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Belgium Says War Crimes Law Amended
Belgium's foreign minister said Friday the country has already amended its war crimes laws to avoid politically inspired lawsuits against U.S. officials, an issue that has strained relations between the two NATO allies. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld threatened Thursday to withhold money for a new NATO headquarters and ban Americans from attending alliance meetings unless Belgium changes a law under which U.S. Army commander Tommy Franks was charged with war crimes. Speaking on the VRT radio network, Louis Michel said the 1994 legislation â that lets Belgian courts hear genocide charges regardless of where they took place â has already been amended to provide for a referral to courts in the defendants' own country. "I'd like to once again repeat to Mr. Rumsfeld that Belgium has amended the genocide law," Michel said. "We have changed it precisely to meet the fears of our American friends." "Please come back!" U.S. officials have been outraged by war crimes charges brought against Franks, who commanded American forces in the Iraq war, and others, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and former President George Bush for their role in the first Iraq war. The Franks case was filed by a left-wing lawyer on behalf of a group of Iraqis injured or bereaved in the war. Willy Claes, a former deputy Belgian prime minister and NATO secretary general, said Friday it was time for Belgium to mend fences with Washington. "Now is the time to launch a charm offensive to try to end" the divisions within NATO that opened up in the run-up to the Iraq war, he said. They blinked first. Posted by: Steve 2003-06-13 |
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