The National Assembly Tuesday July 8 approved five motions to ratify four conventions pertaining to the international efforts against terrorism and an agreement regarding the surrender of persons to the International Criminal Court.

For the second time in three sittings, the Opposition left the house and claimed they did not have enough details on the subjects being discussed.

All the motions were presented by the Leader of Government Business, Honourable Patrick Herminie.

The first motion, which called on the Assembly to ratify the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material was unanimously approved. However, the other four motions, namely the one which resolved to ratify "the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Seychelles and the United States of America regarding the surrender of persons to the International Criminal Court, the Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism, the Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection," received the approval of members of the ruling party only, after all the 11 members of the Opposition had walked out.

The Opposition refused to participate in debates regarding the motion on the Agreement between Seychelles and USA about the International Criminal Court, after protesting that the Assembly's secretariat had failed to provide them with copies of the agreement.

They said they could not ratify the agreement without having access to its contents. The Assembly secretariat argued that it did not have copies for the MNAs.

Mr Ramkalawan asked for the motion to be postponed to allow MNAs to get copies of the agreement, but Hon. Herminie said the motion was in order and that the matter was urgent. 

Leader of Opposition Wavel Ramkalawan said he did not know what matter was "urgent" between "America and Seychelles". But Mr Ramkalawan's other comments that "like I've said before ... we are allowing America to frighten us" led others present in the Assembly to question the Opposition's stance towards the United States.

When presenting his motion, Hon. Herminie said Seychelles and USA had signed the agreement, known as "Article 98 Agreement ," on June 4 this year.

The agreement, he said, takes its name from the Article 98(2) of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court.

The Statute stipulates that any person who had committed crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide should either be prosecuted in member countries or at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Honourable Herminie said that even though Seychelles had signed the ICC Statute in 2000, it had not ratified it.

However, the " Article 98 Agreement," he said, would give immunity to the government and military officers of the two countries from arbitrary or political prosecution by the Court. Any decision taken to surrender a person of either country to the Court will require the approval of both countries. Hon. Herminie said the agreement would help strengthen our bilateral relations with USA. The United States has signed the agreement with several other countries.

When summing up, following the intervention of Hon. Ralph Agrippine who spoke in favour of the motion, Hon. Herminie denounced the Opposition for what he called "their anti-American stance" and reiterated that the agreement would only consolidate the already healthy diplomatic relations that existed between the two countries.

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