Gift: TT not prepared to disown ICC

Trinidad and Tobago would be behaving like a father disowning a child if it were to accede to the US demand not to adhere to the International Criminal Court,  Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift noted yesterday.

His observation brought smiles from Prime Minister Patrick Manning, Ken Valley and Attorney General Glenda Morean. Gift stated that Trinidad and Tobago is a major claimant to the paternity of the initiative of the ICC. “We cannot be on the left and on the right at the same time,” the Minister stated. He added that he hoped that the rest of Caricom would see to it that the solidarity of the region is upheld on this issue.
He said the meeting of the Caricom leaders in Jamaica was “overwhelmed” with the news that the US had implemented its July 1 dictum — to withdraw military aid to those countries which did not support its request for its citizens to be excluded from the jurisdiction of the court.

The suddenness of the decision, though not unexpected, caused “a flutter” within the meeting, he said. Gift said it was very difficult to segregate in the United States system and divide military aid from other aid for drug interdiction. He said one might be able to say to the US authorities that it was also in their interest to restore the aid, since they were also potential beneficiaries of proper drug interdiction programmes. Stressing that Caricom, particularly Trinidad and Tobago, played a vanguard role in the establishment of the court, Gift said he did not see the possibility of Caricom’s solidarity being broken either on the FTA matter or on the ICC issue.