The Iraqi ‘High Court’– the special war-crimes court that was supposed Exhibit A in the US occupation forces’ attempt to bring accountability and the rule of law to Iraq– has become the scene of some ugly and very open political tussling between the US ‘advisors’ who have been the eminence grise behind the whole court from the very beginning and the Iraqi judge who thought he was supposed to be running it.
This report from AP’s Qassem Abdul-Zahra tells us that,
- A session of the war crimes trial of six former officials in Saddam Hussein’s government was canceled Sunday after a defense attorney who had been ejected last week made an unexpected appearance, court officials said.
Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa asked bailiffs why Badie Arif Ezzat was back in his courtroom, and was told the attorney was there on the order of U.S. officials attached to the court in an advisory capacity, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
“So, does my decision mean nothing?” an angry al-Khalifa responded, referring to his decision to eject and hold Ezzat in contempt last week. The two had a heated exchange over comments Ezzat made in a television interview. The judge said the remarks were an insult to the court.
Al-Khalifa adjourned the trial until March 26.
Abdul-Zahra added that the court officials said,
- that negotiations between the two sides would continue until a mutually satisfactory settlement is reached.
They said the U.S. officials took custody of Ezzat from Iraqi authorities over the weekend, keeping him under protection in a residence located inside the Green Zone, the heavily fortified Baghdad region that houses the U.S. Embassy and offices of the Iraqi government and parliament.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said he was checking on the report but could not immediately offer comment.
In the past, at least one attorney providing services to the defense side in the court has been killed, and it is quite possible that Ezzat has entertained some strong and not unreasonable fears for his life in recent weeks.
Many people in the international legal and human rights communities held out the hope for a long time that criminal trials for past atrocities, such as have been attempted by this Iraqi ‘High’ Court, can somehow be insulated from political considerations and in a generalized, ex-cathedra sort of way somehow magically help in strengthening the rule of law in multiply stressed and traumatized societies.
They can’t. Indeed, in societies in which political power is still hotly contested, conducting a criminal trial of major political figures will always exacerbate existing social and political cleavages and make far harder the attainment of the kind of social-political calm in which the rule-of-law protections can start to have real effect.
Let’s hope this whole series of debacles in this US-run political court in Iraq will cause more people in the international human -rights movement to understand the strict limitations on the applicability of war-crimes trials in politically fragile situations that have recently experienced deep inter-group violence or that– as in Iraq, Rwanda, Uganda, or elsewhere– are still actually living under the rights-abusing yoke of such conflict.
(For more of my recent thinking on this check out this recent JWN post or more of the writings on the Transitional Justice Forum blog.)
Helena,
You have to understand the mentality of the American “advisor” who considers his unsolicited “advice” as an “order” and not a suggestion. As a former Naval Advisor to the now-long-defunct Republic of South Vietnam, I recall vividly scenes in which the senior American advisor at our little river-outpost base would fly into a purple rage and scream abuse at Vietnamese officers because they did not follow his “advice” in the same unquestioning way that we American servicemen would obediently follow his commands. To compound his obtuse insults, he would sometimes order me, an enlisted man and the only resident American interpreter/tanslator, to “explain” to English-speaking Vietnamese officers the gist of his undignified, ranting performances that no uneducated peasant could fail to understand. Needless to say, these excruciating experiences caused everyone involved in them to suffer embarrassment and loss of face. So I have no problem whatsoever understanding the Iraqi judge’s frustration at American arrogance and incompetence undermining his authority and effectiveness. Still, we all need to keep in mind that keeping the Iraqis undermined and ineffective creates and perpetuates the American government/military’s self-serving rampant careerism in the form of never-ending “ticket punching” opportunities for Americans at the expense of chaos and destruction for the Iraqis — Vietnam Redux Deja-vu all over again one more time only now faster for substituting the Worst and the Dullest for the Best and the Brightest. Parkinson’s Law + the Peter Principle = Lunatic Leviathan.
The American military barged into Iraq uninvited and has not yet seemed to get the message that not the simplest Iraqi fool would ever follow their advice when an entire world can see the disastrous results of doing so. Four years ago our pathetic excuse for a president and commander-in-chief loudly and proudly proclaimed: “In the battle for Iraq, America and its allies have prevailed.” Now we find ourselves desperately trying to stave off ignominious defeat (what I suppose will have to do as some sort of this-time-for-sure “prevailing”) in the neighborhood right down the street from the Baghdad Green Zone Castle inside which apparently almost no one can feel safe from assassination or death by random incoming mortar rounds. What people in their right minds would take the “advice” delivered as take-it-or-take-it “orders” from the bumbling American blowhards who have brought Iraq to such an awful crisis?
America truly does currently suffer from its worst political and military “leadership” in half a century, certainly we’ve not seen its f*ck-up-and-move-up likeness since Vietnam; and now Iraq suffers from the same twin American maladies as well as its own native ones. How humiliating for America and utterly disastrous for Iraq. Americans would do well to keep their “advice” to themselves — and possibly even practice some of it. At least then, only Americans would suffer from the awful results.
Michael, thanks so much for this. I’d love any more Vietnam-era stories along these lines that you could contribute…