U.S. envoys besieged by ‘bully’ charges

By ESTRELLA TORRES
TODAY Reporter

A human rights group based in New York has assailed the United States government and its ambassadors around the world for “acting like schoolyard bullies,” demanding that their host governments sign a bilateral agreement with Washington that would exempt US troops from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Kenneth Roth, executive director of the Human Rights Watch, wrote to US State Secretary Colin Powell urging him to stop all US ambassadors from “bullying” small and poor countries into signing the immunity agreement with the US.

“US officials are engaged in a worldwide campaign pressing small, vulnerable and often fragile democratic governments to sign bilateral agreements with Washington. As you know, these agreements will exempt 270 million Americans and foreign nationals working under contract with the US government from the authority of the court. While we believe the agreements the United States is proposing violate the ICC treaty by going beyond the letter and spirit of Article 98, I am not writing to argue the unlawfulness of these instruments,” said Roth in his letter to Powell dated June 30, a copy of which was posted on the ICC website.

Washington has cut military aid to at least 35 countries, including Colombia and six nations for supporting the ICC that will try war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Under the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act (ASPA), countries that have supported the ICC will no longer qualify to the US military aid unless they sign a bilateral agreement on Article 98, giving immunity to US soldiers from being prosecuted under the ICC. It has provided a deadline to sign these immunity agreements until July 1 this year.

The human-rights group said the US campaign has not succeeded in undermining global support for the court. If anything, the group said, it has succeeded in making the US government look foolish and mean-spirited.

“Whatever the administration thinks of the International Criminal Court, its tactics in pursuing these bilateral agreements are unconscionable. Other governments can plainly see that punitive measures are being used primarily against poor and relatively weak states with few options other than to give in to the United States. Signing an agreement will put an ICC state party in breach of its legal obligations and at odds with other important national interests. This raw misuse of US power makes the policy all the more objectionable,” Roth wrote.

“We urge you to bring an end to the vendetta against the ICC that US diplomats around the world have been compelled to carry out. This is an initiative that is likely to do far more harm to the United States than it could ever do to the court. This campaign is creating a legacy that will tar the Bush administration for years to come. With everything else taking place in the world today, the United States ought to adopt a wiser approach to the ICC,” Roth wrote.

He revealed that US Ambassador Richard Blankenship warned the Bahamas that if it did not support the US position on ICC, a significant amount of US aid would be withheld, including funds for paving and lighting an airport runway.

Roth also disclosed that an assistant state secretary informed foreign ministers of Caribbean states that they would lose the benefits for hurricane relief and rural dentistry and veterinary programs if their governments did not sign the immunity pact.

“Because most ICC-member states are democracies with a relatively strong commitment to the rule of law, the threatened aid cutoffs represent a sanction primarily targeting states that abide by democratic values,” Roth said.

Roth said it is ironic that at a time when the US has been increasing assistance to countries with poor human-rights records, like Pakistan and Uzbekistan, it is threatening to cut aid to struggling democracies in the Caribbean, Latin American and Africa over this issue.

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