belgian d i c k h e a d s

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.