US extradition pact gets short shrift from Swiss

Swiss Foreign Minister Deiss criticised Washington's latest move to protect US citizens from prosecution abroad Keystone

Switzerland says it will not sign a deal with the United States that would protect Americans from extradition to the newly-created International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Swiss foreign ministry said the ICC would be undermined if Bern agreed not to send US citizens to the Court in The Hague.

Bern decided to follow Norway and reject attempts to exempt US citizens from prosecution abroad for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Israel and Romania have already signed up to the US non-extradition pact.

Swiss support ICC

Announcing its decision on Tuesday, Switzerland said it remained a strong supporter of the ICC.

The Swiss foreign minister, Joseph Deiss, criticised the Bush administration for refusing to ratify the treaty for the Court.

“We think it is very important that the ICC is effective and therefore there should be no exceptions,” Deiss told swissinfo.

The Swiss position echoes that of many of its European neighbours, including France, Germany and the former Yugoslavia.

Washington last week began building a coalition of states that would protect Americans – in particular its armed forces serving abroad – from international prosecution.

It said the move was based on Article 98 of the Rome Statute, which covers troops stationed abroad.

However, Livio Zanolari, a spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry, said the article did not apply to Switzerland since no American forces are stationed here.

“For this reason, the foreign ministry does not see the necessity to sign such an accord,” said Zanolari.

No US pressure

Switzerland was not pressured by Washington to get on-board its non-extradition pact, Deiss stressed.

“From the beginning we have been in very close contact with the US authorities. They participated in the conception of the Rome Statute of the ICC. So I think that it’s a very open discussion with different opinions but there is no pressure from one side to the other.”

The Swiss foreign minister said that while he did not give up hope that the US would join the ICC, he believed that the Court would still be successful without Washinton’s support.

“The Court will show that it can work to a large extent, but of course it would be even better if the US was a member of the ICC,” Deiss said.

US hypocrisy

Deiss’ decision not to sign the non-extradiction pact was welcomed by the European Association of Democratic Lawyers, a left-leaning judicial lobby group.

“Mr Deiss has made a wise decision because Switzerland supports the international penal court which is progress for humanity and you cannot make exceptions,” the association’s president, Rudolf Schaller, told swissinfo.

He accused the world’s only superpower of hypocrisy: “How can the US say on the one hand that they want democracy and human rights throughout the world but on the other hand that they don’t want the international penal court to work?”

Prosecuting war atrocities

The ICC is the first permanent body for the prosecution of war crimes and will take on cases when the individual countries concerned are either unable or unwilling to bring prosecutions themselves.

The legal framework for the Court was drawn up at a special United Nations conference in Rome in 1998, when 139 nations signed the statute for the ICC.

But many of those nations, including the US, Russia and China, have withheld ratification, apparently fearing that the Court could be exploited for political purposes.

The Court is expected to begin work in January 2003 and will have its permanent seat in The Hague in the Netherlands.

by Samantha Tonkin

Key facts

December 11 1995: Preparatory committee starts work on new court.
July 17 1998: 139 nations sign Rome Statute to establish ICC.
July 1 2002: More than required 60 nations ratify Rome Statute, bringing ICC to life.
January 2003: ICC is expected to begin work.