[thedrifter]

May 14, 2003

Belgian politician accuses Franks of war crimes

By Paul Ames
Associated Press



BRUSSELS, Belgium ? A left-wing candidate in Belgium?s parliamentary elections lodged a war crimes complaint Wednesday against Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of American forces in Iraq.
Lawyer Jan Fermon presented the complaint against Franks and a Marine officer he identified as Col. Brian P. McCoy to Belgium?s federal prosecutors? office despite recent changes in the country?s war crimes law to prevent such charges against Americans.

Fermon said he was representing 16 Iraqi civilians injured or bereaved by U.S. attacks, though he gave few details.

?This is not a symbolic action; my clients want an independent inquiry into what happened,? Fermon told reporters as he arrived at the prosecutors? office. Fermon is running in Sunday?s elections for the small, far-left Resist group.

Fermon said the accusations against Franks focused on the bombing of civilian areas, indiscriminate shooting by U.S. troops when they entered Baghdad and the failure to stop looting. He charged McCoy with ordering troops to fire on ambulances.

The case has provoked anger from Washington. America?s most senior military officer suggested the complaint and earlier charges against other U.S. officials could jeopardize Belgium?s role as a host for NATO and European Union meetings.

?It?s looked upon by the U.S. government as a very, very serious situation,? Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday on a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. ?It ... clearly could have a huge impact on where we gather.?

To head off such complaints, the government last month rushed through changes to the laws, which were introduced in the early 1990s to authorize Belgian courts to try genocide and other war crimes wherever they occurred.

Legal experts said the case against Franks and McCoy would be a first test for the revised law, and predicted it would be thrown out by the prosecutors? office.

?This could be just a spectacular way of catching attention in the media,? said Prof. Jan Wouters, director of the Institute for International Law at the University of Leuven.

The war crimes laws were first used to target suspects in Rwanda?s 1994 genocide who fled to Belgium, the former colonial ruler of the central African nation.

Since then, complaints have been brought against a string of world leaders including Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein, although none has gone to trial.

The Belgian parliament revised the law last month after complaints were filed against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, former President Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Under the new amendments, Belgian courts should refer foreigners facing war crimes charges to their own countries if they are democracies with a record of fairness in justice.

After studying the complaint, prosecutors will decide whether to order an investigation into the charges.






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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press


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