WASHINGTON: US allies in the developing South are now being targeted by lawmakers here, who have already meted out punishment to nations that support the new International Criminal Court (ICC).

The retaliation would come via the 2005 foreign-aid bill, which currently contains a provision banning some 2.5 billion dollars in economic assistance for friendly governments that have not ratified a "bilateral immunity agreement" (BIA) with Washington to shield US nationals from the ICC's jurisdiction.

Some observers see the proposal as an early test of the Bush administration's interest in easing tensions with traditional US allies. The ban, which was adopted by the House of Representatives last summer, has been opposed by the State Department and several prominent Republicans, including the chairman of the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Rep Jim Kolbe, who warned during debate that it could further alienate US allies in the administration's "war on terrorism."

But congressional aides predict that, given the strong anti-ICC sentiment among Republicans and their sense of vindication from the victory of President George W. Bush in the Nov 2 elections, the provision will remain in the bill unless the White House, which has not yet voiced a firm position on the matter, lobbies against it.

"The fact is, most Republicans want to see the ICC killed and see this as another nail in its coffin," one aide said in an interview last week. The ICC, whose mandate is to investigate and prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and similar atrocities, was established under the 1998 Rome Statute, which has been ratified by 97 countries, including all of Washington's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and members of the European Union (EU), of the 139 countries that have signed it.

The ICC officially came into being in 2002 and its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine jurist who has taught in the United States, has so far pursued investigations of crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.

Although the United States signed the statute under former President Bill Clinton, the Bush administration, in an unprecedented manoeuvre, formally renounced it in May 2002, launching a major diplomatic offensive to persuade countries that adhered to the treaty to sign BIAs with Washington committing them not to transfer any US soldier or civilian official to the ICC's jurisdiction.

It also sought - and initially obtained - a United Nations Security Council resolution that provided blanket exemption from the ICC for soldiers and officials serving in UN peacekeeping operations whose home country has not signed the treaty.

The administration has insisted the ICC threatens US sovereignty and that, given Washington's global military predominance and the unique responsibilities for maintaining international peace that go with it, US peacekeepers would be particularly vulnerable to politically-inspired prosecutions by the ICC.

During the just-concluded election campaign, Bush himself repeatedly denounced the ICC, which he insisted would be dominated by "unaccountable judges and prosecutors."

ICC supporters, including Bush's closest foreign ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have argued Washington has nothing to fear from the tribunal so long as the US government is willing to investigate and prosecute serious crimes that might otherwise be the ICC's jurisdiction. Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can only take jurisdiction if the country involved is either unable or unwilling to pursue prosecutions on its own.

Indeed, Moreno has already rejected petitions to bring US and British officials to the ICC for alleged crimes committed in Iraq. Nonetheless, the Bush administration has so far proven deaf to these arguments.

Pursuant to an initial anti-ICC law passed by Congress in 2002, the administration has over the past year cut off military aid to about three-dozen countries - almost all of them poor nations - that had ratified the Rome Statute and rejected BIAs. Most of them claimed that signing a BIA would violate their legal commitments under the statute. But facing this kind of pressure, more than 80 countries, including several dozen that have not ratified the Rome Statute, have signed BIAs.

Under the pending congressional provision the president could waive the ban for national-security reasons for Washington's NATO or "non-NATO allies," which include Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Argentina and South Korea. But even if he waived those countries, that would still leave a number of other key US partners in the developing world - and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic assistance - unprotected from the ban's reach, including South Africa, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jordan, Mali, Liberia, Benin, Niger, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and several other Caribbean island-states, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The specific aid programme affected by the ban would be the Economic Support Fund (ESF), which Washington has traditionally used to provide general economic support to countries that can play a key role in achieving strategic US objectives, such as anti-terrorism or anti-narcotics trafficking.

Jordan, for example, is supposed to receive 250 million dollars in ESF funds to help "promote economic growth and support healthcare, education, and governance reforms" at a time when Washington desperately needs Amman's cooperation in providing training for Iraqi security forces and critical political and diplomatic support for the ongoing transition in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories.

Jordan's UN ambassador is currently the president of the ICC's Assembly of States Parties.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, ESF funds are also provided for development purposes but, at the same time, are related to the countries' support for US anti-drug and anti-terror operations in the region.

"Many of these countries have already lost millions in U.S. military assistance over their (ICC) position," according to Brian Thompson, manager for the international law and justice programme at Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS).

"Cutting more aid will not change their minds, but will undermine our diplomatic relations and weaken our ability to cooperate with them in the global effort against terrorism and other US priorities," he added in a statement.

In recent months, the Bush administration has shown some flexibility in its campaign against the ICC. Last June, it backed down from demands that the Security Council approve another extension of the exemption for US officials and troops serving in UN peacekeeping missions after it became clear that a majority of the Council would not approve it.

And just 10 days ago, it agreed to shelve an effort to delete the ICC from the UN General Assembly's formal agenda or to have the court pay for all costs related to a General Assembly discussion about the body after receiving strong protests from its European allies. But after the June vote, it removed a number of US personnel from two UN operations. -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.