June 20, 2003

NOW THE WEASELS ARE EATING ONE ANOTHER:

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 20 — Belgium's government itself became the target Friday of a law that has damaged the country's relations with the United States by allowing war crimes complaints against President Bush and other prominent Americans.

A small opposition party said it had filed a suit against Foreign Minister Louis Michel for authorizing a Belgian company to sell arms to Nepal. The New Flemish Alliance, a nationalist party from Belgium's Dutch-speaking north, alleged the sale made Michel an accomplice in human rights abuses by the Nepalese armed forces.

''The law says every collaboration with these crimes is a crime itself and should be punished in the same way,'' party spokesman Ben Weyts said. ''The sentence for this crime is life in prison.''

Or complete irrelevance, whichever comes first.