Iraqi Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid ("Chemical Ali") should be prosecuted on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today. International judges, prosecutors, and investigators should participate in the trial so that it is fair, impartial, and independent.
"The capture of 'Chemical Ali' presents a rare opportunity to bring a measure of justice to the countless victims and their families who suffered under Ba'ath Party rule," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. "International participation is essential for fair trials that will expose his crimes before independent and impartial courts."
Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, masterminded the genocidal 1988 campaign that resulted in the murder or "disappearance" of some 100,000 Kurds. He led the forces that suppressed the popular uprising in southern Iraq in March 1991, and reportedly played a principal role in a killing and repression campaign against Iraq's Marsh Arab population during the 1990s.
Prosecuting Iraq's former leaders -- including former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, captured earlier this week -- will pose significant challenges, Human Rights Watch said. Trials will require technical expertise in conducting focused investigations, classifying and analyzing evidence, and developing a prosecution strategy. Few judges, prosecutors, or investigators in Iraq have participated in cases as complex as those involving genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes.
The United States and its coalition partners have thus far failed to address the needs that will arise from trying senior leaders in the former Iraqi government for serious past crimes.
Coalition forces have been slow to secure mass grave sites, resulting in the destruction of substantial evidence. The Coalition Provisional Authority has also failed to indicate what it intends to do with the 37 senior former Iraqi governing officials currently in custody. To date, none has had access to family or legal counsel.
"The trials of Iraq's former leaders should have international participation to avoid the perception of vengeful 'victors' justice,'" Dicker said. "The United Nations and the Iraqi Governing Council should work together to achieve this."
The trials could be held in Iraq, using Arabic and Kurdish as their official languages and presided over by Iraqi and international judges applying the relevant provisions of Iraqi and international law, Human Rights Watch said. It called on the Iraqi governing council and the United Nations to support creating either mixed or international tribunals soon.
BACKGROUND
Who is Ali Hassan al-Majid ("Chemical Ali")?
Al-Majid is widely known in Iraq as "Chemical Ali" for his repeated use of outlawed chemical warfare, as documented in the Human Rights Watch book on that campaign, Genocide In Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds. He was later in charge of Iraq's brutal military occupation of Kuwait, and commanded Iraq's military forces in the south.
As secretary general of the Northern Bureau of Iraq's Ba'ath Party, al-Majid held authority over all agencies of the state in the Kurdish region from March 1987 to April 1989, including the 1st and 5th Corps of the army, the General Security Directorate, and Military Intelligence. This included the period of the Anfal genocide against the region's Kurdish residents. One of his orders, dated June 20, 1987, directed army commanders "to carry out special bombardments [a reference to chemical weapon use]...to kill the largest number of persons present in ...prohibited zones."
Named after a Koranic verse justifying pillage of properties of infidels, the Anfal campaign unfolded as the 1980-1988 Iran/Iraq war was winding down. The Anfal campaign, under al-Majid's command, resulted in the murder and "disappearance" of some 100,000 noncombatants, the use of chemical weapons against noncombatants in dozens of locations, and the near-total destruction of family and community assets, including agricultural and other infrastructure, throughout the rural Kurdish areas. Documents captured from Iraqi intelligence services demonstrate that the mass killings, "disappearances," forced displacement, and other crimes were carried out in a coherent and highly centralized manner under al-Majid's direct supervision. Ali Hassan al-Majid was subsequently in charge of Iraq's military occupation of Kuwait and led forces that suppressed the popular uprising in the south of the country in March 1991. All of these campaigns were marked by executions, arbitrary arrests, "disappearances," torture, and other atrocities.
According to Iraqi opposition activists and refugee testimony, al-Majid played a leading role in the campaign against Iraq's Marsh Arab population in the 1990s. Numbering some 250,000 people as recently as 1991, the Marsh Arabs as of January 2003 were believed to number fewer than 40,000 in their ancestral homeland. Many were arrested, "disappeared," or executed; most have become refugees abroad or are internally displaced in Iraq as a result of al-Majid's campaign.
Who is Taha Yassin Ramadan?
Taha Yassin Ramadan (formerly Taha Jazrawi) was Saddam Hussein's vice president. He has been a member of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council since 1969, shortly after the Ba'ath Party took power in Iraq. In 1970, he sat on a special court that sentenced 42 people to immediate execution for their alleged roles in a coup attempt against the government. He later headed the Ba'ath Party paramilitary force known as the Popular Army, which reportedly played an active role in suppressing the March 1991 popular uprising in southern Iraq. That campaign, brutal in the extreme, was characterized by routine torture, numerous extrajudicial executions, and widespread arbitrary detentions and subsequent "disappearances."
