THE US: The United States yesterday suspended military assistance to dozens of countries that have signed up to the International Criminal Court (ICC) but have refused to formally exempt Americans from possible prosecution.
Almost 50 countries, including the Republic of Ireland, are reportedly subject to the suspension of military aid under the American Servicemembers' Protection Act (ASPA).
Ireland, one of the strongest supporters of the ICC, has not signed the exemption agreement but receives no military aid from the United States, an Irish embassy spokesman said yesterday.
The legislation, passed last year by Congress in response to the foundation of the court, revokes US military assistance to countries that have ratified the ICC, unless they conclude separate bilateral accords with the US agreeing never to hand over to the court American personnel accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Most EU countries are not subject to the Act as it exempts NATO members and nine major non-NATO allies. Washington has however conducted a year-long campaign through its embassies to persuade other countries to sign exemptions by July 1st under Section 98 of the Rome treaty setting up the court, and a reported 48 countries have signed bilateral agreements.
Human Rights Watch in New York said that the majority of these countries were small and poor and "had not ratified the ICC treaty anyway, and therefore have no obligation to transfer US personnel to the court". In a letter to US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell, the group called on the Bush administration "to end its ill-conceived campaign to weaken the court".
Mr Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch accused US ambassadors of "acting like schoolyard bullies" and said that while the campaign had not succeeded in undermining global support for the court it made the US government look "foolish and mean-spirited". The letter to Mr Powell said American Ambassador, Mr Richard Blankenship, publicly warned the Bahamas that if it did not support the Washington position on the ICC, a significant amount of US aid would be withheld, including funds for paving and lighting an airport runway.
It accused an unnamed assistant secretary of state of informing foreign ministers of Caribbean states that they would lose the benefits for hurricane relief and rural dentistry and veterinary programmes if their governments did not sign.
A US official declined to comment on the Bahamas threat other than to say that the prospect of American military aid to countries could be affected in the absence of signing an Article 98 Agreement.
Most of the ICC's 18 judges come from countries allied with the US and are unlikely to indulge in unwarranted prosecutions of Americans, said Mr Dicker.
One of Ireland's leading criminal lawyers, Ms Maureen Harding Clark, topped the poll in a ballot among UN member countries for the judgeships on the court, which will sit in the Hague.
A total of 44 governments have acknowledged signing the agreements with the US and another seven have signed secretly, US officials said.
President Bush yesterday issued waivers for 22 countries. This list did not include Colombia where Washington has spent about $2 billion in aid in recent years to fight leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers.
Based on available information, the news agency Reuters estimated that the countries subject to the suspension of military aid are: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia.
The ban covers international military education and training funds, mainly for educating foreign officers at US institutions, and foreign military funding, which pays for US weapons and other aid.