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When I wrote my wish list for Obama, I did mention the necessity for the US to join the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. Now stories are coming up, or are being reported again after the election hubbub dies down, that makes subjecting the Bush Administration to the scrutiny of the ICC imperative.

During Bush’s “war on terror” some 20’000 mostly muslim men vanished from the face of the earth, probably to find themselves victims of extraordinary rendition in a torture cell in some remote part of the globe. Robert Fisk, the most reputable source on all things Middle East writes in an article on Bush’s legacy and Obama:

There is just one little problem, though, and that’s the “missing” prisoners. Not the victimswho have been (still are being?) tortured in Guantanamo, but the thousands who have simply disappeared into US custody abroad or – with American help – into the prisons of US allies. Some reports speak of 20,000 missing men, most of them Arabs, all of them Muslims. Where are they? Can they be freed now? Or are they dead? If Obama finds that he is inheriting mass graves from George W Bush, there will be a lot of apologising to do. (read more)

Mass graves.

The treatment of prisoners by the American and Iraqi military deserves another hard look as well. Especially the torture of children, juveniles, the rape of women and girls have not yet received the attention needed to highlight the necessity of further criminal investigation. Sherwood Ross from MWC news is making a case that is hard to read, it is so upsetting:

Since it invaded Iraq in 2003, the U.S. has detained thousands of juveniles—some of whom were tortured and sexually abused, according to published reports. Figures of the number of children behind bars vary. Some estimates put the number as high as 6,000. (read more)

Bush and Cheney et.al. have to be held accountable for their actions. I want to see them in dock, like Karadzic and Taylor. I want them tried in The Hague and the Obama Administration can pave the way by signing the Rome Statute.