www.globalresearch.ca Centre for Research on Globalisation Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation Legal Scam in Denmark:
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In the weeks and days immediately before Denmark decided to participate in the invasion of Iraq, the government's lawyers deleted a number of preconditions which they originally thought should be fulfilled in order to justify Denmark's participation in the invasion. Danish legal experts say there is every sign that the government demanded that the preconditions be removed in order to facilitate participation in the war.
This is the conclusion of an article by journalist Charlotte Aagaard in the Danish newspaper Information, 26 November 2003.
Aagaard�s article is based on an examination of official memoranda and interviews with a series of leading legal experts from Denmark`s universities.
The five preconditions that disappeared were:
1. The scope of a military action against Iraq shall have a reasonable relationship to Iraq's breach of resolution, i.e. that the proportionality principle shall be upheld.
2. It shall be possible to demonstrate an objective breach of the latest Iraq resolution 1441.
3. Iraq shall have an opportunity to correct its course of action.
4. The UN Security Council shall as a minimum give its tacit consent to a military action.
5. No permanent member of the Security Council must veto the action.
Expert in constitutional law at Copenhagen University, Jens Elo Rytter says:
�The memoranda demonstrate how the Foreign Ministry attempts to get around the fact that the Security Council has not approved any use of force against Iraq.�
Law professor at Copenhagen University, Ole Espersen, says:
�These memoranda are clearly prepared on commission, where the basic premise is that a choice has made to be in alliance with the United States. No doubt about that. These are certainly not expressions of legal opinion of high quality. As former head of the law office, I know that memoranda that defend the government�s policies are welcome, but there must be limits.�
Ole Espersen continues:
�If the legal preparatory work was to appear objective, the memoranda should at least have addressed the question of the implications of the fact that a single country in the future has the right to make its own interpretation of a UN resolution and go to war on that basis. All countries have that right in from now on, if the assessment of the government�s office for international law is really valid.�
The original article in Danish is here: http://www.information.dk/Indgang/VisArtikel.dna?pArtNo=152963
Coil�n Oscar �hAiseadha is an Irish medical doctor and peace lobbyist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Coil�n is a co-founder of the Danish Committee for Peace and Development in Iraq, www.danirak.dk. He can be contacted at the following e-mail address: [email protected]
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� Copyright Coil�n Oscar �hAiseadha 2003 For fair use only/ pour usage �quitable seulement.