Congresswoman McKinney decries war against Iraqi people
August 14, 2001
Washington, DC - Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Ranking Member of the
International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee of the House
International Relations Committee, expressed her strong opposition to the
massive airstrike launched by US and British forces early in the morning on
Friday, August 10th.
The Pentagon, on the morning of the bombing, said that about fifty US and
British aircraft had hit three targets in southern Iraq with precision-guided
weapons aimed at Baghdad's antiaircraft network.
Iraq said that this attack by American and British aircraft earlier in the
day had killed one Iraqi and injured eleven.
"It's obvious that US policy toward Iraq is in shreds; bombing hasn't
improved the lives of the Iraqi people, it hasn't strengthened the opposition
to Saddam Hussein, and it hasn't enhanced our image in the region," stated
McKinney.
"In addition," she continued, "targeting civilians is against the laws of
civilized nations. All the US has done with success is to increase the
misery of the Iraqi people and obviously violate a few international laws and
conventions in the process," she concluded.
Recently released declassified documents point to US war crimes in Iraq.
Writing in the September 2001 issue of The Progressive, Thomas Nagy,Professor
of Expert Systems at George Washington University with a doctoral fellowship
in public health cites recently declassified documents that show the United
States was aware of the civilian health consequences of destroying Iraq's
drinking water and sanitation systems in the Gulf War, and knew that
sanctions would prevent the Iraqi government from repairing the degraded
facilities.
These civilian health consequences, according to Article 54 of the Geneva
Convention, are prohibited by international law.
Article 54 states that "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render
useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population,
such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs,
crops, livestock, drinking installations and supplies and irrigation works,
for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the
civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in
order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other
motive".
"Britain seems joined at America's hip in this cruel policy that has
contributed to the deaths of half a million Iraqi children. That's both a
shame and a crime," McKinney concluded.
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