WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2003
Activists condemn Philippines pact absolving US troops
AP
MANILA: Communist rebels and other activists on Tuesday condemned a Philippines accord with Washington exempting Americans from prosecution by a new international criminal court, saying it removed a safeguard against possible US military abuses here.
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said that under the May 13 executive agreement, the Philippines and the United States agreed not to surrender each other's nationals to third parties without the consent of the other if the purpose of the surrender was to turn them over to the UN tribunal.
Washington strongly opposes the International Criminal Court. It fears US troops could be subjected to politically motivated trials and has asked its allies to sign the non-surrender agreement. The Philippines was the 34th nation to sign such a bilateral accord with Washington.
Considering the presence of American forces here, the agreement was a ``virtual act of surrender of the Philippines' sovereign right to seek redress in an international court for criminal acts committed by US troops in the Philippines,'' communist rebel spokesman Gregorio Rosal said in a statement.
Rosal cited historians' account of American military atrocities in the Philippines during the Philippine-American War, which followed the US annexation of the country in 1898.
A left-wing political party, Bayan Muna, called President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ``America's girl scout'' for forging the accord with Washington, saying it was lopsided in the United States' favour considering there are no Filipino troops on US soil that would benefit from the agreement.
``The agreement contravenes the spirit of curbing and wholly eradicating the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity,'' the group said in a statement.
Arroyo, a staunch Asian backer of the US-led war against terrorism, has allowed American forces to train and arm Filipino troops battling the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organisation.
Ople said the agreement still allows the Philippines to sign the ICC Statute, which recognises the sovereign right of states not to surrender nationals within their territories who are being sought by international criminal courts.
The Philippines is yet to ratify the statute, and the issue is being reviewed by the Cabinet, Ople said.
The court is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and is expected to start work on June 16. It has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed after July 1, 2002 involving any of the signatory states. But it will only step in when states are unwilling or unable to dispense justice.
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