Posted on 06/21/2002 12:37:12 AM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
Politics: U.S. clashes with United Nations over war crimes tribunal
UNITED NATIONS (June 20, 2002 11:44 p.m. EDT) - The United States is threatening to stop helping with U.N. peacekeeping operations unless U.S. participants are given immunity from the new international war crimes tribunal.
A draft resolution presented by the United States to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday would exempt peacekeepers from prosecution, and U.S. officials say they won't send Americans on such missions unless they receive that protection.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday that he saw no reason for the United States to stop participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations. He noted that arrangements now stipulate that governments who loan troops to U.N. peacekeeping missions have the responsibility for disciplining the troops and punishing them.
"This is how peacekeeping operations have worked all these years. And so, really, I don't see a problem as far as the peacekeepers are concerned," Annan said.
Critics see the draft resolution as a U.S. effort to undermine the International Criminal Court, which is opposed by the Bush administration. The international pact creating the court takes effect July 1.
Sixty-seven countries have ratified the Rome treaty establishing the court, and there is wide support for it among the 15 Security Council members. Six have ratified the treaty, while six others have signed and plan to ratify it. Even China, which hasn't signed, backs it in principle.
The United States remains the only vocal opponent of the court. Former President Clinton signed the treaty, but it was never ratified by the Senate. In early May, the Bush administration said it wants nothing to do with the treaty or the tribunal itself.
When U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Williamson introduced the draft resolution Wednesday demanding immunity, he said Washington's position would not change.
"We will not put American men or women under the reach of the International Criminal Court while serving in a United Nations peacekeeping operation," he said.
The draft resolution demands that the council grant immunity from arrest and prosecution by the court to all participants in operations established or authorized by the Security Council, not just Americans.
This would apply not only to soldiers in U.N. peacekeeping missions and civilians in U.N. peace-building activities, but to participants in operations authorized by the United Nations such as the NATO-led forces in Bosnia and Kosovo and the international force in Afghanistan.
There are currently more than 700 Americans serving in U.N. missions and thousands in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
While the Security Council has approved special tribunals to prosecute serious crimes committed in Rwanda and former Yugoslav states, the International Criminal Court will be the world's first permanent tribunal.
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