A symbolic War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former US President George W. Bush and several other members of his administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The second “Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal”, part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, in a unanimous vote on Saturday found Bush and seven of his associates, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld guilty of torture and war crimes.
The court also heard evidence from former detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, of torture methods used by US soldiers during their captivity in prisons run by American forces.
A former inmate, Abbas Abid appeared in a scarf fearing reprisals. He enacted how US troops subjected him to electric shocks, beatings and sexual abuse over a number of months.
High ranking former UN officials present in the courtroom expressed frustration over the evidence. “The UN is a weak body … and it’s corrupted by member states, who use the Security Council for their own interests. They don’t respect the charter. They don’t respect the international law. They don’t respect the Geneva Conventions,” former UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday told Press TV.
“As long as they continue to use the UN it’s going to be somehow redundant possibly a dangerous and certainly corrupted organization,” Halliday went on to say.
Meanwhile, Mahatir remains determined to bring Bush and his cohorts to justice.
In response to a question on the sidelines of the court regarding the Malaysian police’s authority to arrest the criminals of war, Mahathir expressed hope that the charged officials won’t be invited to Malaysia.
“I hope people in the world will take notice and they should actually … these are basically murderers and they kill on large scale,” the former Malaysian premier maintained.
The symbolic court was first held in November 2011 during which Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were found guilty for committing “crimes against peace” during the Iraq war.