War Crimes Court opens without US by Keith Richburg, The Hague Washington Post 3:00pm 13th Mar, 2003   The world's first permanent war crimes tribunal was inaugurated on Tuesday in this Dutch seat of government, despite efforts by the Bush Administration to hamper its creation and exempt Americans from its provisions.    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presided as 18 international judges of the International Criminal Court took the oath of office at a ceremony attended by Queen Beatrix and international dignitaries representing some of the 89 countries that back the court's establishment.    Notably absent was an official representative of the US, although the American embassy is two blocks from the 13th-century grand hall where the ceremony took place.    The court is the culmination of a concept that had its genesis in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II, and that gained currency recently during ongoing tribunals created to consider charges of genocide in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.    "For centuries, and especially in the last century, (the world's) conscience has been shocked by unspeakable crimes - crimes whose victims were counted not in the tens, but in tens of thousands, even in millions," Mr Annan said. With the establishment of the court, he said, "persons who are tempted or pressured to commit unspeakable crimes must be deterred by the knowledge that they will one day individually be called to account."    A 1998 accord, known as the Rome Treaty, established the International Criminal Court and was ratified by the US during the Clinton administration. But President George Bush withdrew US support, expressing concern that an independent court could be used for frivolous or politically based prosecutions of American citizens. A senior US official said that the precise case of an impending and unpopular US invasion of Iraq was the kind of situation in which there were concerns about international court proceedings.    "Sometimes the US has to do things and people don't agree with it," said the senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We don't want a politically motivated prosecution to result from that."    In the event of a war in Iraq, there was also a possibility of charges against President Saddam Hussein, who is accused by the US, Britain and other countries of war crimes in his own country. US officials have suggested a special tribunal inside Iraq would try Mr Saddam and other Iraqis accused of such crimes after a US-led invasion.    While Clifford Sobel, the US ambassador to the Netherlands, did not attend the ceremony, David Scheffer, the former US ambassador for war crimes during the Clinton administration, was present. Mr Scheffer signed the Rome Treaty on behalf of the US.    Since abrogating the Clinton administration's signature last year, the Bush Administration has convinced 24 countries to sign bilateral agreements with the US, pledging not to surrender to the court US nationals or foreigners working under US contract.    Congress has since passed legislation authorising the President to take "all means necessary" to free Americans taken into custody by the court.    - Washington Post (Republished by the Age) Visit the related web page
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