Human rights campaigner seeks Kissinger arrest

Magistrates in the UK have been asked to issue a warrant for the arrest of former US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger for alleged crimes against humanity in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is applying for the warrant in advance of Mr Kissinger’s visit to London to address a conference on Wednesday.

Mr Tatchell alleges that Mr Kissinger’s direction of the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s amounted to a breach of British laws requiring people of all nationalities to observe the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.

Kissinger could be tried in the UK now for his actions of a quarter of a century ago, he said.

Mr Tatchell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "The basic case against Henry Kissinger is that while he was National Security Adviser to President (Richard) Nixon from 1969 to 1973, he effectively oversaw and was the chief architect of US war policy in Vietnam."