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Chemical, biological weapons use should be war crime, Dutch say
Nov 6, 2009, 16:40 GMT
The Hague - The use of chemical and biological weapons should be defined as a war crime, two Dutch ministers wrote in a letter sent to the parliament on Friday.
In the letter, Foreign Ministers Maxime Verhagen and Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin supported a Belgian proposal to amend the Rome Statute, the founding document of the International Criminal Court (ICC), so that it would define the use of such weapons as a war crime.
The 110 signatories of the Rome Statute are due to meet in The Hague from November 18 to 26 to discuss updating the ICC's founding document. Refining the definition of war crimes ranks at the top of the agenda.
In their letter, the two ministers also said they would not support a Mexican proposal to define the use of nuclear weapons as a war crime.
They warned that if the Rome Statute would define the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as war crimes, this might deter countries that do not currently recognize the ICC from ratifying the Rome Statute in the future.
During a previous meeting in January in New York, the member states failed to reach a consensus on the new text due to be signed in Uganda on May 31.
The ICC, an independent, permanent court under UN auspices founded in 1998, aims to prosecute the most serious war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since it began operating in 2002, it has investigated war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Darfur.
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