The Belmarsh Tribunal

On the 2nd October 2020, the Progressive International posted this discussion on the formation of the Belmarsh Tribunal

The Belmarsh Tribunal will investigate and evaluate US war crimes in the 21st century — and defend Julian Assange’s right to reveal them.

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Music in this video

Wish You Were Here
Artist: Pink Floyd
Album: Wish You Were Here
Writers: David Gilmour, Roger Waters

The Whistleblowers (Diamond Version Remix)
Artist: Laibach
Album: Spectre

References

The Belmarsh Tribunal

The Progressive International is putting the US on trial for its war crimes in the twenty-first century.

The five questions being asked of the Government of the United and conspirators

  • Has the United States Government (and conspirators) committed acts of aggression according to international law?
  • Has the American army made use of or experimented with new weapons or weapons forbidden by the laws of war?
  • Has there been bombardment of targets of a purely civilian character, for example hospitals, schools, sanatoria, dams, etc., and on what scale has this occurred?
  • Have Vietnamese prisoners been subjected to inhuman treatment forbidden by the laws of war and, in particular, to torture or mutilation? Have there been unjustified reprisals against the civilian population, in particular, execution of hostages?
  • Have forced labour camps been created, has there been deportation of the population or other acts tending to the extermination of the population and which can be characterised juridically as acts of genocide?

The Russell Tribunal

The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes TribunalRussell-Sartre Tribunal, or Stockholm Tribunal, was a private People’s Tribunal organised in 1966 by Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and Nobel Prize winner, and hosted by French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre, along with Lelio BassoKen CoatesRalph SchoenmanJulio Cortázar and several others. The tribunal investigated and evaluated American foreign policy and military intervention in Vietnam. This had taken place in the decade following the 1954 defeat of French forces at Diên Biên Phu and the establishment of North and South Vietnam. 

Bertrand Russell justified the establishment of this body as follows:

If certain acts and violations of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them. We are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us. 

Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief Prosecutor, Nuremberg War Crimes Trials

Editor’s Note: References to Wikipedia re Russell Tribunal