WASHINGTON, May 6: The United States on Monday renounced its legal obligation to support the treaty that creates the International Criminal Court because of flaws in its mandate that leave it unaccountable, the US special envoy for war crimes said.

The move releases the United States from a commitment not to take any action that would defeat the “object or purpose” of the treaty, Pierre-Richard Prosper said.

That commitment stemmed from Washington’s signing of the treaty two years ago during former president Bill Clinton’s administration.

Prosper’s comments came as Washington’s number three diplomat, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman, made a similar announcement in a speech, and the UN mission at the United Nations made the decision official in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The letter, signed by US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, said that the United States did not intend to become a party to the treaty.

“Accordingly the United States has no legal obligations rising from its signature on December 31 2000,” Bolton wrote.

The Clinton administration signed the treaty but made clear that it believed the accord was flawed and said it did not intend to submit it to the US Senate for ratification.

The ICC is being created under a 1998 Rome agreement signed by countries eager to set up an international body to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Treaty opponents, particularly US lawmakers and decision makers in the Bush administration, say the court could be used by critics of the United States against US service members participating in military operations overseas.

But supporters argue that the ICC is the missing link in the international legal system because the existing International Court of Justice at The Hague handles only litigation between states, not individuals.

In making the announcements, both Prosper and Grossman insisted that the United States remained committed to punishing war crimes and crimes against humanity, but that the ICC was not the proper place to do it.

“It undermines the (UN) Security Council,” Prosper said. “It is a flawed document that has insufficient safeguards to prevent exploitation of the process and politicisation of the process.

“Despite the fact that we are committed to combating these abuses, combating war crimes and saw the goal of accountability as a noble one, given the current state of the court and treaty document, the only option we have left is to take the action we are taking today,” he said.

Although Washington is abandoning the treaty and its legal obligation not to undermine it, Prosper said the United States would not fight to destroy the court.

“We are not going to attack, assail, or wage war on the ICC,” he said.

Instead, Prosper and Grossman said the United States would seek to assist war-ravaged countries rebuild their justice systems and create processes of accountability so that an international court was unnecessary.—AFP