New Global Criminal Court Becomes Reality

Oregon Magazine ^ | May 1, 2002 | Larry Leonard

[WaterDragon]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)- The dream of creating a permanent court to try the world's most heinous crimes became a reality on Thursday, hailed by many as a landmark human rights achievement but rejected by the United States.

Thank God Al Gore wasn't able to steal the presidency with his attempts to manipulate voters in Florida and reject the mail-in ballots of the military. He would have signed on to this piece of crap.

At a solemn ceremony at U.N. headquarters, 10 countries brought the total number of nations to ratify a Rome treaty establishing the International Criminal Court to 66 -- six more than needed to bring the treaty into force on July 1. The 10 nations -- Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania and Slovakia -- deposited their papers all at the same time so that the honor of being the 60th state does not go to one country.

With the exception of Ireland, all of the countries above are military dictatorships, Islamic dictatorships or borderline socialist states.

"The required number of 60 ratifications into force of the Rome statute has been reached," said chief U.N. legal counsel Hans Corell to sustained applause. "A page in the history of humankind is being turned."

It is a tragic day for the rule of law.

The tribunal is expected to go into operation next year in The Hague, Netherlands, a belated effort to fulfill the promise of the Nuremberg trials 56 years ago, when Nazi leaders were prosecuted for new categories of war crimes against humanity.

Had this court been in existence then, it would have tried the Allies for War Crimes, not the Germans.

The new tribunal has jurisdiction only when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute individuals for the world's most serious atrocities: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other gross human-rights abuses.

Israel will be one of the first nations charged. The U.N., most of Europe and every socialist and Islamic state in the world despises Jews and wants to finish the Holocaust.

Cases can be referred by a country that has ratified the treaty, the U.N. Security Council or the tribunal's prosecutor after approval from three judges. But the court is not retroactive and cannot probe crimes committed before July 1.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo ratified that treaty. Do you know who runs the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Why don't you go there and find out? We will send flowers to your surviving relatives.

In a rebuff to its European allies, a major force behind the court, the Bush administration rejected the entire concept of a permanent international war crimes tribunal.

Thank God Bush and the Supreme Court refused to let Al Gore and the Florida State Supreme Court steal the presidency.

And it is considering withdrawing former President Clinton's signature from the Rome treaty, even though Clinton did not submit it to Congress for ratification, fearing U.S. soldiers abroad would be subjected to frivolous prosecutions.

That's a damned lie. Clinton did not submit it to Congress for ratification because it had about as much chance of passing as a snowball in hell.

'CAMPAIGN OF DISINFORMATION'

(Definition: anything written by the mainstream media, including Reuters.)

Republican Congressmen have introduced a smattering of retaliatory legislation, ranging from forbidding any U.S. contact with the court and punishing those ratifying the treaty to using force to free any American brought to The Hague.

Good idea.

Still, when the statute for the court was approved in Rome in June 1998, diplomats believed it would take between 10 and 20 years to ratify, said Phillipe Kirsch, the Canadian head of the court's preparatory commission.

Phillipe Kirsch is of French descent. One shouldn't expect him to know anything about anything.

The impetus to establish the court came after the 1992-1995 Bosnian war and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The U.N. Security Council has established temporary or ad hoc tribunals to try individuals for atrocities committed. The new court would replace such tribunals in the future.

That's a lie. The impetus to establish the court came from Frederick Engels and Karl Marx. Its establishment should stimulate the ejection of the United Nations from U.S. soil, and the elimination of all U.S. funding of any kind for the organization.

Wars have changed in the last 50 years, with civilians increasingly becoming the main target. Some 86 million men, women and children died in 250 conflicts around the world, according to the Coalition for an International Criminal Court, an umbrella group of 1,000 organizations.

Wars have not become different. The author of this piece must have been educated in an American public school. The most common tactic in war during the ancient era of city-states was siege. That means lobbing arrows, rocks and flaming materials over the walls into the city. Siege was also intended to starve the city's citizens, an subject them to plague. From the Persian (Iranian) armies of Darius to Rome, to the hordes of Ghengis Khan, to the battles of medieval Europe, civilians have been raped, slaughtered, enslaved, impressed into military service, robbed blind and tortured to death by invading armies....(snip) [rest of article at http://oregonmag.com/UNWarCrimesCourt.htm]

[historian1944]

Thought I would post the entire list of the 66 signatories, since I haven't seen that posted yet.

Source: Rome Statute Signature and Ratification Chart

Rome Statute Signature and Ratification Chart

Last updated to include ratification by Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania and Slovakia on 11 April 2002.

For more detailed information please visit our Country-by-Country Ratification Status Report or our Clickable Maps

State Parties to the Rome Statute (66) (Ratifications and accessions (a) in chronological order)

Senegal 2 February 1999

Trinidad and Tobago 6 April 1999

San Marino 13 May 1999

Italy 26 July 1999

Fiji 29 November 1999

Ghana 20 December 1999

Norway 16 February 2000

Belize 5 April 2000

Tajikistan 5 May 2000

Iceland 25 May 2000

Venezuela 7 June 2000

France 9 June 2000

Belgium 28 June 2000

Canada 7 July 2000

Mali 16 August 2000

Lesotho 6 September 2000

New Zealand 7 September 2000

Botswana 8 September 2000

Luxembourg 8 September 2000

Sierra Leone 15 September 2000

Gabon 20 September 2000

Spain 24 October 2000

South Africa 27 November 2000

Marshall Islands 7 December 2000

Germany 11 December 2000

Austria 28 December 2000

Finland 29 December 2000

Argentina 8 February 2001

Dominica 12 February 2001

a Andorra 30 April 2001

Paraguay 14 May 2001

Croatia 21 May 2001

Costa Rica 7 June 2001

Antigua & Barbuda 18 June 2001

Denmark 21 June 2001

Sweden 28 June 2001

Netherlands 17 July 2001

Yugoslavia 6 September 2001

Nigeria 27 September 2001

Liechtenstein 2 October 2001

Central African Republic 3 October 2001

United Kingdom 4 October 2001

Switzerland 12 October 2001

Peru 10 November 2001

Nauru 12 November 2001

Poland 12 November 2001

Hungary 30 November 2001

Slovenia 31 December 2001

Benin 22 January 2002

Estonia 30 January 2002

Portugal 5 February 2002

Ecuador 5 February 2002

Mauritius 5 March 2002

Macedonia, FYR 6 March 2002

Cyprus 7 March 2002

Panama 21 March 2002

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania and Slovakia

I think that our signature or non-signature is taken to be irrelevant, becuase this will operate under the auspices of the UN, and barring our departure from that organization, this court will be binding.

[Rule of Law]

I think you may have missed a very important point that makes this World Court thing a good idea. This court is extremely anti-American.

How, you may ask, is this a good thing? Because there are already plans afoot to indict Collin Powell and George Bush. This is a grand thing. Because once these politicians come to understand that all this new world order, world government junk applies to them and not just us peons, maybe they won't be so willing sell us out to the UN. They might even decide it's time to close down the UN.

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[WaterDragon]

I think the U.N. is already being side-lined. Too many in the country still believe the U.N. is necessary, but those numbers are dwindling. Eventually, the U.N. will be pinched off, left to its rot. I sure agree with you that this criminal court business, and what they plan to try with it will be the U.N.'s death knell.

[WaterDragon]

Thanks for spelling out that list, historian. There's a lot of arm-twisting going on, I'm sure. The Left and its lemmings really have nothing to offer but their "will to power".

[Rule of Law]

I sure agree with you that this criminal court business, and what they plan to try with it will be the U.N.'s death knell.

Not a moment too soon.

[WaterDragon]

A conservative writer speaks out on the absurd world criminal court. Uses nasty language, too! LOL

[Aric2000]

Larry again calls it as he sees it, and he sees it for what it is.

The man is no premadonna, good job Larry, as usual.

[Goldsters]

You make a very good point. It will indeed take something like this to wake people up.

[blackie]

The UN is irrelevant !!

[Rule of Law]

It will indeed take something like this to wake people up.

I don't know if the "masses" need it. Many are opposed to world government. Not just here -- look at France.

But the "leaders" seem to be enamoured with it. Maybe a few indictments of politicians will be a wakeup call for them. I hope so.

[LarryLied]

All one needs to know about the UN is that the architect of the body and first (interim) Secretary-General was Alger Hiss, a paid KGB agent.

[WaterDragon]

Is that true, Larry? I never knew that!

[LarryLied]

Yes, the UN was organized in San Francisco. Alger Hiss led the charge. It was designed as a Soviet front. I remember as a kid going to the UN not long after it was built. Everyone was in awe of this new thinking in international relations. The chapel sticks in my memory. Know what was the centerpiece of the room?

A big rock. With a small beam of light shining on it.

[WaterDragon]

Incredible! I'm glad you've mentioned all this. A rock with a beam of light on it? Sounds like Scientology weird!

I've read Whittaker Chambers autobiography. Whenever I read or hear Hiss's name, I want to cry that our government was so deceived.

[LarryLied]

What is worse is the left knew. One of Harry Turman's aides has written that his inner circle was shocked when, at a press confrence, Truman denied Hiss was a Soviet agent. His explaination to them for the lie was, "Everyone knows Hiss is a God damn traitor but I'm not going to give those Republican bastards the satisfaction of saying so."

For for 40 years, America was torn apart but a Democrat could not stand to admit the truth. We saw the same behavior with Clinton. They all knew he sold us out to China for money. That is why, when we threw facts at them, it had no effect. They already knew the facts. And they didn't care.

[WaterDragon]

I will never feel the same about Harry Truman after this. Chambers really suffered trying to expose that animal Hiss, and for Truman to cover up for the man is just too much.

[WaterDragon]

Hello, dax. Yep. We really are neighbors!