The war, the war criminals and the law

Dr George Barnsby, July 26, 2008

The scenario that Gordon Brown and his New Labour cabinet paint for themselves is pure bunkum and it revolves around the fact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now at an end. This moment occurred when five British hostages were taken. Brown now has only two alternatives. He can try to continue the war when he will find that every British life is a virtual hostage or he can bring the troops home and accept reality.

The other aspect of reality is that Brown and all who have waged war illegally are war criminals stained with the blood of the innocent. And once a war criminal always a war criminal. George Monbiot was the first to test this truth when he attempted to make a citizen’s arrest of John Bolton at the Hay Festival. In many countries now their constitutions do not permit of war criminals remaining at large and this is the significance of another attempted citizen’s arrest this week in New Zealand where students offer support for anyone making a citizen’s arrest of Condoleezza Rice the US Secretary of State. George W. Bush himself came close to a citizen’s arrest on his recent visit to Britain and had to be protected by British police from anyone getting near to him. It is now quite clear that there is a large body of opinion in America in favour of Bush being arraigned before the Court of Human Rights at the Hague charged with Crimes against Humanity and it becomes more evident every day that this wiill be where he lands up.

Returning to Blair, Gordon Brown and the diminishing tribe of New Labourites, it is clear that as Britain disintegrates there will be an urgent need for an English constitution which will raise the question of what to do with war criminals. In this regard Britain’s record is a poor one. In 1945 it allowed to enter Britain Nazi collaborators, war criminals and concentration camp guards from Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and elsewhere. Not a single collaborator was ever tried. The idea of Brown being free for another two years is ludicrous and I hope a citizen’s arrest will be made in public by one of my favourite MPs, George Galloway or Ken Purchase. And locally perhaps me arresting my friend Rob Marris who continues to support the war in Iraq when most rational people know that it is all over.