'Bush, Blair must be probed'

2005-06-27 21:53

Istanbul - Dozens of activists holding an unofficial tribunal to put the United States-led war in Iraq on trial recommended on Monday that 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.

A prize-winning Indian author and spokesperson for the panel, Arundhati Roy, said 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."

Participants also asked for the immediate withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq - that coalition governments paid war reparations - and that US military prisons such as Guantanamo be shut down.

Protecting Iraq against crime

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 UN assistant secretaries-general and Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues.

The World Tribunal on Iraq was 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.

- AP