The Most Cowardly War in History By Arundhati Roy

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062505Y.shtml

 

The Most Cowardly War in History

By Arundhati Roy

World Tribunal on Iraq

 

Friday 24 June 2005

 

Opening Statement of Arundhati Roy on behalf of the jury of

conscience of the world tribunal of Iraq.

 

Istanbul, Turkey - This is the culminating session of the World

Tribunal on Iraq. It is of particular significance that it is being

held here in Turkey where the United States used Turkish air bases to

launch numerous bombing missions to degrade Iraqs defenses before the

March 2003 invasion and has sought and continues to seek political

support from the Turkish government, which it regards as an ally. All

this was done in the face of enormous popular opposition by the

Turkish people. As a spokesperson for the jury of conscience, it would

make me uneasy if I did not mention that the government of India is

also, like the government of Turkey, positioning itself as a ally of

the United States in its economic policies and the so-called War on

Terror.

 

The testimonies at the previous sessions of the World Tribunal on

Iraq in Brussels and New York have demonstrated that even those of us

who have tried to follow the war in Iraq closely are not aware of a

fraction of the horrors that have been unleashed in Iraq.

 

The Jury of Conscience at this tribunal is not here to deliver a

simple verdict of guilty or not guilty against the United States and

its allies. We are here to examine a vast spectrum of evidence about

the motivations and consequences of the US invasion and occupation,

evidence that has been deliberately marginalized or suppressed. Every

aspect of the war will be examined - its legality, the role of

international institutions and major corporations in the occupation,

the role of the media, the impact of weapons such as depleted uranium

munitions, napalm, and cluster bombs, the use of and legitimation of

torture, the ecological impacts of the war, the responsibility of Arab

governments, the impact of Iraqs occupation on Palestine, and the

history of US and British military interventions in Iraq. This

tribunal is an attempt to correct the record. To document the history

of the war not from the point of view of the victors but of the

temporarily - and I repeat the word temporarily - anquished.

 

Before the testimonies begin, I would like to briefly address as

straightforwardly as I can a few questions that have been raised about

this tribunal.

 

The first is that this tribunal is a Kangaroo Court. That it

represents only one point of view. That it is a prosecution without a

defense. That the verdict is a foregone conclusion.

 

Now this view seems to suggest a touching concern that in this

harsh world, the views of the US government and the so-called

Coalition of the Willing headed by President George Bush and Prime

Minister Tony Blair have somehow gone unrepresented. That the World

Tribunal on Iraq isn't aware of the arguments in support of the war

and is unwilling to consider the point of view of the invaders. If in

the era of the multinational corporate media and embedded journalism

anybody can seriously hold this view, then we truly do live in the Age

of Irony, in an age when satire has become meaningless because real

life is more satirical than satire can ever be.

 

Let me say categorically that this tribunal is the defense. It is

an act of resistance in itself. It is a defense mounted against one of

the most cowardly wars ever fought in history, a war in which

international institutions were used to force a country to disarm and

then stood by while it was attacked with a greater array of weapons

than has ever been used in the history of war.

 

Second, this tribunal is not in any way a defense of Saddam

Hussein. His crimes against Iraqis, Kurds, Iranians, Kuwaitis, and

others cannot be written off in the process of bringing to light Iraqs

more recent and still unfolding tragedy. However, we must not forget

that when Saddam Hussein was committing his worst crimes, the US

government was supporting him politically and materially. When he was

gassing Kurdish people, the US government financed him, armed him, and

stood by silently.

 

Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak.

But what about those who helped to install him in power, who armed

him, who supported him - and who are now setting up a tribunal to try

him and absolve themselves completely? And what about other friends of

the United States in the region that have suppressed Kurdish peoples

and other peoples rights, including the government of Turkey?

 

There are remarkable people gathered here who in the face of this

relentless and brutal aggression and propaganda have doggedly worked

to compile a comprehensive spectrum of evidence and information that

should serve as a weapon in the hands of those who wish to participate

in the resistance against the occupation of Iraq. It should become a

weapon in the hands of soldiers in the United States, the United

Kingdom, Italy, Australia, and elsewhere who do not wish to fight, who

do not wish to lay down their lives - or to take the lives of others -

for a pack of lies. It should become a weapon in the hands of

journalists, writers, poets, singers, teachers, plumbers, taxi

drivers, car mechanics, painters, lawyers - anybody who wishes to

participate in the resistance.

 

The evidence collated in this tribunal should, for instance, be

used by the International Criminal Court (whose jurisdiction the

United States does not recognize) to try as war criminals George Bush,

Tony Blair, John Howard, Silvio Berlusconi, and all those government

officials, army generals, and corporate CEOs who participated in this

war and now profit from it.

 

The assault on Iraq is an assault on all of us: on our dignity,

our intelligence, and our future.

 

We recognize that the judgment of the World Tribunal on Iraq is

not binding in international law. However, our ambitions far surpass

that. The World Tribunal on Iraq places its faith in the consciences

of millions of people across the world who do not wish to stand by and

watch while the people of Iraq are being slaughtered, subjugated, and

humiliated.

 

Arundhati Roy received the Booker Prize for literature in 1997.

Presently, one of the most eloquent voices for the global justice and

anti-war movement, she was also awarded, among many others, the Sydney

Peace Prize in 2004, and the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize in 2002.

 

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