Indonesia not in hurry to sign accord with U.S.

Indonesia not in hurry to sign accord with U.S.

Veeramalla Anjaiah and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Indonesia will be in no hurry to sign a bilateral accord known as
an Article 98 agreement with the U.S. as Jakarta has not yet
ratified the Rome Statute (also known as the Rome Treaty) on the
International Criminal Court (ICC), Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hassan Wirayuda said.

"The problem is we just signed the Rome Treaty but have not
yet ratified it. That means we are not yet a part of it. How can
we give something (the signing of an Article 98 agreement) that
we don't even have," Hassan said in reply to a query from The
Jakarta Post on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The problem surfaced when a visiting senior U.S. official told
the media in Jakarta on Tuesday that Washington was trying to
convince the world's largest Muslim nation to sign a bilateral
agreement with the world's only superpower.

"The U.S. considers Indonesia to be an important country. We
have excellent cooperation with Indonesia in the war against
terrorism. There are 85 countries, including Brunei and East
Timor, that have already signed Article 98 agreements with the
U.S. We expect Indonesia will also sign such an agreement," the
official said during a background briefing on the U.S.
proliferation security initiative (PSI).

The so-called Article 98 agreements, which vary from country
to country, have been designed solely for the purpose of
providing U.S. individuals or groups of people with immunity from
the ICC.

But Indonesia is still examining whether the U.S. will
reciprocate in the case of Indonesian citizens.

"We have to ask the U.S. what will happen if any Indonesian
citizens are brought before the ICC, will the U.S. do the same or
not?," Hassan said.

Indonesia, according to Hassan, was still looking into the
effectiveness of the ICC, and considering the fact that key
nations like China, Russia, Japan and India have signed neither
the Rome Treaty nor Article 98 Agreements with the U.S.

"Why should we be in a hurry to sign an Article 98 agreement
with the U.S.?" Hassan asked.

The ICC, which became effective on July 1, 2002, is an
international tribunal specifically established to investigate
and prosecute people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity
and war crimes, when national courts are unable or unwilling to
do so.

By the end of 2003, more than 135 countries, including
Indonesia, had signed the Rome Treaty, and 89 countries had
ratified it.

Countries that have ratified the treaty are obliged to comply
with requests by the ICC to arrest and surrender persons accused
of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

States that have signed the Rome Statute are obliged by
international law not to take any steps that would undermine the
Statute.

Being a UN tribunal, the ICC has global jurisdiction.

The U.S., which signed the Rome Treaty in 2000 under the
Clinton Administration, and then nullified its own signature in
2002 under Bush, has come under fire from human rights groups,
including Amnesty International, for its fierce opposition to,
and its efforts to undermine, the ICC.

According to the U.S., the ICC could be used to bring
politically motivated prosecutions against U.S. nationals. But
the rights groups say there are enough safeguards and fair trial
guarantees contained in the Rome Treaty to prevent such a
situation

Despite the U.S.'s all-out efforts -- involving a combination
of persuasion and pressure -- to undermine the new international
justice system, the ICC has nevertheless been established. Its 18
judges -- distinguished jurists from 18 different countries --
were selected last year.

The ICC cannot deal with crimes committed before July 2002,
providing relief to various local and foreign human rights
violators who committed crimes against humanity before 2002.