US drops war crimes exemption plea - GoFuckYourself.com

directfiesta · 06-24-2004, 10:12 AM

Different ball game... Now crime committed by US troops or its commander ( that includes Big Chief Georgie) can be tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC),

Quote:

The United States was yesterday forced to drop a UN resolution giving American peacekeeping troops renewed immunity from prosecution for war crimes, after facing determined opposition in the security council.
Exemption for US troops from the International Criminal Court (ICC), established under a previous resolution, expires at the end of this month. But diplomats at the UN said the shadow cast by the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, together with opposition from the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, made it impossible for Washington to win a security council majority.

Britain had been ready to support Washington, but other EU states, including France, Germany and Spain, threatened to abstain.

"The United States has decided not to proceed further with consideration and action on the draft at this time in order to avoid a prolonged and divisive debate," James Cunningham, the US deputy ambassador, said. "We are dropping action on this resolution."

The Bush administration had threatened to end its participation in peacekeeping missions unless its troops were exempted from prosecution, but Mr Cunningham refused to say how the US would vote the next time such a mission came before the security council.

In a statement, however, he made it clear that the threat had not been withdrawn. He said: "In the absence of a new resolution, the United States will need to take into account the risk of ICC review when determining contributions to UN authorised or established operations."

Last week, Mr Annan called on the security council not to renew the exemption for the US. He said that the recent cases of abuse of prisoners in Iraq raised "serious doubts" over the legality of such a resolution.

Supporters of the ICC point out that under its charter the court is a tribunal of last resort and will only take up a case if the defendant's country of citizenship is unwilling or unable to dispense justice.

Lapdog Brittain was ready to support the US...