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http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/182/nation/US_takes_a_stand_against_UN_court+.shtmlhttp://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/182/nation/US_takes_a_stand_against_UN_court+.shtml
US takes a stand against UN court
Bosnia mission veto is later withdrawn
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 7/1/2002
UNITED NATIONS - The United States yesterday vetoed a six-month extension of UN peacekeeping operations in Bosnia because American peacekeepers had not received immunity from the new International Criminal Court, then quickly agreed to a provision extending the mission for three more days.
US Ambassador John Negroponte joined in the unanimous vote approving the brief extension to work out the dispute, after earlier going against most of the council's 14 members. The 1,500-strong UN police training mission in Bosnia had been due to end at midnight yesterday.
The US brinkmanship was clearly aimed at underscoring the Bush administration's opposition to the International Criminal Court, which comes into existence today. It also underlined Washington's willingness to stand against virtually all other council members, including close allies, and to end all UN peacekeeping missions if necessary - not just the Bosnian missions.
Negroponte said he hoped the veto and the brief delay would highlight the importance of the issue to the United States, and he stressed that it wasn't a question of just the Bosnian mission: ''It's a question of peacekeeping in general.''
The council members - including Britain and France - support the new court and argue that a US exemption would undermine the tribunal and international law.
The United States is demanding that American and other peacekeepers from countries that have not ratified the treaty establishing the court be exempt from arrest and prosecution by the tribunal. It has rejected all compromises that don't grant blanket immunity.
The United States says immunity is needed to prevent American troops and citizens from frivolous and politically motivated prosecutions. Opponents say there are enough safeguards to prevent such abuse.
In the first vote yesterday, 13 countries favored extending the mandate for Bosnia's UN police training mission for six months and authorization for the NATO-led force for a year. Bulgaria, a sponsor of the resolution, abstained to highlight the absence of council unity but said it still supports the court.
NATO said its 18,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Bosnia would not be jeopardized by a US veto because its mandate comes from the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the 31/2-year war in the Balkan nation. The NATO force, however, includes 3,100 Americans.
Negroponte said the United States voted against the resolution ''with great reluctance'' but will not ask Americans in UN peacekeeping missions ''to accept the additional risk of political prosecution before a court whose jurisdiction the government of the United States does not accept.
''The United States will remain a special target,'' he said, ''and we cannot have our decisions second-guessed.''
Immediately after the resolution was defeated, council members returned to closed-door consultations to work on the resolution that would briefly extend the Bosnian mandate. France and Britain proposed an extension until July 15, but the United States would only agree to 72 hours.
Supporters of the court expressed dismay at the US veto, which could affect the 14 other UN peacekeeping missions - from Cyprus to East Timor - as their mandates come up for renewal in the Security Council.
''History, I believe, will record the actions of the US administration of President George W. Bush to wreck UN peacekeeping and the International Criminal Court as one of the most shameful lows in global US leadership,'' said William Pace, head of the International Coalition for a Criminal Court, a coalition of more than 1,000 organizations supporting the tribunal.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the council to intensify high-level negotiations.
''The world cannot afford a situation in which the Security Council is deeply divided on such an important issue, which may have implications for all UN peace operations,'' he said.
This was supposed to be the last six-month extension for the UN mission in Bosnia, which has been helping to develop a multiethnic and professional police force. The training operation is being handed over to the European Union on Jan. 1.
Annan said it would be ''most unfortunate'' if the premature termination of the Bosnia mission set back international efforts to help the country achieve lasting peace ''after the country was ripped apart by war from 1992 to 1995.''
The veto won't stop the world's first permanent war crimes court from coming into existence today. Dutch administrators overseeing its initial months of operation are ready to register claims of genocide and wartime atrocities committed after today.
With the backing of 74 countries - despite fierce opposition from the United States - the institute based in The Hague will have the authority to prosecute individuals - not states - suspected of war crimes anywhere in the world.
''All who believe in democracy and justice and the rule of law can celebrate,'' Pace said. ''This is truly one of the greatest advances of international law since the founding of the United Nations 57 years ago.''
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 7/1/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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