Belgium gets the message.

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Belgium makes justice less global

Brussels said Sunday that it will limit the scope of its war-crimes law to thwart politically motivated cases.

By Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

PARIS – Swamped by a spate of lawsuits against US and other world leaders, Belgium is to limit a war-crimes law that had angered Washington and prompted warnings that NATO might be unable to meet in the Belgian capital if foreign delegates risked arrest. The move hands the Bush administration a victory in its campaign against a trend in international law to give courts worldwide jurisdiction over the worst human rights violations, wherever they occur.
"Belgium has clearly capitulated to US pressure. This does harm to the universality of universal justice and it's a clear setback," says Reed Brody, advocacy director of Human Rights Watch in New York.
US officials had argued that they could be subjected to frivolous and politically motivated suits under the law, and liable to arrest whenever they came to Belgium for meetings at NATO and other international organizations. They dismissed Belgian claims that such officials are given ironclad immunity under a number of existing conventions.

http://csmonitor.com/2003/0624/p06s01-woeu.html

Do you think more appropriate caption for this story would be: Belgium gets the message .Don't mess with the big guy you are only a little fish in a great big sea.

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I don';t know of any better way to sum up the whoile issue of the prior Belgian law than was quoted in the article:

Quote:

"We need universal justice" to ensure that war criminals cannot escape punishment by fleeing to another country, adds Ms. Hirsch, who represented Rwandan genocide victims in a 2001 case before the Belgian court, and later represented Israel in a case brought against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "But Belgium cannot be competent to try all cases."

Rgardless of whether they were pressured by the US or not Belgium had clearly overstepped any authority they had/have.

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Law's in Belgium, like in any democratic country, are decided by elected lawmakers in parliament.

This parliament was "convinced" to overthink its previous decissions.

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Belgium gets the message indeed.
But only after severe pressure of the US. they even threatened to move the NATO-HQ.(like the US owns NATO Rolling Eyes

)

This is again a sample of US bullying and the 'new way' of American Diplomats. Bribery, Blackmail, lies, hiding the truth,.... Hail to the American way! Rolling Eyes

And then Americans are suprised of the rising of Anti-American sentiments. How would you feel when a foreign country comes to dictate what and how the parliament has to vote?

About the law: I was not a great fan of the law in its current form. It was way to easy to file a complaint. People didn't even need a dossier to file the complaint. If they had changed that and installed some filters to get rid of the political inspired complaints the anti-genocide law could still work. But why are the americans so afraid? Do they have anything to hide? Are the really afraid people can proof the allegations of massmurder and crimes against humanity.

And a last comment. Not only did the US now avoid a trial for some Americans but this also means the trials against criminals like Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Houssein, Fidel Castro,... are abolished.

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Quite interesting this passage from the Independent:

Quote:

Nato officials reacted cautiously, saying US legal experts would examine the text after it had cleared the Belgian parliament. If the changes were deemed satisfactory, US officials would make it known that they were relaxing their threat to block more Nato spending.
Belgium to lift threat of Bush war crimes trial

So any of the 'Old European' country parliaments better send their laws at first to US leagal experts? :wink:

(Personally I thought, this law was really out of the legitimation of a national parliament!)

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Belgium has an imperfect Trias Politica structure. So a division of government across the legislative, executive and juridical branches.

This issue not only shows the Belgian govt is spineless. They wet their pants whenever the American govt threatens them. It also show the parliamentary democracy in Belgium is a myth. Normally the initiative has to come from the parliament and not the government telling the parliament how to vote.

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Well, if their parliament works like most other courts, they are probably just fed up with the headaches and want to clear their desk.

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Belgium's new government has confirmed it is repealing a controversial law which gives the courts power to try all cases of war crimes no matter where they were committed or by whom.
Guy Verhofstadt - who took office as prime minister for a second term on Saturday - said the new coalition had decided as one of its first acts to scrap the law, which has angered the United States.

link

And then wonder why anti-americanism is on the rise! Rolling Eyes

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Belgium gets the message.

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