MALAYSIAN CITIZENS' PETITION TO INVESTIGATE WAR CRIMES

Dear blogger friends and commenters (please pass this around),

I would like to start a petition to call for the ICC Prosecutor to investigate the heinous war crimes, crimes against humanity and other criminal acts of commission and omission committed by Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, George W. Bush, Hosni Mubarak, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice. If anyone would like to add anything to this, or make any rectifications or offer suggestions, please fell free to comment. I would also appreciate any help to get it online to enable signatures.

"The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC is based on a treaty, joined by 108 countries.

The ICC is a court of last resort. It will not act if a case is investigated or prosecuted by a national judicial system unless the national proceedings are not genuine, for example if formal proceedings were undertaken solely to shield a person from criminal responsibility. In addition, the ICC only tries those accused of the gravest crimes.

In all of its activities, the ICC observes the highest standards of fairness and due process. The jurisdiction and functioning of the ICC are governed by the Rome Statute."

Appeal for Intenational Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor to Investigate War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza.

ATTN: Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court
Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor
Information and Evidence Unit
Office of the Prosecutor
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands
Email: otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int

i.int
Phone: Tel. + 31 (0)70 515 851

We the undersigned citizens of Malaysia hereby formally petition you to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials named for heinous war crimes, crimes against humanity and other criminal acts of commission and omission committed by Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, George W. Bush, Hosni Mubarak, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice who have participated directly or indirectly in War Crimes in Gaza.

The Israeli military, aided indirectly and directly through munitions supply by the United States of America are accused of:

• Using powerful shells in civilian areas sending blast and shrapnel over a wide area which the army knew would cause large numbers of innocent casualties;

• Using banned weapons such as phosphorus bombs which inflict horrific burns; and testing powerful new explosives such as DIME which cause the following carnage as described by Gaza doctors and by a previous Al-Jazeera report:

US and Israel Targeting DNA in Gaza? The DIME Bomb: Yet another genotoxic weapon, Part II

James Brooks, Al-Jazeera

In early July, shortly after the beginning of Israel’s bloody military siege of the Gaza Strip, reports began to appear that Israeli forces were using a new weapon that inflicted strange and untreatable wounds, and significantly increased the death tolls of Israel’s attacks.

Italian investigators have reported evidence that the unidentified Israeli weapon is probably Dense Inert Metal Explosives, or DIME, a so-called LCD ("low collateral damage") weapon developed by the United States Air Force.

DIME bombs blast a superheated "micro-shrapnel" of powdered heavy metal tungsten alloy (HMTA). Studies indicate that HMTA embedded in the body disrupts biochemistry and rapidly causes cancer. Like depleted uranium (DU), HMTA is genotoxic—it is capable of inflicting genetic mutations. (4-10)
DIME is part of the Air Force’s Focused Lethality Munitions (FLM) program, which is expected to "allow" the targeting of "terrorists" wherever they are, even in places "previously off limits to the warfighter."

The ideal of FLM is to reliably kill every human within the blast zone—one way or another. It is 'total war’ on a 50-foot circle, within which deaths are not admitted as collateral, but purchased as insurance. Israel’s new weapon "slices" off its victims’ legs, leaving "signs of heat and burns near the point of the amputation". It’s "as if a saw was used to cut through the bone", according to Dr. Habas al-Wahid, head of the ER at Gaza’s Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital.

Viewing photographs of the living and dead Palestinian victims of this device, many of whom are children, we notice patches of darkened but unburned skin, possibly where metal powder was driven into and/or through the skin by blast force. A child's torso is peppered with holes, some of which, judging from doctors’ reports, probably tunnel through to exit wounds in the back. The skin and muscle of one victim is ripped into a blood-encrusted pulp, as if blasted at close range with tiny birdshot. Some of the corpses are unrecognizable. Most of the recent photos of "strange" wounds from Gaza appear to be consistent with what is known about DIME weapons.

• Holding Palestinian families as human shields;

• Attacking medical facilities, including the killing of 12 ambulance men in marked vehicles. One such example 9of many) was related as follows;

They were killing any person they could see in the street. They shot at my next-door neighbor. From the area around here, there are around 25 martyrs. They are still looking for missing people. They shelled a complete part of the hospital. The streets and infrastructure are completely destroyed. The building across the street is still burning, and it was a pharmacy depot. The people fled to seek refuge in Al Quds hospital 200 meters from here. Some of the ambulances were destroyed. I saw with my own eyes the burning, the smoke. This is savagery. I don’t think anyone in his life has ever witnessed such brutality and horror.
- Dr. Assad, Tel al-Hawa

* Shooting civilian men, women and children in cold blood after asking them to leave their homes or as they seek refuge in shelters. One case out of many was of Haneen al-Batran, a nine year old girl who was shot in the face and abdomen by Israeli snipers as her family ran to the Al-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa. She died later.

* Prohibiting rescue services to attend to the dead, injured and trapped for days, as in the case of the Al-Samouni family in Zeitoun which is only one uncovered so far in many of such incidents and the sad case of Shad, a four year old Palestinian girl killed in her backyard in Jabalya and her body left for the dogs to eat by Israeli soldiers who shot at her family attempting to retrieve it for 5 days, resulting in another two family members being shot dead (more eyewitness accounts of other cases have been reported in Free Gaza, Window on Palestine and Al Jazeera sources);

• Killing large numbers of policemen who had no military role;

* Shelling designated UN facilities which served as safe havens for the displaced fleeing from indiscriminate bombings;

* Targeting UN aid convoys and destroying badly needed food, water medical and fuel supplies;

* Bombing mosques, universities, schools and hospitals, cemeteries and infrastructure with lame excuses of "militant" activity;

* Imprisoning terrorised, starved and injured civilians in a small open air "prison" with no safe haven to flee by blockading and sealing off borders and shelling them indiscriminately. In the latest UNHCR newsletter, a high ranking official stated that;

Gaza (is): "The only conflict in the world in which people are not even allowed to flee" - High Commissioner Guterres

* Total disregard and impudence towards a democratically elected government of the people of Gaza;

* The continued harassment and instilment of fear by low-flying drones, fighter jets, helicopters, and movement of tanks in civilian areas despite a unilateral ceasefire;

* A hugely disproportionate "retaliatory" campaign against rocket threats; threats which were falsely used as a pretext for the latest invasion when it has been clear that Israel violated the previous existing ceasefire agreement.

* The continued unjust imprisonment and deprivation of the Palestinian population by a continued siege and economic and physical blockade of Gaza and the destruction of tunnels used to funnel necessities to enable decent living conditions.

In short, as an occupying power, Israel has totally and willfully violated its obligations, with the full support of the United States of America, as to protect the occupied citizens of Gaza and violated the Geneva conventions and the Statutes laid out in Article 8 of the International Criminal Court by the deliberate and sustained targeting of civilians and humanitarian aid workers, halting the full delivery of much needed aid to Gaza, and totally destroying the infrastructure in Gaza which will cost billions to rebuild and which is almost impossible to do so, due to the blockade, thus rendering the population homeless and open to the risks of the natural elements of extreme weather, abscence sanitation, healthcare, education, food, water and any economic activity.

These and numerous other war crimes must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice to ensure that all international laws are respected and there exist no avenue and space for any nation to act with such total impunity and disregard for other nations and peoples and that regard for the sanctity of human lives and property and the environment be preserved. We cannot allow the law of the jungle and barbarism to continue to prevail in this day and age.

What has occurred in Gaza, and is still continuing, is a crime against humanity and a test of our own.

We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of the United States of America of for Israel but for Justice itself.

Thank you.