Belgium amends law to avoid prosecuting President Bush

Daily Times, 27 March 2003

BRUSSELS: The Belgian parliament on Tuesday amended a controversial law to prevent US President George Bush being prosecuted for war crimes over the conflict in Iraq.

The law allows Belgian courts to try suspects for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, regardless of where the alleged acts took place or the nationality of the accused.

Under the amendment, which the Belgian Senate must approve before it takes effect; a federal prosecutor will decide in certain cases whether to accept a suit filed under the so-called universal competence law. This was one of the filters that lawmakers inserted into the law to prevent plaintiffs bringing harebrained lawsuits.

Critics of the law, including the United States, have warned Belgium that its role as host to international institutions like NATO and the European Union, would be threatened if a war crimes suit were filed against Bush. It ’s a serious problem, said US Secretary of State Colin Powell, after he was named last week in a lawsuit for alleged crimes during the 1991 Gulf war along with former US president George Bush and current Vice President Dick Cheney.

For a place that is an international centre they should be a little bit concerned about this, Powell said. Some 30 current or former political leaders are facing action under the Belgian law, including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Cuban President Fidel Castro.I expect there to be, any day, a suit against President George W Bush in Belgium, Herman De Croo, speaker of Belgium’s lower house of parliament, said earlier on Tuesday. -AFP