The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission today heard the petition of victims and witnesses of war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

The Commission will deliberate on whether there are enough grounds to forward the petition to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal proposed by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

Below are excerpts from some of the statements:

Professor Niloufer Bhagwat - Judge, International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan, vice-president of Indian Lawyers' Association on the War on Terror:

Citizens are being harried and harassed because they incidently belong to the Islamic faith with a view to convince the people of the world that you are safe. This is the other enemy. The fact is that humanity as a whole is targeted, but just as it was done during the Second World War, there is an attempt to divert hatred onto the 'other'... because if the other is attacked, you will find yourself safe.

... under the camouflage of (the war on) international terrorism, the world's geo-strategic map is being redesigned, the resources of the world are being redistributed, international law is being torn into pieces, and a means to install a unipolar order...

...How exactly do people exist in these circumstances? Every day being put on the defensive, every day being harassed, every day being harried. I found a learned colleague saying to me 'I am a loyal British citizen,' right before this conference. 'Why do I have to keep professing my loyalty to certain countries?' The fact that one is a citizen, does that not mean one that is loyal (to that country)? Why are people of Islamic faith constantly having to profess their loyalty and patriotism? That is not in question. What is in question is the criminal acts of several governments.

Ibrahim Mousawi - editor-in-chief of Al-Intiqad and Al Manar Television in Lebanon on Israeli crimes during July-August 2006 war against Lebanon:

Unilateral, illegal declaration of war against Lebanon, direct and disproportionate attacks against civilians and civilian residential areas, targeting of water facilities, supermarkets, infrastructure, airports, shipping ports, hospitals, factories, businesses; warehouses, factories and environmental damage.

Najwa Jehad Aref Jalamneh - 17 year old secondary school student from Palestine:

Simple routines like going to school are constantly fraught with ... hardships and (are) dangerous. Some of my friends who live in villages have to go through many Israeli checkpoints just to go to school, enduring 10-hour journeys for lessons.

Even though I am not personally subjected to checkpoints, the Israeli soldiers come into my area to intimidate the people there....

The soldiers can have the children (leave) the school without any reason whatever by taking us away...

Children go out in groups during the day and almost never at night for our own safety. (A) boy usually accompanies us, hoping that should anything happen, girls like myself would be unharmed.

We live in constant fear of our lives not knowing whether today will be our last... Even if we reach our school, this does not mean in any way that we have reached a haven from intimidation from Israeli soldiers ...

I have had my classes conducted under tables especially when clashes between the Israeli army and the Palestinian people take place. I have seen men, women and children killed mercilessly but who took no part in the violence.

A lot of children suffer from great depression and without proper medical care... Our whole country is a war zone, and we are a persecuted people. Having said all that, we seek no more than what most ordinary children in the world do... We pray that the world hears our cry.

Dr Walid Salah al-Khatib, 46, from Bethlehem:

- killing of 5,094 Palestinians since Sept 2000;

- Israeli violation of freedom of person, freedom of movement: 703 checkpoints; 374 'flying checkpoints'; 10,500 prisoners are now in 30 Israeli jails, 1,125 prisoners are school and university students; 120 women; 106 teachers and employees, 1,200 prisoners with chronic diseases

- discrimination against women

- violation of right to education

- destruction of agriculture farms, continuous requisition of land for building new settlements or for military reasons; destruction of home-owned and furniture; discharge of sewerage from Israel into Palestinian territory

- settlers' violence against Palestinians

- prevention of medical treatment (140 Palestinians have died due to prevention of medical treatment: 67 were children; 39 were newborns);

Dirk Adrieansens - executive committee member of the Brussels War Crimes Tribunal speaks on the illegal US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq:

- Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime of a war of aggression in contravention of the United Nations' Charter and the Nuremberg Principles

- targeting the civilian population of Iraq and civilian infrastructure

- using disproportionate force and weapon systems with indiscriminate effects

- using depleted uranium in spite of all the warnings presented by scientists and war veterans on their devastating long-term effects on human beings and the environment

- failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during military activities and during the occupation period thereafter

- actively creating conditions under which the status of Iraqi women has seriously been degraded, contrary to the repeated claims of the leaders of the coalition forces

- using deadly violence against peaceful protestors, including the April 2003 killing of more than a dozen peaceful protestors in Fallujah

- imposing punishments without charge or trial, including collective punishment, on the people of Iraq. Repeated testimonies pointed to 'snatch and grab' operations, disappearances and assassinations

- subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment

- rewriting the laws of a country that has been illegally invaded and occupied;

- willfully devastating the environment

- failing to protect humanity's rich archaeological and cultural heritage in Iraq;

- obstructing the right to information, including the censoring of Iraqi media

- redefining torture in violation of international law, to allow use of torture and illegal detentions

- committing a crime against peace by violating the will of the global anti-war movement;

- engaging in policies to wage permanent war on sovereign nations

He also lambasted the United Nations Security Council for:

- failing to protect the Iraqi people against the crime of aggression

- allowing the US and UK to carry out illegal bombings

- allowing the US to dominate the United Nations

- failure to stop war crimes and crimes against humanity by the US and its coalition partners in Iraq

As for the governments of the coalition of the willing:

- allowing the use of military bases and air space, and providing other logistical support, for the invasion and occupation, hence being complicit in the crimes committed;

Against the major corporate media:

- disseminating the deliberate falsehoods spread by the governments of the US and the UK and failing to adequately investigate this misinformation, even in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary

- failing to report the atrocities being committed against the Iraqi people by the occupying forces, neglecting the duty to give privilege and dignity to voices of suffering and marginalising the global voices for peace and justice

- failing to report fairly on the ongoing occupation, silencing and discrediting dissenting voices and failing to adequately report on the full national costs and consequences of the invasion and occupation of Iraq

- disseminating the propaganda of the occupation regime that seeks to justify the continuation of its presence in Iraq on false grounds

-inciting an ideological climate of fear, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia

- disseminating an ideology that glorifies masculinity and combat, while normalising war as a policy choice

- complicity in the waging of an aggressive war and perpetuating a regime of occupation

- enabling, through the validation and dissemination of disinformation, the fraudulent misappropriation of human financial resources for an illegal war waged on false pretexts

- promoting corporate-military perspectives on 'security' which are counter-productive to the fundamental concerns and priorities of the global population.