Report: U.S. Immunity in Iraq to Extend Past Handover

UN measure on U.S. soldiers' immunity withdrawn


After failing to get support for a UN resolution granting its soldiers immunity from war crimes indictments in the International Criminal Court, the U.S. has gone ahead anyway, granting its troops immunity vis a vis the soon-to-be-'sovereign' Iraqi Government. In light of the explosive prison abuse scandal, this development should appall anyone concerned with human rights and even the most basic standards of conduct and accountability.

The immunity, granted to "all foreign personnel in the ....Coalition Provisional Authority" is an extension of a preexisting edict known as 'Order 17'. It will ensure that American and 'coalition' personnel are free from prosecution in Iraqi courts for possible crimes committed during the occupation. Since this extension will carry well beyond the so-called handover of sovereignty on June 30, it will mean that a supposedly sovereign Iraqi government will have no jurisdiction whatsoever over the roughly 130,000 foreign troops operating within the country.

The lesson is clear: U.S. troops answer to no one but the Bush administration. And the Bush administration, as we have seen, answers to no one at all.