The tribunal will determine whether the former US president and British prime minister committed war crimes and violated international law during the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal is an initiative by Malaysia’s former Premier Mahathir Mohamad, who staunchly opposes US-led military adventures in various troubled regions.
The hearing comes after two years of in-depth investigation, including testimonials from Iraqi war victims by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission.
According to the Kuala Lumpur War Commission, both Bush and Blair had participated in the formulation of executive orders and directives to exclude the applicability of all international conventions and laws.
One complainant told the commission in 2009 that he was mistakenly detained and kept for six years in Guantanamo Bay under harsh conditions.
A notification of the trial was served to known addresses of the two, and to the US Embassy and the UK High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on September 19, 2011.
This comes at a time when the Perdana Global Peace Foundation has mounted a war crimes exhibition in the Malaysian capital.
The exhibition put on display gory images of decapitated bodies, to educate the public about the inhumane effects of war.
The exhibition also featured the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq along with life-sized mannequins to show the abuse and torture of prisoners by the US army.
Millions of people have lost their lives in the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan over the past years.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29815.htm
Bush, Blair Found Guilty of War Crimes
The five-panel Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against humanity by leading the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.
In 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction allegedly stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The Malaysian tribunal judges ruled that the decision to wage war against Iraq by the two former heads of government was a flagrant abuse of law and an act of aggression that led to large-scale massacres of the Iraqi people.
Bombings and other forms of violence became commonplace in Iraq shortly after the US-led invasion of the country.
In their ruling, the tribunal judges also stated that the US, under the leadership of Bush, fabricated documents to make it appear that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
However, the world later learned that the former Iraqi regime did not possess WMDs and that the US and British leaders knew this all along.
Over one million Iraqis were killed during the invasion, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.
The judges also said the court findings should be provided to signatories to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, and added that the names of Bush and Blair should be listed on a war crimes register.