After a day of fierce criticism from its closest allies, the White House softened demands for blanket immunity for American peacekeepers from the world's first permanent criminal court.
The new US proposal, that was to be discussed by UN Security Council members yesterday, would prevent the investigation or prosecution of peacekeepers for a year, subject to renewal.
Previously Washington demanded a permanent exemption from the tribunal's jurisdiction for soldiers from countries that had not ratified a 1998 Rome treaty creating the International Criminal Court, which came into existence on July 1.
Nevertheless, many of the Security Council's 14 other members said the new US draft resolution still violated the letter and spirit of the court's treaty, signed by 139 countries and ratified by 76 nations. But the US modification was the first indication that a resolution of the dispute, in which the US threatened to shut down all UN peacekeeping missions, might be resolved soon.
Washington has made Bosnia the test case. It vetoed an extension of the 1,500-member UN police training mission and the council's endorsement of a 18,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force, unless its demands were met. Another vote is due by Monday.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
A group affiliated with indicted Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) is to be dissolved for monitoring Chinese immigrants in Taiwan, a source said yesterday. Xu, the secretary-general of the Cross-Strait Marriage and Family Service Alliance, was indicted on March 24 on charges of violating the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法). The alliance “illegally monitored" Chinese immigrants living in Taiwan on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Ministry of the Interior is expected to dissolve the organization in the coming days under provisions of the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法), the source said. Xu, who married a Taiwanese in 1993 and became a Republic
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