The UN averted another battle over the US demand that American peacekeepers be exempt from prosecution by the new international war crimes tribunal -- but watch out for next year.
The administration of US President George W. Bush got the quick approval it wanted Thursday for another yearlong exemption, but without the unanimous Security Council support that it had last year.
France, Germany and Syria all abstained in the 12-0 vote, and the battle lines for a new showdown next year were drawn.
``States showed today that they were not ready to simply bow to the will of the United States and rubber stamp the resolution,'' said Fiona McKay, director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights' International Justice Program.
The US made clear that it wants a permanent exemption. But the EU warned it opposes permanent immunity for US peacekeepers.
Last week, the US warned the EU that criticism over the exemption request was further straining the bitter trans-Atlantic division over the war against Iraq. France and Germany, which led opposition to the war and strongly back the court, ignored the warning.
The White House argues that the International Criminal Court (ICC) -- established last year and expected to start operating later this year -- could be used for frivolous or politically motivated prosecution of American troops.
In addition to seeking the UN exemption, Washington has signed bilateral agreements with 37 countries that bar any prosecution of American officials by the court and is seeking more.
But the 90 countries that have ratified the 1998 Rome Treaty which created the court -- including all 15 EU members -- counter that it contains enough safeguards to prevent any frivolous prosecutions.
The court will prosecute cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after July 1, 2002, but will step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves.
It is the culmination of a campaign for a permanent war crimes tribunal that began with the Nuremberg trials after World War II.
When the court came into being last July, the US threatened to end far-flung peacekeeping operations established or authorized by the UN -- from Afghanistan and the Middle East to Bosnia and Sierra Leone -- if it didn't get an exemption for American peacekeepers.
After a long and acrimonious battle, a compromise was reached to prohibit the investigation or prosecution of current or former officials from the US and other countries that have not ratified the Rome treaty for a year.
The final deal dented the court's underlying principle that no one should be exempt from punishment for war crimes, and it angered court supporters and human rights groups.
The resolution adopted last year, and again on Thursday, expresses the American intention to renew the request for a yearlong exemption every July 1 ``for as long as may be necessary.''
France and Germany both said Thursday that a one-year extension was sufficient.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS