up until now the international criminal court at the hague had mostly tried to african dictators and tyrants but the i.c.c. has been asked to investigate thousands of allegations of war crimes committed by british forces in iraq a two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization and a british law firm contains allegations of beatings of electrocution smoke executions and sexual assault committed by u.k. forces and according to the also as of this report the finger of blame extends to the very heart of the british government at the time so the head of the british army the former defense secretary and the former defense minister could face prosecution for what this dossier calls systemic war crimes there are many hundreds of cases where the people have been interviewed in the provided reports about this abuse and it varies from what people might think are. relatively mundane examples of abuse to really quite appalling physical violence there of course says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that the

live pictures from the hague now and accused of the siege of serivo and both men accused of atrocitiesnd two reporters covering this for us and he will join us from bosnia and i want to start with paul brennan who is live at the hague to talk us through proceedings today, hi, paul. >> there is a huge amount of anticipation and expectation about what he would say in response to six preagreed questions that he had submitted to shed some light on who knew what and when with regard to the be siege of the shelling and snipering of the city of sereivio but we are on a 30-minute delay and i can tell you actually proceedings have finished and it has actually been a very frustrating morning in the hague. and he was deeply reluctant to go against his boss and fought tooth and nail avoiding going in the witness box and when he was in the witness box he was asked these questions and the questions were did you ever inform me prisoners would be executed? did we have any agreement or understanding that the citizens would be subjected to terror by shelling and snipering? well, in response to each of t

when they travel abroad which they might be taking for granted at the moment and of course william hague was keen to remind scots that should they vote for independence there their membership within the european union would have to be renegotiated nor would they be able to use the pound and of course you also spoke about the u.k. protecting scottish business interests for example the world famous scotch whisky and the salmon industry protecting it from excessive taxation and so forth but today scotland analysis comes off the scottish government produced its white paper back in november which propagated why scotland should vote yes to independence it was somewhat of a road map by the scottish government despite everything that william hague said today about scotland being better off within the united kingdom the white paper back in november argued that independence would boost scotland international profile it would deliver new opportunities for exports and it also said that scotland has contributed more tax per head of population than the u.k. suggesting that scotland is certainly wealth

foreign secretary william hague has already firmly rejected the suggestion that those at the top here in westminster knew what was taking place on the ground in iraq we reject allegations of systematic abuse but whether all substantiated allegations of things going wrong these things have been being investigated that does not require references to the international criminal court the position of the british government has constantly been or were doing enough the point of this is simply that they still haven't done enough there are right now. at the international criminal court two heads of state one of them a sitting head of state of kenya and the other the former head of state of called d'ivoire they're both on trial at the international criminal court not for getting their hands bloody they didn't do anything themselves but people under their authority or people they should have controlled for committing the crimes so if it's good enough for the african countries it should be good enough for the u.k. to the international criminal court has come. to act against war crimes committed b

during the iraq war which began in two thousand and three and they could end up standing trial in the hague. to officials gain access to guantanamo bay all in a bid to win the release of the only russian inmate held in the facility join the chorus of voices. welcome to the program. with the weekly. headlines following months of uncertainty syria's main opposition body in exile has finally decided to meet face to face with the government at a. conference and this is the first time the science will be in the same room struggling to strike a roadmap for peace some key groups and members of the syrian national coalition had previously rejected and tried to impose preconditions for the blocs participation in the me. eating thereby fueling the internal disarray in the body and right before the decision the country's foreign minister offered a prisoner swap with the rebels. is going off now with the latest from syria's diplomatic front. with time running out before the start of the geneva two conference on syria it was a busy week for global diplomacy it's our hope that in the face to face meeting

of september and i suspect that you case foreign secretary william hague is going to be making a few more trips up to scotland it's all part of westminster's intensified no campaign in the run up to the vote is going to see celebrities sports stars and business figures plead with scots to vote no to independence on the eighteenth of september. thank you so much for bringing us the very latest from the u.k. for you. well let's hear how the yes scotland movement plans to counter the westminster romancer scottish musician and the panel's campaigner pat kane told us is sure scotland will be way better on its own. to some extent a kind of truth can annoy and sense of people it will be made coming up the score and i'm talking about all the difficulties of scotland being an international separate nations the incidentally william hague for the five years after the scottish parliament was from different one thousand nine hundred eighty would be a disaster situation actually doing extremely well for scotland over the last forty years has contributed more to the u.k. than lived in social benefi

which began in two thousand and three and they could end up standing trial in the hague. to guantanamo bay in a bid to win the release of the only russian inmate held in the facility join the chorus of voices. today. thanks for joining us following months of uncertainty syria's main opposition body in exile has finally decided to meet face to face with the government. this is the first time the sides will be in the same room struggling to strike a roadmap for peace some key groups and members of the syrian national coalition had previously rejected talks and tried to impose preconditions for the. block's participation in the meeting just there by fueling the internal disarray in the body right before the decision the country's foreign minister offered a prisoner swap with the rebels. reports from the latest now from syria's diplomatic front. with time running out before the start of geneva two conference on syria it was a busy week for global diplomacy it's our hope that in the face to face meeting of the regime and the opposition will be the beginning of the beginning. a

foreign secretary william hague is in glasgow today to outline the case for why scotland should stay within the united kingdom. unveiling the latest scotland analysis papers which are a response to scotland's white paper which came out last november and propagated voting yes in the referendum in september now the analysis today is doing the direct opposite and it's focusing on the breath and the u.k.'s diplomatic networking just how much scotland currently benefits from it so take for example business based in scotland they say that it benefits directly from efforts to protect the u.k.'s economic interests like defending the world famous scorching whisky against counterfeits against excessive taxation and against trade barriers but the battle from both the yes and the no is really heating up in the run up to the referendum in september and we've had accusations of propaganda war being waged from both sides of the barricades certainly critics of westminster have accused the british government of fear mongering in order to secure a no vote to come september but let's take a listen to w

james bayes reports from the hague. >> all rise. >> reporter: almost nine years after the crime tooklace, the trial is finally underway, a special court in the netherlands hearing details of a bombing over 3,000 kilometers away in beirut. >> please be seated. >> reporter: the court is packed with lawyers, but the four defendants all known to be members of hezbollah are not here. they have not even been questioned. still at large they are being tried in absentia. >> the people of lebanon have the right to have this trial and to seek the truth. to seek the truth, and reveal the identity of operatives who attempted to hide their identities. >> reporter: the hearing is taking place in a courthouse of the suburb of the dutch capitol of hague. on the floor of the trial room, a scale model of the sea front in beirut where the bombing was carried out. it was clearly a carefully planned assassination, but the bomb was so large that members of his entourage, his security detail, and passers by were killed. a total of 22 lives were taken. in court to watch the start of proceedings, his son, him

foreign secretary william hague had some north to try and convince scotland not to go it alone with an independence referendum eight months away. is just going past ten am here in a moscow a very warm welcome to you if you've just joined us here on r.t. international and to them with the millions of those who are concerned over the extent to which they've been washed by america's national security from the country's president he's expected to announce much anticipated changes to the way the agency works but it's unclear how far the reforms will go artie's a sense sex reports from washington d.c. . today president obama heads to the department of justice just a few blocks from here and he'll deliver a speech on n.s.a. reforms specifically what he supports from the forty six recommendations his own review panel put forward a few weeks ago the president is expected to devote a large portion of his speech to the privacy concerns of non-u.s. citizens and businesses basically trying to assure foreign consumers that their privacy will be protected when they communicate using american tech com

foreign secretary william hague heads north to try and convince scotland not to go it alone with an independence referendum eight months away. which is actually coming to you live from the russian capital marina josh welcome to the program now the syrian government says it's ready for a limited ceasefire with the rebels and a prisoner swap the foreign minister has even proposed cooperating with a more moderate opposition groups against radical islamist you raise those issues at a meeting in moscow just now with his russian counterpart sergey lavrov already the list could joins us now with the details and we know the russian foreign minister is hosting a syrian counterpart in moscow as we speak but what has come out of that meeting what do we know at this point well at this point it looks like the syrian government is actually ready and willing to go ahead in order to implement all sorts of action in order to bring about at least the first step in an attempt to find perhaps a diplomatic if not a peaceful resolution of the syrian conflict which at this point has been going on for almost three year

the butcher of bosnia refuses to testify at trial in the hague. and president obama prepares to address the nation and a legacy of the anti war icon is either that or after the break they would. i been you decide you want to watch the images. programs the whole package. dw on the internet. media center dw tell you. you mean. tool i was. is all. my boss and say i'm a dad at school at it as it used to testify at the trial of his form of political buzz about the bond package each lot is known as the butcher of bosnia for his alleged role in the master at seventy cents and on tuesday he dismissed the un court for credit is being tried as a tool of nato for the hearing at the international crime criminal tribunals. but before we sat and was supposed to shed light on the relationship between the package and mladic doing cos is like the cu war instead however it turned into a platform for mladic who refuse to answer any questions. this was in court against his will and time and the coolest travel fast she refused to testify. then said he'd speak. it's go

up until now the international criminal court at the hague had mostly tried to african dictators and tyrants but the i.c.c. has been asked to investigate thousands of allegations of war crimes committed by british forces in iraq a two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization and a british law firm contains allegations of beatings of electrocution smoke executions and sexual assault committed by u.k. forces and according to the also as of this report the finger of blame extends to the very heart of the british government at the time so the head of the british army the former defense secretary and the former defense minister could face prosecution for what this dossier calls systemic war crimes there are many hundreds of cases where the people have been interviewed in the provided reports about this abuse and it varies from what people might think are. relatively mundane examples of abuse to really quite appalling physical violence there of course says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that the