Antigua & Barbuda agree not to hand over U.S. nationals to ICC

Mr. Stephen Rademaker and Sir Ronald Sanders 
Digital Photo courtesy Antigua High Commission London

Friday, October 3, 2003

ST JOHN'S, Antigua: The government of Antigua and Barbuda have given in to a U.S. request and agreed not to hand over U.S. nationals accused of war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a government release yesterday, Antigua & Barbuda officials agreed formally to instead transfer such persons to the U.S. for investigation and prosecution where appropriate. Antigua and Barbuda is the 67th country to conclude such an agreement with the US.

The agreement between the two countries was signed on Monday, 30th September by Mr Stephen Rademaker, Assistant Secretary of State in the US State Department, and Antigua and Barbuda's Chief Foreign Affairs Representative, Sir Ronald Sanders. 

Commenting on the agreement, Prime Minister Lester Bird said, "This agreement was important to Antigua and Barbuda because the U.S. Congress passed a law which prohibited the U.S. government from providing military assistance to countries which did not sign Article 98 Agreements. 

"Consequently, since July 1st, we have lost all US support to our coast guard which is crucial both to search and rescue operations and to the interdiction of drug trafficking. The loss of this support has seen a significant increase in the amount of cocaine entering our territory and, in turn, this has spawned criminal activity."

Mr. Bird revealed that he had kept fellow CARICOM Heads of government abreast of Antigua and Barbuda's position on the matter.

He said, "On 14th July despite the CARICOM Heads agreement that countries could negotiate Article 98 agreements with the U.S., I suggested that all governments should delay starting such negotiations until discussions were held with the US about the possibility of exempting CARICOM countries from having to conclude Article 98 Agreements."

The Prime Minister added, "Antigua and Barbuda delayed such discussions until 1st September despite the adverse effect on our search and rescue operations and drug interdiction activities. On 29th August, I wrote again to my CARICOM colleagues explaining that in the absence of an indication from the US that CARICOM countries would be exempted, Antigua and Barbuda would proceed to negotiate an agreement consistent with the decision of the CARICOM Conference in July".

The agreement signed, according to government, is consistent with Article 98 of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC which the country has ratified. It is also in conformity with the agreement of CARICOM Heads of Government at their 24th Conference in Jamaica from 2nd to 5th July 2003, which stated that "Heads (of Government) also recognised that some Member States may wish to negotiate bilateral 'non-surrender' agreements with the United States if they are advised by their legal authorities that any agreement into which they enter is consistent with their obligations under the Rome Statute," said the statement.

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