World Tribunal on Iraq: Documenting War Crimes -- Interviews Available

[WTI <tolga.temuge at worldtribunal.org>]

From: Institute for Public Accuracy <dcinstitute at igc.org>


Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

         Friday, June 24, 2005

         World Tribunal on Iraq
         Documenting War Crimes

HAIFA ZANGANA, 011-90-538-510-7916, [as of next week in the U.K. at
011-44-208-455-8004], haifa_zangana at yahoo.co.uk,
http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/020917_zangana.html
Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and former political prisoner. She
went back to Iraq for the first time in 2004, after 25 years of exile. She
was imprisoned in Abu Ghraib by the Ba'athist regime and tortured. She said
today: "The U.S. managed in the last two years what Saddam Hussein could
not in the past 35, killing our hope for a democratic future. There are
many people from Iraq taking part in this Tribunal because it is very
important for us to document all the crimes we are enduring: the random
killings, the collective punishments, the indiscriminate use of weapons,
including napalm, the looting, the torture. ... Advocates of democracy like
me are now finding their task harder, as the occupation makes a mockery of
any notion of democracy. People in Iraq now laugh at us if we say
democracy, indeed, it has all become laughable with this carnage we are
experiencing, along with a stunning shortage of medicines, of clean water,
of electricity, and of freedom." Zangana can also arrange interviews with
other members of the Iraqi delegation.

TIM GOODRICH, 011-90-535-4770479, [as of next week, in the U.S. at 760-
994-6700], ivaw_west at ivaw.net, http://www.ivaw.net
Goodrich served in the US Air Force and was in the Middle East during the
invasion of Afghanistan and leading up to the war in Iraq. He returned to
Iraq in 2004 as part of a fact-finding delegation. He said today: "I was
there in Iraq in fall of 2002 when the war was already happening even
though it was not officially announced. We were dropping bombs then, and I
saw bombing intensify as a part of the 'softening up' of Iraq's defenses.
All the documents coming out now, the Downing street memo and others,
confirm what I had witnessed in Iraq. The war had already begun while our
leaders were telling us that they were going to try all diplomatic options
first. ... The true picture on Iraq is not what is shown on the American
media. The situation is getting much worse. The soldiers and Iraqis are
suffering more than people know."

BRENDAN SMITH, +011-90-538-510-7613, smithb at lawnet.ucla.edu,
http://www.fpif.org/papers/0506haltbush.html
Brendan Smith is a lawyer and co-editor of the forthcoming book "In The
Name Of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond." He is in
Istanbul attending the Tribunal. He said today: "In America's Wild West,
citizens would seize criminals, hold impromptu hearings, and hand the
guilty over to officials. With global enforcement of the Geneva Conventions
blocked by the U.S. at every turn, the World Tribunal on Iraq is here to
make such citizen's arrest."

JODIE EVANS, 310-621-5635, 011-212-638-8200 room 126, jodie at codepinkalert.org
Jodie Evans is the co-founder of Code Pink. She is attending the World
Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul. She said today: “I’m here to gather evidence
to indict Bush. … I also just came back from Iran where I did 400
interviews. Many people I spoke with said that they do not like the
domestic policies of their own government, but actually like the fact that
it stands up to the United States. They told me that they will stand behind
even this government, however opposed to it they may be, if the United
States takes military action against their nation.”

DAVID BARSAMIAN, barsamian at riseup.net, 011-90-538-510-7617
Barsamian, co-author of "Terrorism: Theirs & Ours", is in Istanbul for the
Tribunal. He said today: "The Nuremberg trials and the U.N. charter have
established in international law the idea that aggression constitutes crime
against peace and that this is the supreme international war crime. The
invasion of Iraq is an example of violation of Nuremberg principles and the
U.N. charter."

For more information, contact the Institute for Public Accuracy at (202)
347-0020; or David Zupan at, (541) 484-9167