The most cowardly war in history.

• Author: Roy, Arundhati
• Position: Thinking Politically - Iraq War - Speech

The following is the opening statement by Arundhati Roy on behalf of the Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal of Iraq.

This is the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq. It is of particular significance that it is being held here in Turkey, where the United States used Turkish air bases to launch numerous bombing missions to degrade Iraq's defenses before the March 2003 invasion and has sought, and continues to seek, political support from the Turkish government, which it regards as an ally. All this was done in the face of enormous popular opposition by the Turkish people. As a spokesperson for the Jury of Conscience, it would make me uneasy if I did not mention that the government of India is also positioning itself as an ally of the United States in its economic policies and the so-called War on Terror.

The testimonies at the previous sessions of the World Tribunal on Iraq in Brussels and New York have demonstrated that even those of us who have tried to follow the war in Iraq closely are only aware of a fraction of the horrors that have been unleashed in Iraq.

The Jury of Conscience at this tribunal is not here to deliver a simple verdict of guilty or not guilty against the United States and its allies. We are here to examine a vast spectrum of evidence about the motivations and consequences of the US invasion and occupation--evidence that has been deliberately marginalized or suppressed. Every aspect of the war will be examined: its legality, the role of international institutions and major corporations in the occupation, the role of the media, the impact of weapons such as depleted uranium munitions, napalm, and cluster bombs, the use of and legitimation of torture, the ecological impacts of the war, the responsibility of Arab governments, the impact of Iraq's occupation on Palestine, and the history of US and British military interventions in Iraq.

This tribunal is an attempt to correct the record, to document the history of the war not from the point of view of the victors but of the temporarily--and I repeat the word temporarily--vanquished.

Before the testimonies begin, I would like to briefly address as straightforwardly as I can a few questions that have been raised about this tribunal. The first is that this tribunal is a Kangaroo Court. It represents only one point of view. It is a prosecution without a defense. The verdict is a foregone conclusion.

This view seems to suggest a touching concern that in this...