The International W R Crimes Tribunal Opens

In spite of the extreme pressure on those taking part in the Tribunal over the last few weeks the First Session opened on May 2nd in Stockholm, The world - famous Swedish playwright, Peter Weiss, who is a member of the I.W.C.T. Swedish supporting committee, made the opening speech. This was followed by an hour-long statement ty Jean-Paul Sartre. A message of welcome to Tribunal members sent from Wales by Bertrand Russell was read by Ralph Schoenman, General Secretary of the Tribunal. Members of the Tribunal who are now in Stockholm and are taking part in this session include philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, French author Simone de Beauvoir Gunther Anders, Austrian author, Lelio Basso, Italian M.F., Vladimir Dedijer Historian, Wolfgang Abendroth Frofessor of Political Science at Marburg University, Mehmet Ali Aybar Fresident of Turkish Workers' Party, Dave Dellinger American Pacifist and editor of Liberation, Amado Hernandez Poet Laureate of the Philippines,Laurent Schwartz Professor of Mathematics, Paris University. The Japanese Commission for the Investigation of American War Crimes in Vietnam has sent two representatives to Sweden to present the evidence gathered by their independant investigating teams. Two British members will be arriving later this week: - Lawrence Daly, General Secretary Scottish N.U.M. (who had to return to Britain on important union business); and Isaac Deutscher, Trotsky's biographer, who has been indisposed. The first question to be discussed by the Tribunal is whether the United States government, and the governments of its allies, have committed acts. of aggression contrary to international law. As a background report to thisquestion an 80=-page document has been prepared by Americen historian Gabriel Kolko which traces the course of the Vietnam war over the last 25 years. The second question to be discussed. at this session is whether, and on what scale, there has been bombardment of purely civilian targets. Six North Vietnamese witnesses are.already in Stockholm to give evidence and eyewitness accounts will also be given by the members of four international investigating teams which include lawyers, doctors and chemists. Examples of American _ experimental weapons, including fragmentation bombs, will be presented to the Tribunel, Four hours of films of U.S. raids and of the effects of experimental weapons will be viewed by Tribunal members and recorded interviews with North Vietnamese villagers are amongst the evidence to be presented later in the week, One report describes a visit to a hospital in North Vietnam where a doctor in one of the investigating teams examined victims. He found a three-year-old boy who had been wounded in the right leg and shoulder by steel pellets from a fragmentation bomb «nd was bleeding heavily; a five-year-old boy who was wounded by steel pellets in the head and right leg; and a 45-year-old peusant woman who was wounded in the stomach, her legs were paralysed, her bowels were damaged, a bomb fragment was lodged in her spine’ and she had an injury to her left arm. a . 2? This first session will last 10 days and the evidence presented together with The Tribunal's findings will be publicised in magazines, books and films. Wide interest has been’ shown in the Tribunal and press and television reporters are present in Stockholm from all parts of the world.