Agence France Presse

Friday, May 5, 2000

US now willing to cooperate with International Criminal Court:

Albright

The United States would be willing to cooperate with a proposed

International Criminal Court it has long opposed if a proposal to alter the

tribunal's jurisdiction over non-members is adopted, Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright said Friday.

Albright said the US proposal had been submitted recently and maintained

that it would not alter the 1998 Rome treaty that set up the tribunal.

"Our proposal, which we are actively discussing with other governments,

does not seek to amend or otherwise modify the (treaty)," Albright told a

conference on war crimes here.

"Rather we are seeking a procedural fix that is consistant with the Rome

Treaty and will enable the United States at a minimum to be a 'good

neighbor' to the court," she said.

"The benefits of this shift in our policy would be significant," Albright

said.

The "fix," she said, would allow Washington to assist the tribunal with

intelligence assets and resources as it has done for those courts for the

former Yugoslavia and Rwanda without being a party to the treaty which it

does not intend to sign in the "foreseeable future."

The United States has opposed the treaty and the court it creates on

jurisidictional grounds, believing its mandate to be so wide that American

soldiers, among others, on peacekeeping missions and other duties in wars

could be subject to prosecution.

In addition, the court seeks jurisdiction over citizens of all countries,

not just parties to the treaty which the United States, along with China,

Libya, Iraq and Israel, objects to.

Though Albright did not give details of the US proposal, a State Department

official said it would allow the court to prosecute citizens of non-treaty

countries only with the consent of the country involved or the UN Security

Council.

The proposal would in effect give the United States, as well as other

Security Council members, veto power over the prosecutions of non-treaty

members and it remained unclear how signatories to the pact, who would have

to accept it, were reacting, the official said.