A legal minefield for Iraq's occupiers

[ze_dscherman]

The deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein will provide a welcome morale-boost for the Anglo-US forces in Iraq. It has become all too clear in recent weeks, as casualties have mounted and budgets escalated, that America and Britain gravely underestimated the task awaiting them in post-war Iraq. What the occupying powers may not yet fully appreciate, however, is the extent of their long-term liability under international law.

Because they rejected a United Nations-supervised administration of post-Hussein Iraq, the US and Britain needlessly shoulder most of the legal responsibility for the success or failure of the administration and reconstruction of Iraq. No wonder other nations and groupings, such as India, Pakistan and Nato, have rejected Washington's appeal for troops. Why risk the liabilities of a military occupation under current conditions, especially when a simple Security Council mandate could trump occupation law, with all its attendant burdens?

SNIP

In the last half-century no country requiring such radical transformation has been placed under military occupation law instead of a UN mandate or trusteeship. No conquering military power has volunteered formally to embrace occupation law so boldly and with such enormous risk. And never in recent times has an occupation occurred that was so predictable for so long and yet so poorly planned for.

More more read (calling for a new UN resolution): http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1058868094232&p=1012571727092

[IndianaGreen]

1. Withdraw the troops now by placing Iraq under UN Mandate

What we need is to get the Security Council to vote on a resolution putting Iraq under a UN Mandate, as it was done when the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina was established in 1995. The UN Mandate will put Iraq under UN governance and security, until such time as Iraq is ready to elect a government.

The US would withdraw its troops immediately upon the UN administration being installed in Baghdad, and international peacekeepers from neutral countries assume security duties.

End of the war. No more casualties!

Troops will be home NLT Thanksgiving!

UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina

On December 21, 1995, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1035, setting up the UN International Police Task Force and a UN Civil Affairs Office. These were brought together as the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The UN Mission (UNMIBH) was created to help implement the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (also referred to as the as the Dayton-Paris Agreement). It was "under the authority of the Secretary-General and subject to coordination and guidance as appropriate" of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina appointed to oversee the Agreement’s implementation.

On December 31, 2002, the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina completed its mandate. The European Union Police Mission (EUPM) assumed international police monitoring duties in Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 1, 2003.

The International Police Task Force has reformed and restructured local police personnel and organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reducing the bloated local police forces from over 40,000 personnel in 1996 to approximately 20,000 today. Through this process, the UN has also de-certified officers who were without proper training or education and those who participated in war crimes or other violations of the law. In addition, the UN worked to improve recruitment of officers from minority groups within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska and mentored local police in leadership positions.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/16291.htm

Originally posted in GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=69982&mesg_id=69982&page=2

[opihimoimoi]

2. Sad to say, don't see it happening anytime soon

The cost of blood and monie$ too high

The US must stand alone with the Brits on this one. The cost of that oil will reach epic levels.