Congress Threatens Nations Who Support War Crimes Court

by Thalif Deen

"The U.S. Congress should not be engaged in scare tactics," Richard Dicker of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said June 14.

"The (proposed) legislation will not stop the international criminal court. But it does put a very ugly face on U.S. diplomacy," Dicker said. "It shows that the U.S. is the biggest obstacle in this important advance in the protection of human rights."

Dicker was responding to proposed U.S. legislation that would bar American military aid to any country ratifying the treaty establishing the court.

The only exceptions would be the 15 countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Israel, which since the 1979 Camp David Peace treaty with Egypt has been receiving a hefty $1.8 billion in U.S. military aid annually.

So far, 97 countries have signed the treaty, while 12 have ratified it. Those ratifying include Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, San Marino, Italy, Fiji, Ghana, Norway, Belize, Iceland, Tajikistan, Venezuela and France.

The treaty remains open for signature until December this year. The court will come into legal force only after 60 ratifications.

"We cannot send our service people into harm's way unless we provide immunity from a worldwide tribunal like this," Warner said.

Helms, who is primarily responsible for preventing Congress from paying over $1.6 billion in accumulated dues to the United Nations, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the harshest critics of the world body.

Jonathan Baron, a spokesman for Delay, said the proposed legislation is intended to protect U.S. citizens, especially military personnel, from wrongful and malicious prosecution.

"It would prohibit any U.S. government entity from cooperating with the ICC in matters such as arrests, extradition of suspects, searches and seizures, taking of evidence or seizure of assets," he said.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), which will prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, was created following a conference in Rome in July 1998. The United States was one of seven countries, including Iraq, Libya and China, that opposed the creation of the Court.

"This court is going to come into being whether Senator Helms likes it or not," Dicker said.

He also pointed out that the United States has already obtained numerous safeguards to ensure that the ICC will not be used for politically-motivated prosecutions. "The U.S. has all the legal protections it could possibly need," he added.

On June 12, the Preparatory Commission for the ICC began a three-week session to resolve some of the outstanding issues, including finalization of financial rules and regulations, a first-year budget for the court, a relationship agreement between the court and the United Nations, and a headquarters agreement with the host country, the Netherlands.

The ICC is expected to be located in the Hague, capital of the Netherlands, which is also home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Last week, France became the 12th country and the fourth European state to complete the process of ratification. It is also the first veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council to ratify the treaty. The Council's other four permanent members are the United States, Britain, China and Russia.

William Pace of the NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court said the ratification by France reflects the extraordinary momentum that exists throughout the world in support of the ICC.

"Along with the U.S., France was critical of the ICC Statute during the Rome conference. But unlike the U.S., by the end of the Rome conference, France was convinced that the ICC statute provided satisfactory safeguards," he added.