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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, July 5, 2002

EDITORIAL
International crimes court deserves backing

It is perfectly understandable why the United States has suspicions about next week's opening of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The court's first order of business will be trials of alleged Bosnian war criminals. Ordinarily, that would be a circumstance all would applaud.

And indeed, if justice is served by this new court, it will be a big step forward for international human rights.

The United States, almost alone in the international community, has refused to be party to the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court. It fears that American service men and women, serving as peacekeepers in Kosovo, may be brought to the dock by the tribunal for frivolous or political reasons.

That is a potential, but at this point hypothetical, fear. But U.S. suspicions have caused the Bush administration to act in ways that directly and immediately threaten humanitarian and peacekeeping missions in the region.

It has denied routine renewal of a U.N. police-training mission in Bosnia and threatens to pull out of a NATO peacekeeping mission there.

The administration says it has taken these steps in an effort to get the U.N. Security Council to exempt all peacekeepers from the international court's authority.

Ordinarily, that would be covered under existing agreements with countries that host peacekeeping forces.

And even if an aggressive prosecutor went after American troops with accusations of blatant war crimes, the U.S. could pre-empt the court by holding its own inquiry.

No one knows whether this new international criminal court will work in practice. But there is no doubt that it holds great potential. Rather than sabotaging the effort from the beginning, the Bush administration should serve notice that it will not tolerate pursuit of American peacekeeping troops, but allow the court to move ahead with its work.

And it should not hold U.S. participation in peacekeeping operations hostage to a suspicion that, at this point, is just a suspicion and nothing more.

On Tuesday, the Bush administration offered a compromise that would allow the Security Council, where the United States a veto, to block any investigation or prosecution of peacekeepers by the International Criminal Court.

And on Wednesday, the Security Council extended the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia until July 15, allowing a little more time to work out a compromise.

But since all other members of the Security Council support the International Criminal Court, it seems unlikely they would agree to — in effect — give pre-emptive blanket immunity to U.S. forces.