Call for a national coalition of political parties and NGOs and ASEAN coalition  against US attempt  to wreck the  International Criminal Court and undermine UN peacekeeping missions


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya,  Thursday): The United Nations Security Council has averted an immediate shutdown of the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and which will affect the  other  14 UN peace-keeping missions when they come up for renewal of their mandates over the United States demand for immunity for American peacekeepers from the new war crimes tribunal when it extended the Bosnian peace-keeping mission until July 15. 

The Security Council has now more time to resolve the crisis over the International Criminal Court (ICC) and UN peacekeeping missions because of the unilateralist and irresponsible decision by  US President Bush. 

The 14 other UN Security Council members  must stand firm against any compromises which distort the spirit and letter  the 1998 Rome Treaty to  establish  the ICC  with jurisdiction to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on or after July 1. 

The US compromise proposals to put American peacekeepers beyond the reach of the war crimes tribunal, as giving the Security Council’s veto-wielding members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — the right to permanently block the ICC’s investigation or prosecution of peacekeepers not only fly in the face of treaty law, illegally attempting to amend the Rome statute, but also put at risk the whole system of UN peacekeeping operations. 

As the Foreign Minister, Datuk Syed Hamid Albar has in the past four  days  abdicated the country’s international responsibilities and commitments to take a clear and strong stand against the  irresponsible US action to wreck the ICC and undermine UN peacekeeping missions, DAP calls for the formation of a national coalition of political parties and NGOs in Malaysia and a regional coalition in ASEAN to save and protect the ICC, the world’s most important new institution for enforcing human rights in 50 years to prevent future Hitlers and Pol Pots. 

DAP proposes the convening of a roundtable conference of Malaysian  political parties and NGOs to defend the ICC and UN peacekeeping missions to send a strongly-worded  memorandum to the Bush and the  UN Security Council before  expiry of the July 15 deadline for  the  Bosnia peacekeeping mission.

(4/7/2002)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman