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Posted on 06/30/2002 4:41:32 PM PDT by jae471
U.S. Agrees to Extend Bosnia Mission
Sun Jun 30, 7:26 PM ET
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States agreed Sunday to keep the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia going for three more days, shortly after vetoing a six-month extension because American peacekeepers did not get immunity from the new International Criminal Court.
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The U.S. brinkmanship was clearly aimed at underscoring the Bush administration's opposition to the International Criminal Court, which comes into existence on Monday. It also underlined Washington's willingness to stand against virtually all other council members, including close allies, and to end all U.N. peacekeeping missions if necessary - not just the Bosnian missions.
Negroponte said he hoped the veto and the brief delay would highlight the importance of the issue to the United States, and he stressed that it wasn't a question of just the Bosnian mission: "It's a question of peacekeeping in general."
The council members - including Britain and France - support the new court and argue that a U.S. exemption would undermine the tribunal and international law.
The United States is demanding that American and other peacekeepers from countries that have not ratified the treaty establishing the court be exempt from arrest and prosecution by the tribunal. It has rejected all compromises that don't grant blanket immunity.
The United States says immunity is needed to prevent American troops and citizens from frivolous and political motivated prosecutions. Opponents say there are enough safeguards to prevent such abuse.
In the first vote Sunday, 13 countries favored extending the mandate for Bosnia's U.N. police training mission for six months and authorization for the NATO ( news - web sites)-led force for a year. Bulgaria, a sponsor of the resolution, abstained to highlight the absence of council unity but said it still supports the court.
NATO said its 18,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia would not be jeopardized by a U.S. veto because its mandate comes from the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the 3-year war in the Balkan nation. The NATO force, however, includes 3,100 Americans.
Negroponte said the United States voted against the resolution "with great reluctance" but will not ask Americans in U.N. peacekeeping missions "to accept the additional risk of political prosecution before a court whose jurisdiction the government of the United States does not accept.
"The United States will remain a special target," he said, "and we cannot have our decisions second-guessed."
Immediately after the resolution was defeated, council members returned to closed-door consultations to work on the resolution that would briefly extend the Bosnian mandate. France and Britain proposed an extension until July 15, but the United States would only agree to 72 hours.
Supporters of the court expressed dismay at the U.S. veto, which could affect the 14 other U.N. peacekeeping missions - from Cyprus to East Timor ( news - web sites) - as their mandates come up for renewal in the Security Council.
"History, I believe, will record the actions of the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush ( news - web sites) to wreck U.N. peacekeeping and the International Criminal Court as one of the most shameful lows in global U.S. leadership," said William Pace, head of the International Coalition for a Criminal Court, a coalition of more than 1,000 organizations supporting the tribunal.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ( news - web sites) urged the council to intensify high-level negotiations.
"The world cannot afford a situation in which the Security Council is deeply divided on such an important issue, which may have implications for all U.N. peace operations," he said.
This was supposed to be the last six-month extension for the U.N. mission in Bosnia, which has been helping to develop a multiethnic and professional police force. The training operation is being handed over to the European Union ( news - web sites) on Jan. 1.
Annan said it would be "most unfortunate" if the premature termination of the Bosnia mission set back international efforts to help the country achieve lasting peace "after the country was ripped apart by war from 1992 to 1995."
The veto won't stop the world's first permanent war crimes court from coming into existence Monday. Dutch administrators overseeing its initial months of operation are ready to register claims of genocide and wartime atrocities committed after Monday.
With the backing of 74 countries - despite fierce opposition from the United States - The Hague ( news - web sites)-based institute will have the authority to prosecute individuals - not states - suspected of war crimes anywhere in the world.
"All who believe in democracy and justice and the rule of law can celebrate," Pace said. "This is truly one of the greatest advances of international law since the founding of the United Nations ( news - web sites) 57 years ago."
How I wish we'd stick to our guns, for once!
U.S. troops should be defending the U.S. not acting as 'peacekeepers' across the globe. We require no immunity from the ICC if we mind our own business, avoid entangling alliances and maintain our strength. The ICC is a disgrace that we should never have backed in any way. Get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S.
Our troops are needed at home, on our borders, and in the field, fighting Al-Queda.
And the ones who have been stuck in Bosnia these many years deserve a little R&R before redeployment.
I can live with that. If this is the case it could likely be his greatest accomplishment as POTUS and not a bad one at that. I hope he sticks to this and does not allow our nation to come under a world court.
It's time for the EU to pay for its own military and peace keeping forces.
The US has said "no" to this ICC. The rest of the world is going to have to carry out this farce by themselves.
Getting the U.S. out of alleged U.N. peacekeping missions would be a step forward for world peace. See Global Peace by the Global Police
Get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US.
This would guarantee GW's reelection in 04.
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