Current Status Introducing Body:Senate Bill Number:735 Primary Sponsor:Lourie Committee Number:11 Type of Legislation:CR Subject:Hussein, Saddam Residing Body:Senate Current Committee:Judiciary Computer Document Number:NO5/7298.BD Introduced Date:Mar 06, 1991 Last History Body:Senate Last History Date:Mar 06, 1991 Last History Type:Introduced, referred to Committee Scope of Legislation:Statewide All Sponsors:Lourie Wilson Rose Type of Legislation:Concurrent Resolution
Bill Body Date Action Description CMN
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735 Senate Mar 06, 1991 Introduced, referred to 11
Committee
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TO REQUEST THE ALLIED NATIONS OR THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL, OR BOTH, TO TRY SADDAM HUSSEIN AND HIS SOLDIERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN WAR CRIMES AS WAR CRIMINALS.
Whereas, a Saudi general has reported from Kuwait that Iraqi soldiers under the direction of Saddam Hussein have tortured and killed civilians, raped and mutilated women, hung people in the streets, and urged younger Iraqi soldiers to kill children; and
Whereas, other bloodcurdling reports, still unconfirmed, have leaked from Kuwait from the day of Iraq's invasion; and
Whereas, those atrocities, if confirmed, are war crimes:
(1) Iraq has fired dozens of Scud missiles at civilian populations in Saudi Arabia as well as at Israel, a noncombatant. Each of those firings is a war crime.
(2) Iraqis forced battered and bruised prisoners of war to appear on television. Beating prisoners of war and displaying them on television are war crimes, as is the use of prisoners of war as human shields; and
Whereas, Saddam and his commanders have been warned repeatedly that they are accountable; and
Whereas, these atrocities are not the inevitable result of war. They do not equate with the accidental killing of civilians by allied bombs. They are not the acts of honorable men in combat; and
Whereas, confronted with people who could not protect themselves, the Iraqi army has killed, maimed, raped, and tortured innocents; and
Whereas, now that the war is over, Saddam Hussein and his soldiers must be tried for their crimes; and
Whereas, war-crimes trials will serve justice and uphold the fragile framework civilization has developed to reduce the horror of war; and
Whereas, from the first Geneva Convention in 1864 through the four international gatherings in 1949, the world gradually has developed rules to protect civilians, prisoners of war, and the wounded; and
Whereas, Iraq signed the 1949 agreements, one of one hundred sixty-four nations to do so. Yet Saddam Hussein has treated the 1949 agreements with disdain, as have other Iraqi leaders and soldiers; and
Whereas, they all must be held accountable. To let them go would invite future atrocities by forsaking the few rules we have for the conduct of war. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring:
That the members of the General Assembly request that the Allied Nations or the United Nations Security Council, or both, try Saddam Hussein and his soldiers who participated in war crimes as war criminals.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, members of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation, and United Nations Security Council.