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March 27, 2003
Posted 8:47 PM
by Mary
SECURITY COUNCIL ENDS IRAQ DEBATE, HEARS OVERWHELMING APPEAL FOR AID TO CIVILIANS
The United Nations Security Council today wrapped up its first debate on Iraq since hostilities began on 19 March, with speakers making an overwhelming appeal for humanitarian relief for the civilian population despite their differences over the military action now being waged.
The Council meeting, which began yesterday, was held at the request of the Arab League and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to hear the views of those states that are not members of the 15-nation body.
The majority of the nearly 70 non-members that addressed the Council called for an end to what they said was illegal aggression and demanded the immediate withdrawal of invading forces. Expressing regret that diplomacy had failed to resolve the question of Iraq's disarmament, many said the current military action was a violation of the basic principles of the UN Charter. They also stressed that they could not understand how the Council could remain silent in the face of the aggression by two of its permanent members against another Member State.
Some non-Council members, however, said Iraq had squandered opportunities for peaceful efforts to disarm it of any weapons of mass destruction and the current military action was a last resort brought about by its non-compliance with Security Council resolutions.
After the non-members addressed the 15-nation body, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico was the first of the Council members to speak. He maintained his country's conviction that the war should not have started. The immediate challenge facing the Council was not getting bogged down in irrelevance, but in overcoming differences and arriving at consensus to allow it to comply without delay with its humanitarian responsibilities to ensure the survival of a large portion of the Iraqi population, he said.
Angola's Ambassador Helder Lucas deplored the fact that, despite the efforts of many countries, war had still occurred. He called for swift implementation of proposals to assist the Iraqi people.
Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan deplored the resort to force, which he said could have been prevented if inspections had been allowed more time to secure the effective and verified destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In the current war, people must come first, he stressed, and containing the war's humanitarian consequences was the most urgent task.
Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, which is participating in the coalition with the United States in the military action in Iraq, said Member States could not set aside the clear evidence that Iraq was repeatedly defying the UN in refusing complete disarmament of its weapons of mass destruction. Now was the time to unite to ensure that the UN and the international community could act quickly to meet the needs of the Iraqi people, during and after military action, he said.
Cameroon's Permanent Representative, Martin Belinga-Eboutou, said the Council had lost several opportunities to follow the path of peace and had dashed many expectations. Now was the time for realism and pragmatism, he declared. Responding to the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people must be in the forefront of the Council's concerns.
US Ambassador John D. Negroponte regretted that Iraq had not taken the final opportunity afforded to it to disarm and said the response of the coalition was not illegitimate. Calling on the Council to approve adjustments to ensure the continuity of the UN Oil-for-Food programme, under which Baghdad is allowed to spend a portion of its oil revenue on food and humanitarian supplies, he said there would be serious implications for the Iraqi people if the Council failed to do so.
Speaking for the Russian Federation, which opposed the use of force, Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said the unprovoked military action was a violation of international law. The Russian Federation was seriously alarmed at the humanitarian situation in Iraq and supported Secretary General Kofi Annan's efforts to mobilize voluntary contributions to meet the needs of the Iraqi population, he said.
Also declaring military action against Iraq a violation of the basic principles of the UN Charter and international law, Chinese Ambassador Wang Yingfan supported the continuing important role of the Council and hoped consensus would soon be reached on the Oil-for-Food programme for providing humanitarian relief to Iraq.
Another opponent of military action, Germany called for the war to be brought to an end as soon as possible. While primary responsibility for meeting relief needs now fell on the belligerents who controlled the territory, the international community and the UN humanitarian agencies must do everything possible to avert a humanitarian disaster, Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said.
Spain, who joined the UK and US in sponsoring a draft resolution that would have found Iraq not in compliance with previous Council demands, said repeated Iraqi non-compliance had led to an international coalition to take enforcement action to achieve disarmament. The highest priority now was providing urgent humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, Ambassador Inocencio Arias said.
Chile believed that current risks before the United Nations were major, Ambassador Gabriel Valdés said. It was time for the Council to make a special effort to bring their positions closer together, restoring to the United Nations its capacity to act. Currently, the Council should get down to solving the humanitarian situation in Iraq, following the proposals made by the Secretary-General.
Bulgaria believed the Iraqi Government was responsible for the current situation, Ambassador Stefan Tafrov said. The international community, however, must not give up its responsibility towards Iraq, but rather make every effort in the humanitarian field to rebuild the country after the conflict. The main task was to provide urgent humanitarian relief to the people.
Syria's representative, Fayssal Mekdad, said the UK and the US had carried through their threats outside of international legitimacy. There was no legal or moral justification for waging war against the Iraqi people. The humanitarian need of the Iraqi people was an urgent issue, he added.
France, which had threatened to veto any resolution authorizing the use of force, regretted that military action had begun without Council authorization. The primary concern now was for the civilian population of Iraq, Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière said. He hoped military action would be over soon, and the Iraqis would be spared from further suffering.
Winding up the debate, Mamady Traoré of Guinea, which currently holds the Council's rotating Presidency, urged the body to find ways and means to restore its unity and recover its effectiveness and dynamism. The international community was questioning the effectiveness of the Council, a few days after the beginning of hostilities in Iraq, he said.
March 25, 2003
Posted 11:55 PM
by Mary
ANNAN, CONDOLEEZZA RICE HOLD TALKS ON IRAQ AND HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met today with United States National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to discuss the situation in Iraq, including the humanitarian conditions and the requirements for providing assistance to the Iraqi people.
"The Secretary-General repeated his public call on all parties involved in the war to meet their obligations towards civilians under international humanitarian law," the spokesman said in a statement released after the meeting. "He stressed that the United Nations was prepared to do all it could to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."
The United Nations, however, "would have limited capacity to do so until security conditions allowed for the safe return of staff to affected areas," the statement said. "Until then, humanitarian assistance would have to be provided by the United States and its coalition partners in those areas under their control, consistent with their overall responsibility under international law."
According to the spokesman, Ms. Rice described the United States' present thinking regarding the post-war period, while the Secretary-General said that any United Nations role beyond the provision of humanitarian assistance would have to be decided by the Member States through a Security Council resolution.
The Secretary-General "emphasized the need to maintain the territorial integrity of Iraq and the right of its people to determine their political future and exercise control over their natural resources," the statement said.
HEADS OF UN AGENCIES TO DISCUSS AID TO IRAQ AMID GROWING CONCERN OVER BASRA
As Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepared to chair a top-level meeting of United Nations relief agencies in New York tomorrow on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, UN spokesmen for the organizations in the region expressed growing alarm today for the southern city of Basra, where the 1.7 million residents have been without full water supplies for four days.
"The situation in Basra is very alarming, very critical and all of us have raised concern about the situation there, especially about the water, which is of very poor quality," Veronique Tareau, spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq (OHCI) told a briefing in Amman, Jordan, on the UN's relief activities. "You have also to bear in mind that the weather in Iraq will become very hot and in that region it can reach 40 degrees centigrade, which means very soon epidemics will spread rapidly because of this situation."
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) joined in the concern over Basra as well as over the plight of children in general caught up in the war. UNICEF spokesman Geoffrey Keele said the agency was working to get vital water tankers into Basra to improve the situation for the city's children.
In a statement in Geneva, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, who will be attending tomorrow's New York summit, declared: "The last few days have raised real concern for the welfare of civilians caught in the conflict, especially children."
Stressing that this was exactly the kind of scenario UNICEF had warned of prior to the war, Ms. Bellamy said: "Electricity has been knocked out, interrupting the water supply, and that puts people at risk of disease from unsafe water."
She urged the parties to the conflict to put more focus on the humanitarian impact of the war. "We're very concerned about reports of deaths and injuries among children and women," she said. "Such losses are tragic, and they are unacceptable. But the truth is the world does not have a very clear picture of the humanitarian impact of the fighting. There is a disturbing lack of focus on the civilian population."
Calling on the parties to abide by their humanitarian obligations under international law and make the safety of children a priority, she said: "I urge them to do all in their power to protect children's lives, their homes, and their well-being."
Also warning that lack of safe water increased disease and death rates, particularly among children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that as many as 60 per cent of the population of Basra, Iraq's second city, were reported to lack access to clean, safe water. WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland urged all parties to fully respect the neutrality of medical staff and facilities. "I call on all those involved to avoid any and all attacks directed at health personnel," she said in a statement issued in Geneva.
In northern Iraq, the UN Development Programme, in collaboration with the local authorities started the electrification of Delizyan camp, which is designed for 7,000 internal refugees while the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that general food stocks in northern Iraq seemed to be good, although prices overall were increasing,
The UN High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) said there had been no substantial movements of Iraqi refugees across neighbouring borders.
Those attending tomorrow's summit are expected to include UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown; WFP Executive Director James T. Morris; Ms. Bellamy of UNICEF, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. Also scheduled to take part are Kenzo Oshima, the Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the now-suspended Oil-for-Food programme, which allows Baghdad to use a portion of its petroleum sales to buy
March 19, 2003
Posted 9:33 PM
by Mary
ANNAN APPEALS FOR WORLDWIDE RELIEF AID FOR IRAQ IN CASE OF WAR With the prospect of war in Iraq looming over Security Council deliberations on the key remaining disarmament issues for Baghdad to resolve, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to the international community today to do "everything we can to mitigate the imminent disaster" of the humanitarian crisis facing the Iraqi people.
Speaking at the conclusion of the Council's meeting, which was attended by five Foreign Ministers, the Secretary-General noted that over the past 20 years the Iraqi people had been through two major wars, internal uprisings and more than a decade of debilitating sanctions. "In the short term, the conflict that is now clearly about to start can only make things worse - perhaps much worse," he said.
The Secretary-General also stressed that Iraq's most vulnerable citizens - the elderly, women and children, and the disabled - are denied basic health care for lack of medicines and that nearly a million children suffer from chronic malnutrition. "I am sure members of this Council will agree that we must do everything we can to mitigate this imminent disaster, which could easily lead to epidemics and starvation."
The Council was meeting to hear reports from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which is responsible for the biological and chemical weapons profile, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is in charge of investigating the nuclear arms programme, on what issues remain for ridding Iraq of banned weapons of mass destruction.
The Secretary-General said the UN had done its best to assess the possible effects of war in terms of refugees and human need, but of the $123.5 million requested a month ago in preparation for an Iraqi conflict, only $45 million had been pledged so far and only $34 million received.
Posted 12:30 AM
by Mary
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
In commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the NGO Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism cordially invites you to join the discussion of strategies to eliminate racism on Thursday, March 20, 2003 from 1:15 pm until 2:45 pm in United Nations Conference Room 8.
Welcome: Luvuyo Lonsdale Ndimeni, First Secretary Permanent Mission of South Africa to the UN
Moderators: Melba Smith, Sub-Committee Co-Chair Lyndon Wilburg, Sub-Committee Co-Chair
Discussion Topics:
**Indigenous Youth confronting racism on reservations and in urban settings in the United States.
Vena Ade Romero, Undergraduate Student, Princeton University
**Grassroots Organizations -- using peer counseling worldwide.
Kay Webster, United to End Racism member, Re-evaluation Counselor Anti-Bias Education: Dialogue to counter prejudice & racism in communities, schools and homes. Rachelle De Blass, Projects, A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Institute, Anti-Defamation League
**Steps that governments and the United Nations can take to free the world of racism.
Mr. Luvuyo Lonsdale Ndimeni, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations.
Discussion You are invited to join the discussion of strategies to eliminate racism
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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