COUNCIL RESOLUTION : Liability Claim

The U.N. Security Council has reaffirmed one of the basic and vital principles of international law: There must be no profit from aggression. Iraq has been reminded that it is liable “for any loss, damage or injury” stemming from its invasion and systematic plundering of Kuwait and from its mistreatment of Kuwaitis and third-country nationals. In calling specific attention to Baghdad’s responsibility for war damages and human rights abuses in Kuwait, and in inviting states to begin collecting information on relevant claims, the council has paved the way for future actions that could well cost Iraq billions of dollars in damages.

The council resolution, sponsored among others by the United States and the Soviet Union, doesn’t specify how Iraq would pay to settle claims against it. British officials suggest that compensation could come from Iraq’s foreign assets, most of which have been frozen as a result of its aggression. Working through the courts, unsatisfied claimants might also seek to attach other Iraqi property--its future oil shipments, for example.

The lengthy resolution, the 10th directed against Iraq since its invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, also calls for collecting information on Iraq’s human rights abuses in Kuwait, a possible first step toward future war-crimes claims. Pillage, massacre and rape committed by a conquering power are as old as warfare itself. Only in this century have international conventions been enacted forbidding such outrages. Iraq has signed those agreements. The council has now laudably set the stage for calling it to account.