Coalition War Crimes

(New York City) Bertrand Ramcharan, acting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, indicated that "human rights experts" had interviewed people who had been in Iraq and determined that the coalition forces':

". . . willful killing, torture and inhuman treatment" represented a grave breach of international law and "might be designated as war crimes by a competent tribunal."

He said it was a "stark reality" that there was no international oversight or accountability for the thousands of detainees, the conditions in which they were held and the manner in which they were treated.

So, what Mr. Ramcharan is stating is that since he reads the newspaper and has talked to "human rights experts" who have actually been to Iraq (As an aside, wasn't bulldozer poster girl Rachel Corrie a "human rights expert?"), he wants to prosecute Americans for war crimes. He continues,

To correct this situation, he said, the coalition authorities should immediately appoint "an international ombudsman or commissioner." That person would be charged with monitoring human rights in Iraq and producing periodic reports on compliance with "international norms of human rights and humanitarian law."

In this statement, Mr. Ramcharan, a trial lawyer from Guyana, wants the coalition leadership to appoint a spy for him to find evidence of war crimes by the forces. Apparently, he makes this demand because he has no evidence to support his allegations other than newspapers and "human rights experts" and the last time the UN sent people to Baghdad, they died in a bombing and he has no intention of sending anyone else into the country.

In a nutshell, Mr. Ramcharan's effort is entirely ideologue/media-driven and he wants the coalition to give him evidence implicating themselves as war criminals. And again, the UN proves its worth.