*EPF409 04/04/2002
Amb. Prosper: U.S. Committed to Combating War Crimes
(Discusses U.S. objections to new International Criminal Court) (1160)

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

New York -- The United States remains committed to combating war crimes around the world even though it will not participate in the International Criminal Court (ICC), says the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues.

The United States "will use all efforts at our disposal to end these abuses as they occur and hold perpetrators accountable. We believe there must be accountability for war crimes in a credible, appropriate judicial mechanism," Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper said at a press conference at the New York Foreign Press Center March 28.

The United Nations expects the 60th ratification needed to bring into force a treaty establishing the Hague-based International Criminal Court by the second week in April. The treaty will then enter into force on July 1. The court -- which will have jurisdiction over such crimes as genocide, war crimes, the crime of aggression, and crimes against humanity -- will have 18 judges as well as prosecutors and investigators.

Prosper said the United States has made clear -- during both the Clinton and Bush Administrations -- that it opposes the ICC despite having been a prime mover in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The United States believes that the ICC "is flawed and that there are insufficient safeguards in place to prevent a political prosecution rather than a prosecution based on law and fact," he said.

The Bush Administration is in the final stages of policy review of the ICC and will be announcing its final position soon. That final position will explain to the international community the U.S. view on accountability for war crimes, what the United States will do in order to protect its interests, and will confirm the U.S. commitment to combating war crimes as they occur, Prosper said.

All states have a responsibility to take action against war crimes, he said. "They must punish those who violate the laws of war."

"We, the United States, will play a role in encouraging the states to accept responsibility. We will help them in building the capacity where needed and where it is appropriate in order to combat these abuses," Prosper said.

"We do not want to see abdication of responsibility [by individual states] and we do not want to see the responsibility taken away from the states," he added.

When the Clinton Administration signed the ICC treaty, the United States believed that signing would increase the level of cooperation and the possibility for negotiation on the troubling issues between the United States and other ICC signatories at preparatory committee meetings.

"We have negotiated in good faith since 1998 on this matter," Prosper said, but the United States has not been able to achieve the changes in the treaty "that we have felt are appropriate...in order to secure the safeguards we feel we need."

Nevertheless, the United States is "committed to prosecuting war crimes. That has not changed," the ambassador said.

The United States recently voluntarily contributed $3 million for the Yugoslav and Rwanda war crimes tribunal operation, is supporting the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by providing information, and has redoubled efforts to apprehend at-large fugitives such as Radovan Karadzic, he pointed out.

Prosper singled out the Balkans as an example of the importance the United States places on dealing with war crimes.

"The authorities in Belgrade need to know...that a way to move forward, a way for there to be normalcy in the Balkans and full integration into Europe, is by cooperation," he said. "We are asking for more cooperation in the area of transfer of at-large indictees, we are asking for more cooperation in access to archives as well as access to witnesses."

On April 1 the State Department announced that Secretary of State Colin Powell had decided to defer a decision on whether the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has met certain criteria for restrictions on U.S. assistance to be lifted. One of the criteria was cooperation with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. In late March, tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte was in Washington and at UN headquarters in New York to complain that both federal and Serbian authorities have been unwilling to assist in the capture of several persons indicted by the tribunal and have not granted access to records she has asked to see.

Prosper emphasized that the United States supports the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals; in contrast, it "has a problem with the structure itself, the document itself and the mechanism" of the ICC. In prosecuting the war on terror, the United States has "asked everyone to become part of a coalition and that coalition is asking each and every state to use its unilateral authority to combat terrorism around the world," he said. That is not inconsistent with the U.S. rejection of the ICC.

He said that there are no safeguards in place in the ICC to protect individuals against political prosecutions; this oversight is not as strong in the Rwanda and Yugoslavia tribunals. "The concern that we have is that a U.S. service member, a U.S. official could be brought before the court for purely political reasons rather than prosecution for legitimate offenses," Prosper said.

In domestic judicial systems and at the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals there are "checks and balances" such as grand juries, and then jury pools when the case goes to trial. But in the ICC system "the prosecutor is essentially answerable to no one," he said.

In the ICC, "there is a mechanism that allows a prosecutor to assert jurisdiction regardless of what the state action is, provided the prosecutor is able to persuade a pre-trial chamber. We feel that is too narrow."

Under U.S. law, a person can be prosecuted if the crime is committed by an American citizen, committed against an American citizen, or committed on U.S. soil. This is norm across the world, Prosper said. The ICC however, is "a quite different attempt to assert jurisdiction over any and all officials around the world regardless of where the crime was committed, regardless of who the victim is or the perpetrator."

Another very important point for the United States is that the ICC treaty "is just that -- a treaty," the ambassador said. "It should only have jurisdiction over parties that are signatories. It should not have jurisdiction over non-party states, as supporters of the ICC believe."

"This is a fundamental disagreement that we have. We believe that it is inconsistent with international law," he said.

Before becoming U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, Prosper served as the prosecutor for the Rwanda war crimes tribunal and successfully prosecuted the first case of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention. He has also been part of the Drug Enforcement Task Force, investigating and prosecuting major international drug cartels and in the prosecution of gang-related homicides.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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