{"id":19079,"date":"2012-05-14T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=19079"},"modified":"2012-05-09T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T15:36:10","slug":"kuala-lumpur-war-crimes-tribunal-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/05\/kuala-lumpur-war-crimes-tribunal-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 <\/em><\/p>\n

When authority entrusted to further truth and justice betrays that trust, two options remain: one is to throw up your hands in despair and resignation; the other is to reclaim that power and to hold authority accountable.<\/p>\n

This is the statement of intent from the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War on the first day of its proceedings against former US President George Bush and 11 members of his regime. Over the next five days, the Tribunal will hear from victims of US torture in both Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.<\/p>\n

On \u2018trial\u2019 in their absence are former U.S. President George W. Bush and his associates. Namely Richard (Dick) Cheney, former U.S. Vice President, Donald Rumsfeld, former Defence Secretary, Alberto Gonzales, then Counsel to President Bush, David Addington, then General Counsel to the Vice-President, William Haynes II, then General Counsel to Secretary of Defense, Jay Bybee, then Assistant Attorney General, and John Choon Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney-General. The charge reads as follows:<\/p>\n

The Accused persons had committed the Crime of Torture and War Crimes, in that: The Accused persons had wilfully participated in the formulation of executive orders and directives to exclude the applicability of all international conventions and laws, namely the Convention against Torture 1984, Geneva Convention III 1949, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter in relation to the war launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan (in 2001) and in Iraq (in March 2003); Additionally, and\/or on the basis and in furtherance thereof, the Accused persons authorised, or connived in, the commission of acts of torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment against victims in violation of international law, treaties and conventions including the Convention against Torture 1984 and the Geneva Conventions, including Geneva Convention III 1949.<\/p>\n

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) is following the due process of the law in bringing these charges against the accused. In 2009, the Commission, having received complaints from torture victims from Guantanamo and Iraq and having conducted a painstaking and an in-depth investigation for close to two years. Thus, two charges on war crimes were drawn and filed against the both the Bush and the Blair regimes.<\/p>\n

This War Crimes Tribunal heard the first charge in November 2011 against the two main accused; former U.S. President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Anthony L. Blair. After a 4-day trial Anthony L. Blair was found guilty of Crimes Against Peace. Both former heads of state were found to have violated the United Nations Charter and international law when they planned, prepared and invaded the sovereign state Iraq on 19 March 2003 using false and misleading \u2018intelligence\u2019 as justification for the ensuing, long term, massacre.<\/p>\n

An avalanche of information, emerging after the launch of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, are providing evidence of the ways in which almost every facet of international law is being disregarded with impunity. Including the way in which the wars were launched and conducted of the wars \u2013 and the politically endorsed torture of civilians. The perpetrators of such barbarism are not being made to account for their acts. Indeed there is no legally constituted forum to address the grievances of the world community offended by these crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal is constituted of eminent persons with legal qualifications. Please visit the website of the Tribunal for more details.<\/p>\n

The judges of the Tribunal, headed by retired Malaysian Federal Court judge Tan Sri Dato Lamin bin Haji Mohd Yunus, details of the judges panel can be found at the Tribunals website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the event the tribunal convicts any of the accused, the only sanction is that the name of the guilty person will be entered in the Commission\u2019s Register of War Criminals and publicised worldwide. However it is worth noting that since the tribunal found Blair guilty last year, Bush junior has cancelled several international trips for fear of legal reprisals and attempts to take such cases further.<\/p>\n

The tribunal is a tribunal of conscience and a peoples\u2019 initiative.<\/h3>\n

What follows is my partial transcription of the proceedings plus some conversations and personal observations. It is longer than pieces you usually read perhaps. It is much longer thank is usual for a news website. But the 1.4 million dead and tortured in Iraq deserve our attention. Soundbites and summaries no longer cut it. Read what you can, digest what you can cope with. Above all share these proceedings with your university or journalistic contacts and all those of conscience. Do what you like. But please don\u2019t stay silent or turn away from your brothers and sister in humanity under such abject suffering. Those who demand justice and freedom from the aggressor of our age; The United States of America and Israel.<\/p>\n

****************<\/p>\n

DAY ONE OF THE PROCEEDINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n

I take coffee with three Iraqui university students. They want to know why Palestine \u2018whose dead number in the thousands\u2019 is the cause of such global outrage as opposed to Iraq \u2018where millions are dead and millions displaced.\u2019 Their genocide is being ignored there is no doubt. The man with the beard shakes with emotion, as he talks of the murder of thousands of scholars nationwide in Iraq. The other tells me that children for decades have struggled to even have pencils in schools because of the blockade and the subsequent occupation.<\/p>\n

The Tribunal\u2019s first witness is Abbas Abid. The defence council seeks permission for the witness to appear covered in court and for his image not appear. We are told this is because he fears the risk of further reprisals and danger back in Iraq. He appears with a Palestinian kaffiyeh wrapped about his face revealing only his eyes.<\/p>\n

Witness is 48 year old man, married from Fallujah with five children born before his arrest. He was head of science and engineering in Iraq at the time.<\/p>\n

First detained August 28 2005. He was removed violently from his house and after transferred to nearby base where he was detained for four weeks in the then secret prison known as, Jadrya bunker or shelter.<\/p>\n

In Baghdad there were five shelters against nuclear attack. One of these were changed into a secret prison named above.\u00a0 The Iraqui National Guard and US troops launched a raid on his uncle\u2019s home with 4 American Humvees and 12 trucks of Iraqi soldiers. More than 15 Iraqi soldiers stormed the house in a \u2018terrifying manner\u2019. Smashing down doors and using sound bombs. They would scream and terrorise those inside the home ie his brothers family. His nephews came to his families home crying for help. His brother was absent at the time so he was called to help them. He said he was ready to answer any questions and was entirely co operative.\u00a0 They said \u2018why so many Holy books \u2013 there are too many holy books!\u2019 I told them \u2013 everyone in the family has their own Quran. The soldiers examined some articles from the internet on the situation in Iraq. He was told to follow them for questioning. He was taken to Al Munhtanna Brigade Headquarters for questioning. They beat him up demanding to know the names of \u2018terrorists\u2019 in his neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\u2018They even electrocuted me\u2019 he says. He was cuffed with hands behind him. A cord with a positive and negative charge attached to his hands and then attached to a power supply.<\/p>\n

He stands up to show us his hands behind him.<\/p>\n

The wire cable had current in it immediately and he felt the shocks straight away. The place he was in was\u2019 new\u2019 and not a\u2019 professional place for torturing\u2019 so they had amateur tools which they used at this time.<\/p>\n

What was the effect of the electrocution he is asked?<\/p>\n

I would turn into a dancer\u201d he says to nervous laughter around the court. \u201cYou cannot react and your senses stop and you just shake, dancing\u2019.<\/p>\n

This was done more than three times and he was then threatened with being shot. The US soldiers, would use an AK47 and re load it with his eyes covered, then shoot near his ears saying the next shot would be to his head if he didn\u2019t co-operate. He knew it was an AK47 as it is a popular gun in Iraq.<\/p>\n

He saw Americans in uniform. The eye cover had a small space at the bottom and he could tell from the lower attire of the US military uniform. Plus their voices and accents were American. After the torture was finished he would see the soldiers involved were indeed American.<\/p>\n

They tortured some of his cousins to get testimony against him. With 7 detainees he was moved to Al Jadrya-\u00a0 he was again tortured using a wide range of methods<\/p>\n