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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
Clinton OKs War Crimes Court Entry
By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Acting at the last moment, President Clinton on
Sunday authorized the United States to sign a treaty creating the
world's first permanent international war crimes tribunal to bring to
justice people accused of crimes against humanity.
The president said his action, taken with some reservations, builds
on U.S. support for justice and individual accountability dating to
American involvement in the Nuremberg tribunals that brought Nazi war
criminals to justice after World War II. ``Our action today sustains
that tradition of moral leadership,'' he said.
The treaty should not be submitted to the Senate for ratification
until certain concerns are met, he said.
``I believe that a properly constituted and structured International
Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring
egregious human rights abuses worldwide...,'' the president said in a
statement issued at the White House.
The treaty must be ratified by the Senate before U.S. participation
in the tribunal becomes final. Fierce opposition to its terms is
expected from conservatives led by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.
The president said he acted ``to reaffirm our strong support for
international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators
of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.''
``In signing, however, we are not abandoning our concerns about
significant flaws in the treaty,'' the president said. ``In
particular, we are concerned that when the court comes into
existence, it will not only exercise authority over personnel of
states that have ratified the treaty, but also claim jurisdiction
over personnel of states that have not.''
``Given these concerns, I will not and do not recommend that my
successor submit the treaty to the Senate (for ratification) until
our fundamental concerns are satisfied,'' he said.
Clinton acted at Camp David, the presidential retreat in western
Maryland where he and his family are spending the last New Year's
weekend of his administration.
Sunday was the deadline for countries to sign on to the international
criminal court treaty and transmit it to United Nations headquarters
in New York. After Sunday, ratification is the only way a government
can express support for the treaty or associate itself with it.
The court would be the first permanent institution created
specifically to try charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity. At present the United Nations has two specifically
targeted and temporary war crimes courts in operation. One deals with
suspects from the Bosnia-Herzegovina civil war of the early 1990s and
the other with people implicated in atrocities during unrest in
Rwanda in 1994.
Treaty supporters contend that a permanent international war crimes
court is ``the missing link'' in the global legal system and say that
over the past half century there have been many instances of war
crimes and crimes against humanity that have gone unpunished.
For example, supporters note that no one has ever been held
accountable for the alleged genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s when an
estimated 2 million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge or for
killings in such other countries as Mozambique, Liberia and El
Salvador.
Support for a permanent international war crimes tribunal was first
expressed in the years immediately after World War II. Interest in
creating such a court has been voiced periodically ever since.
The United Nations contends that setting up temporary courts to deal
with alleged war crimes in specific countries has been an inadequate
response because unavoidable delays lead to such consequences as
deteriorated evidence, escaped or vanished witnesses, and witness
intimidation.
Some in the United States have expressed concern, however, that U.S.
approval of such an international tribunal might subject American
citizens to politically motivated prosecutions.
Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has
campaigned vigorously against the court. He has pledged to give top
priority during the congressional session starting next week to
passage of a bill that would bar U.S. cooperation with any such
international tribunal.
Helms also has tried to persuade Israel, which also is delaying its
decision until the last minute, to reject the international court. In
an opinion piece in an Israeli newspaper this month, Helms said that
if the court existed now, senior Israeli officials possibly could
have been indicted for actions taken to put down the ongoing spasm of
anti-Israeli violence by Palestinians.
The United States and Israel were among the handful of countries that
did not sign the statute creating the treaty when it was issued in
Rome in 1998.
Four countries signed the treaty on Friday - the Bahamas, Mongolia,
Tanzania and Uzbekistan - which brings the number to 136.
Twenty-seven have ratified it, and 60 are needed before the treaty
can enter into force.
Human rights groups pushed Clinton on Friday to sign the treaty.
Human Rights Watch said ``history will look harshly on President
Clinton if he fails to sign,'' and Amnesty International said
Clinton's signature ``will demonstrate U.S. support for the rule of
law and for equal justice for all.''
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