(Newswire.net— June 12, 2020) — U.S. President Donald Trump has approved the imposition of economic sanctions and travel restrictions on all International Criminal Court employees who are investigating or accusing U.S. soldiers or intelligence officials of possible crimes in Afghanistan, the White House said.
An unnamed senior US official said that the ICC investigations violated the national sovereignty of the USA, and stated that it is possible for Russia to incite accusations against American citizens.
Trump signed an executive order approving these sanctions.
The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, was formed in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide in areas where the perpetrators would not otherwise be prosecuted. Its jurisdiction is recognized by 123 states, but not the U.S.
The tribunal was formed to prosecute all who committed war crimes, directly or indirectly by commanding responsibility, including that of high ranking politicians. However, the tribunal became controversial after it started making political decisions rather than legal ones.
Founded by Western countries, the ICC was heavily criticized by NATO ‘enemies’ such as the Russian Federation and China. Russia withdrew its signature from the international criminal court statute after the ICC was used by NATO to act as leverage during the Crimea crisis.
China, however, has been particularly concerned about the ICC’s potential interference in its policy and ability to address possible recurrences of extremist, separatist and terrorist violence in Xinjiang and Tibet provinces, which it deems as purely internal affairs and hence not subject to international scrutiny. In recent years, as part of its overall efforts to eliminate ‘religious extremism’ in Xinjiang, the Chinese government has established multiple ‘vocational training centers’, which it claims to offer free training in law, language, and workplace skills for Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region, the Australian Institute of International Affairs quoted a Chinese news agency Xinhua report from 2018.
The United States has never been a member of the International Criminal Court but was comfortable with the tribunal activities at the time because it served the U.S. foreign policy interests. The former U.S. president Bill Clinton’s administration has received promises from most members of the ICC court that it will not seek trials against U.S. citizens, knowing that they risk losing the US military or financial assistance.
Since Donald Trump was elected, however, the World’s political scene has changed, and the ICC activities followed those changes.
ICC prosecutors forgot the promises given to Washington and demonstrated a willingness to investigate members of the U.S. military. Earlier this year the ICC launched an investigation on the alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, an action immediately met with U.S. condemnation.
The chief prosecutor of the ICC Court, Fatou Bensouda, asked the judges of that court to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, in which American troops may also be involved. The judges initially rejected the request, but Bensouda filed an appeal and the investigation was approved in March.
The case concerns allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan National Security Forces, members of the Taliban, and the Haqqani network, as well as representatives of US forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003.
Prosecutor Bensuda said there was information that members of the U.S. military and members of intelligence agencies had committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, insults to personal dignity, rape, and sexual violence against detainees in Afghanistan and elsewhere, mostly between 2003 and 2004.
The verdict in the appellate procedure is the first by which the prosecutor of that court was approved to investigate American soldiers, which turned the International court on a collision course with the Trump administration.
Bensouda undertook to conduct an independent and impartial investigation and requested the full support and cooperation of all parties.