The Committee for War Criminal Prosecution (CWCP)held its fourth annual spring gatherings in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. on April 24th and 25th. Each year, the gatherings are designed to focus attention on nation-state leaders around the world who have committed either war crimes or human rights violations.

The spring, 2003 protests singled out breaches of international law by the U.S.'s Bush administration during its recent invasion of and war against Iraq. As well, demonstrators noted efforts by that same administration to diminish individual civil liberties and constitutional protections within the United States through passage of domestic legislation designed to enhance police powers.

"The CWCP's position is that it's possible to view the Iraq war's results positively while at the same time condemning the war itself," CWCP co-chair Chuck Tripp reminded participants.

"In other words," Tripp went on, "violations of international law were committed in conducting this war to topple Iraq's criminal regime. We're pleased Saddam's gone, but coalition forces still must answer for their actions. No lawful society can accept the happy results of illegal behavior as a justification of crimes. Ends cannot be used to justify means. Justice for innocent Iraqis killed by coalition forces requires the pursuit of legal cases against those forces, their leaders and their governments."

The CWCP's views on both international and domestic issues as pertaining to the Bush administration are summarized more extensively in two position papers

entitled, "Defending application of the rule-of-law to international politics"

http://utah.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/4961.php

and "Bush's war crimes in Iraq"

http://utah.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/4963.php

Further information about the issues discussed in this article and in the CWCP position papers can be found on the following websites:

Amnesty International-

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/iraq_summary

and

http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGMDE140892003

Coverage of war crimes charges against U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks and evidence of other U.S. war crimes in Iraq:

Associated Press-

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=ap/20030429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_crimes_2

BBC-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/middle_east/2983911.stm

Democrats.com-

http://democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=War%20crimes

Truthout.org-

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/042603A.shtml

Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center-

http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/11433/index.php

"Washington Times"-

http://washtimes.com/national/20030428-102027619.htm

Human Rights Watch-

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/iraq

and

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/04/us-uk042903.htm

and

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/iraq/ihlfaq.htm

Indymedia.org-

http://www.indymedia.org/

International Committee of the Red Cross-

http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/special_iraq_news!Open

Iraq Body Count Project-

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm

Medecins Sand Frontieres-

http://www.msf.org/content/page.cfm?articleid=E9E27A36-1D71-48CF-94D6B275E9EC1B00

Yahoo Iraq news coverage-

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=world&cat=iraq

To see more photos of demonstrators and their signs, go to:

http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=25933&group=webcast