[Peace-discuss] International Blackmail

[Lisa Chason]

Congress Seeks to Curb International Court
Measure Would Threaten Overseas Aid Cuts to Push Immunity for U.S.
Troops 

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 26, 2004; Page A02 

UNITED NATIONS -- The Republican-controlled Congress has stepped up its
campaign to curtail the power of the International Criminal Court,
threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to
governments that refuse to sign immunity accords shielding U.S.
personnel from being surrendered to the tribunal.

The move marks an escalation in U.S. efforts to ensure that the first
world criminal court can never judge American citizens for crimes
committed overseas. More than two years ago, Congress passed the
American Servicemembers' Protection Act, which cut millions of dollars
in military assistance to many countries that would not sign the Article
98 agreements, as they are known, that vow not to transfer to the court
U.S. nationals accused of committing war crimes abroad.

A provision inserted into a $338 billion government spending bill for
2005 would bar the transfer of assistance money from the $2.52 billon
economic support fund to a government "that is a party" to the criminal
court but "has not entered into an agreement with the United States" to
bar legal proceedings against U.S. personnel. The House and Senate are
to vote on the budget Dec. 8.

Congress's action may affect U.S. Agency for International Development
programs designed to promote peace, combat drug trafficking, and promote
democracy and economic reforms in poor countries. For instance, the cuts
could jeopardize as much as $250 million to support economic growth and
reforms in Jordan, $500,000 to promote democracy and fight drug
traffickers in Venezuela, and about $9 million to support free trade and
other initiatives with Mexico.

The legislation includes a national security waiver that would allow
President Bush to exempt members of NATO and other key allies, including
Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Argentina, South Korea, New
Zealand or Taiwan. The waiver was added to the provision, which Rep.
George R. Nethercutt (R-Wash.) introduced into a House appropriations
bill in July, after the State Department raised concern that the cuts
could undermine key programs that advance U.S. foreign policy.

State Department lawyers are studying the language to determine what
portion of the economic support fund could be withheld under the law.
But congressional staff members say the legislation would
disproportionately hurt small countries with limited strategic
importance to the United States.

The criminal court was established by treaty at a 1998 conference in
Rome to prosecute perpetrators of the most serious crimes, including
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The treaty has been
signed by 139 countries and ratified by 97. Prosecutor Luis Moreno
Ocampo of Argentina has begun investigating widespread human rights
violations in Congo and Uganda.

The Clinton administration signed the treaty in December 2000, but the
Bush administration renounced it in May 2001, citing concern that an
international prosecutor might conduct frivolous investigations and
trials against American officials, troops and foreign nationals deployed
overseas on behalf of the United States. "This is a body based in The
Hague where unaccountable judges and prosecutors could pull our troops,
our diplomats up for trial," Bush said in his first campaign debate with
Sen. John F. Kerry.

Since the tribunal began in July 2002, the Bush administration has been
struggling to secure guarantees from governments to sign the pacts
exempting U.S. citizens from investigation or prosecution by the court.
The congressional cuts would not affect 96 countries that have signed
the immunity pacts.

Other governments, including Jordan, have been trying to negotiate the
terms of an agreement with the United States that would not violate
their own laws that bar them from undermining the court. Jordan's King
Abdullah, who supports the tribunal, is expected to discuss the issue
with Bush in Washington next month.

But Washington's key European allies, including Britain, France and
Germany, have opposed the U.S. effort on grounds that it undermines the
treaty. In June, the Europeans spearheaded a campaign to block the
United States from securing passage of a U.N. security resolution
extending immunity to U.S. citizens in U.N.-sanctioned peacekeeping
operations.

The court's advocates maintain that the Bush administration's fears of
frivolous prosecution are overstated. They say that the tribunal was
created to hold future despots in the ranks of Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and
Idi Amin accountable for mass killings, not to pursue U.S. officials
responsible for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. They note
that the court will take on cases only when a state is unable or
unwilling to do so.

"The continuing attempt to cut aid to countries that do not support the
International Criminal Court is unnecessary; the U.S. doesn't have
anything to worry about," said Sally Eberhardt, a spokeswoman for the
Coalition for the International Criminal Court. "There are enough
safeguards built into the treaty, which the United States helped draft."

Brian Thompson, a specialist for the court at Citizens for Global
Solutions in Washington, said, "They are taking another swing at
international relations that I think are already damaged by cutting off
economic support programs that promote American ideals."

C 2004 The Washington Post Company

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20041201/0f5180c7/attachment.htm