SHAH ALAM, 6 Jan 2009: The United Nations (UN) should set up an international tribunal to prosecute Israeli war criminals, Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW) trustee Tunku Sofiah Jewa said today.
She noted the time was ripe for the UN General Assembly to seriously consider estabilishing an international criminal tribunal for Israel (ICTI), in view of the recent Israeli atrocities against Palestine.
Tunku Sofia said this would be in line with a call by Prof Francis A Boyle, a noted international jurist, to establish the ICTI.
“Until an ICTI is established by the UN General Assembly, neither the overwhelming grief and protestations of the survivors of the massacre nor the criticisms and condemnations of the street demonstrators and delegates at the UN would mean anything to Israel,” she said in her comments posted through the trustee corner of KLFCW blog at http://www.criminalisewar.com/blog/.
Francis has been making impassioned pleas to various governments after the 2002 Israeli Jenin massacre, that an ICTI be established by the UN General Assembly as a “subsidiary organ” under Article 22 of the UN Charter.
Article 22 of the UN Charter states the UN General Assembly may establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions.
According to Francis, the purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute suspected Israeli war criminals for offences against the Lebanese and the Palestinians.
He said this would emulate what the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) did for victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic regime throughout the Balkans.
It is understood that the establishment of ICTI would, among others, provide some degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes. — Bernama
