The Washington Post - World News

Wednesday, July 15, 1998

U.S. ACCUSED OF DERAILING WORLD COURT

By Jude Webber (Reuters)

Rome, July 14 - The United States and France were accused today of preparing a last-ditch drive to undermine the powers of a proposed world war crimes court as the deadline to reach an agreement neared.

Richard Dicker of human Right Watch said the UN conference was witnessing "a crash course in superpower realpolitik" with just four days remaining to draft a text.

"Right now, a deal is afoot that is being orchestrated by France and the United States to gut the court's power to prosecute war crimes," he said. "They are proposing a protocol that would be annexed to the statute, that states could sign after they had signed the statute, that would allow them to opt out of any responsibility to this court for war crimes."

In a bid to prosecute the world's worst criminals and to deter the kind of atrocities witnessed in Bosnia and Rwanda, the planned International Criminal Court would try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Delegates agree the court should have jurisdiction over genocide, regardless of whether the state where it occurred or the home nation of the accused had signed the statute.

But they remain divided on the court's reach over war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States, which fears its widely deployed troops could be the victims of frivolous charges by a politicized court, last week said it would "actively oppose" giving the court the same power over the two crimes.

France is happy to allow the court jurisdiction over crimes against humanity but would like states to be able to opt out of war crimes charges on a case-by-case basis. However, it would accept the U.S. position.

Human rights lobbyists say that would require dictators to agree to be brought to justice.

U.S. sources said they could neither confirm nor deny reports that they are seeking to draft an opt-out protocol. However, sources close to the French delegation confirmed that the chairman of the main conference proceedings, Canadian Philippe Kirsch, asked the Japanese delegation to broker a compromise.

The United States and France can count on fellow permanent U.N. Security Council members China and Russia to support a hard-line stance. All eyes are on Britain now, the fifth permanent member, to see whether it will join them.

Britain is part of the so-called "like-minded group," comprising the European Union, Commonwealth States and many African countries and which wants the court to have automatic jurisdiction over the three core crimes and a strong, autonomous prosecutor.

Kirsch is due to present a take-it-or-leave-it document on Wednesday. "We very much hope we will have consensus this time."