BUSH... pushing for US citizens to be given immunity from prosecutions before the new international court to deal with war crimes

SIX Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations were among 35 from which the United States yesterday cut off military aid for failing to meet America's July 1 deadline that they grant immunity to US citizens from prosecutions before the new international court to deal with war crimes.

The American action came against the six -- Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago -- came on the eve of today's opening of a Caricom summit in Montego Bay, at which America demands that its citizens be assured of immunity before the International Criminal Court will be on the agenda.

The leaders have already had preliminary discussions on the matter at a pre-summit retreat in Ocho Rios and last night a senior Jamaican government official reiterated that the Community would develop a common response rather than take individual positions.

"The US has been trying to get individual Caribbean countries to agree to this (immunity) but Caricom's position is that it must be a Caricom negotiated decision," said the official, who asked not to be named.

Only about US$48 million over all in aid will be blocked by the Americans, with only a small portion of that earmarked to the Caribbean. But regional officials have suggested that there was a larger principal at stake: America's willingness to adhere to international law.

Caribbean officials have quietly suggested a nexus between Washington's behaviour on this issue and its decision to snub the UN Security Council in its invasion of Iraq with British support.

The International Criminal Court was created under a 1998 United Nations treaty to prosecute cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against nationals of countries unwilling or unable to try the cases themselves. The ICC, inaugurated in March, has the support of nearly 80 nations and is charged with prosecuting crimes committed after July 1, 2002.

The Clinton administration signed the treaty, but the Bush administration nullified the signature and has sought a permanent exemption from prosecutions. Those efforts have been blocked by the European Union, though the UN Security Council last year gave the United States a second one-year exemption.

Caribbean officials explained yesterday, that while all Caricom countries support the court and most had signed the treaty, only the six subject to the aid suspension had so far ratified the documents to be formally party to the ICC.

Yesterday White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the military aid cutoffs are "a reflection of the United States' priorities to protect its troops.

"These are the people who are able to deliver assistance to the various states around the world, and if delivering aid to those states endangers America's servicemen and servicewomen, the president's first priority is with the servicemen and servicewomen," he said.

US diplomats, as they have attempted in the Caribbean, have pressed allies to approve bilateral agreements exempting Americans from the court. But advocates of the court have accused the Bush administration of trying to bully weaker nations and of undermining an important advance in human rights.

A US delegation, headed by US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, is to hold talks in Montego Bay today with Caricom trade ministers on issues ranging from preparations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas to the September ministerial meeting in Cancun of the World Trade Organisation.

But officials at the US Embassy in Kingston said yesterday that, in light of the aid suspensions, the delegation will now include a State Department official with military and political expertise.

"We want to have somebody who is capable of providing a detailed response" to questions about the ICC and suspensions of aid, said the official.

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