(Petaling Jaya, Monday): The Malaysian
Government should condemn the United States veto in the United Nations
Security Council yesterday of the
resolution to extend the
U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia because of its opposition to the setting up
of the International Criminal Court(ICC).
Yesterday was a historic occasion for the world with the coming into force of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court after its ratification by 74 countries - paving the way for the world's first permanent war crimes court at the Hague to start work today with authority over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as of July 1, 2002.
Under the Rome
Statute, the International Criminal Court will have jurisdiction over the
prosecution of anyone -- from a head of state to an ordinary citizen --
for human rights violations, including systematic murder, torture, rape
and sexual slavery.
But it was also a day of infamy for the United States, as
the celebration of the creation
of the world’s most important new institution for enforcing human
rights in 50 years had been marred by the selfish,
unilateral, high-handed and arbitrary action of US President Bush, which
made a total mockery of his war against terrorism and reeked of hypocrisy and
double-standards in holding every other state to account for the acts of
terrorism of their nationals but would not subject its citizens
to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for genocide, crime against humanity and other war crimes.
To Bush, international criminal justice is a one-way
street, which applies only to
citizens of other countries but not to Americans!
The action of the Bush administration is even more
reprehensible as it had revoked and “unsigned” the US support of the Rome
Statute under the Clinton administration, which was the height of international
irresponsibility as it is unheard of for a nation that signed a treaty to
withdraw that signature, representing a
major setback to international co-operation and relations.
The first action of the unilateralist and isolationist Bush
administration in its opposition to the ICC was the US veto against the other 14
members of the UN Security Council
for a six-month extension of the UN peace-keeping mission in Bosnia as it wanted
blanket immunity for American
peacekeeper to be exempt from arrest and prosecution by the tribunal.
The Malaysian Government should make clear its condemnation
of the Bush Administration’s attempt to wreck the International Criminal Court
and UN peacekeeping, which had in no way been ameliorated by the subsequent US
support yesterday for an unanimous Security Council resolution to extend the US
peacekeeping mission in Bosnia by three more days.
The Cabinet on Wednesday should take a policy decision to
ratify the Rome Statute, as Malaysia must not be seen as
taking the side of President Bush in
wanting to wreck the International Criminal Court and UN peacekeeping forces by
refusing to ratify the Rome Treaty.
It is a blot in Malaysia’s international diplomacy that
we are not one of the first 60 countries to ratify the 1998 Rome Treaty to bring the International Criminal
Court into existence. Under
the Rome Treaty, the Court can be established following the 60th
ratification, which took place on 11th April 2002. The first
ratification was in February 1999.
Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, should
explain why Malaysia had not been one of the first 60 countries to ratify the
Rome Treaty and why up to now the government is not prepared to endorse the
establishment of the International Criminal Court.
(1/7/2002)