Trump Sanctions Top ICC Officials Probing US War Crimes in Afghanistan
September 3, 2020
ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. (ICC)
The White House opposes the Hague-based courts investigation of not only
Afghanistan but also alleged crimes committed by Israeli officials against
Palestinians.
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
Human rights advocates the world over condemned the Trump administration on
Wednesday for imposing sanctions on two top officials at the International
Criminal Courtjust the latest act of retaliation for the Hague-based ICCs
ongoing investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by U.S. forces and
others in Afghanistan during the so-called War on Terror.
The Trump administrations perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged
terrorists and drug kingpins, against prosecutors seeking justice for grave
international crimes, magnifies the failure of the U.S. to prosecute
torture, said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human
Rights Watch. The administrations conjuring up a national emergency to
punish war crimes prosecutors shows utter disregard for the victims.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been a lead adversary of the ICC
probe, which moved forward in March after a series of delays. During a
Wednesday press conference, Pompeo announced the governments sanctions
targeting Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, the courts chief
prosecutor and prosecution jurisdiction division director, respectively.
The United States has never ratified the Rome Statute that created the
court, and we will not tolerate its illegitimate attempts to subject
Americans to its jurisdiction, Pompeo declared.
Pompeo further called the court a thoroughly broken and corrupted
institution, and said the administration is imposing the sanctions because
the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly.
The ICC investigation which has provoked various threats and actions from
the administration includes crimes allegedly committed by members of the
U.S. armed forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Taliban, affiliated
armed groups, and Afghan government forces both within Afghanistan and at
CIA black sites in Poland, Lithuania and Romania.
The probe has been welcomed by human rights activists and advocacy groups
such as the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which
denounced the sanctions as an unprecedented targeting of an international
prosecutor seeking to enforce international law and universally-recognized
prohibitions on the commission of war crimes and torture.
The Trump administration opposes the ICCs investigation of not only
Afghanistan but also alleged crimes committed by Israeli officials against
Palestinians. CCR, which represents victims in both cases, said in a
statement Wednesday that the administrations latest retaliatory move
against Bensouda and Mochochoko is a full frontal attack on the rule of
law.
Throughout its tenure, the Trump administration has consistently waged a
campaign against international justice and the independence of the
judiciary, the group added, taking aim at President Donald Trumps June
executive order that established the framework for sanctions as well as
Pompeos remarks to reporters.
CCR warned the vague and broad scope of the executive order, which invokes
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the civil and
criminal penalties thereunder, and Pompeos use of material support
language, which invokes the U.S. governments sweeping and overbroad
deployment of that concept in the terrorism context, is intended to chill
judicial proceedings and international justice.
Daniel Balson, advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, issued a
similar warning Wednesday, blasting the administrations reckless decision
as another brazen attack against international justice that is designed
to do what this administration does best bully and intimidate.
Grotesquely, the White Houses actions may dissuade survivors of human
rights abuses from demanding justice, and create a chilling effect on those
who would support their efforts, Balson said. It penalizes not only the
ICC, but civil society actors working for justice alongside the court
worldwide.
No one responsible for the most serious crimes under international law
should be able to hide from accountability, under a cloak of impunity, he
added, calling on federal lawmakers to stand up for international justice
and object to this transparent abuse of the executives congressionally
mandated sanctions power.
Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLUs Human Rights Program, called the
sanctions a very troubling development clearly designed to obstruct the
ICC probe. Dakwar said the move should be widely condemned as the worst
assault on the rule of law and global accountability mechanisms.
At least one member of Congress swiftly spoke out on Twitter. Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote that sanctioning the International Criminal Court
shows once again that Trump is on the side of authoritarians around the
world. The United States should be working to strengthen international human
rights standards, not targeting officials who uphold them.
A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said
that he took note of Pompeos statement with concern and urged the
administration to ensure that any future actions comply with a host country
agreement regarding the U.N. headquarters in New York City.
The sanctions also elicited concern from O-Gon Kwon, president of the
Assembly of States Parties, the management oversight and legislative body of
the ICC. Kwon said he strongly rejects such unprecedented and unacceptable
measures against a treaty-based international organization that will only
serve to weaken our common endeavor to fight impunity for mass atrocities.
We stand by our court and its staff as well as those cooperating with it in
implementing its judicial mandate, Kwon vowed. He called on state parties
and stakeholders to reiterate once again our unwavering commitment to
uphold and defend the principles and values enshrined in the [Rome] Statute
and to preserve its integrity undeterred by any measures and threats against
the court and its officials, staff, and their families.
This article is from Common Dreams.
