The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)

Saturday, May 6, 2000

U.S. offers a 'procedural fix' to link with war-crimes court

Reuters News Service

WASHINGTON -- The United States said Friday it had proposed a "procedural

fix" to let it cooperate with an international court on war crimes that it

refuses to join because of fears of exposing U.S. soldiers abroad.

"We are seeking a procedural fix that is consistent with the Rome Treaty

(setting up the court) and will enable the United States at a minimum to be

a 'good neighbor' to the court," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said.

A senior State Department official said that "good neighbor" policy could

develop into eventual U.S. signature and ratification of the treaty but not

for several years.

"The benefits for the court of this shift in our policy would be

significant," Albright told a forum on war crimes.

"Even as a nonparty for the foreseeable future," she said, Washington would

be able to help the International Criminal Court as it helps existing U.N.

international tribunals trying cases arising from atrocities in the Balkans

and Rwanda.

The United States provides more than $40 million annually to support the

two tribunals as well as giving considerable moral support and material

evidence.

About 100 states have signed the statutes of the court, intended to try

genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. Sixty must

ratify it for the treaty to take effect. Seven have so far done so and many

more are expected by the end of next year.

Washington branded the treaty "fatally flawed" after failing to win

guarantees that its armed forces, frequently in action overseas, would not

be subject to investigation and prosecution by an independent prosecutor.

Alone among the Western democracies, it joined China, Libya, Iraq and

Israel in voting against the statute at a U.N. conference in Rome in July

1998.

Albright said Washington recently introduced a proposal to "overcome our

long-standing concern about the jurisdictional reach" of the court, but she

gave no details.

U.S. special envoy on war crimes David Sheffer said Washington was not

trying to amend the treaty itself but had proposed language to a commission

preparing the detailed workings of the court.

"We are proposing that no national of a nonparty state acting in an

official capacity can physically be surrendered to the courtroom of the ICC

without the consent of that nonparty state or unless the Security Council

has otherwise determined that the national be exposed to the jurisdiction

of the court," Sheffer said.

He said that would not affect the right of the authorities in a particular

country to use its national jurisdiction to try a suspected war criminal

apprehended on its territory.

"We have a lot of options around the world to achieve justice" for war

crimes, Sheffer said, recalling The Hague and Rwanda tribunals and action

by Indonesia, with international encouragement, to account for killings in

East Timor.

Referring to what appeared to be a more accommodating approach to the

court, Sheffer said: "As a good neighbor we can do a heck of a lot for this

court. And that 'good neighbor' policy can mature over the years into the

real possibility of signature and ratification."

In a reference to opposition in the Republican-led Congress to the ICC,

which many say would represent an unacceptable surrender of U.S.

sovereignty, he said, "I don't think this town is ready for a ratification

posture."

Jesse Helms, the conservative North Carolina Republican senator who chairs

the Foreign Relations Committee, earlier this year denounced plans for the

court as "a power grab."