Next: Trying Iraqi leaders for war crimes

With six of the "most wanted" Iraqis in custody, one of the most important and sensitive phases of the US-led regime change is drawing near: prosecutions for war crimes.

For the US, such trials represent an opportunity to seek justice for incidents that injured Americans. It is also a chance to remind the world - including nations that opposed the use of military force against Iraq - of the brutal nature of Saddam Hussein's rule. And for Iraqis, tribunals open a forum for coming to terms with a repressive past.

But those diverse objectives are already raising a tricky question: Who should take the lead in prosecuting key figures in the Hussein regime?

American officials have pledged that Iraqis will take the lead in bringing their own to justice. But the US has reserved the right to punish those responsible for crimes against its troops during this war and the 1991 Gulf War - a category that could swallow up many of the most wanted.

"It is quite likely we would take all the big fish," says John Kunich, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. This would mirror the pattern set after World War II, when the allies tried the Japanese and German high command, and left lower-level officials to be tried by their own countries.

Already, US officials have alleged that Iraqi soldiers violated the Geneva Conventions by filming US troops captured during a March 23 ambush, using white flags to feign surrender before attacking coalition forces, and potentially executing US soldiers.

The US alleges that during the first Gulf War, Iraqi soldiers physically abused and tortured US prisoners of war, deprived them of food, and forced them to read propaganda statements, says W. Hays Parks, special assistant to the Army's Judge Advocate General.

"We will investigate and we will prosecute," said Pierre-Richard Prosper, the US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, at a Pentagon briefing this month.

The US says it could prosecute perpetrators of those crimes in a range of venues, including a military tribunal (the venue used in past war-crimes cases), military court martial, and civilian court. One arena the US says is not available: the International Criminal Court, which neither the US nor Iraq ever ratified.

Already, a few of the Iraqi fugitives whose faces adorn playing cards issued to US troops have surrendered or been captured. On Sunday, Hussein's sole surviving son-in-law, Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan, gave himself up. He served in Hussein's special security organization and as deputy head of tribal affairs. Coalition forces also seized Hussein's minister of higher education and scientific research, Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafar, ranked 43 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

Among others already in custody: Finance Minister Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi; top weapons advisor Lt. Gen. Amir al-Sadi; Hussein's half-brother and top adviser, Watban Ibrahim Hasan; and Baath Party official Samir Abd al-Aziz.

Page: 1 | 2