Former US president George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, because of the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture, rights groups said on Saturday.
Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod’s annual dinner on Feb. 12 in Geneva, but pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.
Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say.
Human rights groups said they had intended to submit a 2,500-page case against Bush in the Swiss city today for alleged mistreatment of suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay, the US naval base in Cuba where captives from Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in the so-called “war on terror” were interned.
Leftist groups had also called for a protest on the day of his visit, leading Hayesod’s organizers to announce that they were canceling Bush’s participation on security grounds — not because of the criminal complaints.
However, groups including the New York-based Human Rights Watch and International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said the cancellation was linked to growing moves to hold Bush accountable for torture, including waterboarding. He has admitted in his memoirs and television interviews to ordering use of the interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
“He’s avoiding the handcuffs,” said Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch.
The action in Switzerland showed Bush had reason to fear legal complaints against him if he traveled to countries that have ratified an international treaty banning torture, he said.
EXTRADITE
Brody is a US-trained lawyer who specialized in pursuing war crimes worldwide, especially those allegedly ordered by former leaders, including Chile’s late dictator Augusto Pinochet and Chad’s ousted president Hissene Habre. Habre has been charged by Belgium with crimes against humanity and torture and is -currently exiled in Senegal.
“President Bush has admitted he ordered waterboarding, which everyone considers to be a form of torture under international law. Under the Convention against Torture, authorities would have been obliged to open an investigation and either prosecute or extradite George Bush,” Brody said.
Swiss judicial officials have said that Bush would still enjoy a certain diplomatic immunity as a former head of state.
Dominique Baettig, a member of the Swiss parliament from the right-wing People’s Party, wrote to the Swiss federal government last week calling for the arrest of Bush for alleged war crimes if he came to the neutral country.
WATERBOARDING
Bush, in his Decision Points memoirs on his 2001-2009 presidency, strongly defends the use of waterboarding as key to preventing a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks on the US.
Most human rights experts consider the practice a form of torture, banned by the Convention on Torture, an international pact prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. Switzerland and the US are among 147 countries to have ratified the 1987 treaty.
“Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he canceled his trip to avoid our case. The message from civil society is clear — If you’re a torturer, be careful in your travel plans. It’s a slow process for accountability, but we keep going,” the Paris-based FIDH and New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights said in a joint statement on Saturday.
Sami El Hadjj, a former al-Jazeera journalist and former detainee at Guantanamo, had been due to speak at their news conference in Geneva today, where they will release the 2,500-page complaint.
“I’m surprised he [Bush] would even consider visiting a country that has ratified the torture convention and which takes its responsibilities seriously,” Brody said.
“I think George Bush’s world is a very small place at the moment,” Brody said. “He may enjoy some kind of impunity in the United States, but other countries will not treat him so indulgently.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique