Iraq warning for US

Plans in the US to create a special military commission to try alleged war criminals in the wake of the conflict in Iraq would breach international conventions and alienate the wider global community, a leading human rights lawyer predicted at the conference.

London-based Geoffrey Robertson QC, who is currently sitting as a judge on the special court established to hear war-crimes cases following the civil war in Sierra Leone, strongly attacked suggestions emanating from the Bush administration that it would seek to conduct hearings outside standard international processes.

'US courts would be nothing more than extensions of the US executive,' he said.

Mr Robertson said that the US had already indicated that those accused before the US military commissions would have defence counsel appointed for them, and that they would only be allowed to instruct their own lawyers in a secondary capacity and only if they could meet the fees themselves.

Non-US military lawyers would also be obliged to take a 'loyalty test' before being allowed to advise alleged war criminals.

Mr Robertson went on to say that it was likely that the US authorities would conduct the hearings in secret.

According to Mr Robertson, such an arrangement would almost certainly breach article 6 of the UN's genocide convention, to which the US, the UK and Iraq are signatories.

Mr Robertson forecast that military commissions 'offered on the prospect of victor's justice' would not be respected among the international community.