[JURIST] Speaking to veterans Friday afternoon at the White House, President Bush committed the US to hunting down and punishing Iraqi war criminals:

In the last week, we have seen the brutal and cruel nature of a dying regime. In areas still under its control, the regime continues its rule by terror. Prisoners of war have been brutalized and executed. Iraqis who refuse to fight for the regime are being murdered. Some in the Iraqi military have pretended to surrender and then opened fire on coalition forces that were willing to show them mercy.

Given the nature of this regime, we expect such war crimes, but we will not excuse them. (Applause.) War criminals will be hunted relentlessly and judged severely. (Applause.)

[JURIST] UN Security Council Resolution 1472, passed Friday and adjusting the Iraq Oil-for-Food program to give the UN Secretary-General enhanced authority over it for a period of 45 days, is now available online from the United Nations. Two Articles of the Resolution explicitly invoke international law. Per Article 1 of the Resolution, the Security Council

Requests all parties concerned to strictly abide by their obligations under international law, in particular the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations, including those relating to the essential civilian needs of the people of Iraq, both inside and outside Iraq...

Urges all parties concerned, consistent with the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations, to allow full unimpeded access by international humanitarian organizations to all people of Iraq in need of assistance and to make available all necessary facilities for their operations and to promote the safety, security and freedom of movement of United Nations and associated personnel and their assets, as well as personnel of humanitarian organizations in Iraq in meeting such needs

[JURIST] Two English-language bulletins from the Arabic Qatar News Agency:

BAGHDAD,MARCH 28 (QNA)-SOME 51 IRAQI CIVILIANS WERE KILLED AND SCORES OTHERS WOUNDED WHEN ALLIES BOMBERS POUNDED A POPULAR MARKETPLACE IN THE IRAQI CAPITAL OF BAGHDAD TONIGHT. THIS CAME IN AN URGENT DISPATCH BY AL JAZEERA SATELLITE T.V. CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT IN BAGHDAD.

BAGHDAD,MARH 28(QNA)- DEATH TOLL OF THE AMERICAN BOMBING OF AL SHA'AB SOUQ-MARKET IN AL SHU'LAH QUARTER HAS RISEN TO 53 DEAD AND 50 WOUNDED. AL JAZEERA QUOTED AN IRAQI OFFICIAL AS SAYING ATTEMPTS WERE UNDERWAY TO PLUCK OUT SURVIVORS FROM UNDER THE RUBBLE OF THE SOUQ BUILDING WHICH WAS HIT BY MORE THAN ONE CRUISE OR TOMAHAWK MISSILE.

Collateral or incidental damage occurs when attacks targeted at military objectives cause civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects. It often occurs if military objectives such as military equipment or soldiers are situated in cities or villages or close to civilians. Attacks that are expected to cause collateral damage are not prohibited per se, but the laws of armed conflict restrict indiscriminate attacks. Article 57 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions [text] states that, in an international conflict, "constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians, and civilian objects." In addition, under Article 51, carpet bombing is prohibited, as are attacks that employ methods and means of combat whose effects cannot be controlled. Finally, attacks are prohibited if the collateral damage expected from any attack is not proportional to the military advantage anticipated. Military commanders in deciding about attacks have to be aware of these rules and either refrain from launching an attack, suspend an attack if the principle of proportionality is likely to be violated, or replan an attack so that it complies with the laws of armed conflict.

[JURIST] From the UN:

The Security Council today unanimously approved a resolution adjusting the suspended Oil-for-Food programme to give United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan more authority to administer the operation for the next 45 days. The programme, which allows Baghdad to use part of its oil revenues for food and medicine and is the sole source of sustenance for 60 per cent of the country's 27.1 million people, was temporarily halted on 17 March after the Secretary-General ordered the withdrawal of all UN personnel from Iraq. Today’s resolution authorizes the Secretary-General to reassess the contracts that have been approved, and covers technical issues such as providing alternative locations for the delivery of supplies. Mr. Annan was also given the power to negotiate new contracts for essential medical items.

Security Council meeting

German UN Ambassador

[JURIST] Friday's field reports for Iraq are now available from the International Committee of the Red Cross [official website]. Their general observations:

Yesterday the ICRC received reports from different sources of severe water shortages in several governorates (Nalnawa, Kerbela, Dia Qar, Wasit) due either to failures of the national electricity grid, a reduction in the water supply to water treatment plants, or hostilities on the ground. As a result several urban centres such as Naseriyah and possibly Najaf and Kerbela have most likely now been without drinking water for several days.

Also since yesterday telecommunications with Iraq have been disrupted, following reported attacks on communication facilities. As a result, the ICRC's delegation in Baghdad no longer has the use of normal land lines, and is now relying entirely on satellite phones. Information from our colleagues in Basra is therefore very limited in today's bulletin.

[JURIST] The UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq has released its Friday situation report. Highlights:

Health situation: The Ministry of Health reports as of yesterday morning (27 March) a total of 4,000 civilian casualties and 350 deaths since the beginning of the war. UN, ICRC and NGOs humanitarian staff working in Iraq report that currently hospitals are able to cope with the injured....

Media reports: In response to questions by the media, reports said that military equipment was found in a school in Iraq. At this stage the UN has no details except that the school was reportedly in south Basrah.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it in light of the public interest in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, the University of Michigan affirmative action admissions cases scheduled to be heard by the Court the morning of Tuesday, April 1, 2003, an audiotape of the oral arguments will be made available by the Court that day on an expedited basis shortly after the conclusion of both arguments at noon. Read the full SCOTUS press release, which notably does not mention any plans for distribution of audio over the Internet.

[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to reporters Friday at UN Headquarters in New York on the UN Oil-for-Food program and the UN's role in post-war Iraq. Watch recorded video from the UN.

[JURIST] Listen to recorded audio of Friday's UN humanitarian briefing on Iraq from UN offices in Amman, Jordan.

[JURIST] German Deutsche Welle reports that although Poland has sent soldiers to fight in Iraq alongside the Americans, the Polish government says it's not involved in war but just enforcing the UN embargo:

Poland is dispatching its troops based on U.N. resolution 1441, says Piotr Henryk Winczorek, an expert on the Polish constitution at Warsaw University. If, however, it is determined that the resolution is legally insufficient to warrant military action in Iraq, Polish participation may also be constitutionally dubious, says Winczorek.

"If the international legal basis is not ultimately clarified, the situation will remain complicated. If U.N. resolution 1441 is determined to be a sufficient reason, as the Americans maintain, then there will be a sort of chain reaction. First [comes] international law then Polish law. Then the matter would be settled," Winczorek told DW-RADIO. "If, however, U.N. resolution 1441 is not sufficient -- I would rather not talk about it or even think about it," he said. "It would have far-reaching consequences."

[JURIST] Speaking to reporters in London Friday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair [official website] appeared to backtrack somewhat on the Prime Minister's Thursday allegation [JURIST report] at a Camp David Press conference with President Bush that two dead British soldiers shown on TV had been executed in "flagrant breach" of the laws of war:

Asked to outline the proof the Government had that two British soldiers had been executed, as the Prime Minister had suggested in his joint press conference with President Bush in Washington yesterday, despite the families saying they had been told by the military that that was not the case, the PMOS said that he did not know the details of any conversations that might have taken place between representatives of the military and the families concerned. The information available to us indicated that the soldiers in question might well have been executed. That assessment was drawn from film footage showing that the bodies of the two soldiers had lain some distance from the vehicle in which they had been travelling and that they had been without their issued protective equipment. Put to him that he seemed to be implying that the Government was not 100% certain about what had happened, the PMOS said that our assessment of the information available drew us towards the conclusions we had taken. He added that he did not intend to say anything that was going to make what was clearly a very upsetting circumstance for the families any more difficult. Two soldiers had been killed and their bodies had been paraded on television. That was a terrible thing for anyone to have to deal with. Asked whether the Government would make inquiries into the tragic events, the PMOS said that of course every effort would be made to find out what had happened. But everyone accepted that this was a particularly difficult set of circumstances. Questioned as to whether there was any other evidence which we could use, apart from the video footage, to prove that the soldiers had been executed, the PMOS said that we would obviously try to take account of all possible sources of evidence. However, we had to accept that finding out precisely what had happened would be difficult.

[JURIST] In the wake of various reports of damage to several cultural buildings in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, Mosul and Tikrit, since the beginning of the conflict, the Director-General of UNESCO [official website], Koïchiro Matsuura emphasized in a statement Thursday that everything possible should be done to preserve Iraq's cultural heritage. According to a press release,

[W]ell before the outbreak of the conflict UNESCO took a number of steps to ensure that the different parties involved were aware of the terms of the 1954 Hague Convention and its two additional protocols relating to the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict. The Director-General accordingly alerted the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the US Department of State and made available a detailed map of the positions of Iraqi archaeological sites and museums. UNESCO also invited INTERPOL, the World Customs Organization and the International Confederation of Art Dealers to ensure compliance with the 1970 Convention relating to the illicit transfer of ownership of cultural property.