U.S. loses war crimes immunity

From wire reports

In a diplomatic defeat shadowed by the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the United States abandoned Wednesday its efforts in the U.N. Security Council to win immunity for U.S. forces and officials from prosecution in the International Criminal Court.

The decision came after human rights groups -- backed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan -- lobbied heavily against the immunity, and American officials failed to win support for a compromise. Now the immunity for U.S. troops will expire June 30.

However, in a separate action the Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and sovereignty returns to Iraq, U.S. officials said.

The administration plans to accomplish that step -- which would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before the transfer of power -- by extending an order that has been in place during the year-long occupation of Iraq. Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."

Chief U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer is expected to extend Order 17 as one of his last acts before shutting down the occupation next week, U.S. officials said. The order is expected to be kept in place for an additional six or seven months, until the first national elections are held.

Besides its diplomatic measures, U.S. officials announced Wednesday further internal efforts to clarify what's acceptable in the war on terrorism.

The Justice Department is rewriting its legal advice on how far U.S. interrogators can go to pry information from detainees, working under much different circumstances from the writers of earlier memos that appeared to justify torture.

The first memos were written not long after the Sept. 11 attacks, while the new advice is being crafted against the backdrop of prisoner abuse in Iraq.

Justice Department lawyers will spend several weeks reviewing and revising several key 2002 documents, especially a 50-page memo to the White House on Aug. 1, 2002, that critics have characterized as setting the legal tone for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

United Nations setback

The setback at the United Nations marked what may be the first concrete repercussion of the prison-abuse scandal on American foreign relations, one U.S. official said. It was a particularly bitter blow for the Bush administration, which has fiercely opposed the court and conducted a global campaign to make sure no American soldier risks being tried by it.

William Pace, head of the Coalition for an International Criminal Court, which represents more than 1,000 organizations supporting the tribunal, called the U.S. decision "a victory for international justice."

The court can prosecute cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after it was established on July 1, 2002.

But it is a court of last resort and will step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves, a condition proponents say makes it highly unlikely an American would be prosecuted.

Washington has also signed bilateral agreements with 90 countries that bar any prosecution of American officials by the court.

The court's chief prosecutor announced its first investigation on Wednesday -- of war crimes in Congo.

When the court was established -- the culmination of a campaign for a permanent war crimes tribunal that began with the Nuremberg trials after World War II -- Washington threatened to end its involvement in U.N. peacekeeping operations if it didn't get an exemption for Americans.

President Bush's administration argues that the court could be used for frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions of American troops.

After lengthy negotiations, the Security Council agreed to a one-year exemption, which was renewed a year ago. The court started operating last year.

The 94 countries that have ratified the 1998 Rome Treaty creating the court maintain it contains enough safeguards to prevent frivolous prosecutions and insist that nobody should be exempt.

Last month, the United States circulated a resolution that would have authorized a new one-year exemption after the current one expires on June 30.

But it put off a vote to work on a resolution endorsing the June 30 handover of power in Iraq, which was unanimously adopted on June 8.

One council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington probably would have gotten the minimum nine "yes" votes in the 15-member council if it had called for a vote immediately after introducing the resolution.