[Peace-discuss] Fwd: IRAQ: Review of 'Uniting for Peace' at the United Nations

[Jay Mittenthal]

>From: Peter Lems <PLems at afsc.org>
>To: AskAboutIraq <AskAboutIraq at afsc.org>
>Subject: IRAQ: Review of 'Uniting for Peace' at the United Nations
>Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 15:03:16 -0500
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>Friends:
>
>Here's a review of the current state of play on R377, "Uniting for Peace" 
>at the UN.
>
>*************
>Forwarded Message
>*************
>
>"UNITING FOR PEACE" UPDATE:
>
>RUSSIAN DUMA, MANY OTHERS, CALL FOR UN "UNITING FOR PEACE";
>US LAUNCHES PREEMPTIVE ATTACK AGAINST UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
>
>All over the world, governments and civil society groups are proposing to 
>take the US-led attack on Iraq to the UN General Assembly under a 
>procedure known as "Uniting for Peace." The US is so alarmed that it has 
>launched a preemptive attack with a letter to all countries in the world 
>which "demands" that they avoid "calls for an emergency session of the 
>General Assembly.
>
>Here's a report on the US efforts to block "Uniting for Peace," followed 
>by reports from around the world on the effort to convene the UN General 
>Assembly to challenge US aggression against Iraq.
>
>1. US PREMPTIVE ATTACK AGAINST A UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING The Chilean 
>newspaper La Tercera reports that their embassy in Washington received a 
>letter from the U.S., technically called a "non paper," that "demands" 
>that they "focus on the real challenges that are to come and avoid 
>provocative steps within the Security Council such as condemning 
>resolutions or calls for an emergency session of the General Assembly. 
>Such steps will not change the path that we are on, but will increase 
>tensions, make divisions deeper and could provoke more damage to the UN 
>and the Security Council." US Ambassador to Chile Brownsfield confirmed 
>that the letter was sent, saying it was in the hopes of "avoiding more 
>diplomatic problems." He said it was sent to all the countries of the 
>world. Although Ambasador Brownsfield has said that Chile's position on 
>the Security Council resolution won't affect the Free Trade Deal, he 
>publicly criticized Chile's last-minute proposal to give Iraq more time to 
>disarm. La Tercera says that after the press conference, he told 
>individual journalists asking about whether there would be reprisals 
>against Chile in the future if they don't support the U.S.: "I don't 
>reject or accept anything. The future will develop however it develops." 
>In Barbados, diplomatic sources said the US State Department had sent an 
>urgent note to regional governments stressing that the US would see the 
>region's participation in such a meeting as "inimical to its national 
>interest." In Jamaica, foreign ministry officials confirmed that the US 
>Embassy in Kingston had verbally passed on a message from Washington that 
>the Bush administration would prefer that Jamaica stay away if the General 
>Assembly is in fact called into session. "My understanding is that we were 
>contacted by the US Embassy asking us to refrain from giving support in 
>relationship to what they understand to be a General Assembly meeting," 
>junior foreign minister, Delano Franklyn, told the Jamaica Observer.
>
>2. RUSSIAN DUMA, MANY OTHERS, CALL FOR UN "UNITING FOR PEACE" UNITED NATIONS
>
>Diplomats told CNN that "members of the U.N.'s non-aligned nations - 
>underdeveloped countries that make up more than two-thirds of the U.N. - 
>had discussed calling an emergency session of the General Assembly under 
>the 'Uniting for Peace' resolution."
>
>RUSSIA
>The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, approved 226 to 
>101 a resolution calling on the Russian president to seek a UN General 
>Assembly emergency session "due to the military action launched by the 
>United States and Britain against Iraq." The same position is reportedly 
>shared by the upper chamber. Chairman of the International Affairs 
>Committee of the Federation Council Mikhail Margelov "said it is necessary 
>to call urgently a session of the U.N. General Assembly." Head of the 
>Defense and Security Committee Viktor Ozerov expressed anxiety for "an 
>explosion in the Moslem world, and this will lead to stepped-up operations 
>of international terrorists." First deputy chairman of the Industrial 
>Policy Committee Sergaei Shatirov said the General Assembly should take 
>into account the threat of a serious ecological disaster that "can affect 
>land, air and water" connected with fires at oil deposits and wells which 
>could affect the atmosphere in Russia.
>
>MAYLASIA
>Malaysia, current chairman of the 116-nation Non Aligned Movement, 
>condemned a US-led attack on Iraq as "an illegal act of aggression." 
>Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that Malaysia, in its 
>capacity of the Non-Aligned Movement chairman, "Will be consulting member 
>countries of NAM on the appropriate course of action."
>
>INDONESIA
>Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri called on the UN Security 
>Council to hold an emergency meeting to urge the US and its allies to stop 
>the war. "If that was not possible, the UN General Assembly should meet to 
>discuss the issue, Mrs. Megawati said after a special cabinet meeting."
>
>BRAZIL
>Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been "speaking to 
>regional and international leaders - including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi 
>Annan - about the possibility of summoning those world leaders opposed to 
>war to a meeting of the General Assembly to discuss alternatives to armed 
>conflict."
>
>AUSTRALIA
>Leader of the Democrats in the Australian parliament, Senator Andrew 
>Bartlett, called on governments to use Resolution 377 (Uniting for Peace) 
>to put war in Iraq before the UN General Assembly. "The assembly could 
>mandate, for example, that the inspection regime be permitted to complete 
>its inspections. An overwhelming vote against war by the nations of the 
>world would increase the pressure on the United States, United Kingdom and 
>Australia to reconsider."
>
>PAKISTAN
>At a seminar in Islamabad speakers including a former Air Force Chief and 
>a former Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, the speakers advocated that 
>"The matter should be taken to the UN General Assembly and war should be 
>averted by gaining two-thirds majority in the Assembly."
>
>VATICAN
>Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's justice and peace council 
>and for 16 years Vatican representative to the UN, said that the UN 
>General Assembly could hold an emergency session of all its members. "In 
>that case, all the countries could talk and vote, and the entire 
>international community would face its responsibilities."
>
>BRITAIN
>British peace organization CND said, "The authority of the UN has been 
>destroyed. The CND calls upon the UN to restore its own credibility by 
>using the resolution uniting for peace to call for a full general assembly 
>of the UN and to question this war."
>
>WOMEN
>Thousands of women from women's organizations in over 35 countries 
>demonstrated in New Delhi, demanding that "UN member states use their 
>power to carry out the emergency application of resolution 377 to convene 
>the UN General Assembly to stop the bombing and avoid catastrophe." Women 
>from Syria, Russia, China, Germany, Sweden, France, Canada, and Turkey 
>among others participated.
>
>Pamela Meidell
>Director, The Atomic Mirror
>"reflecting and transforming our nuclear world through the arts"
>
>P.O. Box 220
>Port Hueneme, CA 93044
>tel: 805 985 5073
>fax: 805 985 7563
>email: pamela at atomicmirror.org
><www.earthways.htm>www.earthways.org/atomicmirror
>
>Peter Lems
>American Friends Service Committee
>1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia PA 19102
>Tel: 215/241-7170  /  Fax:215/241-7177
><http://www.afsc.org/conscience/Default.shtm>http://www.afsc.org/conscience/Default.shtm 
>

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