IV

108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. RES. 203

Calling for the prosecution of Iraqis and their supporters for war crimes,

and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 11, 2003

Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. WELLER) submitted the

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

RESOLUTION

Calling for the prosecution of Iraqis and their supporters

for war crimes, and for other purposes.

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that—

3 (1) the governments of the United States, the

4 United Kingdom, and other nations comprising the

5 coalition conducting Operation Iraqi Freedom should

6 prosecute by tribunal persons in the Government of

7 Iraq, persons in the armed forces of Iraq, and any

8 other person, regardless of nationality, who orders,

9 directs, solicits, procures, coordinates, participates

10 in, or supports acts in violation of the international
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1 law of armed conflict (including the aspects of such

2 law known as the Hague and Geneva Conventions)

3 that are directed at members of the armed forces of

4 the coalition nations or at the people of Iraq or any

5 other nation;

6 (2) in the determination of appropriate persons

7 to be charged and tried by such tribunal on the

8 basis of command responsibility for any violation,

9 consideration should be given to identifying respon10 sible persons throughout the full range of the chain

11 of command, and not only persons within formal

12 chains of command of the government and armed

13 forces of Iraq, but also persons integral to any infor14 mal link by which a person in the government of

15 Iraq or the armed forces of Iraq, or any other per16 son, directs paramilitary, political, or guerrilla

17 forces;

18 (3) in the determination of appropriate persons

19 to be charged and tried by such tribunal, consider20 ation should also be given to identifying persons who

21 use political position or mass media in any of the

22 violations; and

23 (4) in the determination of the violations of the

24 international law of armed conflict to be tried by the

25 tribunal, particular attention should be given to acts
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1 in the nature of those that, as of the date of this

2 resolution, have already been committed by Iraqi di3 rected forces, such as—

4 (A) the abuse of places protected from

5 military attack under international law of

6 armed conflict, such as the use of mosques and

7 hospitals as military headquarters or for other

8 military purposes;

9 (B) the ruse by which Iraqi combatants

10 wear civilian clothing instead of, or over, uni11 forms to conceal their status as combatants

12 and, while so clothed, attack coalition forces;

13 (C) the ruse by which Iraqi combatants

14 feign surrender to coalition forces to gain ad15 vantage used by the Iraqi combatants to attack

16 personnel of the coalition forces;

17 (D) the use of civilians or other persons

18 protected under international law of armed con19 flict as human shields for Iraqi combatants on

20 the battlefield;

21 (E) assault, murder, kidnapping, or tor22 ture of civilians or other persons protected

23 under international law in order to terrorize

24 those persons or others or to prevent them from

25 gaining the protection of coalition forces;
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1 (F) abuse, torture, assault, or murder of

2 personnel of coalition forces entitled to treat3 ment as prisoners of war or of civilians entitled

4 to a protected status under international law;

5 and

6 (G) recruitment or encouragement of non7 Iraqi foreign nationals to engage in violations of

8 the international law of armed conflict.

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