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Letter: United Nations’ court seeks to increase scope

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 8:48 a.m.

Earlier this year the 43-nation Council of Europe denounced the U.S. treatment of terrorist prisoners from Afghanistan who are being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. This European council wants the conditions of arrest, detention and judgment to be "guaranteed by the U.N.'s International Criminal Court system."

In January a United Nations specialist assigned to monitor the legal affairs of all nations warned Italy that any refusal to prosecute Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of bribery and tax evasion might violate the U.N.'s "rule of law." The U.N. official, Param Cumaraswamy, announced plans to go to Italy to inject the U.N. into what is clearly a domestic affair.

Increasingly, the U.N. claims to be the world's judicial body. Once the International Criminal Court begins operations, that claim will have substance.

FRANK PELTESON

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