17 | Civilian casualties

11. Amnesty International issued a press release two days later, urging the UN Security

Council to consider:

“… not only the security and political consequences of its action, but also the

inevitable human rights and humanitarian toll of war … concern for the life, safety

and security of the Iraqi people is sorely missing from the debate, as is any

discussion on what would be their fate in the aftermath of conflict …”5

12. On 2 December, the FCO published a report on Saddam Hussein’s crimes and

human rights abuses.6 The report is addressed in more detail in Section 6.4.

13. The FCO report was “based on the testimony of Iraqi exiles, evidence gathered

by UN rapporteurs and human rights organisations, and intelligence material”. It

examined “Iraq’s record on torture, the treatment of women, prison conditions, arbitrary

and summary killings, the persecution of the Kurds and the Shia, the harassment of

opposition figures outside Iraq and the occupation of Kuwait”.

14. Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, told the BBC that the report was being

published “because it is important that people understand the comprehensive evil that

is Saddam Hussein”.7

15. The report was criticised by some as an attempt to influence public opinion in favour

of war.8

16. Amnesty International responded to that report, stating that the human rights

situation in Iraq should not be used selectively; the US and other Western Governments

had ignored previous Amnesty International reports of widespread human rights

violations in Iraq.9 Amnesty International continued:

“As the debate on whether to use military force against Iraq escalates, the human

rights of the Iraqi people, as a direct consequence of any potential military action,

is sorely missing from the equation.”

17. In his speech to the Labour Party Spring Conference in Glasgow on 15 February

2003, Mr Blair said:

“Yes, there are consequences of war. If we remove Saddam by force, people will die

and some will be innocent. We must live with the consequences of our actions, even

the unintended ones.

“But there are also consequences of ‘stop the war’ …”10

5 Amnesty International, 26 September 2002, Iraq: human rights in the balance.

6 Foreign and Commonwealth Office London, Saddam Hussein: crimes and human rights abuses,

November 2002.

7 BBC, 2 December 2002, UK unveils ‘torture’ dossier.

8 The Guardian, 3 December 2002, Anger over Straw’s dossier on Iraqi human rights.

9 Amnesty International, 2 December 2002, Iraq: UK Government dossier on human rights abuses.

10 Scoop Independent News, 17 February 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Glasgow Party Speech.

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