Irish Journalist Attempts Blair 'Citizens Arrest'

An Irish journalist has attempted to place the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair under citizen's arrest in Brussels over "alleged war crimes".

David Cronin, from Dublin, works for the Inter Press Service and is also a contributor to British national newspaper The Guardian.

According to reports today, Mr Cronin tried to arrest Mr Blair in the European Parliament on Monday afternoon as he prepared to address a committee on his work as Middle East peace envoy.

The motive for the attempted arrest originated from controversial Guardian columnist George Manbiot who launched a bounty for the arrest of Mr Blair over alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Describing the incident to a website involved in the campaign, Mr Cronin said: "I approached him and put my hand on his arm. He looked towards me and I said, 'Mr Blair, this is a citizen's arrest', before I was pushed away by one of the several bodyguards surrounding him.

"As they pushed me, I shouted, 'You are guilty of war crimes'," he said.

Mr Cronin added: "My motivation in trying to arrest Blair is entirely based on my contempt for the crimes he has committed and abetted in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon and Serbia."

Mr Cronin's attempt to arrest Mr Blair is the second this year, after Grace McCann tried to arrest the former Prime Minister as he left the Chilcot Inquiry before police restrained her. Ms McCann qualified for the first bounty of £2,619.67.

Currently £11,207.93 remains in the bounty's fund, with each attempted arrest qualifying under the sites criteria eligible for a quarter of the amount in the bounty pot.

The campaign by George Monbiot is being conducted form the website www.arrestblair.org featuring a list of the criteria for claiming a portion of the bounty and guidelines for performing a legal citizen's arrest.

The site also details the allegations of the crimes Mr Blair is purported to have committed focusing on Mr Blair's alleged purposeful contravening of the conditions required to launch a legal war within international law.

According to the site, George W Bush's original plans to bring war to Iraq had been shown to be illegal to Mr Blair in a March 2002 memo from Defence Minister Jack Straw, who had reminded him of the conditions required to launch a legal war in Iraq: "i)There must be an armed attack upon a State or such an attack must be imminent; ii) The use of force must be necessary and other means to reverse/avert the attack must be unavailable; iii) The acts in self-defence must be proportionate and strictly confined to the object of stopping the attack."

George Manbiot, who instigated the current 'Arrest Blair campaign, believes none of these criteria had been met, leaving Mr Blair culpable of war crimes.

(DW/BMcC)