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Monday, Jan. 1, 2000

In a statement Sunday, Clinton said the United States was joining more than 130 other countries that had already signed the 1998 Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court.

"We do so to reaffirm our strong support for international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity." Clinton said.

"The United States has a long history of commitment to the principle of accountability, from our involvement in the Nuremberg tribunals that brought Nazi war criminals to justice to our leadership in the effort to establish the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda."

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan lauded the U.S. decision.

"The secretary-general wishes to express his particular satisfaction at the signature of the statute by the United States of America," a U.N. statement said. "He is well aware of the difficulties that the president of the United States faced in reaching this decision, and warmly congratulates him on his courage and far-sightedness in overcoming them."

Conservative Opposition

The treaty would first have to be ratified by the Senate. It faces opposition, mainly in the form of conservatives led by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., the head of the Senate foreign Relations Committee. They have said the court could be used against U.S. Army personnel and senior U.S. officials.

Clinton, however, claimed that signing the treaty would help the United States protect its officials from unfounded charges.

"Signature will enhance our ability to further protect U.S. officials from unfounded charges and to achieve the human rights and accountability objectives of the ICC," he said. "In fact, in negotiations following the Rome Conference, we have worked effectively to develop procedures that limit the likelihood of politicized prosecutions.

"Court jurisdictions over U.S. personnel should come only with U.S. ratification of the Treaty," Clinton said. "The United States should have the chance to observe and assess the functioning of the Court, over time, before choosing to become subject to its jurisdiction."

Clinton said that he would recommend to his successor, President-elect Bush, not to submit the treaty for ratification until U.S. concerns were addressed.

The United States signed on to the treaty only hours before the midnight deadline Sunday. With the United States, 138 countries have signed on to the court.

Twenty-seven countries have ratified it; the court needs 60 ratifications. After midnight, a country can still ratify the treaty, but can no longer sign it. Those who do not sign on to the court could lose influence during talks to decide how court works.

In July 1998, 160 countries decided in Rome to set up the ICC to try individuals for crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court differs from the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands, as the Dutch court deals with cases between states, not individuals.

The United Nations has two temporary courts to try war crimes - one to deal with suspects in the Bosnia-Herzegovina civil war of the early 1990s and another that looks at people implicated in the 1994 Rwanadan genocide.

Eroding National Sovereignty

There have been fears in the United States that the court could erode national sovereignty. Among its strongest opponents are Helms and Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's choice for secretary of defense.

Iran and Israel also signed on to the treaty Sunday.

"The governments that have made this enlightened move clearly understand that the court represents no threat to States with an organized criminal justice system," the U.N. statement said. "On the contrary, it is designed only to protect those most vulnerable people whose own government, if they have one, is unable or unwilling to prosecute those who violate their most fundamental human rights."

Copyright 2000 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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