NewsMax Wires
Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004

Story Continues Below

  The congressional cuts would not affect 96 countries that have signed immunity pacts with the U.S.

The legislation includes a national security waiver that would allow President Bush to exempt members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other allies. However, Washington's key European allies -- including Britain, France and Germany -- have opposed the U.S. effort arguing that it weakens the treaty.

The move is the latest to ensure that the first world criminal court can never try American citizens for crimes committed overseas. The House and Senate are to vote on the budget Dec. 8.

Congress has already passed the American Servicemembers' Protection Act, which cut millions of dollars in military assistance to many countries that would not sign the so-called “Article 98 agreements,” pledging not to turn over to the court U.S. personnel accused of committing war crimes overseas.

The latest Congress' action might affect U.S. Agency for International Development programs designed to promote peace, combat drug trafficking and promote democracy and economic reforms in poor countries, the Post reported.

By way of example, the cuts could put at risk as much as $250 million to support economic growth and reforms in Jordan, $500,000 to promote democracy and fight drug traffickers in Venezuela -- and about $9 million to support free trade and other initiatives with Mexico, the Post said.

To date, the treaty has been signed by 139 countries and ratified by 97. The Clinton administration signed the treaty in December 2000. However, the Bush administration renounced it in May 2001, citing concern that an international prosecutor might conduct frivolous investigations and trials against U.S. officials, troops and foreign personnel deployed overseas on behalf of the United States.

Governments that have yet signed immunity pacts with the U.S. have been trying to negotiate terms of an agreement that would not violate their own laws that bar them from undermining the court.

The court's advocates maintain that the tribunal was created to hold future despots in the ranks of Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Idi Amin accountable for mass killings -- not to pursue U.S. officials responsible for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as the Bush administration apparently fears.

When established by treaty at a 1998 conference in Rome, the framers touted the court's purpose to prosecute perpetrators of the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of Argentina has begun investigating widespread human rights violations in Congo and Uganda.

Editor's note: