Belgium close to deal to amend controversial war crimes law
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies
Negotiators are close to reaching an agreement to amend Belgium's genocide law, restricting it to lawsuits with a link to Belgium, for example if the victim or the perpetrators were Belgian.
The controversial law led to a suit against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and an investigation into Major General (Ret.) Amos Yaron for their alleged involvement in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut.
Belgium has been sharply criticized, especially by the United States, for the law, which empowers its courts to try foreigners for war and human rights crimes, no matter where committed.
Belgian radio VRT reported that the country's Liberal and Socialist parties, which are currently putting together a new government, are close to reaching an agreement through which the law would be amended.
This week a lawsuit was filed against Belgium's Foreign Minister Louis Michel, under Belgium's war crimes law. (heh heh heh.... turning around and biting themselves on the bum....I love it..........Snooker)
A small nationalist party from Belgium's Dutch-speaking community filed the suit against Michel asserting that a sale of 5,500 machine guns to Nepal that he authorized last year had made him an accomplice in human rights abuses committed by the Nepalese Army against Maoist rebels.
A group of Palestinian plaintiffs is using a Belgian law that claims universal jurisdiction, allowing the country's courts to try people for crimes against humanity and genocide no matter where they were committed. The law was enacted in 1994 in an effort to facilitate the prosecution of those responsible for the genocide in Rwanda.
Earlier this month, a spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry said Brussels would refer to Israel a war crimes investigation into Yaron's role in the massacre.
After Yaron's case is transferred to Israel, it will be reviewed by the Justice Ministry and is expected to be rejected out of hand, because the former officer's conduct in this affair was already reviewed by the Kahan Commission in 1983.
According to the 1983 judicial inquiry, Yaron, as commander of the Israel Defense Forces in Beirut at the time, had shown "insensitivity to the dangers of massacre in the camps" after he received reports of killings there by Lebanese Christian militiamen allied to Israel. He was relieved of his command, but went on to serve in other top army posts and is now the director general of the Defense Ministry.
The decision to transfer Yaron's case to Israel should ease fears of a new diplomatic spat between Belgium and Israel. Relations have been strained since the lawsuit was brought against Sharon.
Sharon was defense minister at the time of the massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatila camps. The Kahan Commission found him indirectly responsible for the killings and he resigned, but was never prosecuted.
A Brussels court earlier this week ruled the complaint against Yaron admissible. The complaint had been dissociated from a frozen lawsuit against Sharon, who enjoys immunity.
A recent amendment allows Belgium to send a lawsuit to the defendant's country if that country has a legal system that guarantees proper handling of the complaint. (What's poor Arafat going to do? (1). He has no country and (2) whatever he does have cannot demonstrate it has a legal system that guarantees proper handling of the complaint..........Snooker
The law was changed to stem a flood of complaints against foreign political figures which threatened to clog Belgium's courts and compromise its foreign relations.
The law has angered Washington, with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vowing to block spending on NATO's new Brussels headquarters as long as the law stands.
Lawsuits have also been brought against Tommy Franks, the U.S. military commander in the Iraq war, former President George Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.