http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/#11029
Sudan war criminals to be tried at ICC ISN SECURITY WATCH (01/04/05) - The UN Security Council has voted to refer war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the US was granted concessions to abstain from the vote. Following weeks of negotiations, the US won assurances that its own citizens would not be prosecuted at the ICC. In return, the US said it would not veto the Security Council vote on Thursday. Despite the concessions, Council members praised the outcome of the vote. "This resolution marks a turning point, for it is sending the message beyond Darfur to all of those criminals responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes who all too often believed that they were beyond the pale of justice," France's ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said in a statement. The US administration has argued that Americans could be targets of politically motivated prosecutions at the ICC, and had requested that a new war crimes court be set up to deal with Darfur cases. Thanks to the UN's concessions, US peacekeepers operating in Sudan are now immune from ICC prosecution. Security Council members also barred any other country from prosecuting US citizens at the ICC. China, Algeria, and Brazil also abstained from the vote. Commenting on the vote, Richard Grenell, the spokesman for the US mission at the Security Council, said: "We didn't cave. We got the full protection for Americans that we sought." However, those countries who are signatories to the ICC treaty may feel that it was the Security Council that caved in to US demands for immunity from international prosecution. International community representatives have accused the Sudanese government of arming the Arab Janjaweed militias to fight rebels in Darfur. The Janjaweed militias have been accused of conducting a widespread campaign of rape, killing, and looting in the region. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and an estimated two million others have been displaced in the two-year conflict in Darfur. Sudanese authorities have repeatedly denied any link to the Janjaweed. UN investigators have handed over a list of 51 persons for the ICC to investigate for war crimes in Darfur. The ICC was formed in 1998 with 97 signatory countries, including all EU nations. Former US president Bill Clinton signed the treaty in 2000, shortly before leaving office, but President George Bush withdrew from it in 2002. Since then, the Bush administration has used carrot-and-stick methods to secure bilateral immunity deals with countries to guarantee that they would not hand over US nationals to the court. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
