AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
05 February 2011
EMBARGO:Sunday 06 February 2011, 07:00Hs GMT
President Bush cancels visit to Switzerland
Former US president George W. Bush will not travel to Geneva on February 12, according to reports in the Tribune de Genève. The cancellation comes ahead of expected protests and possible legal action against the former president.
On Friday, Amnesty International sent Genevoise and Swiss federal prosecutors a detailed factual and legal analysis of President Bush's criminal responsibility for acts of torture he is believed to have authorised. Amnesty International concluded that Switzerland had enough information to open a criminal investigation against the former president.
Such an investigation would be mandatory under Switzerland's international obligations if President Bush entered the country.
The organisers of the event President Bush was expected to attend told the Tribune de Genève that they decided to cancel the visit because of the controversy it has generated. They denied that the potential criminal investigations against the former president were a factor in the decision.
Amnesty International has repeatedly called on US authorities to investigate the responsibility of the highest US officials for torture, and of President Bush in particular, most recently after the publication of his memoirs in November.
The USA has failed to open investigations that can adequately examine the former president's potential criminal responsibility for these acts, and all indications are that it will not do so.
To date, we've seen a handful of military investigations into detentions and interrogations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo. But none of these has had the independence and reach necessary to investigate high-level officials such as President Bush, said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Meanwhile, there has been virtually zero accountability for crimes committed in the CIA's secret detention program, which was authorized by then-President Bush.
Anywhere in the world that he travels, President Bush could face investigation and potential prosecution for his responsibility for torture and other crimes in international law, particularly in any of the 147 countries that are party to the UN Convention against Torture.
As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring President Bush to justice, the international community must step in," said Salil Shetty.
For further information or to arrange an interview, pleasecontact:
Josefina Salomon, +44 7778 472 116,
AMNESTYINTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
EMBARGO: Sunday 07February 2011 at 07:00 am GMT.
Swiss authorities must investigate President George W. Bush
Amnesty International today called on the Swiss authorities to open a criminal investigation against former US President George W. Bush in light of his expected visit to the country on 12 February.
President Bush admitted in his memoirs published last November, and in a television interview, that he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) to use a number of enhanced interrogation techniques against detainees held in secret CIA custody, including waterboarding.
The Swiss authorities would be obliged to detain and investigate the former President even if they were only to rely on his own statements that he authorized waterboarding, an interrogation technique that clearly constitutes torture, said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
It is not often that a person with President Bush's high public profile goes on television or puts in writing what amounts to admissions of personal involvement in crimes under international law, but this is what has happened here.
As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring President Bush to justice, the international community must step in.
Amnesty International's submission to Swiss prosecutors and government officials examines the former president's legal responsibility for two cases in which he authorized the CIA to use waterboarding.
The CIA Inspector General found that these two detainees, Zayn al Abidin Muhammed Husayn (known as Abu Zubaydah) and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were subjected, between them, to at least 266 applications of waterboarding in
2002 and 2003. In this technique, detainees were strapped down, tipped backwards, had water poured over their nostrils and mouths, and experienced the pain and suffering of suffocation by drowning.
In the CIA ssecret detention program, set up under then-President Bush's authorization, at least two dozen additional detainees were subjected to a range of other enhanced interrogation techniques, including being forced to stay for hours in positions designed to cause pain and suffering, and being subjected to sleep deprivation and assaults.
The submission highlights further evidence of torture and other crimes under international law committed against detainees held in US military custody in Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
For more than six years, Amnesty International has been calling on the USA to fully investigate and bring to justice anyone responsible for crimes under international law committed during the war on terror. The USA has failed to meet its obligations.
Switzerland prides itself on its support for international justice. This is an opportunity to translate that commitment from words into action, said Salil Shetty.
For furtherinformation or to arrange an interview, please contact:
JosefinaSalomon, +44 7778 472 116,
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