US No Longer Immune to War Crimes Prosecution
The US has withdrawn a proposal at the UN to extend the immunity of American troops from war crimes procecution.
Washington withdrew its resolution after it became clear it would not get the required support.This is far too long in coming, and it is unfortunate that it required something like the torture of Iraqis by American troops at Abu Ghraib to make the prosecution of Americans for war crimes possible.
For the last two years it had secured special status for US troops, arguing they could face malicious prosecutions.
"The United States has decided not to proceed further with consideration and action on the draft at this time in order to avoid a prolonged and divisive debate," said the US deputy ambassador to the UN James Cunningham. (click here for the full article)
As the BBC article cited here mentions, the US had previously blackmailed the Security Council into granting the special protection for American troops by threatening to veto any peacekeeping missions that came before the Security Council for approval.
Since the most pressing peacekeeping mission forthcoming, is the US desire to appear to hand over the Iraq occupation to the UN, the Americans were stuck.
Now the question is whether Americans will face charges in the future. I suspect activist judges in Europe will be the first to charge an American with war crimes. High on the list of those deserving to be prosecuted are Kissenger, and when they retire or are voted out of office, Rumsfeld, and Dubya.
2 Comments:
I doubt there's going to be a rush to start charging Americans in the International Court. The IC will want to prove to the US that it won't become what Bush fears in order to get them on board.
Oh I agree there won't be a rush. But like I said, I suspect the first to seek to charge a formerly high ranking American official will be an activist judge somewhere in Europe.
Although the I suspect the first American convicted for war crimes will likely be some private in the military, who will be guilty, but also will have been following orders. As England and a few of the others have been scapegoated for all the torture at Abu Ghraib, so too will other "expendables" be scapegoated first.
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