35 Nations Losing Military Aid Over World Tribunal Stance

The United States said Tuesday that it was cutting off military aid to 35 countries, including Colombia and six nations seeking NATO membership, because they back the International Criminal Court and have not exempted Americans from possible prosecution.

Twelve more countries were prohibited from receiving U.S. military aid, even though none was given to them this year.

The decision to suspend aid is the latest attack by the Bush administration on the international court, set up last year to try war crimes and acts of genocide.

During the Clinton administration, the United States signed the 1998 treaty creating the court. But the Bush administration is afraid that the tribunal in The Hague might hear politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. military and civilian leaders.

The administration nullified the signature and has sought a permanent exemption from prosecution. Those efforts have been blocked by the European Union, though the United Nations Security Council last year gave the United States a second one-year exemption.

The decision to suspend military aid affects $47 million in U.S. foreign military financing and $613,000 in international military and educational training in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Under last year’s American Service Members Protection Act, the basis for the suspension, President Bush can issue waivers for governments that sign exemption deals or when he thinks military aid is in the national interest.

Bush issued waivers for 22 countries Tuesday as the deadline passed for governments to sign exemption agreements.

But those 22 did not include Colombia, one of the largest aid recipients, and the East European countries of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The United States had already disbursed most of the military aid for this year, so the real effect will not come to light until the new fiscal year begins in October.

In the meantime, the Bush administration hopes that some of the 35 countries will sign bilateral Article 98 agreements exempting U.S. personnel from prosecution in the court. Advocates of the court have accused the Bush administration of trying to bully weaker nations and undermine an important advance for human rights.

Among the seven countries invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, only Romania has signed an Article 98 agreement with Washington.

Colombia, whose government is fighting leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers, was allocated about $100 million in military aid this year and has received all but $5 million of that, Boucher told a briefing.

Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said the suspension of aid worked against some of the Bush administration’s policy goals, such as intercepting drugs in the Caribbean and expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe.

“This campaign has brought resentment and bitterness from some of the U.S. government’s closest allies and comes at an extraordinarily high price,” Dicker said.

But White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer indicated that the Bush administration would not compromise. “This is a reflection of the United States’ priorities to protect the men and women in our military,” he said.

All together, 44 governments have publicly acknowledged signing the agreements and at least seven others have signed secret accords, U.S. officials say.