The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
Article 64,
which requires that the penal laws of the occupied territory must
remain
in force
except where they constitute a threat to security or an obstacle to
the
application
of the Convention itself. In addition, with limited exceptions, the
courts
in the
occupied territory must be allowed to continue to
operate.
•
Article 78,
which empowers the Occupying Power, if it is necessary for reasons
of
security,
to intern nationals of the occupied state, and other nationals
within the
occupied
state. Procedures for review and appeal of internment should be
put
in place,
including review every six months by a competent body set up by
the
Occupying
Power. The Article also sets out detailed provisions for the
treatment
of
internees.
Insofar as
the provisions of the Convention allow an Occupying Power to
exercise
functions
of government in occupied territory, Article 6 provides that they
should continue
to have
effect for as long as its military Occupation continues. Other
provisions, however,
cease to
apply “one year after the general close of military operations”.
Article 64 therefore
continued
to apply. But when military operations ended Article 54, Article 78
and the
regulations
governing internment in Articles 79 to 141 ceased to
apply.
84.
On 1 April,
the first ORHA staff entered Iraq (having previously been stationed
in
Kuwait) at
the port of Umm Qasr in Basra province.39
85.
On the same
day, Mr Blair closed the Ad Hoc Meeting on Iraq by explaining
that:
“It was
as important to win the diplomatic and political campaign as it was
to achieve
86.
Although the
minutes of that meeting contain no reference to
post-conflict
administration,
Mr Suma Chakrabarti, DFID Permanent Secretary, wrote to Sir
Andrew
Turnbull,
the Cabinet Secretary, that Ms Short had “welcomed the emerging
consensus
… on what
the core principles for a UNSCR (or UNSCRs) for rehabilitation,
reform and
development
in Iraq should be”.41
87.
Mr Chakrabarti
described the core principles as:
•
rapid,
UN-led movement to an IIA; and
•
a
resolution supported by the international development community,
especially
the IFIs
and the UN development agencies.
88.
Mr Chakrabarti
argued that UN involvement need not wait until a resolution
had
been
passed. He cited as an example resolution 1378 (2001), which
established
the process
for creating an interim administration in Afghanistan. A UN
Special
39
Bowen SW
Jr. Hard
Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. U.S.
Government Printing
Office, 2009.
40
Minutes, 1
April 2003, Ad Hoc Meeting on Iraq.
41
Letter
Chakrabarti to Turnbull, 1 April 2003, ‘Iraq: Rehabilitation,
Reform and Development’.
146