“In the opinion of the Tribunal, the solemn renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy necessarily involves the proposition that such war is illegal in international law; and that those who plan and wage such a war with its inevitable and terrible consequences are committing a crime in so doing.”
“The charges in the indictment that the defendants planned and waged aggressive wars are charges of the utmost gravity. War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal 1946
Question: Why do war crimes need to be reported to the police?
Answer:In a society based on the rule of law, if a person discovers or witnesses a crime taking place they have a duty to report it and any offenders to the police.  This applies to all crimes and all offenders regardless of their role or position in society. So if you see a house being burgled, a child being assaulted, a handbag being stolen or you overhear a group of people planning a crime, it is your duty to report what you have seen and heard to the police. Not only do we all have a duty to our fellow human beings to ensure that society’s rules, regulations and laws are obeyed, upheld and enforced, but we all have a moral duty to ensure that such heinous crimes as the waging of war and the murders of innocent men, women and children are prevented. One way of preventing war and the deaths and injuries caused by war is to ensure that those responsible are arrested and held to account in court for their crimes. Only when leaders such as Bush and Cheney or Blair and Brown are tried, convicted and punished for their war crimes will the world be able to return to the path of peace, justice and prosperity for all.
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Question: Can we report members of the government to the police?
Answer:Yes of course, there are no exceptions to the rule of law. Everyone from the Queen to a commoner must abide by the law and this includes the laws of war.  The necessity of reporting crimes to the police applies equally to war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in such crimes as it applies to crimes of theft, assault, fraud or murder. So if you see a television documentary in which a war crime takes place, or you overhear a group of soldiers discussing how they ‘accidentally’ killed women and children in Iraq, or you discover that your MP supported or supports the Government’s unlawful policy of using armed force to attack targets in Iraq and Afghanistan killing and injuring innocent men, women and children, you have a duty to report these crimes and the offenders to police.
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Question: What is a police officer’s duty in relation to war crimes?
Answer:The police have a duty in law not only to investigate reported crimes but, where they have information and evidence of a person’s involvement in a crime, to arrest such persons and together with the Crown Prosecution Service charge them as an accessory to the crime. In the case of serious state-sponsored crimes such as the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, the principal offenders will not only include the armed forces personnel who committed the crimes, the political, civil and military leaders [such as the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, MPs, civil servants and military commanders] who ordered the crimes to take place, but will include the directors of arms manufacturing companies, suppliers and taxpayers who are accessories to the crimes.
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Question: Is a police station the right place to report these crimes?
Answer:Yes. Although the desk officers in the police station will not be used to members of the public reporting war crimes and will probably do their best to put you off or shift  the responsibility for the investigation to someone else, they have a legal duty to take down an account of the crimes you have discovered or witnessed, to allocate a crime report number to the case, to investigate it and to keep you informed of its progress. The police are paid to prevent crime and arrest and prosecute wrongdoers even if those wrongdoers are senior members of the British Government or their own chief constable; so make sure that they do what they are paid to do. If it is difficult for any reason to get to the police station then use the phone and report the war crimes to Crimestoppers. If you have no luck with either of these routes then write to your local Chief Constable. As he or she is paid by taxpayers to prevent these crimes you have a right to ask for an explanation if they fail to make arrests or charge offenders.
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Will I get into trouble for wasting police time?
Answer:No. On the contrary the police will get into trouble if they fail to take account of your crime reports or complaints.
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Question: What do I do if the police refuse to take the crime report?
Answer:If they refuse to take down a crime report or push you out of the police station then make sure you take the offending officers’ name, rank and number and report them and the incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission and your local media. Don’t forget that you are in the right and it is your duty as a law abiding citizen to report crime. If a police officer deliberately fails to follow up on a crime report as serious as mass murder or genocide they are not only failing in their duty as an officer but they are assisting the crimes. Aiding, abetting or assisting a person to commit a crime is an offence under the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 and renders the police officer and their senior officers liable to be tried, indicted and punished as a principal offender.
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