MORE ICC REACTIONS

Uruguayan leaders remain defiant after U.S. military aid was shut off because of that country's support for the ICC. See also here.

Here's a glimpse at an article in the Barbados Daily Nation :

UNITED STATES-provided training in disaster preparedness and drug interdiction are two of the programmes to be cut following an American decision to reduce military aid to six Caribbean states, including Barbados.

In an interview with the Daily Nation yesterday, Kathleen Boyle, public affairs officer of the United States Embassy in Bridgetown, said scholarships provided in the past to military schools like West Point and the Coast Guard Naval Academy would also be discontinued.

Four people representing the Eastern Caribbean are enrolled in such military-related scholarship programmes in the United States.

[. . .]
Referring to a World Wide Press Guidance document, Boyle stressed, however, that several other types of assistance provided in the past to the region would not be affected by President George Bush’s decision to cut military assistance unless countries agreed before July 1 to a waiver exempting American military personnel from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

Negotiations are ongoing in Columbia, but Uribe is still taking a hard line on this issue. There is a 1962 law that protects American citizens in Columbia, and part of the diplomatic discussion concerns whether or not that law is sufficient for the Bush administration. The Trinidad Express has a roundup of Caribbean reactions from a summit at Ocho Rios, "Caricom Divided on Bush Threat." And El Comercio notes that Ecuadorian officials are also standing firm.

MORE: Josh Cherniss writes:

Now, I have certain reservations about the way the ICC is set up, despitely strongly supporting the project of an independent international court, and I can understand why the US has problems with it -- though I'd prefer to address those problems by trying to reform the ICC as problems arise, rather than just walking away.

I agree. The Administration seems to think that it is a viable long-term option to simply opt out of the ICC. It seems to me that American commitment to human rights will seem quite hollow over the long term if they do attempt to do this. On the other hand, the statute does allow cooperation with the ICC at the discretion of the President, with congressional notification. So we'll see how this one plays out. Even Congress seems to have seen the value of some kind of cooperation here.