Global Policy Forum

To cut off the biggest source of cocaine flooding on to America's streets, President George Bush's administration has been extremely keen to help Colombia fight the production and trafficking of drugs, including by training and equipping the South American country's security forces. But on Tuesday July 1st, the White House announced that it was cutting off military aid to Colombia and 34 other countries, because they had refused to grant American citizens immunity from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court (ICC). The withdrawal of military aid also covers several ex-communist European countries that are seeking to join NATO with America's support, such as Bulgaria (which recently backed America's war in Iraq). Many other countries have buckled under extreme pressure from America and agreed to grant its citizens immunity.

The ICC was created by international treaty five years ago, to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity, in cases where the accused's home country is unable or unwilling to do so. Hundreds of suggestions for prosecutions have already been sent to the court. Early candidates for trial may include rebel commanders in the civil wars in Congo and Cí´te d'Ivoire. The International Bar Association, a worldwide lawyers' group, has called for the prosecution of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president.

Unlike the United Nations' ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which has been trying Slobodan Milosevic, a former president, the ICC is meant to be permanent. It was formally launched in March this year, with the swearing-in of its first 18 judges at The Hague in the Netherlands, where the court will sit. But it will probably not start hearing cases until next year. Under Mr Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, America signed the founding treaty. But Mr Bush revoked the signing and has been pressing the UN to grant American troops on peacekeeping missions a permanent exemption from prosecution by the ICC. So far, America has only received a series of temporary waivers.

Although the ICC will try cases against individuals, not states, Mr Bush and many American congressmen fear that it will be used to bring trumped-up, politically motivated cases against American troops and even senior government officials. They say it will produce a similar but far worse situation to that produced by the law on genocide and crimes against humanity that Belgium passed ten years ago. This allows non-Belgians to bring cases against other non-Belgians for crimes allegedly committed anywhere.

Earlier this year, some Iraqis brought cases in Belgium against ex-president George Bush (the current president's father) and two of his top officials, Colin Powell (now America's secretary of state) and General Norman Schwarzkopf, accusing them of responsibility for the deaths of some Baghdad children during the first Gulf war in 1991. America says that as a result of such cases, its officials may stop attending meetings of NATO, which is based in Brussels, or it may even insist on moving NATO elsewhere. The Belgian government has realised that the law goes too far, and it is now being changed: plaintiffs will have to show they were directly affected by the alleged crimes; and the Belgian government will gain the power to send non-Belgian cases either to the ICC or, in America's case as a non-member, to the American courts.

Those that support the ICC insist that there are enough checks and balances in its founding treaty to ensure that it operates responsibly. The officials preparing the ICC to take its first cases say they will apply the lessons learned from the Yugoslav and Rwandan war-crimes tribunals, which America and others have criticised for staging long, expensive trials and spending too much time chasing the small fry.

So far, Mr Bush refuses to be reassured by such arguments. Fearful that America's troops and officials risk being arrested and handed over to the ICC whenever they step outside their homeland, his administration has been applying severe pressure on many countries to sign agreements granting immunity to American citizens. The European Union tried to stop America pressuring its current and prospective members to sign, but some, such as Britain, insisted on letting countries do so if they wished.

The Bush administration says more than 50 countries have given in to its pressure and signed immunity agreements, though it has not named all of them because some have asked for the agreements to be kept secret. The measure to stop military aid to those that do not co-operate was inserted into an anti-terrorism bill that Congress passed last year. Mr Bush's officials say around $48m in aid will not now be paid this year to the 35 countries affected. Colombia has already received and spent most of the $100m in aid it was due to receive this year. However, unless America can be persuaded to change its mind, the Colombians will receive no aid in future years—and America will have undermined one of its own key policies to curb drugs-trafficking and stabilise Latin America.

America's withdrawal of military aid is also unlikely to help its current efforts to persuade more countries to help share the burdens of policing post-war Iraq. Its hard line on several prospective EU and NATO members may also boost the French-led campaign to develop a new European defence front as a "counterweight" to American hegemony.

In all, it might have been better if Mr Bush had stuck to his predecessor's line of positive engagement with the process of creating the ICC, and pressured the court's other member countries from within, to strengthen the checks and balances against politically motivated cases. Given Mr Bush's steadfast refusal to consider this, perhaps the best that can be hoped is that, after a few years, the ICC proves its worth in bringing genuine war criminals to justice, avoids hearing unfounded accusations against democratic leaders and their law-abiding officials, and thereby encourages America eventually to sign up.

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