BBC News 28 May 2008
Campaigner George Monbiot said he would continue his attempt to serve arrest paper on politicians involved in the decision to go to war in Iraq.
He was unable to make a citizen’s arrest of former American Ambassador to the UN John Bolton at the Hay Festival.
Mr Monbiot was dragged away by security officers as he tried to approach Mr Bolton, who was at the festival to talk on international relations.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Monbiot said he planned to pursue former PM Tony Blair.
He said he considered Mr Blair and other leading politicians to be war criminals who had breached international law by their involvement in the decision making process which led to the Iraq war.
He said he had given a dossier of evidence on Mr Bolton – who was President Bush’s representative at the United Nations during the time of the Iraq War – to Dyfed-Powys Police ahead of his attempt to present his charge sheet.
Mr Monbiot, who now lives in Machynlleth, mid Wales, is a leading environmental and anti-war campaigner and journalist.
He said: “I’m aware that I’ve made what I believe is the first attempt ever to arrest one of the perpetrators of the Iraq War, and I believe that is a precedent and I would like to see that precedent followed up.”
Last year he published a book entitled Heat, which calls on the public to make serious changes to their personal lives in order to combat global warming.