Financial Times

Weekend July 18/ July 19, 1998

UN WAR CRIMES COURT AGREED

By James Blitz in Rome and agencies

Delegate from more than 100 countries last night overwhelmingly approved a historic treaty to establish an international criminal court to try war crimes.

The agreement was reached despite objections from the United States, joined by nations including Libya, Algeria, China, Qatar and Yemen.

The United Nations conference to set up the court produced a final draft statute with the broad backing of states from Europe, Asia and the third world - but it was still deemed unacceptable by the US, which was one of seven nations to vote against it.

It was still unclear after the vote last night whether Washington would abide by the agreement but a western diplomat said: "The US is laying down a marker that it is not going to co-operate with this court at all."

In a last-minute effort to get Washington to sign, the final draft carried a clause allowing signatory states a seven-year opt-out from provision regarding war crimes.

This was aimed at countering Pentagon fears that the US - which has the largest number of soldiers serving overseas of any state - could fall victim to politically motivated attempts to press war crimes charges against personnel.

Adding to the pressure on the US to back the document was the decision by France - which had stood firmly by Washington throughout the five-week conference - to support the treaty draft after inclusion of the opt-out.

Diplomats said the US had been holding out for an explicit treaty statement that war crimes charges would never be brought against any US soldier without its permission.

"We have given into many of the concessions that the US wanted," said a senior diplomat from Canada, whose government has been in the vanguard of states seeking a strong and independent court. "But that extra concession would simply remove all respect for the court and would be sought by other countries."

Lloyd Axworthy, Canada's foreign minister, said many of the objectives he was seeking - such as an independent prosecutor and the possibility of changing the drafting of "child soldiers" - had been met.