International Law: Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait 1990-1991 - Research Paper Example

International Law: Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait 1990-1991 The UN council for the first time issued use of force on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait just as it did with the Korean case (Roberts 309). However, the use of the military force on Iraq raised many issues and received some resistance from sections of the council members. There was delegation of Chapter VII powers of the council to the US and the US was required to carry out coalition agreement for the two countries (Chesterman 23). During the coalition agreement, the council decided to rest case until the already initiated operation of Desert Storm had been cleared. The council was also waiting for the ceasefire agreement between the tow countries. Prior to the use of force, the council had initially tried adoption of the various 12 resolutions of the Chapter VII and the aim was to force Iraqi to ceasefire on Kuwait. They attempted the use of sanctions in their quest to make Iraqi to withdraw from the war (Chesterman 25). Deployment of US troops was done on the Saudi Arabia soils on August 8, 1990 in an attempt to further prevent invasion of Saudi Arabia by the Iraqi forces (Roberts 309). Four US objectives were required to be fulfilled during the desert operations and the first objective was to restore Kuwait government. Secondly, they were to liberate Kuwait as well as to restore stability and security entirely in Saudi Arabia. The restoration of stability was crucial since a number of people had been displaced and they were living as refugees. The fourth objective was the US citizens’ protection. Authorization of the use of military force against Iraqi was arrived at in late October 1990 between the US and the Soviet Union. Many critics resulted from this authorization since the UN council claimed that the use of sanctions had not failed. The passing of the Council 678 resolutions came into place after the series of disagreements following the right technology to be used between members of the council. The restoration of peace was the main agenda in the war case between Iraqi and Kuwait and therefore all the members’ state decided to cooperate with Kuwait government. The use of the 678 resolutions required the willingness and ability of some member states to avail funds, which were to be used in the peace and stability restoration of Kuwait. The resolutions further specified the attainment of the mandate by the different willing member states and the request by the Council for its regular updates was limited. The Iraqi government did not show any compliant with the laid down resolutions and therefore a total of 28 military coalition’s states decided to expel the Iraqi forces that were still in Kuwait. The attainment of this mission was realized using airpower in the year 1991 between January 16 and February 24 (McInnes 31). Many land offensive actions took place during the airpower invasion and displacement all over Kuwait was witnessed (McInnes 30). Large part of the Kuwait soils as well as Southern parts of Iraqi was occupied. In the year 1991 on 3rd of April the then president of Iraqi Saddam Hussein was required to comply in accordance to the 687 resolutions. These 687 resolutions required Saddam Hussein to surrender all the weapons of mass destruction as well compensation of the Kuwait government and citizens following the damages that resulted from the war .The use of sanctions remained in place until all the requirements of the 687 resolutions were fully implemented by Iraqi government. In the same year, UNIKOM was formed and its mandate was to monitor and regulate demilitarization of both Kuwait and Iraqi. The use of Desert Storm and Operations Desert Shield raised two important issues and the issues were all concerned with the restoration of peace in the two countries. In the invasion Iraqi had literally occupied the whole of the Kuwait territory and their case represented a unique scenario where one member country occupied the whole territory of the other country. The Council therefore, decided to give some guidelines regarding the various steps that could be used to solve the problems. The war between Iraqi and Kuwait was an example of an internal war that later managed to extend beyond international dimensions. Encouragement of the unrealistic use of airpower by the western was witnessed and more of the Western countries become frequent users of this unrealistic behavior. Human rights violations and international law violations and obligations Some of the cases of violations of human rights in Kuwait were in form of torture, large scale arbitrary imprisonment, and extrajudicial execution. The UN Council following the various cases of human rights violation did a lot of condemnation on Iraqi government. Many violations were conducted under the leadership of the Ba’th party leadership, arrests were made on both a British nurse and an Iranian journalist and both were held for a period of six months (Joshua 4). Their imprisonment was a form of violation of their international law since they passed through a lot of torture. Bazoft was later hanged upon the passing of the death sentence by the Iraqi government and from his death a lot of murmuring was heard more so from the political leaders and the UN Council. The hanging of Bazoft was a violation of his right as well as the international law; the other form of violation was in the form of mass disappearances. Barzani Mulla who was the then leader of KDP got lost and any leading information concerning his whereabouts were never heard. Iraqi helicopters gunships were able to kill close to 60 fishermen who were trading in along the shores of Lake Dukan (Joshua 2). The Iraqi militias were able to capture health care facilities in Kuwait thereby making access to these facilities cumbersome. A lot of execution was also committed on volunteers who were thought to have been helping the residents. Iraqi administrators managed to seize most of the food reserves from the Kuwait citizens thereby starving them to death. Iraqi also stopped any form of humanitarian aid to the Kuwait residents. Groups like Red Cross were not allowed to access Kuwait. The revelations of the dungeons, which were packed with inmates, were also a case of human rights violation. The number of the refugees during the 1990-1991 war case was estimated to be close to 2 million (Freedman and Karsh 37). Many prisoners were also lowered into vats containing acids and most them died while others sustained permanent injuries. Raping was done for the women in front of their families and other sorts of mistreatments were used on the people. International court of justice No case was taken to the international court of justice since all the cases concerning crimes against humanity were handled by the then Interim government of Iraqi. The Iraqi Special Tribunal was given the mandate to trial all the perpetrators of the genocide attackers and killers. The formation of this tribunal came later after the Iraqi Kuwait 1990 and 1991 war. The case filings were those of the Shiites torture and death during the year 1991. Apart from the torture and killings other filings were about the general genocide that were imposed on the Kurds clans following the 1990 and the 1991 attacks and violations of their rights. State practice and opinion juris and how they shaped international law The Iraqi and Kuwait state practice involved use of heavy weapons during wars times (Roberts and Guelff 29). This was the similar case with their opinion juris and through these practices the international law on armed conflict has been shaped to prevent further loss of massive lives. The changes in the international law deals with three main areas and the areas are weapons, international criminal liability, and targeting. Weapons- the methods and means of warfare Following the cases of Iraqi and Kuwait 1990 and 1991, the international law shaped its rules and regulations on the use of poison, barbed lances, and incendiaries on the enemies. The cause of unnecessary sufferings has also been ban by the international law as well as the use of projectiles and superfluous weapons. Targeting The international law has put into place the determination of the civilians and the combatants during war cases. Many civilians were murdered during the Iraqi and Kuwait war and according to the international law that practice was wrong. Proportionality principle should be used and this principle state that no attack should be retaliated in case it is targeting the civilians (Roberts and Guelff 29). International Criminal Liability All the individuals that commit serious violations of human rights should be liable to the various crimes that they performed in their respective countries. Some of the grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions have been considerable been changed (Roberts and Guelff 29). Creation of different tribunals was facilitated and the tribunals dealt with war crimes, crime against humanity, and genocide cases. This was done so in order to facilitate the hearing of the different cases and to speed up the roots for justice to the victims. Works Cited Chesterman, Simon. “Just War or Just Peace?” Humanitarian Intervention and International Law, 1(2): 23-54, 2001. Print. Freedman, Lawrence and Efraim Karsh. The Gulf Conflict, 1990-1991. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. Print. McInnes, Colin. “Fatal Attraction? Air Power and the West.” Contemporary Security Policy, 22 (3): 28-51, 2001. Print. Pape, Robert. Bombing to Win. New York, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996. Print. Roberts, Adam. The United Nations: Variants of Collective Security in N. Woods. Explaining International Relations since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print. Roberts, Adam and Richard Guelff. International Documents on the Laws of War. New York. McGraw Hill Publishers, 1989. Print. Read More