Hiroshima group plans 'people's tribunal' over US atomic bombings

[Ivo Skoric]

excellent move. it should also be noted that it is reported by the
AFP.
ivo

On 6 Dec 2004 at 23:57, Miroslav Visic wrote:

http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041206074634.nnfukw3o.html

*Hiroshima group plans 'people's tribunal' over US atomic bombings*

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TOKYO (AFP) Dec 06, 2004
Japanese anti-war campaigners said Monday they planned a "people's
tribunal" over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that
could symbolically hold the United States responsible for war crimes.

Some 30 academics, lawyers and peace activists are preparing for the
trial to start next year on the 60th anniversary of the bombings,
with
the verdict likely to be read out in Washington in early 2006.

Defendants could be key US decision-makers including late president
Harry Truman and secretary of war Henry Stimson, along with Robert
Oppenheimer and other scientists and the military personnel who
carried out the order.

"As the statute of limitations is not applicable to war crimes, the
responsibility should lie with the present US government, too," the
Hiroshima-based group said in a statement.

The group has invited international law experts to act as prosecutors
and judges.

The activists said the failure to pursue criminal charges over the
bombings in the final days of World War II led to the expansion of
nuclear weapons and further wars, such as those seen in Afghanistan
and Iraq.

"The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki typifies two kinds of crimes
against humanity, indiscriminate bombing and mass killing, both
common
phenomena in contemporary warfare," the group said.

Citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "bear a moral responsibility to
represent the voices" of all victims of indiscriminate bombing
throughout the world, the trial's preparatory committee said.

"No national government has ever tried to fulfil its responsibility
by
pursuing justice on this matter," it said.

Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay B-29 which dropped the bomb on
Hiroshima in the world's first atomic attack, would be the only
person
alive among those who could be accused in the tribunal.

There is no chance the US administration would take any action
against
Tibbets if he were found guilty, acknowledged Toshiyuki Tanaka, a
group member and war crimes professor at Hiroshima City University's
peace institute.

"But our aim is to spur movement towards abolishing nuclear weapons,"
he said.

He argued that the tribunal could lead Americans to alter policy and
said the group was considering an anti-war symposium in Washington to
coincide with the verdict.

The Hiroshima bombing killed around 140,000 people -- almost half the
city population of the time -- immediately, or in the months
afterward
from radiation injuries or horrific burns.

It was followed by the dropping of a second atomic bomb three days
later in Nagasaki which left more than 70,000 people dead.

Japan has long campaigned against atomic weapons, arguing that it had
a special world role as the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack.

In the United States, however, the debate is much more controversial,
with many believing the atomic bombing brought an early end to the
war.

The campaigners said the tribunal was needed 60 years later as the
number of bomb survivors was rapidly diminishing.

"Therefore there is an urgent need for us to closely examine the
criminality of the use of nuclear arms," the statement said.

All rights reserved. © 2004 Agence France-Presse
<http://www.afp.com/>.

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