Former President George W. Bush was forced to cancel a trip to Geneva, Switzerland amid concerns of massive demonstrations and calls from human rights groups to prosecute him for war crimes.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is prepared to file a complaint against Bush with the support of 50 NGOs, according to a statement from the group. CCR said Bush's presence on Swiss territory was required for a prosecutor to take action. Bush was scheduled to speak in Geneva on February 12th at a dinner to honor the United Israel Appeal. The complaint will now be released at a press conference Monday on "the anniversary of the day, nine years ago, when Bush decided the Geneva Conventions didn't apply to 'enemy combatants,'" CCR said.
Groups planned to ask Swiss authorities to indict Bush for war crime violations, arguing that he had admitted to torturing terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and other C.I.A "black sites" around the world. "Bush has travelled freely round the world since leaving the White House in January 2009," reports The Guardian. "[But] human rights groups believe he is vulnerable to prosecution after admitting in his autobiography last November that he authorised waterboarding and other interrogation techniques."
CCR and other European human right groups have previously filed several suits charging war crimes against Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The groups have vowed to track Bush "around the world" after their success in forcing the cancellation of his trip to Switzerland. Watch a news report AFTER THE JUMP ...
Damn, i REALLY wish he would have made this trip. That crook and his ppl need to be buried under a jail cell.
Posted by: Quest | 07 February 2011 at 18:42
Quest, I was hoping the same thing. I was hoping that they would have arrested him while he was there and put him on trial for war crimes.
Posted by: Butchie | 07 February 2011 at 18:51