United Nations, June 12: United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan warned the UN Security Council today against repeatedly giving US peacekeeping troops immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. Speaking before a vote on a resolution to renew a one-year exemption demanded by the United States, he said the council would undermine its own authority as well as that of the ICC if this became "an annual routine".
The resolution was expected to easily obtain the nine votes required to pass, but at least two of the 15 council members -- France and Germany -- made clear that they would abstain. Last year, France joined a unanimous vote in favour of the exemption. Annan, a former head of peacekeeping operations, said no soldier serving under the UN blue flag had ever been accused of an offence "any where near the kind of crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC."
The US demand for exemption "deals not only with a hypothetical case, but with a highly improbable one," he said. Established under the 1999 Rome Statute, the ICC is the first permanent international court to try cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The court`s judges and prosecutor have been appointed, but no case has yet been brought before it. Bureau Report