WASHINGTON, July 8 (hina) - Croatia is on a list of countries which will lose U.S. military assistance because they support the International Criminal Court (ICC), a U.S. State Department representative said on Monday.
WASHINGTON, July 8 (hina) - Croatia is on a list of countries which
will lose U.S. military assistance because they support the
International Criminal Court (ICC), a U.S. State Department
representative said on Monday. #L#
As of July 1, these countries are considered unfit to receive U.S.
military assistance, Brooke Summer told Hina, reading out the list
of 35 countries, including Croatia.
Summer said the decision referred to unused military funds.
The United States does not recognise the ICC, the first permanent
international court for war crimes, because it fears that the court
will be used for the politically motivated prosecution of
Americans.
Under the American Servicemembers' Protection Act (ASPA), on July 1
the United States discontinued military assistance to ICC member-
countries which did not sign an agreement on the non-extradition of
U.S. citizens to the ICC. With the agreement, the U.S. is de facto
trying to avoid the court's jurisdiction.
U.S. President George W. Bush has exempted 22 countries from the
ban.
Croatia meets all four criteria to be denied further U.S. military
assistance -- it is a signatory to the agreement on the ICC, it has
received U.S. military assistance, it is not a member of NATO and it
does not want to sign the bilateral agreement with the United States
on the non-extradition of Americans to the ICC.
Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic said last week
Croatia would lose U.S. military assistance in legal sense, but in
fact it was not losing anything until January 2004.
He said that of the US$19 million of U.S. military assistance to
Croatia, six million had already been spent, while the other 13
million of granted funds had not been used for different reasons.
According to him, the funds will be used because the United States
said the ban would not be applied retroactively.
Columbia, the country receiving the most funds, and six eastern
European countries to become NATO members next year -- Bulgaria
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- are also on
the list.
The sanctions do not refer to 19 NATO member-countries and to non-
members which are considered important U.S. allies.
So far, a total of 44 countries have announced that they signed the
bilateral agreements with the U.S., and another seven countries
have signed them in secret.
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