Blair faces war crimes trial after Iraq war

[Maciamo]

Blair faces war crimes trial after Iraq war

LONDON (Reuters) - A group of lawyers aims to prosecute Prime Minister Tony Blair for war crimes at the new International Criminal Court (ICC) if an Iraqi war goes ahead.

They said national leaders could be held individually responsible for war crimes and be tried as ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has at a separate court for former Yugoslavia.

Good point ! Not that I dislike Blair ; I actually used to like him and I still have nothing against him if it weren't for his excessive pro-americanism. But this move from this group of lawyer seems historic to me. Pressuring their own government by menacing to sue them is an idea I appreciate very much. I often find that ministers and presidents are too free to do anything they like without taking public opinion into account. This is particularily clear in the current Iraqi "crisis" at the moment, in Europe as well as in the US. Maybe Italians, Spanish and Portuguese should sue their own leaders too for following the Blair-Bush couple.

The United States fiercely opposes the ICC, saying it would infringe U.S. sovereignty, but Britain has ratified its treaty and would have to give up any citizen the court wanted to try.

Of course, the US are less democratic than Europe (not a scoop...) and it's only normal that they should refuse anything that could limit their supreme power, be it an International Criminal Court or just a Kyoto Treaty (why d'you think Bush is trying so hard to put his hands on Iraqi petrol if it were not to use it and abuse it at home afterwards).

[thomas]

The only problem I see is that in order to prosecute someone for war crimes is that actual war crimes have to be committed. Starting a war itself does not constitute a war crime.

As for TB: my personal impression is that he transformed Labour into a yuppie party that seems to care more for stock exchange and privatisation than for social issues.

[Maciamo]

That comes conjointly with a decision of the Australian senate to censor its PM over Iraq policy : BBC News : Australian PM censured over Iraq

The Australian Senate has passed an historic no-confidence motion against the prime minister over his handling of the crisis in Iraq.
John Howard and his Conservative-Liberal coalition were censured for deploying troops to the Gulf ahead of a possible war.

Happy to see at least to kind of reaction against country leaders. The Iraqi issue is more a matter of personnal opinion/feelings than of political affiliation or nationality. I think than more than 50% of the people in any Western country disapprove war (or at least this war). I guess that about 10 to 30% would be neutral like me (I'd be cautious over Iraq, but not in favour of an attack as the US see it).