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CounterPunch
September
24, 2002
US Hypocrisy
on Those IKCs
You Guessed It:
International Kangaroo Courts
by GEORGE SZAMUELY
Going by the hysterical bluster emanating from
Washington about the International Criminal Court (ICC) it would
seem that upstanding American "peacekeepers" selflessly
policing the world are about to be arrested on frivolous charges
and hauled before a court presided over by assorted witch-doctors,
unreconstructed Stalinists and Osama bin Laden acolytes. The
court, created in 1998 by the Rome Statute, is designed to punish
crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes--acts
which had hitherto fallen within the purview of national courts.
Here's a typical rant from conservative columnist Balint Vazsonyi
in the Washington Times: "The wall separating the legal
concepts, systems and practices in the English-speaking world
from all other nations is higher and thicker than the Great Wall
of China." Writing in USA Today Deputy National Security
Adviser Stephen J. Hadley deplored "the lack of adequate
checks and balances on the powers of the ICC prosecutor and judges."
The USA has learned by bitter experience that unaccountable prosecutors
constitute a danger to the rights and welfare of its citizens."
Such sentiments would be more compelling
if they did not sound so self-serving. Last November, U.S., British
and French special forces presided over and directed the slaughter
of about 1000 prisoners of war by the Northern Alliance at Mazar-e-Sharif.
The slaughter was helped along by heavy U.S. air strikes. Recently
Newsweek reported that "America's Afghan allies asphyxiated
hundreds of surrendering Taliban prisoners by transporting them
in sealed cargo containers en route to a prison in Northern Afghanistan
and they buried them in a mass grave." Around a thousand
people are said to have died in these containers. U.S. forces
were in the region at the time, and either facilitated or did
little to stop these atrocities. Had been the forces of any other
power, those of Yugoslavia or Russia say, Washington would be
shrieking for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. As it
is, these events scarcely elicited a murmur.
Earlier this year Congress passed the
American Service Members' Protection Act. The legislation prohibits
any U.S. government agency from cooperating with the ICC. It
demands that "each resolution of the [U.N.] Security Council
authorizing any peacekeeping operationa"permanently exempts"
members of the Armed Forces of the United States participating
in such operation from criminal prosecution." No U.S. military
assistance was to be "provided to the government of a country
that is a party to the" ICC. In addition, the president
was "authorized to use all means necessary and appropriate
to bring about the release of any [U.S. or allied persons]"
being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request
of the" ICC.
This fearless assertion of national sovereignty
is claptrap and the rankest hypocrisy. The act starts off solemnly
declaring that "it is a fundamental principle of international
law that a treaty is binding upon its parties only and that it
does not create obligations for nonparties without their consent
to be bound. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute
and will not be bound by any of its terms." That is indeed
the very basis international law. Shame then that the United
States has so little respect for it! In 1993, the Clinton administration
pushed the U.N. Security Council to establish the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The countries
that were to be subjected to this court's jurisdiction had no
say in its establishment and had never given their consent. Yet
they were ordered to cooperate on pain of sanctions, and worse.
To this day, the United States punishes Yugoslavia for insufficient
zeal in cooperating with the tribunal.
On May 27, President Bush signed an order
continuing a state of national emergency with regard to Yugoslavia:
"Because the crisis with respect to the situation in Kosovo
and with respect to Slobodan Milosevic, his close associates
and supporters and persons under open indictment for war crimes
by the ICTY has not been resolved," the president declared,
there existed an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the
national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United
States." Bush ordered that all property of the Yugoslav
government in the U.S. continue to be blocked and that "trade
and other transactions" with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
be prohibited. This, a year after the abduction and handover
of Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague tribunal!
The Hague tribunal served as the prototype
for the ICC and it possesses all the features that Americans
are today complaining about: The prosecutor is out of control.
Prosecutor and court are one and the same. Appellate court and
trial court are also one and the same. The court is answerable
to no one. There is no jury. Prosecutors may appeal an acquittal
and insist on continued detention of a defendant. Yet, the service
members' protection act insists that the work of the Hague tribunal
continue undisturbed: "Nothing in this title shall prohibit
the United States from rendering assistance to international
efforts to bring to justice Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosovic,
Osama bin Laden" and other foreign nationals accused of
genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity."
It is hardly surprising that the U.S.
is so fond of the ICTY. Here is a court financed by the U.S.,
assorted NATO governments, U.S. corporations and, of course,
the ubiquitous George Soros. Its personnel come largely from
the U.S. Justice Department. The presiding judge in the Milosevic
trial, Richard May, is British and a prominent figure in the
Labor party whose leader, Tony Blair, played a major role in
the 1999 war against Yugoslavia. The prosecutor, Geoffrey Nice,
is also British. Here then is justice, NATO style--what the strong
mete out to the weak.
Today's Features
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The Murder
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Wild,
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Being Green in Montana
Philip Farruggio
Democratic
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Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Another
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Rev. Robert Bowman
What Would
Jesus Do?
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Web
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Six Weeks
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to Subscribers:
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Mind; DC's Most Dangerous Man;
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September
21 / 22, 2002
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Tom Gorman
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Peter Lee
Why Bush
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20 Questions
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War with
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How Congress
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Bush Senior:
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Rep. Cynthia
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Goodbye
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Jeffrey St.
Clair
Cancerous
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Born Under a Bad Sky
Ben Tripp
Smoking
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20 Years
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