The WTI began organizing in June of 2003 and since then, has held 20 "hearings" in various locations around the globe to discuss and hear testimony on "war crimes" committed by coalition forces and the legality of the war in Iraq. The purpose of the tribunal is to "bear witness", not to offer legal opinion or mete out justice. And bear witness it does, interviewing detainees, academics, medical professionals and Iraqi citizens.  The stories they tell make one ashamed of what has been done in our name ... so far across the ocean it takes sleuthing to find the truth.

This organization does not get much media attention in the US or Great Britain, but in the Arab world the hearings and the findings are anxiously awaited.  According to testimony and research compiled by the WTI, the US has caused more deaths in Iraq than Saddam Hussein.¹

British journalist Robert Fisk reports on July 14, 2004 Academics targeted as murder and mayhem hits Iraqi colleges.  

Just who the modern-day Mongols are remains a painful mystery of our story. Disgruntled students they are not. Baathist-hunters some of them might be - all heads of academic departments were forced to join Saddam's party - but none of the murdered Baghdad university staff were believed to be anything more than card-carriers.

Even the former president of the university, Dr Mohamed Arawi - a surgeon shot at his clinic a year ago ...

[snip]

Dr Sabri al-Bayatiy of the department of geography was shot dead only a month ago, just outside the arts department, in front of many of his students.

[snip]

Talk to the academics at Baghdad University, and the names roll out. Dr Nafa Aboud of the department of Arabic was murdered just two months ago. Dr Hissam Sharif of the department of history was sitting at the door of his Baghdad home when the killers came, shooting him and two friends.

Dr Falah al-Dulaimi, assistant dean of college at Mustansariya University in Baghdad, was shot in his college office last year.

According to the Brussels Tribunal, no one has yet been held accountable for the deaths of these academics, but "as an occupying power, and under international humanitarian law, the final responsibility for protecting Iraqi citizens, including academics, lies with the United States."²

On June 27th, 2005 Dahr Jamail reports for ZNet on the Culminating Session of the WTI:

In May of 2004 I interviewed a man who had just been released from Abu Ghraib. Like so many I interviewed from various US military detention facilities who'd been tortured horrifically, he still managed to maintain his sense of humor.

[snip]

Later, he laughed again as he told me what else had been done to him, when he said, "The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house."

Later in the article Jamail continues:

Abbas did not feel this was the work of a few individual soldiers. "This was organized, it wasn't just individuals, and every one of the troops in Abu Ghraib was responsible for it."

[snip]

Hospital raids by US military and US-backed Iraqi forces now appear to be standard operating procedure.

[snip]

Dr. Mohammed Hazim in Baquba, pleaded for his governor to protect he and his colleagues from "organized terrorism of the police and army."

When wounded Iraqi security forces showed up demanding treatment, Dr. Hussein told one of them he would require an x-ray. The doctor was told to go to hell by the policeman he was treating and was then beaten. The same policeman then ordered another police officer to put a bag over the doctor's head and take him away.

"Our security guards tried to stop them, telling them I was a doctor, but they didn't listen and beat the security guards too," he said, "Then one of them put a gun to my head and threatened me."

Also on June 27th Truthout reports:

The Jury defined this war as one of the most unjust in history: 'The Bush and Blair administrations blatantly ignored the massive opposition to the war expressed by millions of people around the world. They embarked upon one of the most unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history. The Anglo-American occupation of Iraq of the last 27 months has led to the destruction and devastation of the Iraqi state and society. Law and order have broken down completely, resulting in a pervasive lack of human security; the physical infrastructure is in shambles; the health care delivery system is a mess; the education system has ceased to function; there is massive environmental and ecological devastation; and, the cultural and archeological heritage of the Iraqi people has been desecrated.'

So, on Monday, over four years since the start of the illegal occupation of  Iraq, the WTI will deliver it's official findings.  It will list the UN handling of the situation in Iraq as a massive failure and will "condemn" both the US and British governments for their "empire-building" at the expense of Iraqi civilians.

[Indian novelist Arundhati] Roy told the gathering here: "The evidence collated in this tribunal should ... be used by the International Criminal Court -- whose jurisdiction the United States does not recognize -- to try as war criminals George Bush, Tony Blair, John Howard, Silvio Berlusconi, and all those government officials, army generals, and corporate CEOs who participated in this war and now benefit from it."

She added that the tribunal was "an act of resistance," "a defense mounted against one of the most cowardly wars ever fought in history."

There is not much hope that these findings will have any media play here in the US -- other than in the blogosphere and independent media. And even less hope that it will have any impact at all on the continuation of the Bush Wars, but at least history will have a record of the crimes that have been perpretrated.

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Footnotes

¹Pak Tribune

²BRussels Tribunal