us pulls troops over icc exemption
this has to be politics, because there just isn’t any other way to explain this maneuver….
U.S. Removes Peacekeepers Over War Crimes Court [reuters, july 1, 2004]The U.S. military is pulling small numbers of troops out of two U.N. peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Africa because they are no longer exempt from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
A seven-member team will be removed from a U.N. mission assigned to keep peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia and two liaison officers will be removed from the world body’s mission in Kosovo, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told reporters.
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Nations ratifying the treaty can turn their own citizens over to the court and those from other states for a crime committed on their soil. Neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea has ratified the treaty.
it would seem that the stated reason – because the icc exemption expired – isn’t entirely valid. that mean that either our pentagon or our state deparment is having another round of planning difficulties, or there’s another reason for this and the icc exemption expiration just happens to be good political cover.
the full briefing transcript is available.