Screenshots: Criminalising war

A glow in the dark... a global peace effort by a treasured son from Malaysia.

Dr Mahathir's keynote address at the third series of the Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) conference this morning was 70 paragraphs long, taking him some 60 minutes to deliver. It's titled: Criminalising War.

It was an impactful presentation as he had cleverly interspersed the speech with two well-crafted video clips, one on the horrors of depleted uranium (DU), and the other on what was inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison and human torture.

Despite his age at 81, Mahathir is still a deft hand in reading from the tele-prompter, effortlessly. That made his well-knitted thoughts perfectly articulated with numerous emphatic pauses and accentuations at the right places.

According to Malaysiakini, some 3,000 people had packed the Merdeka Hall of the Putra Wold Trade Center (PWTC), while about 1,000 people were outside the hall watching his speech on the large television monitors.

This series of the PGPO Conference is a follow through to The Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War which concluded last year.

At the end of the conference, a declaration will be made to invite international jurists of repute to establish an International War Crimes Tribunal, where laws and its jurisdiction will be proposed.

People-run Tribunal for War Crimes

Mahathir said conventions such as the Geneva Convention had been inadequate in identifying crimes of warmongers who ultimately caused brutalities in countries they waged wars in.

Mahathir also underscored the fact that laws, the concept of laws, justice and jurisdiction of national laws have changed over time.

"Now, certain nations enforce their laws extra-territory," he added. "The US invaded Panama to capture Noreiga and to bring him before a US court for trial and punishment under US laws."

Hence in the case of criminalising war, he added, laws must now be enacted not by the Government, but by the people, their organisations and the jurists.

"In a world where powerful countries can decide on regime change for other countries, the laws that are designed to criminalise wars are no more unusual than the regime change laws, the laws to legitimise the attacks against Afghanistan and Iraq, the extra-territorial laws," Mahathir said.

"These laws of the people are as legitimate as can be," he added.

Blair, Bush and 'pocket' Bush

The key task of the Tribunal is to try, in absentia if necessary, the war criminals as identified by the victims and the countries which have suffered from ther attacks ordered by the leaders of the invading countries identified.

Not mincing his words, Mahathir had cited George Bush, Tony Blair, and John Howard as targets for trial by the Tribunal for their roles in waging atrocities in modern Iraq.

"Bush and Blair are now totally reviled and condemned by the world and by their own people," he said. "To a certain extent, they have been tried and sentenced by their own people and media."

He equated that as a trial in absentia.

However, should the trio be found guilty by the people's Tribunal, death sentence was obviously not on his mind. Quote:

History should remember Blair and Bush as the Killer of Children or as the Lying Prime Minister and President. What Blair and Bush had done is worse that what Saddam had done. We should not hang Blair if the Tribunal finds him guilty but he should always carry the label War Criminal, Killer of Children, Liar.

And so should Bush and the pocket Bush of the bushlands of Australia.

Mahathir said war criminals tried and found guilty by the Tribunal should be remembered for the crimes against humanity, for the people they kill, and the destruction they wrought. Quote:

"People and the NGO's for peace should make these War Criminals feel unwelcome wherever they go. They should be literally hounded. They should have full frontal and profile pictures put up everywhere as war criminals.

And historians should always refer to them as War Criminals in history books."

Knowing that truth about war is being muffled by ‘lies and propaganda’ of powerful media corporations ‘owned and controlled by warmongers’, Mahathir called for the establishment of an international network of activists and groups to counter such media-slanting to ensure that the people know the truth about war.

The 3-day conference will see scores of internationally-renowned researchers and specialists, present and former government officials, journalists and lawyers speak on the horrors of war and the ‘global military-industrial-financial-media’ complex behind global conflicts, Malaysiakini reported.

LensaPress photos by Jeff Ooi

In conclusion, Mahathir described war, a form of organised crime, as primitive and not in keeping with the stage of human civilisation we are in.

In pushing for the new approach to criminalise war crimes, Mahathir reasoned that a respectable and totally impartial Tribunal applying recognised laws will find its findings respected by the world, "just as the world respects the Nobel Laureates".

It was made known yesterday that Mahathir has been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2007 by four organisations in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Comments

I still don't understand why TDM keeps repeating this nonsense that Bush and Blair have killed more Iraqis than Saddam did. Why reduce his moral high ground by resorting to false exaggerations? Just look at the numbers - they don't tally up correctly:

http://www.infernalramblings.com/articles/Global_Socio-Politics/97/

Posted by: johnleemk | February 5, 2007 04:09 PM

Why is the Old man so obsessed with crimes outside Malaysia?

While I agree with his take on Bush, Blair and Howard, I would prefer he came up with an explanation on how he drew up concecssion contracts during his time in power.

Nobel Peace prize? Maybe he he should come clean with HIS excesses before the prize committee too.

JEFF OOI says: Take the LRT to PWTC. Look through the pictures in the Exhibition, at Level 4. And if you can, listen to the testimonies of those who were tortured in Iraq -- they are scheduled to speak on Feb 6 and 7. And better still, talk to the real war victims and ask them pointed questions instead of ranting here. Email me if you need detailed timetable.

Posted by: mack | February 5, 2007 04:41 PM

I disagree with the above 2 comments and support TDM wholeheartedly. Noone's perfect but you got to support him in this effort because the US is about to start another war with Iran. Only fools wud harp on his supposed "previous abuses" but cannot lookforward to the good that is being done now by our Tun. You guys are stuck in the past and unable to extricate yourself from attachment. And I trust Tun's numbers. He is not the kind of person to simply come out with any numbers. Johnlee, he is just more knoweldgeable than you!

Posted by: nicky | February 5, 2007 05:48 PM

greetings johnleemk

For example

Bush/Blair's led war on terrorism killed XX ,XXX number of people.

Saddam's justified/unjustified killing XXX,XXX number of people.

SO you mean because Saddam kills more people than Bush/Blair did, the latter are not equally guilty of WAR-crimes ???

i find your reasoning AMUSING at the very least and yet CONTRADICTING / IRONIC

Posted by: cre8tif | February 5, 2007 06:52 PM

wakakkaka..funny funny, jeff ur getting really funny :p

" ..by a treasured son from Malaysia."
lol

Posted by: mandelism | February 5, 2007 07:09 PM

Hi Jeff,

Do you know where I can view or hear his speech? Anyone uploaded it to Youtube? I am not in KL. Somebody, please have it at Youtube!!

Posted by: nicky | February 5, 2007 07:40 PM

Looking at the slogans, there is a desperate search for Peace when asked to believe and love peace and reject war. But the intent is to “criminalize war”; will Peace be achieved in so doing? There seems to be a lack of understanding that the present world situation is the result of our individual beliefs, en masse.
Overpopulation is compensated by wars and if not by wars then by diseases. Yet who must die - the young who would be the parents of children? For a better understanding of :
If you want PEACE prepare for PEACE and NOT War. Check at:
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2006_06_18_archive.html

Posted by: mwt | February 5, 2007 08:59 PM

Posted by: mwt | February 5, 2007 09:02 PM

And I trust Tun's numbers. He is not the kind of person to simply come out with any numbers. Johnlee, he is just more knoweldgeable than you!

If you looked at my link, I drew on numbers from several recognised sources. Do you honestly think I would concoct numbers out of thin air to discredit TDM?

You seem to be reading far too much into my comment. All I am doing is pointing out that it does TDM no favours to harp on discredited numbers when there is so much more evidence out there.

And then again, TDM also has a very selective view when criticising people. I am not saying he is wrong - merely that even though what he says is right, he is doing us a disservice by harping only on the West's wrongdoings. What did TDM do to stop the slaughter of innocent Iraqis and Iranians by Saddam in the 1980s and 1990s? What did he do about the recent genocide in Darfur?

His criticisms of the West are accurate, no doubt. But I find it very unfair and hypocritical that he joins the West in ignoring the atrocities that several third world dictators and authoritarian regimes have committed, and meanwhile uses highly questionable numbers to attack the West. It does his cause no favour to do this.

Posted by: johnleemk | February 5, 2007 09:44 PM

Jeff,

I once had an impression that some of your previous comments on Tun M were not very friendly at all.

But for this Tun M's PGPO initiatives, you write with credit where credit is due.

If only we all can focus on the issue instead of the person.

Peace.

JEFF OOI says: I still want to question Mahathir on the State's interference of the Judiciary and the crafting of IPP contracts that has come to hurt TNB, and ultimately, the taxpayers -- if I have the chance in my lifetime. I want to look at issues, not the people. I have been singing John Lennon's song for years ( and I have been writing odes on the eve of A-Boming of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, year on year since 1999 ) , anyone who does good for peace, I have no reasons to reject.

Posted by: menarinari01 | February 5, 2007 09:56 PM

Jeff, as a malaysian now working in middle-east, close to the war zone, I have personally came into contact with people that have been displaced and in misery of war...I really appreciate the effort done by Tun Mahathir to Criminalise War & promote peace, if he Won the Nobel Prize,& I hope so, he surely has more roles to play in the middle east peace process, noble service to humanity. To me his past misdeed is non of my concern but what he can contribute to humanity is more important & I fully support him, his deeds, charisma & courage is what I look for. we should forgive his past little misdeeds after all nobody is perfect.

Posted by: malaysianinmiddleeast | February 6, 2007 04:27 AM

TDM should criminalise lying too.

Posted by: sydput | February 6, 2007 10:05 AM

Unless the prophet born 2007 years ago reborn today, to achieve peace, human being need to join the war to stop the war.

Posted by: moo_t | February 6, 2007 10:44 AM

Everyone makes mistakes in their lives, and ofcourse, when you do big things, you can make big mistakes too. But life is not about never making mistakes, but the realisation of it and the ability right what was wronged. I hope that with age comes more wisdom and Tun will bring forth more goodness in times like this.

It doesn't have to take a prophet to make good things happen. It takes all of us.

Posted by: jenn4Xt | March 10, 2007 12:15 PM

INTERNET does not operate in a legal vacuum.
Read this before you post a comment in this blog!

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