This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 001170 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IZ PREL TU
SUBJECT: "WORLD TRIBUNAL" CONFAB CONDEMNS COALITION 
 
REF: A. ISTANBUL 1080 
 
     ¶B. ISTANBUL 00864 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  A self-appointed "World Tribunal on Iraq" 
(WTI) comprising an international group of academic and civil 
society activists met in Istanbul from June 24-27 to charge 
the U.S. and U.K. governments with waging an illegal war of 
aggression in Iraq, recommend coalition forces' immediate 
withdrawal from Iraq, and express support for the right of 
the Iraqi people to "resist the illegal occupation of their 
country."  Turkish press covered the event widely, with 
Cumhuriyet giving the WTI final press statement front page 
above the fold placement.  It is difficult to gauge the 
event's effect on public opinion, but with Turkish views on 
U.S. action in Iraq already overwhelmingly negative, it may 
have had no effect at all.  The WTI message was out of step 
with two other Istanbul events in late June -- the Democracy 
Assistance Dialogue conference (ref A) and an ARI movement 
conference on democratization and security.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) A self-appointed "World Tribunal on Iraq" (WTI) 
comprising an international group of academic and civil 
society activists, and chaired by Indian novelist Arundhati 
Roy, met in Istanbul from June 24-27 to hear more than 50 
presentations by a "Panel of Advocates" and render a 
"verdict" challenging the legality of the coalition invasion 
of Iraq, condemning the conduct of coalition governments in 
Iraq during the occupation, and charging the United Nations 
and the international media with complicity in coalition 
actions.  (Note:  Per ref B, Mission Turkey was notified in 
advance about the event, but did not send representatives. 
End note.)  The culminating session in a series of 
approximately 20 such "hearings" which began in Brussels in 
April 2004 and continued in cities around the world during 
the past 14 months, the Istanbul WTI meeting closed with a 
press statement making charges against the USG and 
recommendations for future action (see paras 5,6). 
 
Claiming to represent humanity's collective conscience 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶3. (U) Drawing its legitimacy from what it called the 
"collective conscience of humanity," the WTI was inspired in 
part by the 1966-67 Russell Tribunal, formed by British 
pacifist Bertrand Russell to examine conduct of U.S. forces 
in Vietnam at that time.  While that tribunal was criticized 
for being one-sided and ignoring atrocities committed by the 
Viet Cong, it was able to draw big-name tribunal members, 
including Jean Paul Sartre, Lazaro Cardenas and Stokely 
Carmichael.  The current WTI effort, also criticized for 
ignoring the illegal actions of the Saddam regime in its 
deliberations, has a lesser-known roster of supporters, 
outside of Roy, who won the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel 
"The God of Small Things." 
 
Turkish participants:  no strangers to controversy 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶4.  (U) The WTI event had a primarily international, rather 
than Turkish, face.  The only Turkish member of the WTI "Jury 
of Conscience" featured prominently in press coverage of the 
event was Ayse Erzan, an Istanbul Technical University 
Physics professor who participated alongside Roy in the 
group's final press statement.  Per the WTI website 
(), however, there were other 
Turkish members of the "Jury," including mine worker Ahmet 
Ozturk, Radikal columnist Murat Belge, and conscientious 
objector Mehmet Tarhan, who recently launched a hunger strike 
after being jailed for "insubordination toward his unit." 
Among the "Panel of Advocates" scheduled to speak at the 
hearing, and also among the signatories of the letter 
announcing the event (ref B), was leftist professor Baskin 
Oran, from Ankara University's Political Sciences faculty. 
Oran was a part of the GOT human rights board that produced 
an unpopular report urging that Turkey update its concept of 
"minority" to make it consistent with Western European 
practices.  He has also frequently criticized the State's 
position on the Armenian tragedy of 1915-16. 
 
The "Charges" 
------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) The WTI "Jury" charged the U.S. and U.K. governments 
with:  waging a war of aggression in contravention of the 
U.N. Charter and the Nuremberg Principles; targeting the 
civilian population of Iraq and civilian infrastructure; 
using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon 
systems; failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during 
military activities and during the occupation period 
thereafter; using deadly violence against peaceful 
protesters; imposing punishments without charge or trial; 
subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture and cruel, 
inhuman, or degrading treatment; actively creating conditions 
under which the status of Iraqi women has seriously been 
degraded; failing to protect humanity's rich archeological 
and cultural heritage in Iraq; obstructing the right to 
information; and redefining torture in violation of 
international law. 
 
The Recommendations -- Vive la Resistance 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) In a statement preceding its list of recommendations, 
the WTI group recognized "the right of the Iraqi people to 
resist the illegal occupation of their country and to develop 
independent institutions," and affirmed that "the right to 
resist the occupation is the right to wage a struggle for 
self-determination, freedom and independence as derived from 
the Charter of the U.N." They went on to recommend the 
immediate and unconditional withdrawal of forces from Iraq; 
reparations by coalition governments to compensate Iraq for 
devastation; the immediate closing of Guantanamo Bay prison 
and all other offshore U.S. prisons; an investigation of 
those responsible for crimes of aggression and "crimes 
against humanity" in Iraq; and actions by people throughout 
the world against corporations that directly profited from 
the war.  Examples of such corporations, their statement 
said, include Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle, CACI Inc., Titan 
Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root, DynCorp, Boeing, 
ExxonMobil, Texaco and British Petroleum. 
 
WTI Not the Only Game in Town 
----------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) Both print and electronic media covered the WTI event 
extensively.  News stories about it on multiple days were 
prominently placed and several sympathetic op-ed pieces 
appeared in Radikal and other dailies.  The "Jury's" final 
verdict received front page above the fold coverage in 
Cumhuriyet.  The WTI conclusions, however, calling for 
immediate withdrawal and disengagement in Iraq, were out of 
step with two other important events unfolding in Istanbul in 
late June that also were featured in the press. The coverage 
of the WTI meeting came on the heels of extensive coverage 
just one week earlier of a Democracy Assistance Dialogue 
conference (ref A) that featured a member of the National 
Council for Women in Iraq, who spoke of the freedom of speech 
that had come to her country at last, the 31 percent 
representation of women in Iraq's National Assembly, and the 
efforts being undertaken to provide services to women in 
need. 
 
¶8.  (U) The beginning of the WTI meeting also coincided with 
a conference on democracy and security in the region 
organized by the ARI Movement, a group of young, 
politically-minded activists who are looking for ways forward 
in the quest for long-term stability and security in the 
region, taking into account changes already underway.  NEA 
DAS Carpenter, who participated in the ARI Conference, 
provided an in-depth interview to Zaman newspaper on the same 
day the WTI session opened, clearly addressing questions 
about the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative, 
and underlining the partnerships the U.S. has forged -- 
including with Turkey -- in promoting reforms.   The 
symbolism of the WTI and ARI events happening at the same 
time was not lost on U.S.-based Iraqi writer Nibras Kazimi, 
who, in a June 30 piece in the New York Sun, pointed out that 
the two conferences offered dramatically different choices 
and directions.  Referring to the WTI, he wrote, "This is the 
new Turkish left, which together with the grizzled remnants 
of the European and Middle Eastern left huddled together in 
what used to be the Ottoman Imperial Mint."   While this went 
on, he implies, the ARI crowd met in a hotel conference room 
in central Istanbul and looked for solutions. 
 
¶9.  (U) Comment:  Given Turkish views about the Iraq war over 
the past two years, it is not difficult to understand why the 
WTI project organizers chose Istanbul for their final 
session.  With Turkish public opinion about U.S. action in 
Iraq already so negative, the WTI may not have had any 
additional effect, though, and it appears to have come and 
gone without making a significant mark on the political scene 
in Turkey. 
 
¶10. (U) Baghdad minimize considered. 
ARNETT