The bitter dispute between the US and Europe over Iraq burst into the open again on Thursday when the US threatened Belgium with a boycott.
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned Belgium at a NATO meeting to drop its controversial war crimes law or else face a boycott of NATO's Brussels HQ.
Belgium, a founder member of NATO, has a law giving it jurisdiction to try war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity wherever they are committed. The government has already been trying to water it down.
Rumsfeld condemned "divisive politicized lawsuits" such as the one threatening General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in Iraq.
The US is threatening to suspend its financial support for a new 400 million-euro building for NATO.
"It would obviously not be easy for US officials ... to come to Belgium," Rumsfeld said. "It would not make much sense to build a new headquarters if they can't come here for meetings."
"We will have to oppose any further spending for a new NATO headquarters unless we know for certain that Belgium will be a hospitable place," Rumsfeld told reporters at a meeting of NATO defense ministers.
With US politicians and military officials uneasy about coming to Belgium because of the war crimes legislation, "it makes no sense to build a new NATO headquarters," Rumsfeld warned.
"It is perfectly possible to meet elsewhere," the US defense chief insisted.
Asked if he wanted NATO to move to another country, Rumsfeld said, "What solution is found is up to Belgium and NATO ."
But with the controversial legislation in place, Belgium was not living up to its responsibilities as a NATO host nation, he warned.
Rumsfeld's comments threatened to plunge the 19-nation alliance, still recovering after fierce splits over Iraq, into another crisis.
Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut insisted that American officials could continue to enter the country without fear of harassment.
Belgium opposed the war in Iraq, along with France and Germany, and then joined them in launching a separate EU defense initiative in April.
Rumsfeld's remarks overshadowed a meeting designed to introduce an overhaul of NATO's military command to allow it to fight terrorism and other threats far from Europe.
Even the normally low-key NATO Secretary General George Robertson admitted concerns over Belgium's so-called "universal competence" legislation which allows lawsuits to be filed in Belgian courts for war crimes committed by any person in any part of the world.
Much to Washington's dismay, cases have been filed recently not against General Franks, but also against former US president George Bush senior, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and US Vice President Dick Cheney.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
RSS