[Peace-discuss] Russell tribunal redivivum

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Despite the slur on a noble endeavor at the end of this AP
piece, the story that it reports is significant.  But I think
the Russell tribunal in 1967 was better reported in those dark
days that this one has been. --CGE]

   June 27, 2005
   Tribunal of Iraq activists wants 
   Bush and Blair investigated for war crimes

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Dozens of activists holding an
unofficial tribunal to put the U.S.-led war in Iraq on trial
recommended Monday that U.S. President George W. Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair be investigated for crimes
against humanity.

The World Tribunal on Iraq, meeting in an old Ottoman minting
house, held three days of speeches, discussions and testimony
from witnesses, including soldiers who served in Iraq.

It recommended "an exhaustive investigation of those
responsible for crimes of aggression and crimes against
humanity in Iraq, beginning with . . . Bush, . . . Tony Blair
. . . and other government officials from the coalition of the
willing," said prize-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy,
spokeswoman for the panel.

Participants also asked for the immediate withdrawal of
coalition forces from Iraq; that coalition governments pay war
reparations; and that U.S. military prisons such as Guantanamo
be shut down. They also urged action against companies that
allegedly profited from the war.

The informal tribunal also accused the United Nations Security
Council of failing to protect Iraq against a crime of aggression.

The Istanbul session was the third and final session of the
group, featuring dozens of intellectuals, scholars and
authors, as well as activists. The first two sessions took
place in Brussels and New York.

Other prominent attendees included international legal scholar
Richard Falk, two former United Nations assistant secretaries
general and Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues.

The World Tribunal on Iraq is modelled on the Russell
Tribunal, which was convened by philosopher Bertrand Russell
in 1967 to investigate the Vietnam War. The Russell Tribunal
received heavy publicity due to the attendance of literary
luminaries and Nobel Prize winners, but was widely viewed as a
biased show trial.