Bush Cancels Visit To Switzerland Due To Threat Of Torture Prosecution, Rights Groups Say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/05/bush-switzerland-torture_n_819175.html

Bush Cancels Visit To Switzerland Due To Threat Of Torture  
Prosecution, Rights Groups Say

GENEVA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President George W. Bush has  
cancelled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish  
charity gala, due to 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 on Monday for alleged mistreatment of  
suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. 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  
next Saturday, leading Keren Hayesod's organisers to announce that  
they were cancelling Bush's participation on security grounds -- not  
because of the criminal complaints.

But 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," Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights  
Watch, told Reuters.

The action in Switzerland showed Bush had reason to fear legal  
complaints against him if he travelled to countries that have ratified  
an international treaty banning torture, he said.
Brody is an American-trained lawyer specialised 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.

PROSECUTE OR EXTRADITE

"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.

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 United States.

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 United States are among 147 countries  
to have ratified the 1987 treaty.

"Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he cancelled 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  
on Monday, 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," said Brody.

"I think George Bush's world is a very small place at the moment," he  
said. "He may enjoy some kind of impunity in the United States, but  
other countries will not treat him so indulgently." (Editing by Mark  
Heinrich)

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