The Bush administration, still wary of the new International Criminal Court, is trying to line up nations one by one to pledge not to extradite Americans for trial, administration officials said Tuesday.
So far, the administration has signed agreements with Romania and Israel. Both countries have agreed that they will not send American peacekeepers or other personnel to the court, whose purpose is to prosecute individuals for war crimes and genocide when national governments refuse to act.
After months of U.S. lobbying, the United Nations Security Council agreed last month to give American peacekeepers a year's exemption from prosecution by the court. But the administration, concerned that American soldiers serving on peacekeeping missions would be unfairly made targets of prosecution, had wanted blanket immunity that would be automatically renewed each year.
Worried about what could happen when the year's exemption expires, John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary for arms control and international security, is leading the drive to enlist as many nations as possible to support exempting Americans from extradition, said Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman.
"We'll be working with a number of countries to conclude similar agreements,
a large number of countries, and we very much appreciate the fact that Romania was the first of those countries to do this," Reeker said.
The bilateral arrangements, Reeker said, "give us the safeguards we were seeking."
A State Department official said Italy was among the nations the United States would approach next. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is eager to improve relations with the United States.
Human rights groups decried the administration's strategy, saying it undermined the court, which began operation last month after receiving the necessary ratifications from nations around the world. Seventy-seven countries have ratified their membership in the court, not including the United States.
"It's outrageous," said Alex Arriaga, director of government relations for Amnesty International U.S.A. "The U.S. should be championing justice. It shouldn't be running it down."
The Bush administration strongly opposes the court on grounds that it could subject American personnel to politically motivated prosecutions abroad. More than 9,000 American peacekeepers are stationed in nine countries overseas.
The court closes a gap in international law as the first permanent tribunal dedicated to trying individuals responsible for the most horrific crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity. Ad hoc tribunals with limited jurisdictions are addressing the war in the Balkans and genocide in Rwanda.
No U.N. official has been tried for war crimes under the existing tribunals.
President Bill Clinton signed the treaty that established the court in 2000,
but he did not send it to the Senate for ratification. In May, President Bush revoked the U.S. signature.
Last month, the administration tried and failed to persuade other countries at the United Nations, including its European allies, that U.S. forces deserved blanket immunity because of their large numbers and the view that they made up a unique, significant target.
In a series of tense negotiations, the United States then threatened to veto authorization in the Security Council for U.N. peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Croatia unless its concerns over immunity were addressed. The compromise was the one-year exemption, and the missions were renewed.
Reeker, the State Department spokesman, said the Bush administration had then sought a more durable solution. With the private encouragement of European allies, he said, American officials decided to make use of a provision within the treaty known as Article 98, which lets nations negotiate immunity for their forces on a bilateral basis.
"A lot of the allies said, 'Use this Article 98 statute to take care of your concerns,' " Reeker said. He declined to elaborate.
On Aug. 1, Romania became the first country to pledge not to extradite American troops. Bolton signed the agreement in Bucharest with acting foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu.
Sorin Ducaru, the Romanian ambassador to Washington, said his government received nothing in return for the deal. A decision is expected this fall on Romania's request to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
On Sunday, Israel became the second nation to a accept a no-extradition pledge. Unlike the arrangement with Romania, the agreement with Israel was a two-way pact not to send each other's citizens before the court, diplomats said.
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