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| Europe |
| Belgium Says War Crimes Law Amended |
| 2003-06-13 |
| 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 — that lets Belgian courts hear genocide charges regardless of where they took place — 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 |
| #8 "Gen. Franks might be a wee bit out of your reach." And should they ever arrest Franks, the SOF-D and SEALs will get the mission of their lifetimes. |
| Posted by: RW 2003-06-13 20:39:21 |
| #7 The Belgian attitude problem is symptomatic of something that's very, very wrong in Europe - the idea that Europe is the "center of the universe", and the world must listen to anything that spews forth from there. Their attitude is arrogant, ignorant, condescending, and inane. I have not been able to find ONE BIT of evidence to support the allegations made in Brussels regarding these charges. As long as just any person can charge anyone in the world with "war crimes" without posting extensive evidence that such crimes actually took place, and the person charged with those crimes actually had something to do with them, the rest of the world will view Belgium and Europe as a collection of village idiots with access to a news channel. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-06-13 18:32:27 |
| #6 I say that we pass a law the makes it Illegal to speak French. Penalty is Death. Get all of them at once. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC California Chapter) 2003-06-13 14:38:15 |
| #5 Those morons can't even prosecute a child-molesting serial killer they caught red-handed. Zhang, Denmark would have been -way- too vulnerable to being overrun by the Soviets in a hypothetical WWIII. |
| Posted by: Ernest Brown 2003-06-13 14:37:03 |
| #4 Let's assume universal jurisdiction over speed limits; and have Congress pass a law making the maximum speed limit in Belgium 15 miles (and I do mean miles) per hour. Any Belgian driving faster than that would be presumed to be engaged in traffic genocide. |
| Posted by: (uppercase) Matt 2003-06-13 12:53:05 |
| #3 Tip for the Belgians: before you charge someone with war crimes, make sure you can get your hands on them. Gen. Franks might be a wee bit out of your reach. |
| Posted by: (lowercase) matt 2003-06-13 12:39:44 |
| #2 Dude, the first amendment was months ago. This latest statement is Belgium's way of saying they won't change it a second time. This is defiance, not compliance. The amendment to which Belgium's minister refers is just not good enough. It's full of loopholes, which is why Rumsfeld is calling for them to change it a second, or else. I've always thought Brussels was an incongruous setting for NATO's HQ, anyway. How about Denmark? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-06-13 12:15:28 |
| #1 We have changed it precisely to meet the fears of our American friends. Get one thing straight, Louie. Nothing BELGIUM does inspires fear in America. "Now is the time to launch a charm offensive to try to end" the divisions within NATO... Oh, boy! Chocolate for everybody! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-06-13 11:41:33 |