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POLITICS: U.S. ICC Request Again Tests United Caribbean Front

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, May 30 2003 (IPS) - After bending but not breaking when Washington pressed them to back the invasion of Iraq, Caribbean leaders are being called on again to show a united front to a request from the United States.

At the centre of the new controversy is a global campaign by the administration of President George W. Bush to negotiate bilateral agreements that would exempt U.S. nationals from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a new body with jurisdiction to prosecute persons accused of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) foreign ministers at their May 8-9 meeting ”welcomed” the inauguration of the ICC and the installation of its judges, including Karl Hudson-Phillips of Trinidad and Tobago.

Referring to the role the Caribbean played in establishing the court, the ministers re-affirmed their commitment ”to the preservation of the integrity and effective functioning of the Court in accordance with the Rome Statute” (that established the body).

The statement perhaps would have gone unnoticed had it not been for a meeting between the ministers and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker about Washington’s request for bilateral agreements between the United States and Caribbean nations, a request that was rebuffed.

”CARICOM had to reiterate its position concerning the solidity of the CARICOM position as far as the court is concerned. We thought that having taken the initiative out there, it would not be proper to grant or waive participation to any particular country,” said Trinidad and Tobago’s Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift.

Article 98 of the Rome Treaty obliges states that sign the agreement to cooperate fully with the court when it investigates and prosecutes crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Under then President Bill Clinton, the United States signed the Rome Statute in December 2000 but two month before it entered into force on Jul. 1, 2002, Washington notified the United Nations that it did not intend to be part of the ICC.

Since then it has signed deals with at least 34 nations that have agreed to not take current or former U.S. government officials, military or other personnel before the ICC, with Washington promising the same. The so-called ”Article 98 agreements” are providing yet another test of Caribbean unity that threatens to produce the sort of ”private” division that followed the attack on Iraq.

After constant pressure – that included visits to the region by Bush’s special envoy Otto Reich – to publicly support Washington’s position on Iraq, Caribbean leaders broke ranks. That left Jamaica as the region’s only country to publicly condemn the doctrines of ”pre-emptive strike” and ”regime change”, used by the United States to justify its attack on Iraq, at a special session of the U.N. Security Council.

While a statement from the foreign ministers after this month’s meeting gave no details about the discussions with the U.S. officials, observers note that the mere fact it re-affirmed the nations’ commitment to the ”integrity and effective functioning” of the court, was in essence a denial of Washington’s request.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning has made it clear that his country would not support the U.S. proposal.

”We don’t see how we can. Trinidad and Tobago really has no flexibility in this matter and I think that is understood by all of those involved, including the U.S. authority,” Manning said.

”We were the ones pushing the court. The court was re-established at our instance. How on the face of that could we seek an exemption?” Manning added.

But St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves seemed to have left a door open to discussing the request when he told journalists CARICOM leaders will ”have to make a determination” when they meet in Jamaica for their annual summit in July.

One observer believes the latest U.S. challenge is a good opportunity for Caribbean nations, already in the process of creating a common market, to establish a united stand on foreign relations.

”Caribbean states should start at the point of adhering to one of the basic principles of the integration movement – the coordination of foreign policy. They can adopt the position that the issue of exemption of U.S. citizens from the jurisdiction of the ICC is treated as a CARICOM matter as distinct from a bilateral one,” Anselm Francis, senior lecturer at the Institute of International Relations at the University of the West Indies (UWI), told IPS.

He warns that the principle would be undermined if Caribbean solidarity were not maintained. ”It goes without saying that the objective of the United States is to destroy that solidarity and the regional approach to matters which are essentially of a multilateral nature,” he added.

Francis says the issue also provides the Caribbean with an opportunity to create a space for itself on the global diplomatic landscape.

”Given our geographical location, we must be sensitive to the concerns of the United States but this cannot mean that our interests should always be subordinated to those of the United States,” he says.

In fact, he suggests a high level U.S.-CARICOM meeting should be convened to review relations between the sole superpower and the region.

”One gets the impression that too many important issues are addressed in a piecemeal manner and CARICOM states are almost invariably required to make concessions without the United States having to reciprocate,” Francis added.

”Admittedly, the relationship with the United States is asymmetrical but we are not entirely without trumps. The United States must be mindful that it has substantial interests in the region, consequently it must eschew a policy which could be harmful to those interests.”

Gonsalves says there is a perception that if some quarters of the U.S. administration got their way, countries that disagree with Washington’s point of view would likely face a loss of military and economic assistance.

Section 2007 of the American Service Members’ Protection Act links the provision of U.S. military assistance to a state’s status as a party to the Rome Statute. It provides that after Jul. 1, 2003 – the one-year anniversary of the statute – Washington can provide no military assistance to a country that is party to the ICC.

But Gonsalves is optimistic, saying that the long-standing U.S.-Caribbean relationship means ”a resolution of this issue will come about without any untoward damage to the relationship or any one of us abandoning the principles we stand for”.