The Kuala Lumpur War Crime Commission chaired by former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad heard nine charges against US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard for the sufferings of the people in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
The charges against the US and its allies were presented by the legal counsel on behalf of the war crime victims, Matthias Chang, before Dr Mahathir and the other five commission members at the final day of the three-day war crimes conference organised by the Perdana Global Peace Conference.
Chang said Bush, Blair and Howard, through a deliberate plan of deception, falsehood, forgery and outright lies, misled their respective Congress and Parliament to wage war against Iraq which was a "crime against peace."
The trio were also being charged for embarking on a systematic campaign to destroy Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine economically and militarily, he said.
He said the third charge against them was for ordering the destruction of vital facilities essential to civilian lives in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine while the fourth was for the bombing of schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, residential areas and historical sites and conveniently labelling the destruction as "collateral damage".
The three leaders were also charged with allowing the use of weapons of mass destruction that inflicted indiscriminate death and suffering against civilian targets such as the cluster bomb, napalm bomb, phosporous bomb and depleted uranium ammunition, said Chang.
The sixth charge said that Bush, Blair and Howard have fraudulently manipulated the United Nations and the Security Council as well as corrupting its members to commit crimes against peace and war times, he said.
Through the aforesaid conduct, Chang said the three had destroyed the environment of Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
The eighth charge was that Bush, Blair and Howard ordered and condoned the violation of human rights, specifically the civilians in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as well as other prisons known and unknown in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and anywhere else in the world.
The last charge spelled out that Bush, Blair and Howard systematically controlled and manipulated, directed and misinformed the mass media so as to incite war to achieve their military objectives in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
Apart from hearing the charges against the three leaders, the commission also heard the presentation from several war crime victims including Najwa J.A. Jalamna, 16, from Jenin, Palestine, Abbas Abid, a survivor of the Fallujah Massacre in Iraq, editor-in-chief of the Al-Intiqad & Al-Manar TV (Lebanon) Ibrahim Mousawi as well as Palestinian Peace Activity's Dr Walid Salah Al-Khatib.
Dr Mahathir said the commission was to respond to several petitions of war crime victims and investigate into their complaints.
"We appreciate there are other tribunals but there are so many complaints, the other tribunals perhaps are not being able to hear the complaint. We feel there is a need for the setting up of this tribunal and give an opportunity for those war crime victims to voice out their complaints and to seek redress," he said.
The commission would investigate complaints of war crimes and thereafter to submit and report to the tribunal that would be set up, which are still at the pro tem stage.
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