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Help charge Blair, Howard and Windsor with war crimes.

Peter Ravenscroft. | 11.04.2003 01:58

The security guards of spaceship E have run amok and are disturbing the peace. They will have to be brought to book. Write to the Public Prosecutor, International Criminal Court, address and email below, and ask him to put Blair, Howard and Windsor in the dock.

Dear All,

Here is something that may work. If you are unhappy with this war, could you please write to the public prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and also help spread this? Thanks.

The rules of international conduct have changed, and we do not have to put up with military barbarity without challenging it. England and Australia are signatories to the International Criminal Court, the USA and Iraq are not. So, though Messrs Hussein and Bush are probably immune, we can very likely have Mr Blair, Mr Howard and Mrs Windsor charged with war crimes, as the invasion of Iraq is in itself probably a war crime. That invasion took place after the ICC was established, in June 2002, I think it was. Mrs Windsor is the legal head of state of both Britain and Australia, and sent the British troops off with her personal support.

I have sent the following, so far only by email, to the new public prosecutor at the ICC, via the public information officer, that being the only traceable email so far. I will follow up with a posted letter, asap.

To:
 pio@icc-cpi.int
The Senior Public Information Officer,
The International Criminal Court,
2500 CM
The Hague
Netherlands.

Dear Sir or Madam,

On the 9th of April I sent your office the email letter laid out below. I have had no reply whatever, either from your office, or from the Public Prosecutor's office.
If this is because of some antiquated practise of not responding to anything but physically posted letters, I would like to request that you cease this practise forthwith. I am located in rural Australia, some distance from post offices, and the matter raised is of extreme urgency. It would take several days for a posted letter to reach the court. In this case, the war crimes suspected are taking place far away, but in many instances to come, they will take place in rural areas without or with destroyed postal systems. If the court does not, at the outset, adopt the practise of responding rapidly to email communications, it will start off very badly, and many people will die or be injured who need not have been, had it been more efficient.
Will you please, as a matter of urgency, firstly see that the public prosecutor gets this email, and the previous one, and secondly both respond to it yourself by acknowledging receipt of it, and get the public prosecutor's office to do the same.
I will of course follow this email up with a written letter, as rapidly as possible.
Peter Ravenscroft,
Closeburn, Australia.

Here is the text of the original email, sent to you on 9 April, 2003.
Request for a war crimes investigation
The Prosecutor,
International Criminal Court,

Sir,
I have reason to suspect that three people, namely Anthony Blair and Elizabeth Windsor, of London, England and John Howard, of Canberra, Australia, may be guilty of multiple war crimes against the people of Iraq. I wish to find out what has to be done to have their conduct investigated, and to have them so charged, if that is possible.
Yours, etc.
Peter Ravenscroft.
Closeburn, Australia.

Everyone, if you can do something similar in your own words, preferably by a posted letter as well as by email, and if you could ask one and all with whom you are in contact to do the same, it may help. This ICC functionary is a public prosecutor, so he may just do it all himself, and it may all be underway anyway, but I have not seen anything public to say it is. Magna Carta says the British and Australian Crown is not above the law, and I image international law is exactly the same.
Regards,
Peter Ravenscroft,
for Not in Our Name, Samford.

PO Box 108, Samford, 4520, Queensland, Australia.  raven@samford.net or  nathydro@hotmail.com Reprint freely anywhere.

Peter Ravenscroft.
- e-mail: raven@samford.net

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

good idea, any lawyers out there?

11.04.2003 02:26

This sounds like a good idea. Is anyone out there aware of any concerted efforts at such a venture? It would be great if we could get a couple of lawyers and loads of signatures on board. The nature of the war crimes is self evident, but it would be great for a formal case to be made.

politica2003
mail e-mail: poltica2003@yahoo.com
- Homepage: www.geocities.com/politica2003


Sounds a great idea.

11.04.2003 06:08

Good idea.All three are guilty of war crimes in persuance of agressive and illegal war.However i think in the case of mrs Windsor it may be more difficult to prosecute as the royal perogative used in the form of the privy council is answerable to no institution , i think however i may be wrong on this matter.This problem can be traced back to the medieval times and the vague and unwriten British constitution.In reality although the UK as signed up to human rights legislation mrs Windsor and co as head of state represents British law and is indeed imune to prosecution for this reason.Also i am sure the British government could have negotiated an opt out for the Windsor when in negotiations and signing of any legislation.In reality the UK is not democracy at all only a medieval monarchy with voting rights bolted onto the side of a unwritten constitution.The civil war victors of the 17c had the same problem when prosecuting Charles the first with treason against the people, his defense was that the king was the law and no one had the right to put the head of the state on trial, i dont think very much as changed since these times when dealing with autocracy.However it is worth a try.

Redkop


Donate for War Crimes Action

11.04.2003 07:09

Donate for War Crimes Action
by jh 6:09pm Tue Apr 8 '03


CND, Greenpeace, the Green Party, Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB), Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) and Mark Thomas are distributing or selling ribbons to raise money for the legal fund to take members of the government to the International Criminal Court for War Crimes.

White ribbons for peace

CND, Greenpeace, the Green Party, Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB), Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) and Mark Thomas are distributing or selling ribbons to raise money for the legal fund to take members of the government to the International Criminal Court for War Crimes.

The ribbons will sell for a £1 donation and are a symbol for peace in these war-mongering times. They will be distributed throughout England from the CND office in batches of 1000, at a cost of £27 per 1000, (including postage). Please send your cheques, made out to CND, to the CND office, addressed to Kara, who will be dealing with this. This may seem a like a large number of ribbons, but it is very impractical for us to deal with smaller numbers. Please take this opportunity to share some ribbons with other groups nearby, asking them to send the proceeds back to yourselves with any unsold ribbons. Once a reasonable number of ribbons have been sold, send the proceeds to the CND office, again, cheques made out to CND, but put ‘ribbons’ or ‘ICC’ on the back so that we can ensure it goes into the correct fund.

All the proceeds will be used for peace campaigning. The selling organisation may retain 25% of any sales for their peace work, let us know if you have done this; the remaining 75% will be donated to the ICC fund. This will be used to take members of the government to the International Criminal Court for War Crimes, if any war against Iraq is conducted in a manner contrary to International Humanitarian Law. If we manage to avert the war, the proceeds will be used for humanitarian relief.

 http://www.cnduk.org/pages/campaign/ribbons.htm

jh


Update. Charging Blair, Howard and Windso

11.04.2003 12:46

The first inch of progress ?

The Public Information Office of the International Criminal Court has just emailed to say they have forwarded the letter in the article above to the competent office. The two letters could undoubtedly be improved on. Apologies for the repetitions.

They have yet to acknowledge Signal 2. It runs as follows, :

"(My addresses, postal and on the ground)
11th April, 2003.

Philippe Kirsch,
President, International Criminal Court
PO Box 19519
2500 CM
The Hague, Netherlands

 pio@icc-cpi.int

Sir,

As a matter of extreme urgency, will you please, if you have not already done so, order the Prime Ministers and the joint head of State of two of the countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute, namely Australia and the United Kingdom, to desist with their military and other activities in Iraq that may be in contravention of international law?

Will you also please ensure, with the greatest haste, that the Public Prosecutor of your Court begins investigations into these possible war crimes?

Could you please further reply to this request as rapidly as possible, and publicly announce your and your courts’ response to the current situation and to this request?

This is a formal request to your court for a stop order if legally possible, and for a war crimes investigation, of the conduct of Antony Blair and Elizabeth Windsor of London, and of John Howard of Canberra, and of any of their officers, civil and military, who may be legally implicated in any war crimes in Iraq. It is being made by a citizen of Australia, myself, Peter Spencer Ravenscroft, of Closeburn, Queensland.

I will follow it up as soon as possible with a posted and signed copy of this letter.

If such an order to desist and such investigative action are already underway, could you please advise both me and the world public of the situation, and ensure that it is posted on you court’s official website, if that is not already in train?

There is currently nothing regarding the present crisis in Iraq and your court’s response to it on either your official website, or that of the Statute of Rome, as far as I can see.

I thank you for your attention to this matter,

Yours etc,.

Peter Ravenscroft
Closeburn, Australia."

This court may yet prove to be real. If you are opposed to this war, and would like to do something to help stop it and to prevent future recurrences, please contact the ICC similarly.

Help from lawyers would be splendid, as I am well out of my depth here. But you have zip chance of being paid, except in bunya nuts, I tell you now.

Peter Ravenscroft
mail e-mail: raven@samford.net


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