The Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) will organise an international conference on criminalising war from Feb 5 to 7 at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, PGPO chairperson, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced this week.

The three-day conference entitled 'Expose war crimes: criminalise war' is being organised as part of efforts by the Perdana Global Peace Organisation to garner support for to its 'Kuala Lumpur Initiative' to criminalise war. The initiative was launched by Mahathir in late 2005.

As part of the conference, an interactive exhibition showcasing methods of torture inflicted on detainees held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantanamo detention centre in the US will be held. The exhibition will be held from Feb 5 to 11 at PWTC's Dewan Tun Razak Hall 4.

Addressing the conference delegates would be international panel of speakers including former UN Assistant Secretary-General Hans von Sponeck, economics professor Michel Chossudovsky, Planetary Movement founder Michael Carmichael and depleted uranium expert Leuren Moret.

Also present would be war correspondents Greg Palast, Gwynne Dyer and Rana Al Alouby, Brussels War Crimes Tribunal founder member Dirk Adriaensens, US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinny, former detainee in an US prison in Iraq Ali Shalah and former Permanent Representative to UN Dr Saeed H Al Musawi.

Mahathir said the conference would be the first of its kind to be held in a Muslim country and would highlight atrocities committed in Bosnia, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Vietnam as well as the nuclear devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The conference will also highlight the role of the War Crimes Tribunal in ensuring justice for the international community.