BRUSSELS, June 12: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attacked Belgium on Thursday over a controversial law allowing lawsuits against foreigners for war crimes, saying Washington would oppose funding for a new NATO headquarters until the legal threat is withdrawn.
“These suits are absurd,” he said, referring to lawsuits brought under Belgium’s so-called universal competence law, including one recent case against the US commander during the Iraq war.
The 1993 law allows Belgian courts to judge suspects accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, regardless of where the alleged acts were committed or the nationality of the accused or the victims.
Other US leaders including Secretary of State Colin Powell have warned that the law could threaten Belgium’s standing as home to international institutions including the European Union and NATO.
But Rumsfeld launched the most concrete warning yet of consequences if the law remains unchanged. “Belgium needs to recognize that there are consequences to those actions,” Rumsfeld told reporters at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
“For our part, we will have to seriously consider whether we can allow our civilian and military officials to come to Belgium,” he said.
“Until the status is resolved, we will have to oppose all further spending for a NATO headquarters in Brussels until we know with certainty Belgium intends to be a hospitable place.”
NATO earlier this year launched plans for a hi-tech designed new headquarters, near to its current ageing compound on the outskirts of the Belgian capital. The new headquarters is set to be built by the end of the decade.
NATO chief George Robertson stopped short on Thursday of saying the Belgian law could threaten NATO’s continued presence in Belgium, but warned that there would be “profound implications” if the situation remains unchanged.
“There is genuine concern, especially by the United States but by other countries as well about the way in which this law is being implemented. Clearly it is a matter that we are looking at with concern,” he said.
He said there was a problem in particular in the kind of prosecutions brought under the law. “I think everybody wants to see a much clearer position,” he said.
“If senior politicians and military commanders are inhibited from coming to NATO meetings here then that has got profound implications for the way in which this Alliance operates,” he told reporters.—AFP