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U.S. Withdraws International Criminal Court Exemption

United Nations, June 25, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United States withdrew a UN resolution yesterday that would have continued to exempt American soldiers from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. James Cunningham, the U.S. deputy ambassador, said the U.S. withdrew the proposal in order to "avoid a prolonged and divisive debate" after U.N. Security Council members refused a compromise that would have limited the exemption to one final year.

The Associated Press reported that several members of the U.N. Security Council said that their opposition was fueled by the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, even though the scandal would not come before the tribunal. Cunningham said the U.S. proposal would not have protected soldiers accused of wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib. "The objection has nothing to do with bringing to justice those individuals who may have committed heinous crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, something the United States strongly supports, as you know," he said.

The Bush Administration, backed by Congress, has repeatedly sought to allay its concerns that U.S. troops could be subjected to frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions. These concerns lead the Bush Administration to renunciate the ICC treaty after it was signed in 2002 and to refuse to recognize the court's jurisdiction or to submit to any of its orders. In the last two years Washington has further signed 90 bilateral agreements with countries that pledge not to prosecute U.S. officials abroad. "We are after all the largest contributor to global security and have special well-known interests in protecting our forces and our officials," said Cunningham.

The U.S. vetoed an extension of the Boznia-Herzegovina peacekeeping mission two years ago when the council refused to support a US-proposed exemption for nationals of countries who are not party to the International Criminal Court. Cunningham would not say whether the US would use such measures again.

Senior policy analyst, Jack Spencer, from the Heritage Foundation's Davis Institute for International Studies, expressed similar fears when he told the Times, "Essentially, those who don't like the war or U.S. foreign policy goals have a great new forum to accuse the United States and its allies of torturing and killing people as a matter of policy." The Court has already received over 100 requests to scrutinize U.S. actions in Iraq, which have been rejected so far.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed opposition to granting a third exemption. Germany, France, Spain, China, Brazil, among others, refused to back the U.S.

See Reuters Coverage:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5499369

See Related Lifesite Coverage explaining grave concerns about the likely use of the ICC for a worldwide social engineering agenda :
"ICC is the Instrument for one world government with emphasis on abortion and feminism"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/sep/00091402.html
ICC = ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/aug/98081803.html

ICC a New "Forum to Accuse the U.S. and Its Allies" for War in Iraq
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04051806.html
US Veto's UN Peacekeeping Operation to Protect Own From International Criminal Court
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jul/02070202.html
pj

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