Canada part of ship-intercept plan

By GEOFFREY YORK
From Monday's Globe and Mail

(Beijing) In the dying days of his government, former prime minister Jean
Chr‚tien quietly authorized a move that surprised and baffled some of his
top diplomats: He joined a U.S.-led scheme of dubious legality that could
trigger military confrontations with North Korean ships on the high seas.

Although virtually unnoticed by the public, the plan has provoked deep
divisions in Canada's foreign-policy establishment, provoking fears that it
could pave the way for a U.S.-led military blockade of North Korea, with
the potential of dragging Canada into a war. Insiders said the government
failed to consult its diplomats or heed their concern when Ottawa bowed to
U.S. pressure to join the scheme to intercept North Korean ships on the
high seas.
Many legal experts said the plan is a violation of international law.

The scheme has an innocuous name, the Proliferation Security Initiative,
yet it has major implications for global security. It encourages its 16
member countries to intercept any ships suspected of carrying missiles or
nuclear material -- even if those ships are outside the member countries'
home waters. The primary targets would be ships from North Korea, though
some reports suggest that Iranian ships also might be intercepted.

Last month, the PSI members held a military exercise in the Arabian Sea,
practising seizing and boarding a merchant vessel carrying missiles. The
action was nearly identical to the seizure of a North Korean ship near the
same location in 2002. Later, the ship was released and its cargo of Scud
missiles was allowed to continue to Yemen. The U.S. set up the PSI scheme
to help block similar shipments.

A number of Canadian diplomats are worried that the scheme will antagonize
Pyongyang, increase military tension, jeopardize the chances of a peaceful
settlement of the nuclear crisis and alienate the Chinese leaders who play
a crucial role in efforts to defuse the North Korean situation. By
participating in PSI, Canada will lose any chance it had of playing a
neutral mediating role in the crisis, they said.

The founding members of the PSI group -- the United States, Australia,
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal
and Spain -- were joined in December by Canada, Denmark, Norway, Singapore
and Turkey. Ottawa has yet to publicly announce its participation. In
response to questions, the Foreign Affairs Department said that PSI is
"consistent with international law" and "consistent with
Canada's long-standing support of non-proliferation, arms control and
disarmament objectives," and presents an important opportunity to
advance those goals.

The PSI member states plan five more military exercises in the first half
of this year, though Canada has not decided whether to participate.
"We do not envisage special patrolling or deployments for PSI
activities," a Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said. "Any
contribution would have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis." She
revealed, however, that Canada might play host to a meeting of PSI
"operational experts" this year.

North Korea's neighbours South Korea, China and Russia refused to join.
China in particular is strongly opposed and questions the scheme's legality
and effectiveness. In meetings with officials in Beijing last week, former
foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy said he found the Chinese unhappy with
Canada's participation, seeing it as a contradiction of Canada's
traditional preference for United Nations involvement rather than
unilateral military action.

According to Canadian sources, a number of senior Canadian diplomats in the
region also were unhappy. For years, they had promoted a policy of
engagement with North Korea based on small-scale assistance and training
projects that could help to bring Pyongyang into the mainstream of global
relations. They believe this was sacrificed in Ottawa's efforts to placate
Washington. "They didn't see it coming," said a Canadian source
with close contacts in the Canadian diplomatic community in East Asia.
"It caught them completely flat-footed."

Mr. Axworthy said Ottawa signed on without listening to the diplomats.
"It's part of our act of atonement for staying out of the Iraq
war," he said in an interview. "If they had consulted with those
in the field, the advice would have been not to do it. But our foreign
policy is being dictated by how to win 15 seconds of favour with [U.S.
Vice-President] Dick Cheney."

Mr. Axworthy believes PSI is a clear violation of international law and a
breach of Canadian diplomatic rule-of-law traditions. "You don't
simply climb onto your horse or your frigate and head off to stop the bad
guys. It's a posse mentality, pure and simple. We have begun to forgo our
basic principles ... all for the sake of becoming bandwagon cowboys. We're
back with the Barbary pirates, ready to shoot cannonballs across the
bow."

There is also a danger that PSI could encourage a violent reaction or
further conflicts on the high seas, Mr. Axworthy said. "Any time you
set a precedent for unilateral intervention, you're giving a licence to
everyone else to do the same. We wouldn't like it too much if East Asian
nations decide to intercept Canadian grain shipments to check if they have
proper disease control."


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