[News] Arundhati Roy's opening statement: World Tribunal of Iraq

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<http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=1>http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=1#

Opening Speech
Arundhati Roy

OPENING STATEMENT OF ARUNDHATI ROY ON BEHALF OF THE JURY OF CONSCIENCE OF 
THE WORLD TRIBUNAL OF IRAQ

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

24 June 2005

This is the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq. It is of 
particular significance that it is being held here in Turkey where the 
United States used Turkish air bases to launch numerous bombing missions to 
degrade Iraq's defenses before the March 2003 invasion and has sought and 
continues to seek political support from the Turkish government, which it 
regards as an ally. All this was done in the face of enormous popular 
opposition by the Turkish people. As a spokesperson for the jury of 
conscience, it would make me uneasy if I did not mention that the 
government of India is also, like the government of Turkey, positioning 
itself as a "ally" of the United States in its economic policies and the 
so-called War on Terror.

The testimonies at the previous sessions of the World Tribunal on Iraq in 
Brussels and New York have demonstrated that even those of us who have 
tried to follow the war in Iraq closely are not aware of a fraction of the 
horrors that have been unleashed in Iraq.

The Jury of Conscience at this tribunal is not here to deliver a simple 
verdict of guilty or not guilty against the United States and its allies. 
We are here to examine a vast spectrum of evidence about the motivations 
and consequences of the U.S. invasion and occupation, evidence that has 
been deliberately marginalized or suppressed. Every aspect of the war will 
be examined - its legality, the role of international institutions and 
major corporations in the occupation, the role of the media, the impact of 
weapons such as depleted uranium munitions, napalm, and cluster bombs, the 
use of and legitimation of torture, the ecological impacts of the war, the 
responsibility of Arab governments, the impact of Iraq's occupation on 
Palestine, and the history of U.S. and British military interventions in 
Iraq. This tribunal is an attempt to correct the record. To document the 
history of the war not from the point of view of the victors but of the 
temporarily - and I repeat the word temporarily - vanquished.

Before the testimonies begin, I would like to briefly address as 
straightforwardly as I can a few questions that have been raised about this 
tribunal.

The first is that this tribunal is a Kangaroo Court. That it represents 
only one point of view. That it is a prosecution without a defense. That 
the verdict is a foregone conclusion.
Now this view seems to suggest a touching concern that in this harsh world, 
the views of the U.S. government and the so-called Coalition of the Willing 
headed by President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have somehow 
gone unrepresented. That the World Tribunal on Iraq isn't aware of the 
arguments in support of the war and is unwilling to consider the point of 
view of the invaders. If in the era of the multinational corporate media 
and embedded journalism anybody can seriously hold this view, then we truly 
do live in the Age of Irony, in an age when satire has become meaningless 
because real life is more satirical than satire can ever be.

Let me say categorically that this tribunal is the defense. It is an act of 
resistance in itself. It is a defense mounted against one of the most 
cowardly wars ever fought in history, a war in which international 
institutions were used to force a country to disarm and then stood by while 
it was attacked with a greater array of weapons than has ever been used in 
the history of war.

Second, this tribunal is not in any way a defense of Saddam Hussein. His 
crimes against Iraqis, Kurds, Iranians, Kuwaitis, and others cannot be 
written off in the process of bringing to light Iraq's more recent and 
still unfolding tragedy. However, we must not forget that when Saddam 
Hussein was committing his worst crimes, the U.S. government was supporting 
him politically and materially. When he was gassing Kurdish people, the 
U.S. government financed him, armed him, and stood by silently.

Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak. But what 
about those who helped to install him in power, who armed him, who 
supported him - and who are now setting up a tribunal to try him and 
absolve themselves completely? And what about other friends of the United 
States in the region that have suppressed Kurdish people's and other 
people's rights, including the government of Turkey?

There are remarkable people gathered here who in the face of this 
relentless and brutal aggression and propaganda have doggedly worked to 
compile a comprehensive spectrum of evidence and information that should 
serve as a weapon in the hands of those who wish to participate in the 
resistance against the occupation of Iraq. It should become a weapon in the 
hands of soldiers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, 
Australia, and elsewhere who do not wish to fight, who do not wish to lay 
down their lives - or to take the lives of others - for a pack of lies. It 
should become a weapon in the hands of journalists, writers, poets, 
singers, teachers, plumbers, taxi drivers, car mechanics, painters, lawyers 
- anybody who wishes to participate in the resistance.

The evidence collated in this tribunal should, for instance, 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 profit from it.

The assault on Iraq is an assault on all of us: on our dignity, our 
intelligence, and our future.

We recognize that the judgment of the World Tribunal on Iraq is not binding 
in international law. However, our ambitions far surpass that. The World 
Tribunal on Iraq places its faith in the consciences of millions of people 
across the world who do not wish to stand by and watch while the people of 
Iraq are being slaughtered, subjugated, and humiliated.

The Freedom Archives
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