obmar
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 Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:53 am Post subject: Commission and tribunal to hear Iraq war crimes |
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Commission and tribunal to hear Iraq war crimes
Meena L. Ramadas
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27. 2009): A commission and tribunal will convene on Friday and Saturday to hear the testimonies of two Guantanamo Bay detainees in an effort to bring Iraq war perpetrators to justice.
They will hear the experiences of a Sudanese reporter and a Briton who were detained without trial in Guantanamo Bay.
The commission and tribunal will be held at Putra World Trade Centre.
War Criminal Conference and Exhibition keynote speaker and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today the commission will also deliberate on the affidavits of other Iraq war victims that have been submitted to the commission.
"International institutions and the courts established by the United Nations charter have done nothing in dealing with war crimes," he told reporters.
"Even the powerful nations like the United States and the United Kingdom have done nothing."
Mahathir said the commission will seek a detailed account of the experiences and will adjourn to consider the evidence.
Once it reaches a consensus that there are cases to be heard by the tribunal, the plaintiffs will elucidate their experiences again to the tribunal.
The tribunal will decide on the same day whether certain individuals should be charged with the crimes.
"Having decided that, we have to give two months for the people to be informed and after the minimum two-month period, the tribunal will decide when the trial will be held," Mahathir said.
He said Malaysian lawyers will represent the prosecution in the tribunal.
The members of the commission and tribunal are international and local personalities but he did not name them.
Asked the laws that will be used to prosecute those found to commit war crimes, he said the tribunal will utilise international laws such as those practised by the United Nations.
"We are going to use the same law to point out to them that if you will not use the law against these criminals, then we are going to do it," he said.
Although the tribunal cannot arrest and imprison the indifviduals as they would be tried in absentia, Mahathir said there are other ways to enforce the sentence.
"We can campaign against these people to not be accepted in any society or country," he said.
"Beyond this, we want to encourage democratic countries to try and ensure that candidates for the legislative council will be those that are anti-war supporters."
The commission and the tribunal are an extension of the War Criminal Conference and Exhibition, organised by the Perdana Global Peace organisation and Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War.
The conference and exhibition, which are being held from tomorrow to Saturday at Dewan Merdeka, Putra World Trade Centre, hope to create awareness among the public that war is a crime.
Entry to the exhibition is free.
Updated: 10:29PM Tue, 27 Oct 2009
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Commission and tribunal to hear Iraq war crimes
