[Peace-discuss] Lawyers on war

[C. G. Estabrook]

[A remarkable story, which I've heard nothing about before. Timely, given
the two talks David Green has alerted us to at the Law School, today and
tomorrow. --CGE]

	Lawyers' panel indicts Bush, Blair
	by Julian Ryall in Tokyo
	Monday 07 March 2005 2:23 PM GMT

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.

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.

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.

"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."

Aljazeera By Julian Ryall in Tokyo

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D8C1C363-308C-41F7-8B32-935312621768.htm
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