Justice for Iraqis?

[choie]

Please excuse my ignorance of international law: Does anybody know if Iraqis are able to sue the United States (like a class action suit, in a way) for the commission of war crimes? I know that the U.S. has refused to sign on to the International criminal court, but isn't there any legal process available to the Iraqis?

[Eric J in MN]

1. Paul Bremer had it put into the Iraqi Constitution that US troops...

...and American contractors can't be sued for anything they do during their duties.

I don't know how international courts would fit in.

[choie]

2. sorry, I wasn't clear...

I meant to ask whether they can sue us for waging the war in the first place (a war of aggression).

[Eric J in MN]

3. Richard Perle says the invasion was illegal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal


Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian


International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.

But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.