Global Policy Forum

Defusing a trans-Atlantic spat, the European Union agreed Monday to spare U.S. citizens the fate of standing trial on war crimes charges in the newly created International Criminal Court. Human rights groups denounced the move as caving in to American pressure at the expense of the war crimes tribunal.

The EU foreign ministers agreed on a deal preventing them from extraditing U.S. soldiers or government officials to the ICC provided Washington guarantees any Americans suspected of war crimes will be tried in the United States.

The Bush administration has asked for a blanket exemption, fearing Americans would face cavalier, politically motivated trials stemming from peacekeeping or other military operations in areas of war or crisis.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, the meeting's chairman, said existing extradition agreements and principles will be strictly applied, foregoing the need of new bilateral accords with Washington. ``There is no concession,'' he said, responding to accusations of a sellout. ``There is no undermining of the International Criminal Court.''

The EU said there will be no exemption from prosecution for mercenaries - free-lance soldiers who are not on a government-mandated peacekeeping or war mission but seek out a conflict or crisis on their own, officials said.

Under the compromise, EU countries will sign accords with Washington exempting Americans from an ICC trial, if they wish. Britain and Italy have said they may do that. Those opposed to such accords - for fear of a backlash at home - will apply existing extradition conditions to achieve the same goal, officials said.

For instance, soldiers stationed abroad are usually exempt from prosecution in the nation where they are based under specific bilateral accords. Also, EU nations may invoke immunity agreements for U.S. civilians - politicians, defense department personnel, Central Intelligence Agency staffers and others - to keep them out of the ICC.

``Many of the U.S. concerns can be solved on the basis of existing agreements,'' Stig Moeller told reporters. ``It will be up to each (EU state) to assess whether its existing agreements with the Americans are sufficient to meet the U.S. concerns.''

The EU will not exempt its nationals from any trial in the ICC, the first permanent international tribunal to judge individuals for war crimes - that opened in The Hague, the Netherlands, last July.

But Richard Dicker of the New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the EU compromise as ``a step backward.'' He said the legality of wriggling out of commitments to hand war crimes suspect to the ICC may well be tested by the court when it asks countries that signed the ICC charter why they let U.S. suspects go free, he said.

Amnesty International said in a statement while countries may not sign exemption deals with Washington, the chance that ``U.S. citizens and others (get) impunity for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the ICC or any other court'' remained a possibility.

``U.S. pressure has paid off,'' said Dick Oosting, Director of Amnesty International's EU Office. ``The EU has allowed the U.S. to shift the terms of the debate from legal principle to political opportunism ... Accepting the possibility of new bilateral agreements violates both the spirit and the letter'' of the ICC charter.

But German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the EU compromise was signficant. ``The Milosevices and Pinochets of tomorrow will be brought to justice,'' he told reporters, referring to former authoritarian leaders of Yugoslavia and Chile.

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