Many more war crimes in Fallujah

Over at Empire Notes Rahul Mahjan collects recent reports demonstrating the extent "the Geneva Conventions are out the window" in Fallujah. While the news may concentrate on the war crime of shooting an unarmed injured person this is but one serious breach.

The way the attack on Fallujah has been conducted makes one thing crystal clear: the Geneva Convention has been overtly and specifically abandoned, not just in the treatment of prisoners, but also in the conduct of military assaults.

The US military have defined all men of military age in Fallujah (15-55) to be targets, and claim that preventing all from leaving is the key to the success of the mission. They insist male Iraqis stay in a battlefield area. This is chilling - as it entails the mission can only be successful when the majority of Iraqis in Falluja are dead, whether they are civilians or combatants. Seemingly to increase the effectiveness of the civilian trap, US troops cut roads and bridges leading to the city.

Preventing civilians from leaving a combat zone is a clear war crime. The Geneva Conventions, recognised as the 'laws of war', require military forces to protect civilians as refugees and forbid returning non-combatants into a combat zone. On November 13 AP reported the following in a story called "Four choppers hit as forces spread"

A stream of refugees, about 300 men, women and children, were detained by American soldiers as they left southern Fallujah by car and on foot. The women and children were allowed to proceed. The men were tested for any residues left by the handling of explosives. All tested negative, but they were sent back.

As Empire Notes says, this clearly shows these men were non-combatants.

The refusal of the military to recognise legitimate non-combatants reminds me a great deal of their refusal to recognise those held in Guantanamo Bay as prisoners of war. Just as the have unilaterally redefined 'prisoner of war' not to include 'enemy combatants', they now appear to define a combatant as any Iraqi that happens to be armed with a Y chromosome.

There are further breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The Forth Convention says.

Art 18: Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.

Art. 19. The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable time limit and after such warning has remained unheeded. The fact that sick or wounded members of the armed forces are nursed in these hospitals, or the presence of small arms and ammunition taken from such combatants and not yet been handed to the proper service, shall not be considered to be acts harmful to the enemy.

So making Falluja General Hospital one of the first targets, in a surprise attack, is another likely war crime. The US claims the hospital was a 'centre of propaganda' because of the way it reported civilian casualties, which would be a stretch to be an act 'harmful to the enemy' and far more likely to be regarded by medical staff as a humanitarian duty. Any PR coming from the hospital is far more likely to be pulmonary resuscitations, not press releases. And perhaps even a pinch of reality.

The US is a party to the basic Geneva Conventions, but has not ratified some of the later Protocols - something it has in common with other 'rogue' states. Despite the fact the US has not ratified Protocol I; it is still widely recognised international law. In the light of recent events, it makes interesting reading.

Art. 50. Definition of civilians and civilian population

1. A civilian is any person who does not belong to one of the categories of persons referred to in Article 4 (A) (1), (2), (3) and (6) of the Third Convention and in Article 43 of this Protocol. In case of doubt whether a person is a civilian, that person shall be considered to be a civilian.

2. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians.

3. The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character.