CARICOM LEADERS have gone back home from the glitz at the Ritz to confront, in their respective countries, the harsh realities of the New World Order. One item up for discussion at the 24th Heads of Government Summit was the punitive response of the US Government to countries which have signed on to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The George Bush-led US administration has decided to cut military aid to 35 countries which failed to obey instructions to vote for the exemption of US nationals, particularly military personnel operating overseas, from the jurisdiction of the ICC. Among the 35 are six CARICOM states.
In expressing his concern at the US move Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, who was in attendance at the Summit, said the concept of a special war crimes court had worked well in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Bosnia and it was a pity that attempts to replicate this at the international level were being frustrated by the United States. Charles Taylor, president of the African state of Liberia, is now facing indictment for alleged war crimes.
CARICOM leaders, expressing their own deep concern, have agreed that the other member-states which had not yet ratified the ICC would do so as soon as possible. The Bahamas has essentially said it would take no action that would harm its links with the United States as it adopts a wait and see attitude.
The raison d’tre of CARICOM from its inception through the Treaty of Chaguaramas 30 years ago is the survival and advancement of the region through various forms of integration. Good relationships with the giant neighbour to the north are a vital part of that strategy. With few exceptions, CARICOM member-states are highly aid-dependent. The US can use aid for powerful leverage to achieve its geo-political objectives. Military aid is perhaps the least of the worries of CARICOM members with no significant external threats to national security and no military with which to meet such a threat in any case. But the stage is set for upping the aid withdrawal pressure to force conformity to the dictates of their superpower benefactor and major trading partner.
The United States, from the days of the League of Nations between the two World Wars, has led the world in the creation of a multilateral world order with notions of international law. Now as the world’s sole superpower, the US is leading the world in withdrawing from that very multi-lateral order while resorting to its economic and military muscle to force the achievement of its unilateral objectives. As the Commonwealth Secretary-General has put it, the whole ball game has changed.
Historically, the challenge to less powerful states has been how to retain a measure of sovereignty when confronted with imperial superpower. CARICOM states, singly or together, along with the rest of the world, are facing this challenge now.
The Jamaica Gleaner
