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U.N. makes attacks on workers a war crime
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday that aims to strengthen protection of its personnel and other humanitarian workers throughout the world. The 15-member Security Council passed the resolution one week after the United Nations' Baghdad headquarters was destroyed by a truck bomb. The resolution stresses that "attacks knowingly and intentionally directed against" humanitarian or peacekeeping personnel "constitute war crimes" -- language that was a key goal of the sponsors of the resolution. The final wording of the resolution was a compromise reached after the United States insisted that any reference to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court be removed. Human rights groups have hailed the ICC as the biggest step for world justice since the Nuremberg military tribunal tried Nazi leaders after World War II. But Washington opposes the ICC, fearing it could spawn frivolous lawsuits against U.S. soldiers or the president of the United States. U.S. President George W. Bush renounced the 1998 Rome Treaty creating the ICC, even though the administration of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, signed the agreement. Mexico's ambassador made a point of saying that the United States had been the lone holdout on the resolution, and said council members had to make a hard choice about the language of the text. "We make this very hard choice that we deplore that we have to make, but the higher aim of really providing conditions of exercise of responsibilities for the Security Council on the protection of humanitarian workers merit the sacrifices and difficult decisions made," said Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser. After the vote, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was grateful for the resolution, "given what happened last week, and the tense situation we find ourselves in." "Governments have to commit themselves to bring to account those who attack these innocent and unarmed civilian humanitarian workers, and I would hope that this message would go out from this council today," Annan said. The secretary-general said "intensive actions" are already being taken to protect U.N. workers in various locations.
Annan said he fully supports the International Criminal Court and the fact that language regarding it was removed from the resolution does not change the ICC's status. "It is there, it is established, they will continue to do their work," he said. "It was a compromise that was necessary to pass the resolution." The resolution, which first circulated in April, was co-sponsored by France, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria and Syria. It was revived late last week after the bombing of the U.N. compound in Baghdad, which killed 23 people -- 19 of them U.N. personnel. Included among the U.N. victims, is Sergio Vieira de Mello, a veteran U.N. official who was killed when a bomb-laden cement truck exploded beneath the window of his office in the Canal Hotel CNN Producer Vivienne Foley contributed to this report.
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