"WORLD TRIBUNAL" CONFAB CONDEMNS COALITION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 001170 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: IZ PREL TU SUBJECT: "WORLD TRIBUNAL" CONFAB CONDEMNS COALITION REF: A. ISTANBUL 1080 ¶B. ISTANBUL 00864 (NOTAL) ¶1. (U) Summary: A self-appointed "World Tribunal on Iraq" (WTI) comprising an international group of academic and civil society activists met in Istanbul from June 24-27 to charge the U.S. and U.K. governments with waging an illegal war of aggression in Iraq, recommend coalition forces' immediate withdrawal from Iraq, and express support for the right of the Iraqi people to "resist the illegal occupation of their country." Turkish press covered the event widely, with Cumhuriyet giving the WTI final press statement front page above the fold placement. It is difficult to gauge the event's effect on public opinion, but with Turkish views on U.S. action in Iraq already overwhelmingly negative, it may have had no effect at all. The WTI message was out of step with two other Istanbul events in late June -- the Democracy Assistance Dialogue conference (ref A) and an ARI movement conference on democratization and security. End Summary. ¶2. (U) A self-appointed "World Tribunal on Iraq" (WTI) comprising an international group of academic and civil society activists, and chaired by Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, met in Istanbul from June 24-27 to hear more than 50 presentations by a "Panel of Advocates" and render a "verdict" challenging the legality of the coalition invasion of Iraq, condemning the conduct of coalition governments in Iraq during the occupation, and charging the United Nations and the international media with complicity in coalition actions. (Note: Per ref B, Mission Turkey was notified in advance about the event, but did not send representatives. End note.) The culminating session in a series of approximately 20 such "hearings" which began in Brussels in April 2004 and continued in cities around the world during the past 14 months, the Istanbul WTI meeting closed with a press statement making charges against the USG and recommendations for future action (see paras 5,6). Claiming to represent humanity's collective conscience -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Drawing its legitimacy from what it called the "collective conscience of humanity," the WTI was inspired in part by the 1966-67 Russell Tribunal, formed by British pacifist Bertrand Russell to examine conduct of U.S. forces in Vietnam at that time. While that tribunal was criticized for being one-sided and ignoring atrocities committed by the Viet Cong, it was able to draw big-name tribunal members, including Jean Paul Sartre, Lazaro Cardenas and Stokely Carmichael. The current WTI effort, also criticized for ignoring the illegal actions of the Saddam regime in its deliberations, has a lesser-known roster of supporters, outside of Roy, who won the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel "The God of Small Things." Turkish participants: no strangers to controversy -------------- -------------- ¶4. (U) The WTI event had a primarily international, rather than Turkish, face. The only Turkish member of the WTI "Jury of Conscience" featured prominently in press coverage of the event was Ayse Erzan, an Istanbul Technical University Physics professor who participated alongside Roy in the group's final press statement. Per the WTI website (),however, there were other Turkish members of the "Jury," including mine worker Ahmet Ozturk, Radikal columnist Murat Belge, and conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, who recently launched a hunger strike after being jailed for "insubordination toward his unit." Among the "Panel of Advocates" scheduled to speak at the hearing, and also among the signatories of the letter announcing the event (ref B),was leftist professor Baskin Oran, from Ankara University's Political Sciences faculty. Oran was a part of the GOT human rights board that produced an unpopular report urging that Turkey update its concept of "minority" to make it consistent with Western European practices. He has also frequently criticized the State's position on the Armenian tragedy of 1915-16. The "Charges" -------------- ¶5. (U) The WTI "Jury" charged the U.S. and U.K. governments with: waging a war of aggression in contravention of the U.N. Charter and the Nuremberg Principles; targeting the civilian population of Iraq and civilian infrastructure; using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon systems; failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during military activities and during the occupation period thereafter; using deadly violence against peaceful protesters; imposing punishments without charge or trial; subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; actively creating conditions under which the status of Iraqi women has seriously been degraded; failing to protect humanity's rich archeological and cultural heritage in Iraq; obstructing the right to information; and redefining torture in violation of international law. The Recommendations -- Vive la Resistance -------------- ¶6. (U) In a statement preceding its list of recommendations, the WTI group recognized "the right of the Iraqi people to resist the illegal occupation of their country and to develop independent institutions," and affirmed that "the right to resist the occupation is the right to wage a struggle for self-determination, freedom and independence as derived from the Charter of the U.N." They went on to recommend the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of forces from Iraq; reparations by coalition governments to compensate Iraq for devastation; the immediate closing of Guantanamo Bay prison and all other offshore U.S. prisons; an investigation of those responsible for crimes of aggression and "crimes against humanity" in Iraq; and actions by people throughout the world against corporations that directly profited from the war. Examples of such corporations, their statement said, include Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root, DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco and British Petroleum. WTI Not the Only Game in Town -------------- ¶7. (U) Both print and electronic media covered the WTI event extensively. News stories about it on multiple days were prominently placed and several sympathetic op-ed pieces appeared in Radikal and other dailies. The "Jury's" final verdict received front page above the fold coverage in Cumhuriyet. The WTI conclusions, however, calling for immediate withdrawal and disengagement in Iraq, were out of step with two other important events unfolding in Istanbul in late June that also were featured in the press. The coverage of the WTI meeting came on the heels of extensive coverage just one week earlier of a Democracy Assistance Dialogue conference (ref A) that featured a member of the National Council for Women in Iraq, who spoke of the freedom of speech that had come to her country at last, the 31 percent representation of women in Iraq's National Assembly, and the efforts being undertaken to provide services to women in need. ¶8. (U) The beginning of the WTI meeting also coincided with a conference on democracy and security in the region organized by the ARI Movement, a group of young, politically-minded activists who are looking for ways forward in the quest for long-term stability and security in the region, taking into account changes already underway. NEA DAS Carpenter, who participated in the ARI Conference, provided an in-depth interview to Zaman newspaper on the same day the WTI session opened, clearly addressing questions about the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative, and underlining the partnerships the U.S. has forged -- including with Turkey -- in promoting reforms. The symbolism of the WTI and ARI events happening at the same time was not lost on U.S.-based Iraqi writer Nibras Kazimi, who, in a June 30 piece in the New York Sun, pointed out that the two conferences offered dramatically different choices and directions. Referring to the WTI, he wrote, "This is the new Turkish left, which together with the grizzled remnants of the European and Middle Eastern left huddled together in what used to be the Ottoman Imperial Mint." While this went on, he implies, the ARI crowd met in a hotel conference room in central Istanbul and looked for solutions. ¶9. (U) Comment: Given Turkish views about the Iraq war over the past two years, it is not difficult to understand why the WTI project organizers chose Istanbul for their final session. With Turkish public opinion about U.S. action in Iraq already so negative, the WTI may not have had any additional effect, though, and it appears to have come and gone without making a significant mark on the political scene in Turkey. ¶10. (U) Baghdad minimize considered. ARNETT