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UN: The conflict begins
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Bosnia mission gets brief extension
A U.S. soldier on NATO led peacekeeping duites near Brcko.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States agreed to a 72-hour extension of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia on Sunday, shortly after vetoing a six-month extension because it didn't give American peacekeepers immunity from the new International Criminal Court.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte joined in the unanimous vote approving the brief extension, after earlier going against almost all 14 other members of the powerful council.
France and Britain proposed an extension until July 15, but the United States was only willing to agree to 72 hours, diplomats said.
If no agreement had been reached, the 1,500-strong U.N. police training mission in Bosnia would have ended at midnight Sunday.
The U.S. brinkmanship was clearly aimed at underscoring the Bush administration's opposition to the International Criminal Court, which comes into existence on Monday.
It also underlined Washington's willingness to stand against virtually all other council members, including its close allies, and to end all U.N. peacekeeping missions if necessary -- not just the Bosnian missions.
Negroponte said he hoped the veto and the brief delay would highlight the importance of the issue to the United States, and he stressed that it wasn't a question of just the Bosnian mission: "It's a question of peacekeeping in general."
The council members -- including close U.S. allies Britain and France -- support the new court and argue that a U.S. exemption would undermine the tribunal and international law.
The resolution would also have extended authorization for the 18,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. But NATO said it would not be jeopardized by a U.S. veto because its mandate comes from the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the 31/2-year war in the Balkan nation.
The NATO force includes 3,100 Americans and it was unclear whether they would be pulled out.
The United States is demanding that American and other peacekeepers from countries that have not ratified the treaty establishing the court be exempt from arrest and prosecution by the tribunal. It has rejected all compromises that don't grant blanket immunity.
The United States says immunity is needed to prevent American troops and citizens from frivolous and political motivated prosecutions. Opponents say there are enough safeguards to prevent such abuse.
In the first vote Sunday, 13 countries favored extending the mandate for Bosnia's U.N. police training mission for six months and authorization for the NATO-led force for a year. Bulgaria, a sponsor of the resolution, abstained to highlight the absence of council unity but said it still supports the court.
Negroponte said the United States voted against the resolution "with great reluctance" but will not ask Americans in U.N. peacekeeping missions "to accept the additional risk of political prosecution before a court whose jurisdiction the government of the United States does not accept.
"The United States will remain a special target," he said, "and we cannot have our decisions second-guessed."
Supporters of the court expressed dismay at the U.S. action, which could affect the 14 other U.N. peacekeeping missions -- from Cyprus to East Timor -- as their mandates come up for renewal in the Security Council.
"History, I believe, will record the actions of the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush to wreck U.N. peacekeeping and the International Criminal Court as one of the most shameful lows in global U.S. leadership," said William Pace, head of the International Coalition for a Criminal Court, a coalition of more than 1,000 organizations supporting the tribunal.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the council to intensify high-level negotiations in capitals to find a solution.
"The world cannot afford a situation in which the Security Council is deeply divided on such an important issue, which may have implications for all U.N. peace operations," he declared.
This was supposed to be the last six-month extension for the U.N. mission in Bosnia, which has been helping to develop a multiethnic and professional police force. The training operation is being handed over to the European Union on January 1.
Annan said it would be "most unfortunate" if the premature termination of the Bosnia mission set back international efforts to help the country achieve lasting peace "after the country was ripped apart by war from 1992 to 1995."
The veto won't stop the world's first permanent war crimes court from coming into existence Monday. Dutch administrators overseeing its initial months of operation are ready to register claims of genocide and wartime atrocities committed after Monday.
With the backing of 74 countries -- despite fierce opposition from the United States -- The Hague-based institute will have the authority to prosecute individuals -- not states -- suspected of war crimes anywhere in the world.
"All who believe in democracy and justice and the rule of law can celebrate," Pace said. "This is truly one of the greatest advances of international law since the founding of the United Nations 57 years ago."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/30/war.crimes.court.ap/index.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
A U.S. soldier on NATO led peacekeeping duites near Brcko.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States agreed to a 72-hour extension of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia on Sunday, shortly after vetoing a six-month extension because it didn't give American peacekeepers immunity from the new International Criminal Court.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte joined in the unanimous vote approving the brief extension, after earlier going against almost all 14 other members of the powerful council.
France and Britain proposed an extension until July 15, but the United States was only willing to agree to 72 hours, diplomats said.
If no agreement had been reached, the 1,500-strong U.N. police training mission in Bosnia would have ended at midnight Sunday.
The U.S. brinkmanship was clearly aimed at underscoring the Bush administration's opposition to the International Criminal Court, which comes into existence on Monday.
It also underlined Washington's willingness to stand against virtually all other council members, including its close allies, and to end all U.N. peacekeeping missions if necessary -- not just the Bosnian missions.
Negroponte said he hoped the veto and the brief delay would highlight the importance of the issue to the United States, and he stressed that it wasn't a question of just the Bosnian mission: "It's a question of peacekeeping in general."
The council members -- including close U.S. allies Britain and France -- support the new court and argue that a U.S. exemption would undermine the tribunal and international law.
The resolution would also have extended authorization for the 18,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. But NATO said it would not be jeopardized by a U.S. veto because its mandate comes from the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the 31/2-year war in the Balkan nation.
The NATO force includes 3,100 Americans and it was unclear whether they would be pulled out.
The United States is demanding that American and other peacekeepers from countries that have not ratified the treaty establishing the court be exempt from arrest and prosecution by the tribunal. It has rejected all compromises that don't grant blanket immunity.
The United States says immunity is needed to prevent American troops and citizens from frivolous and political motivated prosecutions. Opponents say there are enough safeguards to prevent such abuse.
In the first vote Sunday, 13 countries favored extending the mandate for Bosnia's U.N. police training mission for six months and authorization for the NATO-led force for a year. Bulgaria, a sponsor of the resolution, abstained to highlight the absence of council unity but said it still supports the court.
Negroponte said the United States voted against the resolution "with great reluctance" but will not ask Americans in U.N. peacekeeping missions "to accept the additional risk of political prosecution before a court whose jurisdiction the government of the United States does not accept.
"The United States will remain a special target," he said, "and we cannot have our decisions second-guessed."
Supporters of the court expressed dismay at the U.S. action, which could affect the 14 other U.N. peacekeeping missions -- from Cyprus to East Timor -- as their mandates come up for renewal in the Security Council.
"History, I believe, will record the actions of the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush to wreck U.N. peacekeeping and the International Criminal Court as one of the most shameful lows in global U.S. leadership," said William Pace, head of the International Coalition for a Criminal Court, a coalition of more than 1,000 organizations supporting the tribunal.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the council to intensify high-level negotiations in capitals to find a solution.
"The world cannot afford a situation in which the Security Council is deeply divided on such an important issue, which may have implications for all U.N. peace operations," he declared.
This was supposed to be the last six-month extension for the U.N. mission in Bosnia, which has been helping to develop a multiethnic and professional police force. The training operation is being handed over to the European Union on January 1.
Annan said it would be "most unfortunate" if the premature termination of the Bosnia mission set back international efforts to help the country achieve lasting peace "after the country was ripped apart by war from 1992 to 1995."
The veto won't stop the world's first permanent war crimes court from coming into existence Monday. Dutch administrators overseeing its initial months of operation are ready to register claims of genocide and wartime atrocities committed after Monday.
With the backing of 74 countries -- despite fierce opposition from the United States -- The Hague-based institute will have the authority to prosecute individuals -- not states -- suspected of war crimes anywhere in the world.
"All who believe in democracy and justice and the rule of law can celebrate," Pace said. "This is truly one of the greatest advances of international law since the founding of the United Nations 57 years ago."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/30/war.crimes.court.ap/index.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
by Elizabeth Neuffer
UNITED NATIONS - The Bush administration, facing a July 1 deadline when war crimes could be prosecuted by a new world criminal court, is stepping up efforts to exempt American troops and other US officials from the tribunal's jurisdiction.
Preparing for a battle likely to play out in the United Nations, world capitals, and the US Congress, administration officials and key Republican allies say they are pursuing a range of approaches to ensure the United States, which opposes the International Criminal Court, will not be subject to it.
All US ambassadors were told last month by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to explore whether other nations were open to creating mutual agreements that would protect their ''nationals'' from the ''reach of the ICC,'' according to a copy of a diplomatic cable obtained by the Globe.
Meanwhile, the US mission at the United Nations is seeking support for a resolution that would keep all UN peacekeepers from being prosecuted, and it has threatened to withdraw Americans from UN peacekeeping missions if they are not shielded from the court's reach.
Should these diplomatic efforts fail, congressional Republicans are ready to block US funds to UN peacekeeping missions . And a bill that would ban the US from cooperating with the new court is part of a homeland security appropriations bill that is expected to be voted on by the House this week.
Although the United States has announced it will not be bound by the court, it is undertaking these strategies to avoid a situation in which an American could be brought before it.
''When the ICC treaty enters into force this summer, US citizens will be exposed to the risk of prosecution by a court that is unacceptable to the American people,'' said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when Washington announced on May 6 that it would not be a party to the treaty that created the court.
The idea of a world court that could bring dictators to the dock has been supported by several countries since the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The idea gained momentum after the creation of two UN war crimes tribunals in the mid-1990s for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
But US officials - led mostly by the Pentagon - have always opposed such a court, fearful that it would not protect American troops and officials from politicized prosecutions, and that there were insufficient checks and balances on its prosecutors' powers. A treaty establishing the court was adopted in Rome in 1998 over American objections.
Intended as a court of last resort, the ICC, which will sit in The Hague, Netherlands, is intended to prosecute alleged war criminals when their own country does not do so. Former President Clinton, who had serious reservations about the court, signed the treaty creating it in the final hours of his second term. He recommended further protections for soldiers be added before it was ratified.
The Bush administration has chosen to oppose the court rather than change it further. Earlier this month, Washington notified UN Secretary General Kofi Annan it would ''unsign'' the treaty, meaning the US no longer had any legal obligations to abide by it.
The administration's tactics have already frustrated some allies, who say Washington's fears are unreasonable.
''There are enough guarantees in the treaty to accommodate American concerns,'' said Hanns Schumacher, Germany's acting permanent representative to the United Nations. ''The US is chosing the wrong target.'' Germany is among the 66 countries that have ratified the 1998 treaty.
Tempers flared last week when the United States tried to offer an amendment to a UN Security Council resolution on a peacekeeping mission to East Timor that would extend criminal immunity to all former or current UN personnel. The measure was soundly defeated amid arguments that it would undermine the world court.
''The whole point of the court is that it is to be universal,'' said one UN Security Council diplomat.
In addition to protecting US soldiers who serve abroad, administration officials aknowledge that ''the long-term concern is for persons in leadership.'' That, proponents say, is dangerous ground.
''They are opening the door to chipping away at this treaty,'' said Don Kraus, executive director of the Campaign for UN Reform in Washington, which supports the ICC.
For now, Washington's immediate concern is to guarantee that Americans abroad are immune from the court before the treaty that created it takes effect on July 1. While the ICC is not likely to begin work at The Hague until later this year, it could prosecute alleged war crimes committed as of July 1.
One approach the administration is considering is to renegotiate military and political treaties with hundreds of countries to include guarantees that any American charged with a war crime abroad can only be tried in the United States and not in the ICC or home countries. A provision of the ICC treaty recognizes existing agreements between countries.
But revising hundreds of agreements before July 1 is not feasible, so the Bush administration appears focused instead on protecting those US personnel it considers most vulnerable - the 712 Americans currently in UN peacekeeping missions.
Only one of those Americans is an active soldier; the rest are military observers or civilian police who are serving primarily in Bosnia or Kosovo.
Still, Washington wants the UN Security Council to pass a resolution exempting all UN personnel, whether or not they are American, from prosecution by the court. UN Security Council diplomats say that is unlikely.
''(The Americans) are going to have to find another way,'' said one European diplomat. ''It is impossible to adopt something undermining the ICC treaty.''
If such an effort is blocked, the US Congress may come into play. North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is firmly opposed to the ICC. ''This is a court that contains enormous potential for abuse,'' said Lester Munson, a committee spokesman. ''It doesn't look so bad on paper, but then Dr. Frankenstein never intended for his monster to run amok.''
Helms may try to block US funding for UN peackeeping if the UN Security Council efforts fail. Meanwhile, the House may later this week approve its own version of the American Serviceman's Protection Act, which bars US cooperation with the ICC, as part of a larger appropriations bill.
c Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
###
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0523-02.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Story Filed: Sunday, June 30, 2002 2:53 PM EST
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The U.N. Security Council is due to resume its deliberations at 4 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Sunday, just eight hours before the expiration of the Bosnia mission's mandate.
The 15-nation body made the decision as the world body neared a double-edged deadline on Sunday over a U.S. fight to keep its peacekeepers out of the reach of a new global war crimes court.
The council was divided 14-1 against the U.S. position after spending Friday in a failed search for common ground.
Washington has threatened to veto a draft resolution to renew the U.N. Mission in Bosnia if the council fails to grant immunity for its soldiers and officials working in the Balkan country ahead of a Sunday midnight (0400 GMT Monday) deadline for the mission's mandate to be extended.
Midnight also marks the hour the new International Criminal Court comes into force, empowered to prosecute heinous wrongdoing such as gross human rights abuses, genocide and war crimes.
No crimes committed prior to Monday can be pursued under the terms of the treaty that created the court, which will be based in The Hague, the Netherlands, and will not actually have a prosecutor or judges until early next year. The United States has renounced the court as a threat to its sovereignty, but Bosnia has ratified it.
The U.N. Bosnia mission was launched in 1995 to train a professional multiethnic police force after a three-year war. The United States has 46 police officers in the mission.
But rather than simply pull them out of the country to protect them from the new court's grasp, Washington has threatened to veto the draft resolution that would keep the mission alive unless the U.N. satisfied U.S. demands for immunity. That move would shut down the mission.
Hans Corell, the top U.N. legal adviser, suggested for the first time on Friday that a U.S. move to end the U.N. mission could also close down the Balkan state's far more strategically important NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force.
Copyright 2002 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
Copyright c 2002, Xinhua News Agency, all rights reserved.
http://library.northernlight.com/FB20020630960000016.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
China's air force test-fired a new air-to-air missile for the first time last week in a move that has altered the military balance across the Taiwan Strait, defense officials say. Top Stories
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The missile was identified by U.S. intelligence agencies last week as the Russian-made AA-12 Adder during a test-firing by two Chinese Su-30 fighters, said officials familiar with reports of the testing.
"This is the first time the Chinese have tested this missile," said one senior defense official.
Another U.S. official familiar with Chinese military activities said: "This is a big ramp-up in the threat, if the Chinese actually have deployed the AA-12, no question," adding that Beijing's deployment of the missile could lead to transfers to Taiwan of a similar U.S. medium-range air-to-air missile.
The AA-12's advanced guidance system makes it what military officials call a "beyond visual range" missile and a significant boost in firepower over the AA-10 missiles that were China's most advanced air-to-air armaments until last week.
The two Russian-made jets fired AA-12 missiles at target drones and scored hits in the tests early last week, defense officials said.
The air-to-air missiles were part of China's purchase from Moscow over the last several years of up to 80 Su-30 fighter-bombers. The missile transfer had been expected as part of the deal, but U.S. intelligence agencies had not been able to confirm the AA-12 deployment until last week's tests.
China also has purchased 2,000 Russian AS-14 air-to-surface missiles, which have a range of up to six miles. The first 1,000 missiles were delivered over the past several months, and a second shipment is expected in the next several months, defense officials said. The AS-14 is an advanced missile with a 1,500-pound warhead that is guided to ground targets by lasers, television cameras or thermal-imaging sensors.
A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment when asked whether the Pentagon plans to transfer U.S. AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles that have been purchased by Taiwan but are kept at bases in the United States.
The U.S. government sold 200 AIM-120 missiles to Taipei in September 2000, but prohibited the actual transfer of the missiles to Taiwan because of a U.S. policy. It states that United States would not be the first nation to introduce a new missile capability into Asia. As a result, Taiwan was forced to store the missiles at U.S. bases.
A similar arrangement was worked out with Singapore's military, which purchased 100 AIM-120s in 2000 but did not receive the missiles.
The transfer of those missiles was contingent upon neighboring Malaysia's reported purchase of AA-12s from Russia.
Defense officials said China's test-firing makes likely a transfer of the AIM-120s to Taiwan.
China has opposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which have stepped up under the Bush administration. The White House announced last year that it would sell Taiwan four guided-missile destroyers, six diesel-electric submarines and other military equipment.
The AA-12 has a range of up to 31 miles - about the same range as the AIM-120. The missile is guided by an active radar finder that helps it home in on flying aircraft.
It is known as a "fire-and-forget" missile because of its sophisticated radar guidance.
"This is a very capable missile with much greater range than anything the Chinese currently have," said a U.S. intelligence official.
Taiwan's air force, which deploys indigenous fighters and U.S.-made F-16 jets, has French-made MICA and indigenous Sky Sword 1 and Sky Sword 2 air-to-air missiles.
Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military with the Jamestown Foundation, said the introduction of the AA-12 represents a major shift in power across the Taiwan Strait.
"Why aren't we allowing Taiwan to deploy [AIM-120s] where there has been a long-standing military requirement?" Mr. Fisher asked. "Deterrence requires maintaining superior military capabilities, and by failing to allow Taiwan to deploy its missiles, we have undermined deterrence."
Mr. Fisher said the Su-30 deal also will likely include the transfer of other sophisticated Russian missiles to China, including laser- and television-guided bombs, long-range television-guided missiles and possibly anti-ship missiles with ranges of 180 miles.
"The purchase of the Su-30s alone constitutes a significant attempt to shift the balance of power on the Taiwan Strait," Mr. Fisher said.
U.S. intelligence officials disclosed to The Washington Times in January that China was modifying the Su-30s to carry advanced C-801 anti-ship cruise missiles.
The recent AA-12 missile deployment is not expected to be contained in the Pentagon's long-delayed annual report on the military balance across the Taiwan Strait, defense officials said.
The report has been completed for several months but was held up from release by Pentagon officials who wanted to avoid offending Beijing during the May visit to the United States of Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao.
The release of the report also was delayed until after the visit to China by Peter Rodman, assistant defense secretary for international security affairs. Mr. Rodman returned from China last week, and the report is expected to be released in the next several days, officials said.
Mr. Fisher said the Chinese are also developing a copy of the AA-12 known as the Project 129 air-to-air missile.
"It has a Russian radar and data link, combined with a [Chinese] rocket motor, which is said to have a better performance than the AA-12's motor," Mr. Fisher said, noting that the new Chinese missile could have a greater range than the Russian original. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020701-95731060.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Former newsman continues activism for global government
Posted: July 1, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
c 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
In a new fund-raising letter for the World Federalist Association, former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, known for a generation as "the most trusted man in America," calls for the creation of a standing United Nations army and U.S. Senate ratification of the International Criminal Court.
The World Federalist Association, directed by former presidential candidate John Anderson, promotes the idea of global government as the solution for many of the world's problems.
"The recent terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon have shown that we must stand together, united as citizens of the world, if we are to create a world free of intolerance, injustice and violence," Cronkite says in his letter. "An empowered U.N. is our best hope for achieving such a goal - a global community that can solve our problems effectively, democratically and peacefully."
Specifically, Cronkite calls for:
"permanent U.N. peacekeeping forces for rapid responses to ruptures of peace";
"U.S. Senate ratification of the International Criminal Court treaty in order to bring international lawbreakers to justice";
"a strong and well-funded Commission for Sustainable Development to protect the earth's atmosphere and oceans";
"full and on-time payments of all U.S. financial obligations to the U.N. - which amounts to only $1.11 per U.S. citizen"; and
"a more democratic and representative U.N. that provides a voice for the world's citizens, not just governments."
Cronkite adds that "until we have effective international law to forge genuine, enforceable international solutions, many of the most vexing problems we face will continue to defy remedy."
The letter on behalf of the World Federalist Association's "Campaign for Global Change" is hardly the first time Cronkite has spoken out on such a controversial issue since stepping down as CBS News managing editor.
In October 1999, Cronkite spoke at the U.N. and called openly for world government - and an end to the notion of U.S. sovereignty.
"It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict, we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace," he said to those assembled including then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. "To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order."
Though Cronkite was known largely for his dispassionate coverage of the news during his tenure as CBS anchorman, he was recommended for the job by influential socialist journalist Blair Clark, late editor of the Nation magazine, according to Clark's obituary in that magazine in July 2000.
Related column:
Most trusted man in America?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28072.
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
How can anyone doubt that this court would be miss-used by Red China, North Korea, Libya, Iraq, Iran and most certainly by the former government of Paistan if they were still in existance? Wouldn't that be a sight? The Taliban giving an American Pilot accused of war crimes a fair trial!
And lest anyone doubt it could happen do you remember all the things we were already accused of by North Korea in 1950-1953?
Nil Illegitimus Carborundum