Legal Action Against War - Japan Speech

I begin by expressing my sincere thanks to Mr Katsuzawa and the Movement for Democratic Socialism of Japan for inviting me here today to this select and important gathering to represent the Stop the War Coalition of Britain and Legal Action Against War.


Legal Action Against War (LAAW) is a voluntary organisation formed in February 2003 to initiate civil and criminal legal proceedings against those individuals and institutions in Britain that promote or conduct warfare, support military conflict or perpetrate war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Stop the War Coalition of Britain was formed in October 2001

Today I want to tell you a little about how we are trying to use the law to stop Britain 's involvement in war now and in future.

We are working together to organise a national campaign to persuade our justice authorities to uphold national and international law and to indict Tony Blair and other political, civil and military leaders on war crimes charges. We want our police to investigate the crimes committed against the people and state of Iraq and to identify and charge every British national found to have committed a criminal offence under the International Criminal Court Act 2001. We want our Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute Tony Blair and all the other 800 or so individuals who committed the worst criminal offences in English law. And we demand our judiciary conducts Britain 's first ever war crimes trials.

Since 1998 over 80 countries, including Japan , Britain and Iraq , have ratified the world's foremost legal agreement, the International Criminal Court Statute, familiar too many of you as the Rome Statute. The signing of the statute is significant in that it is the first time that the world has agreed to the universal introduction of the criminal offences of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as to the justice systems needed to enforce them. The preamble to the Rome Statute justifies our presence here to day and I would like to remind everyone of its essence.

The parties to this Statute, conscious that all peoples are united by common bonds, and mindful that millions of children, women and men have been victims of atrocities deeply shocking to the conscience of humanity; recognising that such grave crimes, which threaten the peace, security and well being of the world, will be punished, and their prosecution must be ensured by taking measures at the national level and by enhancing international co-operation.


Determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes, we affirm that it is the duty of every state to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes, and hereby establish an independent permanent International Criminal Court with jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.

LAAW is setting out enforce the British Government's responsibility to abide by these duties and responsibilities. Robin Cook, the then British Foreign Secretary, ratified the Rome Statute on behalf of the British Government in 1998 and our parliament then enacted the International Criminal Court Act in 2001. For the very first time a British government accepted the jurisdiction of an international court and introduced three new crimes into British law. Our job is to force our government to abide by our own law and to uphold its international agreements.

It is a measure of the integrity of Robin Cook that knowing the illegality of the behaviour of his government, he resigned rather than condone it.

I would like to read to you the new law that we introduced in Britain in 2001:

"It is an offence against the law of England and Wales for a person to commit genocide, a crime against humanity or a war crime, or, to engage in conduct ancillary to such an act."

"Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group : killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Now I would like to move on to some of the ways that our government has violated this law, committing the worst crimes ever perpetrated in recent British history.



ONE : LAAW contends that the British Government, led by Tony Blair, conspired with the Government of the USA to attack the sovereign state of Iraq thereby killing several thousand Iraqis, and that this act constitutes 'genocide' a criminal offence in UK law under sections 51 and 52 of the International Criminal Court Act

TWO as lawyers, Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon, Derry Irvine the Lord Chancellor, and Peter Goldsmith the Attorney General, know full well that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights allows the taking of human life in only ONE CIRCUMSTANCE; that is, when an individual has been tried in a duly constituted court of law and convicted of an offence for which death is the preordained sentence. NONE of the 12,000 people who died in Iraq was accused of any crime, afforded the right to a trial, legally represented, convicted of an offence or shown any mercy before their lives were extinguished. Premeditated killing such as this is an act of murder and is a criminal offence throughout the world.

THREE British forces' use of cluster bombs in Iraq constitutes a war crime. These weapons are ineffective against military installations. These weapons are designed as indiscriminate anti-personnel bombs to kill or maim people. By using cluster bombs, many of which fail to explode on impact but remain active for many, many years, our? Government demonstrated that they were, and are, intending to kill Iraqi children and civilians both now and in the future rather than destroying military installations or weapons of mass destruction. The wilful killing of civilians in this manner is a war crime and is a criminal offence in English law. (ICC Act 2001 S. 51 and 52 and Sch 8 Art 8)

FOUR Another crime I wish to highlight is the Coalitions' use of 3000 tons of depleted uranium in its munitions. Causing toxic uranium dust particles to disperse and contaminate wide areas of southern Iraq is a war crime. This horrific act will lead to increases in cancers, premature deaths, miscarriages and deformities in children as yet unconceived in Iraq in perpetuity. The wilful killing and injuring of civilians in this manner is both a crime against humanity and a war crime (ICC Act 2001 Sch. 8 Arts 7, 8 Sect 2(a) (i) and 2(b) (IV) (xvii) (xviii). Sadly, those troops deployed in Iraq , both British and US, and exposed to depleted uranium will also suffer the dreadful consequences to their health, and carry the legacy to their future children.

For months the media have been full of images of the horrific outcomes of modern warfare, but nowhere have I seen these actions described as crimes and attributed directly and correctly to British and American warmongers.

Let us now turn to what can be done to stop these warmongers.

On both sides of the Atlantic it is not an absence of law that is causing the problem but rather the determination of small corrupt cliques, at the heart of government in both Britain and America pursuing their imperialist dreams regardless of the law, international treaties or public opinion. The real axis of evil in this world lies between Washington and Westminster , Whitehall and the White House. The focus of the entire civilised world is to work together to remove these two malevolent regimes from power and hold them to account for their crimes in court.

Several different groups can play a part in this process.

The most important role lies with the international press. A mere 1000 people in Britain understand just how insidiously British Government spin doctors have disguised our leaders' criminal activities. The Hutton enquiry successfully diverted media attention from the worst deception ever played on parliament and the British people by a serving prime minister. When Tony Blair said that "we would not do anything as a country that did not have a proper legal basis to it", he was lying. Nothing about the war with Iraq was legal or in any way justified in law. Use the positive power of the press overcoming this block by publicizing the British government's duplicity. Only when the people of Britain AND the know and understand the crimes that were committed, and being committed still by Tony Blair and members of the British government, can we expect to put enough pressure on Britain's police, CPS and judiciary to force them to uphold the law and conduct just and lawful war crimes trials.

Japan , the UN and the rest of the civilized world have the ability to help this cause by co-coordinating diplomatic pressure to force the British government to abide by its agreements, especially the Rome Statute. In that Statute, every signatory agreed 'to exercise its jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes'. Now that members of a British government have committed international crimes by conspiring with the Americans to kill more than twelve thousand innocent people, we must 'persuade' our justice authorities to do their duty, investigate the crimes, arrest and charge the offenders and try them in Britain's first ever war crimes trials.

Americans must indict George Bush. Although America declined the ratification of the Rome Statute, it did ratify the Genocide Convention, and in 1988, after twenty six years of uninterrupted effort, Senator Proxmire eventually persuaded Congress to enact the Genocide Convention Implementation Act, popularly called the Proxmire Act. This gave America the law it needs to prevent genocide. NOW is the time for Americans to uphold their own law and to impeach George Bush for genocide.

The British public and the legal profession in Britain can bring pressure to bear on our police to do their duty and arrest and charge Tony Blair. The British government is doing its best to maintain the ignorance of the public and the police. Therefore only a handful know or understands the implications of domestic or international war law. If our government had met its obligations under the UN Charter or the Rome Statute and educated the public, Britain could have remained detached from America 's imperialist activities in waging war on Iraq . On 4 th November the SWC will enter police stations around the country reporting members of our government for their war crimes. We hope that massive public pressure massive will enable our police to do their duty and for the first time in three hundred years arrest an English Head of State. However, unlike that occasion beheading is not an option!

By changing our outdated and undemocratic constitution, our parliamentarians can ensure the impossibility of future wars. On October 14 th John McDonnell MP is introducing a 10 minute Rule bill in Parliament seeking the formation of a Ministry for Peace. This is the first step in the long and complex process of eradicating the royal prerogative, introducing a war powers act, restricting prime ministerial power, disarming our armed forces, and changing the law and constitution of the United Kingdom . We aim to make it totally impossible for Britain 's armed forces ever again to become involved in violence and military conflict beyond our borders.

LAAW will do everything in its power to hold the British government to account in court. We are attempting to do so without financial resources or administration and very few people. If anyone here knows of sources of funds/sponsors to enable us pursue this end both efficiently, effectively and doggedly over the next three years, I would be delighted to hear from them.

With the support, encouragement and assistance of ICTI and other peacekeeping bodies we WILL engineer the conditions where Tony Blair and his cronies are convicted of genocide in a British court, and George Bush and his co-conspirators are convicted of genocide in an American court, the world will then give a collective sigh of relief and applaud the achievement. The simultaneous imprisonment of an American president and a British prime minister as war criminals will uplift the morale of ordinary people around the world, as well as ushering in a new democratic era in international relations.

We can turn away from violence, military conflict and warfare, and return to the path of peace, reconciliation and development of a fair, just and equitable world, and we can uphold the rule of law.

Our fragile plant is now facing the possibility of being dragged back to the dark ages. Back to the horrors and atrocities of a world at war. For the sake of future generations take action to halt the two corrupt governments of Britain and America .

They our laws so let's uphold them. It is our justice system so let's use it. They are our leaders so let's prosecute them. It's our world so let's reclaim it.