India Blasts Special Treatment for Security Council

The Conference Daily Newspaper

ROME. India, already under fire for conducting nuclear tests in May, advanced one more step on Tuesday in making foes out of the world's most powerful countries.

Any role for the UN Security Council in the future International Criminal Court (ICC) would put its permanent members ''above the law'' and provide ''de jure impunity'' to them, the Indian head delegate, Dilip Lahiri, told the plenary.

A pre-eminent role for the Security Council ''constitutes a violation of sovereign equality, as well as equality, as well as equality before the law, because it contains an assumption that the five veto-wielding States do not

by definition commit the crimes covered by the ICC Statute, or in case they so commit, they are above the law and thus possess de jure impunity from prosecution, while individuals in all other States are presumed to be prone to committing such international crimes,'' Lahiri said.

The ICC is supposed to have a criminal justice function. "Maintenance of international peace and security is not its responsibility,'' he pointed out.

Before detonating nuclear devices last month, New Delhi had been lobbying for a greater supervisory role for the Security Council in all international matters. India had been a candidate for a permanent seat at a reorganised Security Council, but its chances for joining the powerful club have virtually disappeared in the fallout from the nuclear tests.

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