UNITED NATIONS, 22 May 2004 — China yesterday delayed a UN Security Council vote on a controversial measure to extend the immunity of US peacekeeping troops from prosecution for war crimes.
The proposal for a one-year renewal of existing immunity comes amid a mounting scandal over the US abuse of prisoners in Iraq, which deepened Friday with new pictures published in The Washington Post.
Diplomats said the Chinese delegation indicated it had not yet received word from Beijing on how to vote on the resolution, which is expected to pass despite several expected abstentions on the 15-nation council. The measure is now likely to be put to a vote next week.
Human rights groups have blasted the United States over the resolution, first adopted two years ago to keep US troops in UN peacekeeping operations outside the reach of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
“Given the recent revelations from Abu Ghraib prison, the US government has picked one hell of a moment to ask for special treatment on war crimes,” said Richard Dicker from Human Rights Watch.
Dicker charged that the Bush administration was nevertheless trying to rush the resolution through before the Security Council takes up another resolution on the handover of power in Iraq, a claim rejected by a US spokesman.
“There isn’t anyone here at the UN that is not thoroughly aware of the United States position on the International Criminal Court,” Richard Grenell, spokesman for US ambassador John Negroponte, said.
He said trials under way of US troops allegedly involved in Iraqi prisoner abuse showed “that we have a court system that deals with perpetrators of crimes and ensures that they are fully prosecuted in a quick and transparent manner.”
The immunity deal has been controversial ever since it was first adopted two years ago. The United States muscled other nations into accepting the resolution in 2002 by threatening to veto all UN peacekeeping operations until they gave in. The next year, three council countries abstained when the first 12-month renewal was approved.
Technically, the resolution keeps UN peacekeepers from nations that have not ratified the Rome Statute, which established the world court, outside its reach. The immunity is renewable in one-year increments.
The court is the first permanent international tribunal to try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It began operation earlier this year.
Washington signed the treaty but later backed out, saying it feared the tribunal would be politicized and that its troops abroad could be charged for war crimes.
The United States has instead persuaded 89 countries to agree to bilateral immunity deals, Grenell said, which he noted was virtually equal to the number of nations, 94 that have ratified the court.
On Friday, The Washington Post described transcripts from Iraqi prisoners that said female soldiers sexually assaulted them and forced to eat food from toilets.
The documents included hundreds of new photos and short video clips of torture by the US military at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, the daily said. “Coalition forces soundly deny the allegations,” US Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top US military spokesman, told a Baghdad news conference.
