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US makes debut attendance at Hague
War Crimes Court
US ambassador-at-large
for war crimes issues Stephen Rapp made a debut appearance for the United
States at the world’s war crimes court today and said the US remained wary of
politically driven prosecutions.
The United States is not a signatory to the 2002 Rome treaty that established
the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and Rapp’s attendance at
meetings this week and next is the clearest sign yet of Washington engaging
with the court.
‘Our view has been and remains that should the Rome Statute be amended to
include a defined crime of aggression, jurisdiction should follow a Security
Council determination that aggression has occurred,’ he said.
Rapp said however that the United States was keen on ‘gaining a better
understanding of the issues being considered and the workings of the court’.
‘The court itself has an interest in not being drawn into a political thicket
that could threaten its perceived impartiality,’ he said.
Rapp’s attendance comes after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in
August it was a ‘great regret’ the United States was not a full ICC
signatory.
But Rapp, the former chief prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone,
said the United States remained concerned about the issue of the crime of
aggression since US officials or servicemen and women could risk ICC
investigation for their roles in wars due to politically inspired
prosecutions.
That was one factor behind Washington’s decision not to ratify the Rome
Statute.
The issue of crimes of aggression is to be addressed next May in Uganda at a
review of the Rome Statute.
William Pace, one of the conveners of a coalition of groups supporting the
ICC, said although the administration of US President Barack
Obama was not calling Rapp’s attendance at the ICC
meeting a policy change, he welcomed what was ‘essentially a constructive
speech of re-engagement’.
‘We are not surprised that every permanent member of the United Nations
Security Council wants to keep as much control over the power to determine
whether an act of aggression has occurred as they interpret the UN charter to
give them,’ he said.
But Pace said most other countries do not believe the Security Council’s
permanent members should have sole control over determining whether an act of
aggression has occurred.
Rapp is leading the US delegation attending the Assembly of States Parties
(ASP), which is made up of 110 countries that have ratified the court’s
founding treaty. The ASP oversees the ICC’s
activities.
The United States, along with Russia, China and Isrel,
has not yet ratified the treaty.
Elizabeth Evenson, counsel at the international
justice programme at Human Rights Watch, dismissed
the United States concerns, stressing the independence of the prosecution and
ICC judges.
‘We are hoping the US will see that there is nothing in the experience of the
ICC that would give them the hesitation to think that this is a politically
motivated court,’ she said.
REUTERS
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US
Congress urged to combat China’s trade practices
The United States must
combat China’s trade-distorting industrial and currency policies with US
trade laws and by using the World Trade Organization, a congressional
advisory body said.
China’s trade policies that are aimed at piling up big surpluses contributed
to the imbalances behind the global financial crisis that started in the
United States in 2008, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission
said.
‘If China continues to pursue huge trade and investment surpluses and to
accumulate vast financial claims, it will hinder the necessary global
economic adjustment, create excess manufacturing capacity and lay the
groundwork for the next financial crisis,’ the bipartisan commission said in
its annual report to the US Congress.
The fiscal stimulus plan that China has used to combat the crisis, which won
praise in some circles, mainly supports more exports and ‘will only
exacerbate overcapacity, aggravating the overall problem,’ said the 367-page
report.
The annual report comes just days after President Barack
Obama visited China and discussed trade and global
economic imbalances and follows a spate of US trade actions that have raised
hackles among the Chinese.
Among 42 recommendations to the US Congress, the commission suggests
lawmakers press the Obama administration to pursue
a mix of WTO cases, application of US trade laws and pressure on Beijing to allow
its currency to trade more freely.
‘WTO cases, while important, are very industry specific, and fail to have an
impact on the trade-distorting aspects of China’s industrial policy or to
deal with the underlying causes of the US-China trade deficit,’ it said.
The US Congress should ‘urge the administration to ensure that US trade
remedy laws are preserved and effectively implemented to respond to China’s
unfair or predatory trade activities,’ said the report.
Last week the US International Trade Commission approved the 12th
investigation this year into charges of unfair trade practices by China,
backing a Commerce Department probe into whether China and Mexico are selling
seamless refined copper pipe and tube in the United States at unfairly low prices.
That measure followed preliminary duties on 2.63 billion dollar of steel pipe
used by the oil and natural gas industry in the biggest US trade case ever
against China. In September, the US imposed import duties on Chinese tires
under a special anti-surge measure that applies only to China and had never
been used before.
Rife with subsidies echoing US manufacturers
complaints, the commission report said China’s economy is rife with subsidies
on land, water and energy that allow Chinese producers and foreign firms who
relocate manufacturing there to sell at deep discounts compared to their
American competitors.
Data released by the Commerce Department this month showed the US trade
deficit with China widened 9.2 per cent in September to 22.1 billion dollar,
the highest since November 2008.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission was
set up in 2000 to advise the US Congress on the economic and national
security implications of the US-China relationship.
In the security realm, the 2009 report called for close attention to what it
said were China’s increasingly aggressive espionage efforts to obtain US
technology for China’s military and industry and stepped-up cyber warfare
capabilities that posed a threat to US computer networks.
REUTERS
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Lucknow: 10th International
Conference of Chief Justices of the World from Dec 11-14
The answer to the growing tendencies of terrorism is not violence or war,
only peaceful endeavour by countries can curb this
menace, former Gujarat High Court judge, Justice A S Qureshi
said.
Speaking on the announcement of the tenth International Conference of Chief
Justices of the world, Justice Qureshi told a press
conference that the event would be held in Lucknow from December 11-14, where
judges, social activists, and peace activists from 83 countries will
participate.
This is an annual event organised by educationist Jagdish Gandhi, Founder of City Montessori School,
Lucknow, whose name figures in the Guinness Book of World Records for his
commendable work in the field of education.
The legal luminaries, along with the peace activists would draft out a policy
to bring peace order in the world.
‘If European countries, who were fighting among themselves for the past 400
years, have united and formed one Parliament and one economic order, why this
cannot be implemented for the entire world,’ Mr
Gandhi said.
Chairman of the reception committee of the conference Justice Qureshi said ‘if Article 51, which is the soul of our
Constitution, is implemented in its right letter and spirit, we can promote
peace and security in the world. Humanity is at the cross roads where man
himself has developed devices to destroy himself. One nuclear bomb can
destroy a nation.’ ‘The conference is based upon the fact that the Article 51
is based upon the inspiration drawn from Vedas which says Vasudev
Kutumbakam which means the entire world is one
family. This can be the basis of one world Parliament, one world government
and one powerful judicial system,’ Mr Gandhi said.
Article 51 says the state shall endeavour to
promote International peace and security, maintain just and honourable relations between nations, foster respect for
International law and encourage settlement of disputes by arbitration,
Justice Qureshi said.
‘We have lost hope from politicians but we are looking towards the judiciary
to direct the states to implement Article 51, which is lying dormant for the
past 60 years,’ he added.
India can bring a new spiritual order and a new economic order and bring
about peace in the world, Justice Qureshi averred.
‘Though there are no specific international rules for countries, the
international law makes it binding for countries to respect and honour the
treaties between country to country,’ Justice Qureshi said.
UNI
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Reliance
Natural Resources Ltd to SC: Private players invited by govt from 1999 onwards
Private players were invited by the Government from 1999 onwards as a matter
of policy of liberalisation to explore the treasure
lying unexplored under the sea, senior counsel Ram Jethmalani,
representing Anil Ambani’s Reliance Natural
Resources Ltd (RNRL), contended before the Supreme Court.
He also asserted that private parties were invited to invest in the exploration
work after the government realised after 52 years
of Independence that it did not have money for exploration.
The investors were given the option of exploring, producing and marketing the
natural gas on their own under the production sharing contract (PSC).
Opening the arguments on RNRL’s behalf, he also
contended that "the government is sovereign qua the comity of nations
but qua the people of India, it is not sovereign but a servant of the
people." The senior counsel also contended that the government
transferred its ownership of natural resources to private contractors in lieu
of their investments and once the ownership gets shifted to private
contractors/parties, it cannot turn around and say it is the absolute owner
of mineral and natural resources.
Private players undertook the expenditure incurred on the exploration when
the government invited them after realising it had
no money to enter and explore the ocean bed.
Coming down heavily the government’s claim that it has to act in public interest,
Mr Jethmalani asserted
that infact, it is totally indifferent to the public interest.
He also contended that the NTPC invited international tender for natural gas
and the RIL manipulated to get the natural gas from the Krishna Godawari Gas Basin of Andhra Pradesh at the rate of 2.34
dollar per unit and managed to make the government enhance the rate to 4.2
dollar per unit.
The senior counsel also pleaded that Anil Ambani is
asking only for .01 per cent of the total natural gas found within the area
of 339 square km of the 7,000 square km area. This area of 339 square km has
19 wells of natural gas and the dispute is only on the two wells from which
the RNRL is asking for the supply of natural gas.
UNI
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Mumbai:
Case against Raj
Thackeray, 4 MNS MLA’s for manhandling MLA Abu Asim
Azmi
A case for treason was lodged against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray and party’s four MLAs
for manhandling Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi for taking oath in
Hindi in Maharashtra Vidhan
Sabha recently.
The case was lodged at a local Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court
against Raj Thackeray and MLAs
Rajesh Banjle, Ram Kadam,
Basant Geete and Shishir Shinde.
They have been charged with degrading Hindi, the national language, and the
Indian Constitution by objecting the MLA on taking oath in Hindi and
indulging in violence.
The court has fixed November 21 as the next date of hearing into the case.
UNI
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