Investigation Into Possible UK War Crimes in Iraq; UK Attorney, U.S. Colleagues Granting Media Interviews

4/11/2003

From: Stephen Kent of Kent Communications, 845-758-0097 or 914-589-5988 (cell)

News Advisory:

U.K. attorney Phil Shiner, LLB. LLM, of the Birmingham-based legal practice Public Interest Lawyers will be in New York through April 15, conducting a U.N. press briefing and talking to U.S. media about the underreported issue of whether U.S. and U.K. tactics in the Iraq war are legal under international law.

Shiner will join American NGO colleagues Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Roger Normand, executive director of the Committee on Economic and Social Rights, at a media briefing on a UK war crimes investigation at United Nations headquarters April 14.

With Iraqi casualty estimates mounting, some legal experts say the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells in densely populated civilian areas and other tactics may not have discriminated enough between Iraqi military vs. civilian targets to meet obligations under the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter or other international legal and humanitarian standards.

Public Interest Lawyers together with concerned U.S. and European NGOs gave U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Defense Minister Geoffrey Hoon and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw written notice in January 2003 that any indiscriminate military tactics used in Iraq would be potentially subject to prosecution as war crimes at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. (The UK participates in the ICC and acknowledges its jurisdiction; the United States does not).

As coalition forces consolidate their positions in Iraq, the effort to hold their actions to international legal standards is entering the next phase, which is collection of evidence to substantiate credible charges of breaches of international or humanitarian law. The investigation is aimed at determining whether a prima facie case for the commission of war crimes exists and should be prosecuted.

Shiner, Ratner and Normand will give their press briefing on the investigation at United Nations headquarters in New York on April 14 at 11 a.m. For information on that briefing, or to request separate broadcast or print interviews with Phil Shiner during his New York visit, please call Stephen Kent, 845-758-0097 or cell 914-589-5988.

Sources: Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (http://www.ieer.org) Public Interest Lawyers (http://www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk)