UNITED
NATIONS, August 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The New
York-based group Human Rights Watch urged recipients of U.S. military
aid on Tuesday to resist what it called U.S. “blackmail” over
cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Governments
should resist the Bush administration’s latest blackmail,” the
group’s director Kenneth Roth said in a statement published on the
organization’s website, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
described as “an empty threat” the administration’s warning that
it would cut off military aid to any country supporting the ICC unless
it agreed never to surrender U.S. nationals to its jurisdiction.
“At
a time when it is fighting a global war on terrorism, the
administration is unlikely to jeopardize its military relationships
around the world because of the remote possibility that a U.S.
national will be unfairly prosecuted,” Roth said.
The
United States has written to all governments that have ratified the
ICC treaty asking them to sign bilateral agreements guaranteeing
immunity for U.S. nationals, notably those involved in peacekeeping
operations.
“To
pressure them to agree, the administration is citing newly passed
legislation, the American Service members’ Protection Act,” Roth
said.
He
noted that the law authorizes the use of military force to free U.S.
and allied suspects from detention by the international court.
The
law also bars various forms of U.S. military assistance to
governments, other than NATO members and specified allies, that refuse
to exempt U.S. nationals unless the U.S. president agrees that
continued military aid is in the national interest, Roth said.
“It’s an empty threat,” he went on.
“The
law makes an exception for military aid that serves the U.S. national
interest. The last time I checked, Washington doesn’t hand out
military aid that it doesn’t believe is in the national interest.”
Roth
accused the Bush administration of “stunning hypocrisy” in
bringing pressure to bear on Yugoslavia, in particular.
It
was rightly pressing Belgrade to turn over indicted war criminals to
the U.N.’s special Yugoslav war crimes court in The Hague, he said.
But on the other hand, it was trying to prevent Belgrade from
surrendering any future U.S. suspect wanted by the Hague-based ICC.
“This
stunning hypocrisy sends a signal that the rule of law is only for
other people, not for U.S. nationals,” said Roth.
“It
cannot be in America's long-term interest to undermine the rule of law
in this way.”
Canada,
Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland and Yugoslavia have already announced
that they will not be rushed into immunizing U.S. nationals without
first consulting other governments, said HRW on their website adding
that the E.U. agreed that no member state should begin negotiating an
exemption for U.S. nationals until a common European approach is
discussed.
The
European Commission criticized Romania, a candidate to join the E.U.,
for agreeing to such an exemption.
The
ICC’s jurisdiction began on July 1, 2002. On September 3, the
court’s historic first Assembly of States Parties will convene at
United Nations Headquarters in New York. Made up of states that have
ratified the ICC treaty, the assembly is the ICC’s governing body.
Seventy-seven
states have ratified the treaty, including, most recently, Colombia -
a country, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, that is a
likely candidate for the court’s first case.
More
states are expected to ratify the treaty soon in order to participate
in the election of judges and the prosecutor early next year. The
court’s “Advance Team” is already at work in The Hague creating
the technical and administrative infrastructure that the court will
need to open in 2003.
Slovenia,
asked by Washington to sign the pact, said it needed more time to
decide on the matter, its foreign ministry said in a statement
obtained by AFP Wednesday.
Slovenia,
an E.U. candidate, has not been asked by the European Union not to
sign the accord, but Ljubljana is “closely following consultations
within the EU related to the U.S. initiative,” it added.
Slovenia
is among the 10 most advanced E.U. candidate countries, expected to
become a member in 2004. It is also expected to be invited to join
NATO in November.
On
Tuesday, the U.S. rebuked the European Commission for warning E.U.
aspirant countries not to sign the deals, reported AFP.
The
State Department said such a move was “inappropriate” and a
violation of the sovereign right of independent nations to enter into
treaties with other countries.
In
addition, the department rejected the view of many E.U. nations that
immunity deals should not be negotiated bilaterally between Washington
and European capitals but rather as a bloc with the entire membership
of the European Union.
The
issue is threatening to sour trans-Atlantic relations and drive a new
wedge between the United States, which is vehemently opposed to the
court, and its European allies, who actively support it.
The
United States has only managed to negotiate one Article 98 agreement
with a European country - Romania, an EU hopeful. That deal was met by
opposition from Brussels which said it regretted the move over the
weekend.
On
Monday, a spokesman for the European Commission - the E.U.’s
executive body - called on other E.U. candidate countries not to sign
such accords and asked that they wait until Brussels has completed an
“analysis” of the consequences of doing so.
Deputy
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker attacked those remarks.
“Any
suggestion that E.U. candidate countries hold off their decisions
until the European Union looks at this (is) in our view inappropriate
in terms of seeking to direct sovereign candidate countries’ foreign
policy choices in advance of E.U. accession,” he told reporters.
Several
European Union members, including Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands
and most recently Spain, maintain that a common policy must be adopted
by the bloc.
Reeker
hinted that the E.U. position was at odds with the encouragement that
some E.U. members gave to the United States last month when they urged
Washington to seek individual Article 98 agreements as a way of
forging a compromise on the ICC at the U.N.
Secretary
of State Colin Powell said earlier Tuesday that the United States was
“not bludgeoning” foreign countries into signing such deals
despite threats to withdraw military aid if they do not.
But
he stressed that Washington took the matter extremely seriously and
that the threat to withhold military assistance - contained in
legislation signed last week by President George W. Bush - was a sign
of how important it was.
“You’re
well aware of what the Congress has said in the law with respect to
the potential withholding of military aid,” Powell said after
meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio.
“But
we’re not bludgeoning or threatening any of our friends,” he said,
reiterating U.S. concerns over the possible politicization of the
court that prompted Washington earlier this year to “unsign” the
ICC treaty.
On
Tuesday, Switzerland has refused to sign the immunity pact. According
to Livio Zanolari, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, Switzerland
does not host any U.S. soldiers, and “the Foreign Ministry does not
see the necessity of concluding such an accord”.
On
Sunday, August 4, Israel and the United on Sunday signed an accord not
to extradite any of the other’s citizens to the ICC without mutual
consent.
Under
the pact, signed by visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton
and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, no extradition to the court
in The Hague can go ahead without the agreement of the concerned
individual's government, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
The
agreement was made under section 98 of the ICC’s charter which
restricts extradition of suspects when states have signed such
agreements, Israeli officials said.
