Posted on 07/02/2002 12:18:35 PM PDT by WakeUpChristian
Bush Still Opposed to Int'l Court
Tue Jul 2, 2:54 PM ET
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
MILWAUKEE (AP) - President Bush ( news - web sites) vowed Tuesday to keep looking for a way to resolve a dispute with U.S. allies over the world's first permanent war crimes court.
But Bush said he would not drop his opposition to the International Criminal Court.
"We'll try to work out the impasse, but the one thing we're not going to do is sign on," Bush said during a tour of a local church to promote his domestic agenda.
The administration is seeking blanket immunity from the U.N. Security Council for Americans serving in U.N.-approved peacekeeping missions.
As the tribunal was launched on Monday, the United States withdrew three U.S. military observers serving with the United Nations ( news - web sites) in East Timor ( news - web sites). But U.S. diplomats assured Europeans that the United States would not pull American peacekeepers out of Bosnia.
"Our commitment to the Bosnia mission is very strong, our desire to see this worked out in the context of the United Nations is very strong," the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.
And the Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States would not abandon current peacekeeping operations while striving to get Americans exempted from the court's jurisdiction.
More than 100 countries celebrated the birth Monday of the International Criminal Court as a milestone for global justice and vowed not to let U.S. opposition sabotage the tribunal's mission to deter and prosecute war criminals.
The Bush administration maintains that the court would put U.S. soldiers and civilians at risk of prosecution under laws that are outside America's control, calling the court a potential violation of U.S. sovereignty.
"As the United States works to bring peace around the world our diplomats and/or soldiers can be drug into the court. That's very troubling," Bush said.
His spokesman, Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites), said aboard Air Force One that other U.S. allies have negotiated immunity for their soldiers and civilians under the court — something the United States can't do because it doesn't belong to the group.
Fleischer said it was unclear whether the United States would be able to break the logjam with its allies.
Though the dispute is jeopardizing U.S. participation in the Bosnian peacekeeping mission, Fleischer said, "The president thinks it is a vital matter of principle to protect American men and women peacekeepers ... the United States has a lot at risk."
Fleischer said it is "absolutely not" Bush's intention to use the dispute as an excuse to pull out of the peacekeeping mission.
never
When he is right, I will gve him the credit.
: lets see if he get us out of the U.N
You'll understand if we don't hold our collective breath waiting for you to do that.
I believe much is being done that we know nothing about....and to my way of thinking, President Bush has given me EVERY reason to trust his judgement.
I don't think anyone in this nation other than those who lost loved ones in one of the terrorist attacks DISPISES terrorists and those who support terrorists more than our President.
Let's keep in mind what he said...and understand that some of this crap will take a great deal of time.
1 July – As the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court entered into force today, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the “historic” creation of the world’s first permanent forum for trying individuals responsible for war crimes as a powerful tool for prosecuting and preventing atrocities.
The entry into force of the ICC's Statute "reaffirms the centrality of the rule of law in international relations," said Mr. Annan in a statement released in New York.
The Secretary-General said the Hague-based Court "holds the promise of a world in which the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are prosecuted when individual States are unable or unwilling to bring them to justice." The ICC, he added, would also serve as a potential deterrent to future atrocities.
"I congratulate all the States parties – currently 74 – on taking the lead in ratifying the Statute, and I appeal to all States that have not yet done so to ratify or accede to it as soon as possible," Mr. Annan said. "There must be no relenting in the fight against impunity or in our efforts to prevent genocide and the other horrendous crimes that fall under the Court's jurisdiction."
Meanwhile today in The Hague, an advance team for the ICC began its work on preparing for the Court to start recruiting and beginning its basic operations.
The team, consisting of eight experts, will work closely with the Government of the Netherlands on preparatory work before the first budget of the Court is to be adopted by its States Parties when they meet this September. At that time, recruitment and procurement can formally begin.
The States Parties to the Statute expect to elect a prosecutor and 18 judges for the Court in another meeting, scheduled for January.
UN calls for backing of multibillion-dollar environmental fund
17 June – The head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today urged governments to "swiftly and significantly" replenish a multibillion-dollar fund that has proven to be an invaluable weapon in the fight against poverty and environmental degradation.
UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer, speaking in Stockholm at the 30th anniversary celebrations of the conference that led to the creation of the UN agency, called on heads of State to make the replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) a top priority and a key outcome of the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The GEF was established for a pilot phase in 1991 in the run-up to the ----------Rio Earth Summit of 1992
to focus on biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer and, more recently, issues like the phasing out persistent organic pollutants (POPs), according to UNEP.
During its pilot phase the Facility was given $1.2 billion, and subsequently was replenished twice, for $2.02 billion and $2.75 billion, before it was re-structured in 1994. The third replenishment is due this year.
The GEF has proven its worth and the funds, given to it by developed nations, have been very well spent, Mr. Toepfer said, noting that 16 independent auditors recently concluded that the Facility was an innovative, unique and successfully run body for sustainable development.
"The GEF is not a new funding arm but an established one," he said. "It has been agreed that it is now due for re-vitalization so it can continue its excellent work. Let's now do this and give it the financial resources needed to carry on with its important activities."
What happen to "you are with us, are you are against us"
Looks like someone else needs to have their funds... redirected to more productive uses. ;)
Yup...
OK, let's add Destruction of Army Group Center, The Next War, Objective Moscow, and every issue of Strategy & Tactics ever done to my shopping list...
"Double bluff?"
2) Nominated a fine slate of conservative judges
3) Pulled us out of the ABM treaty with the non-existant USSR and persued a missile defense.
4) Quashed Kyoto.
5) Changed the position of the federal government to that the 2nd Amendment is about individual rights, reversing over 50 years of precedent.
6) Got us out of the UN Commission on Small Arms.
7) Stopped US dollars going to pay for abortions in Central America.
8) Got us out of the ICC
9) The stem cell decision.
10) Took on the Civil Rights Commission to get his appointee seated.
Has he had things that have made me bang my head on the table? Certainly.
But overall, the pluses have outweighed the minuses in my ledger. But his signing McCain-Feingold remains a pretty big minus.
He asked for only FIVE.
So he won't consider his question answered.
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