BELGIUM: Belgium has said it will scrap a controversial war crimes law which has seen cases launched against US President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon.
Belgian Prime Minister Mr Guy Verhofstadt said his new government, sworn in on Saturday, would scrap the law that has angered the United States. He said the move was aimed at preventing abuses of the law, which has also seen a case launched against British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair.
"I think we have definitely solved this question," he said.
The 1993 law gave Belgian courts the power to try war crimes cases no matter where they were committed.
In future, the right to launch cases would be restricted to Belgians or people resident in the country. All cases apart from those involving Belgians would be dropped, he said. The norms of international immunity would also be respected.
Any cases launched would take into account Belgium's agreements with NATO allies and other European Union members.
The law got Belgium into all kinds of trouble. US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld had said Washington would be reluctant to send US officials to Brussels for meetings at NATO headquarters and that it was opposed to any further spending on a new alliance headquarters.
Belgian Foreign Minister Mr Louis Michel, who angered Washington with his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, was also caught by the law as he was accused by an opposition party of illegally authorising arms shipments to strife-torn Nepal.
Mr Michel denied US pressure had provoked the government's move. Belgium had already taken steps to soften the law, such as allowing cases be forwarded to a defendant's country if the country was democratic and could handle the suit properly.
Such was the fate of the cases launched against Mr Bush and Mr Blair over the war in Iraq. The case against Mr Sharon, filed by survivors of a 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by Lebanese Christian militias, was suspended as the court decided he had immunity as a leader still in office. - (Reuters)