Editorial note
In a travesty of justice, in derogation of the most fundamental tenets of national and international law, the death sentence has been pronounced by the US installed government on three Iraqi women, allegedly members of the Resistance, 31 year old Wassan Talib, 35 year old Zainab Fadhil, 26 year old Liqa Mohamad.,
The executions were not ordered by the Iraqi puppet regime, they were ordered by the Bush administration and its indefectible British ally. These executions were ordered by war criminals, who continue to occupy positions of authority at the highest echelons of government and who are responsible for countless atrocities.
And meanwhile the so-called international community, the media and a significant segment of the US antiwar movement continue to uphold the fiction that those who resist the illegal occupation of their homeland are terrorists linked to Al Qaeda.
The media which upholds unequivocally the legitimacy of the “Global War on Terrorism” has chosen not to cover the executions.
Those who resist the illegal invasion of Iraq are casually branded as “terrorists” by the Western media,
Most people around the world are unaware that three young women, are being summarily executed by the occupation forces, following rigged show trials, much in the same way as the summary executions in 1944 in France under Nazi occupation during World War II.
Michel Chossudovsky, 3 March 2007
Dear Prime Minister,
I appeal to you to recall that the fundamental loyalty of a human being is first and foremost to our common humanity and immediately thereafter comes your loyalty to the people of Iraq , killed , tortured, raped and traumatized. It is also necessary to recall that manhood represents in the eyes of all of us women, the ability to protect us our defenseless children and our families .
It is in the context of your aforesaid obligations , moral and legal that I address you ,as your constitutional standing is still not acceptable, in view of the illegal occupation, as no election held while a country is under military occupation is free or fair .
The death sentence pronounced on three Iraqi women alleged to be members of the resistance,31 year old Wassan Talib, 35 year old Zainab Fadhil , 26 year old Liqa Mohamad, is illegal in International Law on substantive and procedural grounds, apart from the fact that the tenets of Islam do not permit the death sentence of mothers of infant and young children .
The death sentence on the three young women in an Occupied Iraq even as soldiers of the occupation kill and maim indiscriminately along with collaborating killer militias, is prima facie a travesty of justice ,perverse in the extreme , as the soldiers and militias who kill have been given impunity by the occupation to murder the people of Iraq, whereas citizens who are required to defend themselves daily against such killings , torture and rape on a daily basis ,face the death sentence for protecting the Iraqi people.
Basic principles of a fair hearing have been violated, with no legal representation for the three women. Individuals/groups calling themselves courts nominated by the illegal occupation are not independent of the Occupying powers , a prerequisite for judicial independence and integrity , and have no legal right whatsoever to judge the people of Iraq ,and pass such sentences snuffing out the lives of the women of Iraq already tortured and raped by the occupation, which in any civilized legal system would constitute grave provocation calling for mitigation of any sentence of death even in a society free from occupation in circumstances where no woman can be certain of her own safety and the safety of her children and members of her family, leaving her no choice but to attack the occupiers and the rampaging militias supported by the occupation .
No government in Iraq is sovereign until the military occupation of Iraq is vacated. Your government can confer no legitimacy on any such orders of execution which are directions by occupying authorities to murder the three young Iraqi women only because they to belong to the Resistance which is their legal and national right .
The General Assembly in 1982 affirmed the right of every member of a national resistance movement to resist foreign occupation including by armed resistance . The Resolution is quoted below for immediate reference :
The General Assembly affirms ….” the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence ,territorial integrity ,national unity and liberation from colonial rule and foreign domination by all available means including armed struggle.”
The death sentences are illegal and must be revoked .
I sign as an individual as time is too short to await the communication from my organization. However I am forwarding a copy of this urgent communication to the Association of American Jurists representing jurists of the Americas North and South , to the National Lawyers Guild, to Lawyers associations in Europe, to the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, to the Indian Association of Lawyers and to the Japanese Association of Lawyers , to the Centre for Constitutional Rights and to the International Action Centre among concerned International Organizations of Jurists and Citizens.
I am also forwarding this plea to the Perdana Peace Initiative of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who has initiated a global movement to criminalize war and to the Brussels Tribunal .
A copy is also being forwarded to the UN Commissioner on Human Rights who has failed to respond and is complicit in the violation of human rights in Iraq as not even a statement to my knowledge subject to correction , has been issued by her and no steps taken .
Revocation of the death sentence will give some hope, whereas the death sentences if carried out, will bring retribution and nemesis for the collaborators of the Occupation, those who were complicit in the murder of their own citizens.
Niloufer Bhagwat
Attorney Vice President Indian Association of Lawyers
