Tug of War Between EU and US Over Immunity For US Solders

The EU and US are clashing again over the immunity for US solders in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC, the first permanent international tribunal of its kind, was created on July 1, 2002 in Hague, Netherlands, to deal with massacres and crimes of war. US originally refused to ratify the treaty establishing the ICC. Later it even threatened to withdraw its troops from UN peacekeeping operations to obtain immunity for its forces. As a result, US has obtained a 1-year temporary immunity.

But US did not stop there. US has been conducting a bilateral talk with individual countries in order to get their promise not to hand over US solders to the ICC. On August 8,2002, US has implemented an act under which the military support to a country is to be stopped if the country refuses to ratify the bilateral treaty protecting US solders. This treaty is applied to most countries, except NATO members and close US allies such as Korea, Japan, Israel, Egypt and Australia.

Rumania, along with Israel, signed up for the treaty for the first time. At this, the EU expressed its strong objection.

President of the EU Romano Prodi, in his 12th statement, warned, “Any country which wishes to join the EU should not sign the treaty.” Currently, 12 countries are hoping or about to join the EU: 10 former countries of the Soviet Unions including Poland and Hungary, and 2 other countries (i.e. Malta and Kypros). US is using the “military support” card, while the EU is threatening with rejection of EU joining.

In response, US Department of State strongly protested against the EU on August 12th, saying, “It’s inappropriate and an act of infringement upon a country’s sovereignty to negotiate with other countries.”

State Secretary Colin Powell, who was visiting Spain, said on August 12th, “We are not threatening other countries to sign up for the treaty. [But] we will continue the bilateral talks.” But it is unclear how much US would fulfill its goal since many countries have already announced their official objections to the treaty, including Germany, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Canada, Norway and Slovakia.

Eun-Taek Hong euntack@donga.com