US and France haggle over Sudan war crimes trials
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (Reuters) – France on Thursday engaged in last minute talks with the United States to avoid a U.S. veto on a U.N. resolution that would refer Sudanese war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
France’s U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, who drafted the Security Council resolution, co-sponsored by Britain, has called a vote for late on Thursday, although delays are possible.
U.S. officials for the first time said on Wednesday they would allow referrals to the court that the Bush administration fiercely opposes if exemptions from prosecution for American citizens can be written into the resolution.
Over the last two years, at least 180,000 people have died from fighting, hunger and disease in Sudan’s Darfur region. More than 2 million people, mainly African villagers, have been forced out of their homes by Arab militia.
The Bush administration is in the difficult position of either swallowing some of its qualms about the ICC or vetoing a resolution to prosecute people for the pillage, slaughter and rape in Darfur that Washington itself has called genocide.
“We are trying to find language that we would find acceptable. We’re trying to make the resolution work so that we can avoid a train wreck,” said one U.S. official.
But some of the U.S. demands, such as immunity from prosecution for war crimes for seven years, would stretch basic statutes in the treaty creating the ICC and were unlikely to be approved, council diplomats said.
“The exemptions should be Sudan specific,” said one envoy.
No one expects the United States to vote in favor of the French resolution but council members hope Washington will abstain and not use its veto power in exchange for some changes in the text.
Negotiations on Thursday also included nine of the 15 Security Council members who have ratified the ICC, which began functioning a year ago. It was set up to try individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, a long-delayed successor to the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg at the end of World War Two.
The nine are: France, Britain, Denmark, Greece, Tanzania, Benin, Argentina, Brazil and Romania. In addition, Algeria, Russia and Philippines have signed but not ratified the treaty.
Some 98 countries have ratified the court’s treaty but the Bush administration rescinded the U.S. signature, arguing that U.S. citizens could be targets of politically-motivated prosecutions.
The Security Council can refer a case to the ICC, based in The Hague, if the country where the crimes took place is unwilling or unable to bring perpetrators to justice.
In January, a panel of U.N.-appointed investigators, requested by the Security Council, concluded that the ICC was the best place for trials since Sudan had shown little willingness to prosecute suspects.
The United States has offered to pay for a new temporary U.N.-African Union court in Arusha, Tanzania, but the proposal has received scant support to date.
(Arshad Mohammed in Washington contributed to this report)