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Pastimes : GET THE U.S. OUT of The U.N NOW! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (117)	5/5/2002 12:25:08 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 411

Bush to Reject Int'l Court Treaty Sat May 4, 9:59 PM ET By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has decided to renounce formal involvement in a treaty creating the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, a senior administration official said Saturday. The International Criminal Court gained the necessary international backing to come into being when 10 nations joined 56 others last month in announcing their ratification of the treaty. Although the treaty, negotiated in Rome in 1998, was signed by President Clinton (news - web sites), he never submitted it to the Senate for ratification and the Bush administration has made clear its opposition. The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that opposition was expected to be formalized Monday in a speech by Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman and at news briefing by Pierre-Richard Prosper, the State Department's ambassador for war crimes issues. Neither the White House nor the State Department would commit directly on those plans Saturday. Prosper restated President Bush (news - web sites)'s opposition to the treaty and refusal to submit it for ratification in mid-April, saying the United States fears American citizens would be subject to frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions. "The goal is noble and we agree with the goal of accountability for war crimes," Prosper said in an April 11 conference call with reporters. "What we disagree with is this precise mechanism for putting this goal in place." Prosper had said two weeks earlier that the United States was considering "unsigning" the treaty to stress that it will not be bound by its provisions. "We don't want to cause confusion or create expectations that we will be part of this process," Prosper said at the time. "We do believe that if we are not a party to the treaty we are not under the jurisdiction of the treaty." The court, to be formed this summer without U.S. participation, will fill a gap in the international justice system first recognized by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948 after the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials for World War II's German and Japanese war criminals. The International Court of Justice now deals with disputes between states. Tribunals have been created for special situations — like the 1994 Rwanda genocide and war crimes in former Yugoslavia — but no mechanism existed to hold individuals criminally responsible. The new court is to step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves for the most serious crimes committed by individuals: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and eventually crimes of aggression when parties agree to a definition. It will have jurisdiction only over crimes committed after the treaty enters into force. Washington has campaigned unsuccessfully to exempt U.S. soldiers and officials from its jurisdiction, arguing that the safeguards against political prosecutions are not sufficient. "The prosecutor and a handful of judges could make a political decision to prosecute a U.S. official or serviceman," Prosper said last month. "This is a possibility we take seriously." Philippe Kirsch, chairman of the commission preparing for the court's operation and Canada's ambassador to Sweden, said he expects the court to become operational soon after the states that have ratified the treaty meet in early 2003 to select a prosecutor and judges. story.news.yahoo.com.