Lawyers' panel indicts Bush, Blair
Hitler's Granddaughter
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Monday 07 March 2005, 19:03 Makka Time, 16:03 GMT
George Bush and Tony Blair were judged guilty on several counts
US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair deserve
life sentences, with the possibility of parole after 25 years, for the
war crimes and genocide in Iraq, according to a lawyers' panel.
Speaking on Monday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Kohki
Abe, a professor of law at Kanagawa University, said they should face
the "maximum penalty available". That would not include the death
penalty, however, as the members of the tribunal opposed capital
punishment, he added.
Abe is the chief justice of a four-person panel of the International
Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI) that has judged the two leaders
guilty of a series of charges.
The tribunal has headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, and a final
meeting of regional panels is scheduled for June.
Numerous charges
In conjunction with similar legal movements around the world, the
Japanese chapter of the tribunal was set up in July last year, bringing
together more than 25 lawyers from around the world. More than 10,000
Japanese people have supported its work with financial donations.
The international tribunal's Japan
chapter was set up in July 2004
Abe said: "The people's tribunal does not have any binding force, and
critics say that makes it useless because it doesn't have any power.
"But I believe that delivering this judgment and giving a legal
interpretation of the acts committed by the defendants shows that it is
playing an important role."
He added: "The tribunal has determined that injustices have been
committed in Iraq and the tribunal is putting those injustices on the
record."
As well as the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom, the
ICTI has found Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Gloria
Arroyo, the president of the Philippines, guilty of numerous charges
relating to their involvement in Iraq.
Non-binding ruling
The ICTI held a series of hearings to consider evidence and testimony
before the four judges - two from Japan, a Korean and an Indonesian
lawyer - and delivered its non-binding judgment on 5 March.
Most Japanese strongly opposed
the deployment of troops in Iraq
The tribunal found Bush guilty on 13 counts, Blair guilty of eight
crimes, Koizumi guilty on four counts and Arroyo guilty of aiding and
abetting the other defendants of crimes of aggression and crimes
against humanity, Abe said.
Bush is guilty of genocide for the use of "devastating" economic
sanctions, as well as war crimes for attacks against civilians and the
use of indiscriminate weapons, such as cluster bombs and depleted
uranium weapons. The attack on Falluja also makes him guilty of
genocide and crimes against humanity.
Guilty of genocide
Blair stands guilty on similar counts, Abe said, while Koizumi's
decision to support the US administration and provide refuelling
capabilities, transportation facilities and home bases for US troops in
Japan, as well as committing the Self Defence Forces, make him guilty
of war crimes and genocide.
Kohki Abe: We cannot let these
acts go past without trials
"Japan says it is a 'pacifist nation,' but it is a key country for US
operations and Mr Koizumi bears a strong responsibility for that," Shin
Hae Bong, a law professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and the Korean
member of the panel, said.
"The Japanese government is tolerating the abuse of US bases on
Japanese soil and gives them a free hand to use bases here to invade
and occupy Iraq."
Abe added: "I have to emphasise that these acts should have been
prosecuted in other venues, such as the International Court for
Justice, but for legal or political reasons these four defendants are
unlikely to be prosecuted.
"The international civil society has set up these tribunals because we
cannot let these acts go past without the criminals behind them being
tried."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D8C1C363-308C-41F7-8B32-935312621768.htm