December 20, 2001	Thursday	Shawwal 4, 1422

THE HAGUE, Dec 19: The Netherlands, host to the embryonic International Criminal Court (ICC), urged the United States on Wednesday to reconsider its boycott of a tribunal Washington has branded a potential threat to US citizens.

The court, based on the principles of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal that prosecuted leading Nazis after World War-II, is expected to start work by the middle of next year in The Hague with the backing of 60 countries around the world.

The 1998 Rome Treaty signed by 139 countries — including the US — paved the way for the ICC’s creation and has been ratified by 47 of the 60 countries needed for it to enter force. The US has since said it will not ratify the accord.

“The United States will not benefit from going it alone. It will be counter-productive,” Dutch Foreign Minister Jozias van Aartsen told a conference on the ICC in The Hague, the seat of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

“The United States joining the ICC would cement the global coalition against terror,” Van Aartsen said, referring to Europe’s backing for President George W. Bush’s campaign against the Taliban and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

US opponents of the ICC say the court will expose American soldiers and civilian officials to the risk of prosecution outside their country’s legal protection.

The US Senate earlier this month approved a measure to block cooperation with the court in a move that threatened a rift with key European allies France, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. All five have ratified the ICC accord.

“KANGAROO COURT”: On a 78-21 vote, the Senate endorsed a White House-backed measure introduced by Republican Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, which would severely limit US participation in what Helms has described as a “permanent kangaroo court”.

The proposal, attached as an amendment to a 318 billion dollars fiscal 2002 defence spending bill, would prohibit US cooperation with the court, including the sharing of public funds or classified information.

It also would bar participation by US military personnel in UN peacekeeping operations unless they are exempted from prosecution by the court, and would limit US aid to any nation that refused to shield US troops on its soil from being turned over to the court.

“We still believe there are problems with the Rome Treaty. We believe it is flawed. We truly believe the way to protect the rule of law is for each state to exercise its responsibility to prosecute injustice from within,” US Ambassador At Large for War Crimes Issues Pierre-Richard Prosper told the conference.

The US wants the United Nations Security Council to be closely involved in overseeing the work of the ICC as Washington is concerned about a potential political dimension to prosecutions, Prosper said.—Reuters