CRAIG S. SMITH
Belgium Resists Pressure From U.S. to Repeal War Crimes
Fri Jun 13 22:04:23 2003
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Belgium Resists Pressure From U.S. to Repeal War Crimes Law
By CRAIG S. SMITH
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/14/international/europe/14BELG.html?ex=1056168000&en=259f0420e5d6209f&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

BRUSSELS, June 13 — Belgium's government reacted angrily today to mounting American pressure to rescind controversial war crimes legislation, arguing that the country had already addressed Washington's concerns.

Belgian government officials said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had only made the issue more difficult to deal with by threatening Thursday to find another venue for NATO meetings if Brussels failed to act on United States demands.
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"I'd like to once again repeat to Mr. Rumsfeld that Belgium has amended the genocide law," the country's foreign minister, Louis Michel, told the country's state radio on Friday. "We have changed it precisely to meet the fears of our American friends."

The law, which allows anyone to bring war crimes charges in Belgian courts, regardless of where the crimes are said to have taken place, was recently amended to allow the government to dismiss politically motivated cases by transferring them to the defendants' home country. This was done with a recent lawsuit brought by a group of Iraqis against Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander of allied forces in Iraq.

But the United States has said it is not satisfied with case-by-case resolutions and wants Belgium to strike the law altogether.

A senior NATO official said there was broad support for the American position and that member countries were considering joint action to persuade the Belgian government to act on the American demands.

During a meeting of NATO defense ministers here on Thursday, Mr. Rumsfeld said that the United States would have to "seriously consider" whether it would continue to allow senior American officials to visit Brussels and added that the United States would withhold financing for a new $350 million NATO headquarters in Belgium as long as the law remained on the books. The United States is expected to finance about a quarter of that project.

Many Belgian officials said Mr. Rumsfeld's remarks would only complicate efforts to fix what they agree is an ill-conceived law.

"This isn't the way to get them to rescind the law," one NATO diplomat said late Thursday, referring to Mr. Rumsfeld's approach. "People will turn this into plucky little Belgium standing up to the bully, America, disguising the issue that this is a bad law that best be disposed of."

The Belgian war crimes law was initiated in 1993 and expanded after the 1994 killing of 10 Belgian soldiers in Rwanda. The law allows anyone to file suit in Belgian courts after residing in the country for two years.

"What wasn't foreseen, and where we were perhaps naïve, was the potential for abuse in these third party cases," said Peter Moors, head of the policy unit in the Belgian prime minister's office, in an interview today.

About 30 such cases have been filed so far, including cases against former President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf for their roles in an incident during the 1991 Persian Gulf war in which civilians were killed in an attack on a bunker.
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Rumsfeld Defends U.S. Troops From Lawsuits
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89388,00.html

Friday, June 13, 2003

WASHINGTON — The United States has put the question squarely before Belgium: Which do you want more, NATO (search) headquarters in your capital city or a law that sanctions war crimes charges against U.S. military commanders?

The Bush administration, backed by Congress, is threatening to shift NATO's headquarters from Brussels unless Belgium repeals a law that has now ensnared commanders involved in both U.S. conflicts with Iraq.

Among the defendants in the Belgian lawsuit is Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been accused of committing war crimes when he was defense secretary during the first Gulf War.

Other defendants include former President George Herbert Walker Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded Operation Desert Storm (search). All of them stand to be tried for killing civilians when U.S. forces bombed a bunker in 1991.

Another suit was filed in April against General Tommy Franks, commander of Operation Iraqi Freedom (search).

"Some of the war crimes committed were very clearly the responsibility not of the men on the ground, but of the superior commander of the troops, for example, the use of cluster bombs against civilian targets," said Belgian lawyer Jan Fremont.

Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States would try to relocate the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization if Belgium doesn’t abolish the law giving rise to war crimes allegations.

"If anyone who comes here, who is a senior coalition military or civilian official, is going to be subjected to harassment of spurious lawsuits and be forced to spend large sums of money attempting to defend themselves against this type of thing, then people are not going to want to come here," he said.

Rumsfeld made it clear that he expects NATO leaders to lean on the Belgians.

"All I am doing is stating the problem, and that solution is really more up to Belgium and up to NATO than up to the United States," Rumsfeld said.

Congress is backing up the threats. Language in this year's defense bill orders the Defense Department to investigate "the costs and benefits of relocating the headquarters to a suitable location in another NATO member country."

The United States pays for one-quarter of all NATO operating costs. Last year, that equaled $169 million. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson (search), apparently feeling the heat, sounded a sympathetic note on Friday.

"American individuals have found themselves placed in a very difficult situation," he said.

Fox News' Major Garrett contributed to this report.
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• This is not the same United States of America. — Thomas Cook, Fri Jun 13 22:22