A small opposition party is seeking a life sentence for Foreign Minister Louis Michel for approving arms sales to Nepal. The case raises fresh doubts about the unique law, which gives Belgian courts global reach.
Michel, an outspoken critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, is the first Belgian to face a complaint under the 1993 legislation. He follows Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. figures who faced accusations this week over the Iraq war, along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
All those cases were quickly rejected by the Belgian authorities under changes to the law rushed through to counter international criticism, but the government still faces intense U.S. pressure to drop the law completely.
Reacting to earlier accusations against Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy Franks, Rumsfeld last week froze U.S. funding for the construction of a $352 million new NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital. He warned that American officials may stop coming to alliance meetings in Brussels altogether.
Human rights activists are increasingly concerned such pressure and further politically motivated charges may force Belgium to repeal a law they see as an important legal weapon against genuine war criminals.
''They are doing a disservice to those who have a real need of the law,'' Reed Brody, counsel with Human Rights Watch in New York, said of the latest cases.
A slew of world figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Cuba's Fidel Castro and Iraq's deposed leader Saddam Hussein have faced complaints under the law. But the only people to be tried and sentenced are four Rwandans — two of them nuns — who received prison terms of up to 20 years for their role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Brody hopes the next case could put Chad's fallen dictator Hissene Habre in a Brussels dock this year. Habre, in exile in Senegal since his overthrow in 1990, stands accused of torture, murder and other crimes during his eight-year reign.
Bringing Habre to justice could silence some of the law's critics, Brody claimed. ''This will show what the law can do,'' he said. ''The Belgian law is very capable of separating the wheat from the chaff.''
The case against Habre would collapse, however, under changes to the law proposed Friday by a leading opposition party that would limit its scope to cases involving Belgian citizens.
Under the changes already rushed through parliament in April, the government can refuse to accept cases against foreigners if it judges that their homelands have a fair and functioning judicial system.
That was applied in the cases against Bush, Blair and the others lodged this week, and in the earlier case filed on behalf of 19 Iraqis against Franks.
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt also is reportedly seeking further safeguards that would strengthen diplomatic immunity to any officials visiting NATO headquarters.
On Friday, State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said Belgium had informed the United States that three new cases have been brought under the law against U.S. officials, including the president. He said two of the cases were filed by people who are not even Belgian citizens.
''The law that allows the filing of these cases, as we've said before, is indefensible,'' Reeker said. ''And these cases demonstrate that, even with the recent amendments, the law does not work and we believe should be repealed.''
The case against Michel was lodged by the New Flemish Alliance, a small nationalist party that claimed the export last year of 5,500 Belgian-made assault rifles implicated the foreign minister in human rights abuses by the Nepalese armed forces.
Spokesman Ben Weyts said his party wanted to highlight ''hypocrisy'' in Michel's foreign policy. Belgium's decision last year to authorize the arms sale to the Nepalese army sparked a government crisis and led to the resignation of one leading minister.
Michel, who supports the law, angrily denounced the complaint against him.
''This is extremely irresponsible. It's completely crazy and irrational,'' Michel said. ''It will ridicule Belgium on the world stage.''
I wonder how much processing all these cases is costing?
