07 02/2007
U.S., Israel Face Trial in Unofficial War Tribunal in Malaysia

(Kyodo) _ A tribunal initiated by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was launched Wednesday to hear complaints of abuse and torture by victims of war in Iraq and the Palestinian territory.

Ten have come forward with volumes of evidence and witness testimony to back their claims of being abused in the hands of soldiers from the United States in Iraq and the Israeli military in the Palestinian territory.

Among the victims who want their case to be heard are Ali Shalal Qaissi, a former detainee at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, and Walid Salah Al Khatib, a Palestinian doctor in Palestine.

"It pains me greatly to see that my country that I so love and cherish...is nothing but the epitome of destruction perpetrated by the most powerful and supposedly democratic country in the world," said another petitioner, Faiza Alaraji, an Iraqi woman whose home in Baghdad was destroyed during the invasion by the United States in 2003.

The war crimes tribunal, presently made up of nine former judges and legal experts, carries no legal weight, but as Mahathir said, it will at least "assuage" the victims' pain.

The membership of the tribunal is now largely Malaysian. Among the non-Malaysian members is Francis A. Boyle, a professor of law at the University of Illinois in the United States and a former legal adviser to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. He is now engaged in the court martial of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first U.S. soldier who refused deployment to Iraq.

Mahathir said the panel would be enlarged "so that the tribunal will be properly represented by eminent jurists from all corners of the globe."

Mahathir chairs a six-member commission that will verify testimony given by the victims to decide if they merit a hearing by the tribunal.

"We of the commission look upon these as human tragedies, not confined to any particular race, religion, creed or faith. This is a terrible time that we are living in when powerful, responsible people are quite willing to sanction actions that are totally inhumane," Mahathir said.

"I hope we will be able to achieve something in the way of assuaging the pain that has been suffered by so many people in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere."

Both the commission and tribunal met for the first time Wednesday on the sideline of an antiwar conference organized by the Perdana Global Peace Organization that was established by Mahathir after his retirement in 2003.

Similar attempts to establish an unofficial war crimes tribunal were made in Turkey in 2005. One of the recommendations from the previous tribunal was for U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be held responsible for war crimes.

Bush and Blair, whom Mahathir has labeled as "killers" and "liars," will definitely find themselves once again in the dock.

Mahathir said earlier that while the tribunal cannot set penalties, its objective was to condemn the leaders so that they would go down in history as "war criminals."