"We, the undersigned, congratulate delegates for their hard work in search of a compromise for an effective International Criminal Court, especially the chapter regarding the opt-in, opt-out safeguards," said the letter, signed by the Coordinating Board of the Universal League for Controlled Justice (ULCJ).

These safeguards are "very convenient" for the exercise of justice, they said. Among the signatories are Saddam Hussein, Augusto Pinochet, Pieter Botha, Ieng Samry, Jorge Rafael Videla, Radovan Karadzic, Alfonso Dakhlama and Jean Kambanda, with the support of a "significant number" of army and police representatives from around the world, who have generously put aside their superficial differences for the common good.

The League also expressed "enthusiastic support" for the exclusion from the Statute of nuclear weapons, lasers and other instruments of active defence, all of which would ensure "continued progress for the world in the critical areas of scientific knowledge that may one day revert to civilian purposes."

The group warns, however, that the few governments really committed to justice - who are "the only genuine representatives of two-thirds of humankind"- must be aware that there are "dark forces" out in the international arena trying to pervert justice by promoting "wild ideas" such as an independent ICC Prosecutor. This, it argued, would "severely endanger decades of patient and hard work by several of our States in neutralising problematic internal political opposition, trade unions, human rights groups, environmental and others whose main goal is to subvert the natural order of things."

"We strongly endorse the constructive amendment to be submitted by the Moonlight Islands, in order to establish a fair mechanism for jurisdiction," the document says. The amendment, diplomatic sources said, is to be presented on Friday, Jul 17, at 11:55 pm, in order to leave enough time for concise negotiations among delegations. Under the Moonlight Islands' proposal, the Prosecutor will be able to act on his/her own initiative no earlier than 10 years after receiving a submission, which has to be presented by the accused himself (or an immediate member of his family), the state in which the crime was allegedly committed, all its neighbouring states, the state of the accused and the five permanent members of the Security Council. To top it all off, the submission needs to be backed by at least 500,000 signatures of citizens of all those states ( those who are proven to have no criminal record).

"This is to make sure that no trivial, irresponsible accusations are thrown against respectable citizens, " the delegate, Sjaamvd Lonalon, explained to me. The Court's proceedings may be stopped at any time for a period no longer than five years by any individual request lodged personally or via fax, e-mail, snail mail, telephone or by a message left with the Court's receptionist - provided that a contact number is provided, the Moonlight Islands' amendment further says.

"The world's most populous democracies and their less democratic but also populous allies in this affair" will be very disappointed if this amendment is rejected by the conglomeration of states seeking a "super Prosecutor," Lonalon added. In fact, he said, these states will probably walk out of the Conference if their compromise proposal is not accepted.

And if that is not enough, Lonalon stressed, "I think the nuclear powers involved in this should put some more pressure by making clear that they do not rule out the nuclear bombing of disobedient states, if they keep to their stand. He complained: "They are being too shy to defend the majority of the world's population."

The Universal League for Controlled Justice said that the progressive momentum achieved in Rome should not be allowed to fall into oblivion, and suggested that a series on conferences be held over the next decades to deal with details yet to be fine-tuned in the final Statute. But to get the tribunal off to a credible start in the meantime, the League proposed the temporary establishment of the Court in Baghdad or - if there is no agreement on that - in Kabul or Karachi.