Website offering reward for Tony Blair’s arrest raises 9,000 pounds in two days
By ANIThursday, January 28, 2010
LONDON - A website - calling for arrest of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for dragging Britain into the Iraq war - has raised over 9,000 pounds in just two days.
‘Arrest Blair’, which was launched on January 25, offers money to people who try to arrest Blair for alleged “crimes against peace”.
The website is created by British writer George Monbiot, who is also an environmental and political activist.
“We must show that we have not, as Blair requested, ‘moved on’ from Iraq, that we are not prepared to allow his crime to remain unpunished,” Sky News quoted him, as saying while launching the site.
The website stipulates the citizen’s arrest must be peaceful and that anyone attempting it will be paid a quarter of the money donated - currently just over 9,200 pounds.
The offer also states that there must be no injuries to Blair or those around him and that the incident must be reported in “at least one mainstream media outlet in a bulletin, programme or article”.
Anyone claiming the reward must also prove they are the person featured in the report and come forward within 28 days of the attempt.
The website also offers advice for those who have not carried out a citizens arrest in the past.
They are recommended to approach Blair “calmly”, and “in a gentle fashion to lay a hand on his shoulder or elbow, in such a way that he cannot have any cause to complain of being hurt”.
They are urged to loudly announce: “Blair, this is a citizens’ arrest for a crime against peace, namely your decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iraq. I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge.”
Monbiot, 47, said although any arrests would be “largely symbolic” they would nonetheless have “great political resonance”.
“There must be no hiding place for those who have committed crimes against peace. No civilised country can allow mass murderers to move on,” he added. (ANI)
