Britain: military families take legal action against Blair government

By Rick Kelly
12 May 2005
Following its re-election on May 5, the Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing a series of legal challenges launched by the families of British soldiers killed in the Iraq war. On May 5, lawyers acting on behalf of 10 families and antiwar organisations presented evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that Britain had committed war crimes in its participation in the Iraq war.
In its submission to the court, Public Interest Lawyers, the firm representing Military Families Against the War, as well as relatives of Iraqis killed in the war and the Stop the War Coalition, argued that British forces were directed in a manner disproportionate to the stated objective of the war, namely disarming Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.

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This charge is all the more serious, given that it has now been definitively established that Blair was repeatedly given unambiguous advice from the attorney general and the Foreign Office that to invade Iraq on the basis of regime change would be illegal.The court also heard that a number of specific actions of the invading forces were in violation of international law, including the bombing of critical infrastructure such as power and water plants, the use of depleted uranium shells, and the deployment of cluster bombs in urban and civilian areas.

The Independent reported that this argument has been bolstered by new admissions by the Ministry of Defence that British cluster munitions used in Iraq had an “unacceptably high failure rate,” and that this is “one of the most problematic aspects” of the bombs. In the weeks and months following the fall of Baghdad, there were numerous reports of Iraqi civilians, including children, picking up unexploded cluster bomblets that then detonated, causing horrific casualties. (See “Unexploded cluster bombs blanket Iraqi cities”.)

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/mili-m12.shtml


A man cries out over his brother's body at Yarmouk hospital, after Maj. Gen. Wael al-Rubaei, director of the National Security Ministry's operations room, and his driver were assassinated by two carloads of gunmen in a drive-by shooting on their way to work, in Baghdad's Mansour district in Iraq Monday, May 23, 2005. (AP Photo/Mohammed Uraibi)

If it holds that the UK memo reflects an effort to fix intelligence and facts and that the war was trumped up, I'm guessing there will be a whole lot of people who have a legal beef with the Brits and the US.

American families with lost loved ones, Iraqi families, coalition families with lost soldiers, American taxpayers, and perhaps the UN.

What legally happens at the UN when one country illegally invades another? Is there an investigation by UN groups? Are charges filed by the UN or individual countries? I wonder about how the UN feels about the US going to war over its objections and under false pretenses IN THE CONTEXT OF THE OIL FOR FOOD SMEARING CAMPAIGN AGAINST IT?

The UK memo is big trouble for this administration, not just at home but in places where they are actually discussing it as an important issue.

This is another reason why you don't piss off most of the world on your arrogant way to getting what you want.