Global Policy Forum

Andrew Osborn

The attempt by Palestinians to have the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, tried in Belgium for war crimes seems to have been finally ruled out by a Belgian parliamentary vote to water down the contentious legislation involved. The law, which gives judges the right to hear cases of war crimes committed by anyone, anywhere, at any time, looks certain to be diluted beyond recognition.

Mr Sharon is accused of responsibility for the massacre of Palestinian refugees by Christian militiamen in Beirut in 1982, when he was defence minister and ordered the invasion of Lebanon. Survivors of the massacre lodged a case against him and in February the appeal court provoked outrage in Jerusalem by ruling that he could be tried once he had left office.

A string of other world figures, including former president George Bush and the Cuban president Fidel Castro have had cases brought against them too. Belgium's diplomatic relations with a number of countries have suffered in consequence, and, tired of the diplomatic embarrassment, it has decided that enough is enough.

The lower house voted 63-48 late on Tuesday night to approve sweeping amendments that will kill off such cases, past and present. The upper house is expected to ratify the decision today. The amended law will allow those claiming to be the victims of crimes against humanity outside Belgium to bring a case in Belgium only if they have lived there for at least three years. Even then, their complaints will be investigated only if the public prosecutor's office decides that Belgium is the right place to deal with the matter. Officials say that will be the exception not the rule.

If the alleged crime took place in a democratic country with an impartial judiciary Belgium will simply refer the case back there, and many complaints will be passed on to the international criminal court in the Hague. The amendments mean that the Sharon case will simply be referred back to Israel, where it will be shelved.

Before the vote it seemed likely that the case would be unaffected, since the new rules were intended to apply only to cases lodged after July last year, and the case against Mr Sharon was submitted in July 2001. But the Liberals angered their coalition government partners the Socialist and the Greens by voting to make the changes completely retroactive instead.

The changes will also kill off a recent attempt by seven Iraqi families to bring charges against George Bush Sr, the current secretary of state Colin Powell, the vice-president, Dick Cheney and the retired general Norman Schwarzkopf. The Iraqis hold the four men responsible for bombing an air raid shelter in Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf war in which 403 civilians died, and wanted them prosecuted in Belgium for war crimes .

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