WASHINGTON: The United States risks criticism for its showdown with the United Nations over the International Criminal Court, but fears more the idea its enemies might use the court against its soldiers and officials abroad, experts say.

“They’re afraid it is going to become a Pandora’s Box and that the US, which has more than 200,000 troops overseas involved in peacekeeping and warfighting, is going to be second-guessed in the ICC,” said Gary Dempsey, an expert at the Cato Institute.

He said that Washington wants to preserve the legal validity of its position that its troops should be exempt from the court’s jurisdiction.

The US has refused to participate in the ICC, which came into being on Monday.

On Sunday, the United States vetoed a six-month renewal of the 1,536-strong UN mission in Bosnia after other UN Security Council members rejected a demand to make its members immune to prosecution by the ICC.

Washington agreed to a 72-hour rollover of the force to allow time for talks on practical arrangements for winding it up.

US opposition to the court shows a certain sense of vulnerability on the part of the administration of George W. Bush, said Esther Brimmer of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Transatlantic Studies.

“This particular administration, I think, objects to the use of universal legal rules for governing international relations. It’s just not comfortable with that,” she said.

The ICC, established by the 1998 Rome Statute, is mandated to prosecute genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression committed anywhere in the world. Seventy-four states have ratified the treaty.

The court is not expected to be operational before the end of 2003. At the moment the ICC has no judges, no prosecutors, no courtrooms and no budget.

Earlier this year, Bush withdrew the US signature from the treaty, and has sought to block the court from exercising its authority over Americans.

“With our global responsibilities, we are and will remain a special target,” John Negroponte, US ambassador to the UN, said in exercising the US veto of the Bosnian peace mission.—AFP