Manning: TT not budging on ICC

As far as Trinidad and Tobago is concerned, the jurisdiction of the  International Criminal Court (ICC) is a non-negotiable matter. “It is a matter of principle, and Trinidad and Tobago has no flexibility,” declared Prime Minister Patrick Manning Friday as he restated TT’s position on the ICC.

Reporting to the media before returning home Friday morning, Manning said that to date the Caricom Summit here at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay, raised two major issues that concerned Trinidad and Tobago. On the ICC and the US cut in military aid Manning said discussions on the issue have not yet been completed, which meant that the Caricom heads were still searching for a consensus on the issue. But Manning recalled that it was on the initiative of former president, Arthur NR Robinson, when he was Prime Minister that the initiative was taken, hence largely it was a TT initiative. “For Trinidad and Tobago therefore,” declared Manning, “jurisdiction of the court is not a negotiable matter. We have no intention to sign anything,” he added. Manning said they did not anticipate that this decision on the ICC would have led to any new tensions between the US and TT. He said TT recognises that it is a significant supplier of natural gas to the US and there were symbiotic relations between the two countries that TT would like to preserve. He hoped the relationship will not be disrupted. “We want no fight with anybody,” he added. “The US took a decision to cut off military aid to Trinidad and Tobago, and that’s it. We press on,” he said and hastened to point out his hope that the US move would not lead to any tensions between the two countries.

The idea of the ICC is to create a supra national court that has a jurisdiction to deal with matters of human rights abuse, crimes against humanity and genocide where the national jurisdictions are unable to deal with those matters. The Court has come into some contention because the United States after signing the statute creating the Court announced that it was repudiating the Court and was removing its signature from the Treaty. Since that time the US has sought bilateral agreements with each country in the world, including all Caricom members to have US citizens exempted from the court. It then announced cuts in military aid to several developing countries. Six Caricom countries have been affected by the US military aid cut. They include TT, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Belize and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Countries that have signed  the ICC Treaty include St Kitts/Nevis, Suriname and St Lucia, while those that have not yet ratified the Treaty include Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, and the Bahamas. Manning said although he was leaving, the discussions on arriving at a consensus were continuing with the remainder of the TT delegation and other Caricom delegations. Now that Manning has left, Foreign Affairs Minister, Knowlson Gift now heads the TT grouping.