UNCLE SAM, BULLY OF THE LITTLE COUNTRIES?

As a major part of its unilateralist Orwellian campaign ("all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others") against the International Criminal Court, the U.S. Administration has carried on a campaign to intimidate many of the smaller and weaker countries that have signed on to the I.C.C. To receive foreign aid, they were forced to sign bilateral agreements under Article 98 of the I.C.C. Treaty, forbidding them from referring any U.S. personnel to the court (only Americans, not persons from other countries).

U.S. foreign aid has been only a fraction of that from other developed countries on a per capita basis, and in recent decades in place of helping the economic and social development of poorer countries, increasing amounts have gone to building up the military power of countries, including one of the world's wealthiest.

But even military aid has been cut from erstwhile friendly countries that have refused to sign the bilateral agreements. Among over 20 such countries is Croatia, which lost $5.8 million for training troops for NATO. Tanzania, where al-Qaeda had bombed the U.S. Embassy in 1998, lost $450,000 to bolster security, and Ecuador lost $15.7 million, much for detecting traffickers in narcotics often destined to the U.S.

Trinidad and Tobago lost $450,000 for its Coast Guard, leading its former president, Arthur Robinson, architect for the I.C.C., to observe, "The principal superpower, which should guide other nations toward the rule of law, is turning into a bully of the world."

[From Newsday.com, 19 October, 2004]