Global Policy Forum

The United States circulated a draft Security Council resolution to give US peacekeeping troops another one-year exemption from prosecution by the world court at The Hague. The measure is likely to face misgivings after revelations that US troops abused prisoners in Iraq, and Human Rights Watch told AFP it would issue a strong statement about the proposal Thursday.

Washington at first signed the treaty establishing the court but later backed out, saying it feared the tribunal would be politicised and that its troops abroad could be charged for war crimes. The United States has since persuaded more than 60 countries to agree to bilateral immunity deals, lobbying hard and threatening to cut military assistance to those that do not sign an accord.

Under the draft resolution, nations which have not ratified the court's founding statute would be exempt from investigation or prosecution for 12 months. It also specifies that the one-year period is renewable "for as long as may be necessary." Diplomats said the United States would try to push for a vote Friday.

But with outrage high over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners, it was not immediately clear if the United States would be able to muster strong support on the 15-nation council. When the existing one-year immunity resolution was passed last year, three nations abstained and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the council could undermine its own authority if exemption became "an annual routine."

But the United States got the council to vote unanimously for the immunity in 2002 by vetoing the extension of a UN police training mission in Bosnia. It threatened to block all peacekeeping operations, one by one, as their mandates came up for renewal at the council.

Established under the 1998 Rome Statute, the tribunal is the first permanent international court to try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.