Conference on War Crimes Court Opens

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened a five-week conference in Rome on establishing an International Criminal Court to try perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Officials from 156 countries and representatives from about 200 humanitarian groups are attending the conference, intended to hammer out the statutes for the court and to overcome differences among states on the court’s powers and its relationship with the U.N. Security Council. The conference has a July 17 deadline by which to write a treaty establishing the court.