U.S. threatens to move NATO

last updated 8 January 2015

Brussels

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week that NATO may have to hold its meetings somewhere other than Belgium unless the country repeals a law on war crimes. The 1993 law allows charges of war crimes committed anywhere in the world to be brought in Belgian courts. Recently, a group of Iraqis brought such charges against Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of allied forces in Iraq. That lawsuit was thrown out under a clause that allows politically motivated cases to be transferred to the defendants’ home country. But Rumsfeld said the U.S. remains concerned about frivolous prosecutions of American soldiers and officials, and will withhold funding for a new NATO building in Brussels until the law is repealed.