UN war crimes judge defies calls to resign

Geoffrey Robertson's future as president of the United Nations-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone hung in the balance last night after the British barrister defied calls to resign over alleged bias against some defendants.

Robertson staked his reputation on convincing fellow judges to keep him as their chief justice despite efforts by defence lawyers and the prosecution to dump him because of a book he wrote which depicted Sierra Leone's rebels as bloodthirsty criminals.

Three appeal court judges are expected to rule over the weekend on whether he will stay on as president of a court that is supposed to be a bold step in the evolution of international justice.

Defence lawyers said the court would suffer a crisis of legitimacy if Mr Robertson stayed, because of his perceived hostility to some of the defendants accused of atrocities in the west African country's decade-long civil war.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32659

As far as I'm concerned, Bush and Blair have destroyed their respective countries. Not refering to people who are good people but just don't 'like' the aspects of Democracy means following what your governement is doing, who in the world who actually reads some news would ever trust anything that comes out of England or America? I'm sure what the two Satan's Disciples have done will destroy all the goodwill they had in the world. No one who has the slightest knowledge would ever trust our countries again. Every appointee of our country will always been seen as a dirty, lying, mafia, crook.

and he's not insulated from the direct results of his actions, as are people like _{George W. Bush.}

It would be hard to overlook vicious atrocities, but the Republicans show us we are to embrace them! After all, the victems were probably "evil doers!"

he opposed going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The problem is that he's already condemned the defendants, in print.