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Opinion column
The occupation of Iraq – a barbarous act
There is no democracy without sovereignty. The right of
self-determination of a people is indivisible. In addition to the cry,
‚we are the people,‘ the Germans called out in 1989 ‚we are one
people.‘ In his article ‚Democracy in Iraq?‘ Stephen Sniegoski outlines
the plans for the region which among other things intends a division
into small states and the dissolution of existing states. The division
of a people against its will, which is the will of all those
individuals who make up this people, is an offence against the
requirement of international law for the right of self-determination of
the peoples. It is a subjective right of all peoples to determine in
which kind of unity they want to live and how they wish to organise
their lives. Any interference from the outside, be it military or
non-military, represents - apart from just a few justified exceptions,
which do not apply here - a violation of the right of
self-determination of the peoples.
The intervention prohibition which is obligatory under international
law guarantees the legal self-determination of a people. Whosoever -
like the armed occupiers of Iraq – violates it, is a war criminal. If
thereby base motives are pursued, such as the destabilization of a
whole region, then the burden of that sinful crime weighs even more.
Democracy means human rights for everybody. On the level of
international law it provides the same rights for all peoples and thus
sovereignty and self-determination for every people. The recognition of
the right of self-determination both within a country as well as
towards other countries is a precondition for granting the other
(individual) human rights.
In connection with the so-called democracy ŕ la brave new world that
the war criminals are planning for Iraq, ‘old Europe’ has provided
support for those who would contemplate what democracy and the tasks of
a state based on rights are and where their violation leads.
The armed occupiers of Iraq would do well to recollect the binding
human principles of old Europe: On 26 August 1789 the representatives
of the French National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights
of Man. As they pointed out in the preamble, they took into
consideration ‚that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of
man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of
governments.‘ Moreover, they announced that ‚the aim of all political
association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible
rights of man‘ (art. 2) and ‚a society in which the observance of the
law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no
constitution at all‘ (art. 16).[1]
‘Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous
acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.’ These statements
in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948
apply to each unjust regime - to existing ones as well as to planned
ones.
According to international law the occupying power practices in the
case of an armed occupation - which is contrary to international law
because of the forbidden war of aggression - a provisional territorial
sovereignty in Iraq, which is restricted by the standards of
international law. However, the state authority of the state whose area
is occupied continues to exist. Iraq does not lose - even if it is
temporarily unable to act due to the occupation - its subjectivity to
international law.
The Iraqi people, who with demonstrations have increasingly clearly
expressed that they want to remain one people and decide for themselves,
show that the occupiers’ expectation to remain for a longer period and
impose foreign ideas on the Iraqi people is contrary to international
law and humans rights. The war crime is clearly being continued by the
occupiers now ignoring the fundamental rules of international law. This
is – expressed in the words of the universal Declaration of Human
Rights – a barbarous act.
The legal consequences are that no man – neither in Iraq nor
elsewhere in the world – is bound to the injustices imposed by the armed
occupiers. Thus the right of peoples self-determination within their
own country includes the seeds of a right to resistance against an
occupation that systematically and grossly violates human rights.
Rainer Rothe, lawyer
1 see http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm
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