[antiwar-van] Indict George W. Bush for WAR CRIMES

[hanna]

The Honourable Irwin Cotler
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Dear Mr. Cotler

As the Attorney General of Canada, we urge you to start the proceedings to
indict US President George W. Bush for WAR CRIMES against humanity.
We hope that the Canadian government will not let political considerations
stand in the way of initiating these proceedings. Furthermore, we hope your
loyalty to the Zionist neo-cons in Washington will not stand in the way of
your professional judgement.

We are including an article from the Toronto Star that backs this request.

Yours Truly

Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson
Canada Palestine Association
www.cpavancouver.org
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http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1100517502971&call_pageid=968256290204&col=9683501167
95

      Nov. 16, 2004. 01:00 AM


      Should Canada indict Bush?


      THOMAS WALKOM

      When U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in Ottawa — probably later
this year — should he be welcomed? Or should he be charged with war crimes?

      It's an interesting question. On the face of it, Bush seems a perfect
candidate for prosecution under Canada's Crimes against Humanity and War
Crimes Act.

      This act was passed in 2000 to bring Canada's ineffectual laws in line
with the rules of the new International Criminal Court. While never tested,
it lays out sweeping categories under which a foreign leader like Bush could
face arrest.

      In particular, it holds that anyone who commits a war crime, even
outside Canada, may be prosecuted by our courts. What is a war crime?
According to the statute, it is any conduct defined as such by "customary
international law" or by conventions that Canada has adopted.

      War crimes also specifically include any breach of the 1949 Geneva
Conventions, such as torture, degradation, wilfully depriving prisoners of
war of their rights "to a fair and regular trial," launching attacks "in the
knowledge that such attacks will cause incidental loss of life or injury to
civilians" and deportation of persons from an area under occupation.

      Outside of one well-publicized (and quickly squelched) attempt in
Belgium, no one has tried to formally indict Bush. But both Oxfam
International and the U.S. group Human Rights Watch have warned that some of
the actions undertaken by the U.S. and its allies, particularly in Iraq, may
fall under the war crime rubric.

      The case for the prosecution looks quite promising. First, there is
the fact of the Iraq war itself. After 1945, Allied tribunals in Nuremberg
and Tokyo — in an astonishing precedent — ruled that states no longer had
the unfettered right to invade other countries and that leaders who started
such conflicts could be tried for waging illegal war.

      Concurrently, the new United Nations outlawed all aggressive wars
except those authorized by its Security Council.

      Today, a strong case could be made that Bush violated the Nuremberg
principles by invading Iraq. Indeed, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
already labelled that war illegal in terms of the U.N. Charter.

      Second, there is the manner in which the U.S. conducted this war.

      The mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is a clear
contravention of the Geneva Accord. The U.S. is also deporting selected
prisoners to camps outside of Iraq (another contravention). U.S. press
reports also talk of shadowy prisons in Jordan run by the CIA, where
suspects are routinely tortured. And the estimated civilian death toll of
100,000 may well contravene the Geneva Accords prohibition against the use
of excessive force.

      Canada's war crimes law specifically permits prosecution not only of
those who carry out such crimes but of the military and political superiors
who allow them to happen.

      What has emerged since Abu Ghraib shows that officials at the highest
levels of the Bush administration permitted and even encouraged the use of
torture.

      Given that Bush, as he likes to remind everyone, is the U.S.
military's commander-in-chief, it is hard to argue he bears no
responsibility.

      Then there is Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. says detainees there do not
fall under the Geneva accords. That's an old argument.

      In 1946, Japanese defendants explained their mistreatment of prisoners
of war by noting that their country had never signed any of the Geneva
Conventions. The Japanese were convicted anyway.

      Oddly enough, Canada may be one of the few places where someone like
Bush could be brought to justice. Impeachment in the U.S. is most unlikely.
And, at Bush's insistence, the new international criminal court has no
jurisdiction over any American.

      But a Canadian war crimes charge, too, would face many hurdles. Bush
was furious last year when Belgians launched a war crimes suit in their
country against him — so furious that Belgium not only backed down under
U.S. threats but changed its law to prevent further recurrences.

      As well, according to a foreign affairs spokesperson, visiting heads
of state are immune from prosecution when in Canada on official business. If
Ottawa wanted to act, it would have to wait until Bush was out of office —
or hope to catch him when he comes up here to fish.

      And, of course, Canada's government would have to want to act. War
crimes prosecutions are political decisions that must be authorized by the
federal attorney-general.

      Still, Prime Minister Paul Martin has staked out his strong opposition
to war crimes. This was his focus in a September address to the U.N. General
Assembly.

      There, Martin was talking specifically about war crimes committed by
militiamen in far-off Sudan. But as my friends on the Star's editorial board
noted in one of their strong defences of concerted international action
against war crimes, the rule must be, "One law for all."


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      Thomas Walkom writes every Tuesday. twalkom at thestar.ca.
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