By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. troops in Iraq should be subject to international law once the occupation ends if Washington wants to win the confidence of the Iraqi people, the head of Amnesty International said on Monday.
The legal status of Washington's forces in Iraq will become an issue when the U.S.-led occupation ends on June 30 and sovereignty is turned over to an interim Iraqi government, Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general told Reuters during a visit to the United Nations.
In similar missions around the world, the Bush administration has insisted that its nationals -- whether soldiers, U.N. peacekeepers or other U.S. personnel -- be shielded from prosecution under international law as well as the laws of any other nation.
Khan said in the interview London-based Amnesty intends to press Washington to agree to subject its forces in Iraq to international law after the occupation.
The Bush administration argues that no court should have jurisdiction over American citizens performing an official mission overseas without U.S. consent.
Washington has signed bilateral agreements with dozens of countries who have promised not to prosecute U.S. citizens and efforts to negotiate such agreements with other nations are ongoing. The United States has withheld some aid from governments that have refused.
'A DIFFICULT DEBATE'
Washington is expected to insist that its forces in Iraq be similarly exempted from prosecution by other nations as well as by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
It has yet to be decided whether to pursue this through a U.N. Security Council resolution or through a legal pact known as a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq's new interim government, U.S. officials said.
Whatever the form, "it is going to be a difficult debate," acknowledged one official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
However, Khan said: "We will certainly campaign on those issues, because we think that at the end of the day, human rights is about justice and for people to have a sense of justice, the same rules must apply on both sides.
"There has been a tendency for the United States, on international law issues, to seek exceptions and to opt out, and the question is, what impact this is now having generally on the political solution (for Iraq), but also on respect for human rights."
Khan contended that an exemption from international law would undermine Iraqis' confidence in the U.S. mission because it would raise questions about whether American troops intended to abuse Iraqis' human rights.
She said it might also encourage Iraqi insurgents to ignore international law, as happened last week in Faluja, when four U.S. contractors were murdered and their charred bodies paraded through the streets.
"A large part of the sense of anti-American feeling that exists is the notion that Americans are not applying the same standards to themselves as they expect of others," said Khan.
"You are not going to fight this kind of situation, whether it is the war on terror or whether it is this type of very brutal insurgency, without winning the support of the people, and to win the support of people, you have to win their confidence."