fail.

- No military strategy can impose on the Iraqi people an occupation it overwhelmingly refuses. Its resistance is national and continues.

- What kind of government walls-in its own people? One desperate and illegitimate, tied to the fate of a defeated occupation.

 

* AN APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

 

Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad (09 May 2007)

Chairman, Perdana Global Peace Organisation

Honorary member of the BRussells Tribunal

 

* IRAQI KILLING FIELDS :  the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet - ©opyright U$A

 

* Partial list of 408 Iraqi academics murdered under US occupation (updated 27 Nov 2008) -

[See this List as PDF file]

* Partial list of 303 Iraqi and 30 non-Iraqi media professionals who died under US occupation (updated 25 Nov 2008) - Background articles

[See this List as PDF File]

 

* 2,000 Iraqi physicians have been murdered under US occupation (11 April 2006)

* Hundreds of legal workers have left the country. At least 210 lawyers and judges killed since the US-led invasion in 2003, in addition to dozens injured in attacks against them. (30 April 2007)

 

* Based on studies done by local NGOs, at least 15,000 Iraqis have disappeared in the past four years of US occupation (18 April 2007)

 

* Iraq’s child mortality rate has increased by a staggering 150 percent since 1990. Some 122,000 Iraqi children died in 2005 before reaching their fifth birthday. More than half of these deaths were among newborn babies in the first month of life  (08 May 2007)

 

* only 50 percent of primary school-age children are attending class, down from 80 percent in 2005. Approximately 1,500 children are known to be held in detention facilities. (Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, 25 April 2008)

 

 

* 50,000 Iraqi refugees forced into prostitution (24 June 2007)

 

* Years of war, current insecurity take toll on environment (07 June 2007) - Insecurity and lack of funds prevent cleansing of polluted sites (19 April 2007)

 

* 8.000.000 Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in absolute poverty.

* 4.000.000 people are lacking food and in dire need of different types of humanitarian assistance.

* Only 60% of the 4.000.000 people who depend on food assistance have access to rations from the public distribution system, down from 96% in 2004.

* The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies has risen from 50% to 70% since 2003.

* 80% of people in Iraq do not have safe access to effective sanitation.

* Child malnutrition rates have risen from 19% before the US-led invasion in 2003 to 28% currently.

(Oxfam report 29 July 2007)

 

* The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute. The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity. (AFSC 21 Sep 2007)

 

* More than 3.000.000 Iraqi refugees and 2.778.305 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq. In Jordan: 700.000-750.000 - In Syria: 1.500.000-2.000.000 - In Egypt: 150.000 - In Iran: 100.000 persons - In Lebanon: 40.000 - In the Gulf States: 200.000 - In Turkey: 10.000 - In the rest of the world: no estimates available. (IRCO 01 July 2007)

* Look at Iraq today: democracy and human rights American style (06 June 2007)

* Iraqi Red Crescent Organization: Report On IDP’s In Iraq - Update 31 May 2007  [PDF] 26 pages - June 2007

* Statistics on Refugees (Updated September 2007)

* Comments on the Lancet Survey and other mortality studies (Updated 02 June 2008)

* The effects of the American use of prohibited weapons on the health condition in Fallujah (10 Dec 2007)

* Christians in Iraq face liquidation (Sept - Oct 2008)

 

* Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck: Two former UN humanitarian coordinators for IRAQ appeal again for the release of former deputy prime minister of Iraq Tariq Aziz (02 January 2007)