International Lawyers Seek Justice for Iraqis

[Sunlei]

Source: Truthout

Saturday, 19 April 2014 10:22

By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | Report

Lawyers and activists from around the world converged at The Iraq Commission in Brussels last week with the primary aim of bringing to justice government officials who are guilty of war crimes in Iraq, including former US President George W. Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The conference represents the most powerful and most current organized attempt in the world to bring justice to those responsible for the catastrophe in Iraq, and included powerful international lawyers like International Court of Justice lawyer Curtis Doebbler and Louie Roberto Zamora Bolanos, a lawyer from Costa Rica who successfully sued the government of his country for supporting the war in Iraq.

Their goal for the conference was to begin taking concrete steps toward international lawsuits that will bring Blair and Bush, along with those responsible in their administrations, to justice for the myriad war crimes committed in Iraq.

International lawyers and activists converged at a conference titled The Iraq Commission, in Brussels, Belgium, April 16 and 17, with the primary aim of bringing to justice government officials who are guilty of war crimes in Iraq.

"Within a few days of this, a lawless atmosphere developed within my unit,” Ross Caputi, a former marine who took part in the brutal November 2004 siege of Fallujah told the Iraq Commission. "There was a lot of looting going on. I saw people searching the pockets of the dead resistance fighters for money. Some people were mutilating corpses."


Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/

[seveneyes]

1. It would be good to help them to stop killing each other

Priorities and all that goes with it.

[The Blue Flower]

6. Justice is a good place to start

The law and justice were turned on their heads when cheney was appointed president. What was once criminal has now been recodified as being legal so there's no accountability and victims have no recourse. The Siegelman appeal and this commission are rays of hope to me.

[annm4peace]

8. You should read the article before posting your comment

maybe you would see why people are killing each other. that was part of the plan by the war hawks.

Here is the link to the article: http://truth-out.org/news/item/23175-international-lawyers-seek-justice-for-iraqis

and yes.. I do think Bush and Co will be prosecuted for war crimes.

***

Michel Chossudovsky, a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa and an author and adviser to governments of developing countries, spoke of what he believes is a "world crisis" caused primarily by the United States' "long war," which "threatens the future of humanity."
"This 'war without borders' is being carried out at the crossroads of the most serious economic crisis in world history, which has been conducive to the impoverishment of large sectors of the world population," he said. "The Pentagon's global military design is one of world conquest. The killing of civilians is part of that agenda. The US agenda in the Middle East is to change countries into territories, this is the basis of destabilizing country after country across the world, and instituting PAX Americana."
Chossudovsky believes that US worldwide militarization is part of a global economic agenda, and the invasion of Iraq was but one component of this agenda.

[nahant]

2. Bush/Cheney

To see those two and a passel of others swinging in the breeze by their necks would sure make my day!!!

[movonne]

3. I think that Cheney is more of a war criminal than bush...not that bush should not be punished....

[GeorgeGist]

4. I wish them every success in bringing war criminals to justice.

[Martin Eden]

5. POEM I wrote when Bush left office:

What I'd say to him, if I could:


I'd tell you to go fuck yourself
But that is much too kind
Because if you could perform that feat
You'd take pleasure in your behind

I'd like to say eat shit and die
But you deserve much more
You should suffer all the grief and pain
Of your misbegotten war

Though I can never make you feel
or think, or understand
I'll take pleasure when you hear your name
Cursed throughout the land

From inside a lonely prison cell
Dark and bare and cold
Where every day you pay for your crimes
Until you're sick, heartbroken, and old

Then when you finally leave the earth
You fucked over oh so well
If there is a God and afterlife
You're going straight to hell

[Unknown Beatle]

7. Dirk Adriaensens, a long-time Iraq activist who cofounded the conference:

"Justice has to prevail, for the sake of our children, for the Iraqi people and for the sake of the future of mankind. No justice, no peace. During this commission we will not address the current situation in Iraq. We're here to condemn the original sin: the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and how we can bring the perpetrators to court."

I truly hope this becomes a reality.

[RobertEarl]

9. Great News!!

Best news I've heard in a long, long time.

[stillcool]

10. this is what it should be..

the victims. They deserve justice and coimpensation. I can't imagine what compensation would be for over a million families of murdered Iraqi's coupd be. Maybe they'll get Texas.