Reuters - Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan said U.S.-led occupation forces had committed "serious violations" of international humanitarian law in Iraq and had ill-treated ordinary Iraqis.
In a report for the world body's Human Rights Commission, Ramcharan, a British-trained barrister from Guyana and long-time U.N. official, also said coalition troops were able to act with impunity and urged the appointment of an independent figure to monitor their behavior.
In a clear reference to the Abu Ghraib incidents, since when several U.S. male and female soldiers working there have been detained, Ramcharan said "willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment" of detainees was a grave breach of international law.
Such acts "might be designated as war crimes by a competent tribunal," he added.
I certainly think the soldiers who abused Iraqis during the war should be punished, but I also think that we are quite capable of cleaning up our own messes. We don't need a United Nations tribunal to try and convict our soldiers. Especially when the United Nations has a very poor human rights record in its own right.
Maybe they should be concentrating on cleaning up some of their own messes. And why don't we ever hear any outrage from the United Nations about the Palestinians blowing up Israeli civilians? It seems like there are a lot of other injustices in the world that the UN could be dealing with instead of convicting American soldiers for war crimes they've already been convicted of and punished for.