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Posted 8:51 AM by The Moderator

Resolution to Protect and Respect the Full Sovereignty,Human Rights, and Dignity of the Iraqi People and Nation

May 28, 2004

We, the Peoples of these United Nations, determined to save both current and succeeding generations from the scourge of war; desiring to reestablish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from the UN Charter, international treaties, and the rule of law can be maintained; determined to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security; and to ensure that armed force shall not be used again, save in the common interest?

Do hereby demand that our respective governments review and adopt the following resolution:

Citizens Resolution on Iraq

Whereas the United States illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, violating the most fundamental and cherished articles and principles of the UN Charter along with the Geneva Conventions;

Whereas, the attack on Iraq was unwarranted, unprovoked, and unnecessary; and has led to the deaths of more than 10,000 innocent civilians, many of which have been women and children;

Whereas, the Bush Administration set up high level offices in the US Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency in order to manufacture and make the case for this war; and then blatantly lied to the UN Security Council using this fake evidence (See the January 2004 edition of Mother Jones Magazine:
www.motherjones.com

Whereas, the Bush Administration threatened, blackmailed, bribed, spied on, and intercepted the communications of other UN member states, violating the commonly accepted principles and normal rules of diplomacy, in an attempt to force others to do what the US wanted;

Whereas, CPA Administrator Paul Bremer signed four administrative orders on September 19, 2003, violating the Iraqi constitution, Hague Regulations, and Geneva Conventions, in a clear attempt to privatize and sell off Iraq to the highest corporate bidders. Order 39 announced that 200 Iraqi state companies would be privatized; decreed that foreign firms can retain 100% ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories; and allowed these firms to move100% of their profits out of Iraq (See Naomi Klein's article, Iraq Is Not America's to Sell, from The Guardian for details:
unitedforpeace.org);

Whereas, the most lucrative contracts have been granted to corporations with close ties to the Bush Administration, including Halliburton which still pays a retainer to Vice President Dick Cheney, the man who did the most to argue for the war and put forth false claims about weapons of mass destruction within the Administration.

Whereas, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction or removing Saddam Hussein from power. It was an attempt to privatize and gain corporate profits in Iraq; establish permanent military bases in the Middle East; ensure that the Euro did not replace the dollar as the means of exchange among oil states; and to take another step towards complete US economic and military dominance over the rest of the world (See the Project for a New American Century at: newamericancentury.org);

Whereas, the Bush Administration and occupying forces have killed a large number of media and journalists, assassinated and openly threatened to murder many Iraqi leaders, and repeatedly ignored judicial processes and rule of law;

Whereas, US forces have killed (or a more honest word would be murdered), more than 600 Iraqis in the siege of Fallujah(?) in what was clearly an act of revenge in response to the killing of four US security guards;

Whereas, the Bush Administration ignored blatant and pervasive prisoner abuse for many months, thus sanctioning rape, savage beatings, severe humiliation, torture, and up to 37 prisoners killed (or again more truthfully murdered);

Whereas, US forces have used and then left behind depleted uranium, cluster bombs, and other ordnance; and have needlessly targeted peaceful protesters and even wedding parties in both Afghanistan and Iraq, thus killing scores of innocent civilians (primarily women and children);

Whereas, the United States has also repeatedly protected Israel from UN actions, even after the Israeli government carried out state sponsored terrorism, assassinations, home demolitions, military occupation, and similar such atrocities as the US has perpetrated in Iraq;

Whereas, Article 27 of the UN Charter (dealing with matters before the Security Council) stipulates that, in decisions under Chapter VI, and under paragraph 3 of Article 52 (dealing with matters of maintaining and restoring the peace), a party to a dispute (such as the US and Britain in the case of Iraq and the US in the case of Israel) shall
abstain from voting;

Whereas, the US and Britain invaded a sovereign foreign country without cause or mandate from the Security Council, even while the Council was still seized with and responding to the matter; and while the General Assembly was considering holding an emergency session under a Uniting for Peace Resolution to deal with the issue.

Therefore, it is imperative that the UN Security Council refuse to accept the current US/UK Resolution on Iraq. The UN General Assembly and Security Council must take every action needed to ensure that the US does not profit economically or politically from the invasion and occupation of Iraq; that their corporations not be allowed to do business in Iraq; and that reparations are made in full to Iraq.

In addition, we ask that the UN Security Council consider and pass a resolution expressly forbidding any and all preemptive military actions and wars, particularly when the Security Council is still deliberating over and remains seized with such a matter.

Therefore, we require that the following actions be taken in order to restore peace and security in Iraq:

1) The orders of the Coalition Provisionary Authority must be rescinded and replaced by those of the Interim government of Iraq, according to its desire, ability, and convenience, based upon democratic and participatory decision making processes involving all of the Iraqi people;

2) A UN commanded multilateral peacekeeping force must replace the existing occupying forces in Iraq. Its mandate should be for a short and well defined time period, to coincide with the establishment of Iraqi police and security forces in Iraq.

3) The belligerent forces must be required to provide the resources for the complete reconstruction in Iraq, along with reparations for all damages done, beginning with an initial $75 billion (the initial amount that the Bush Administration spent to wage the war). If the US and UK refuse to do so, then sanctions must be placed on them to
ensure that their legal obligations are fulfilled.

4) Reconstruction should focus on rebuilding the economy so as to, first and foremost, fulfill the needs of the Iraqi people. Contracts should privilege local companies, towards the goal of strengthening and diversifying local production. Labor laws should be enacted to ensure protection of local workers. Past Iraqi debts accrued under the Hussein Administration should be forgiven. Women should be granted equal rights and opportunities in all areas of life.

5) Government spending, taxes, subsidies, tariff structures, etc. should be reoriented to support local environmentally sustainable production that meets local needs. The global trade that does take place should occur in a fair trade system, supported by a ?decorporatized? UN Center for Trade in Development, with operations that are transparent and democratic.

###
Petition from Rob Wheeler, Uniting for Peace.
Rob Wheeler

Association of World Citizens
Carlisle Peace College
Uniting for Peace Coalition
Coalition for a World Parliament and World Democracy

1-717-261-1894
robineagle@worldcitizen.org

To be circulated.

Posted 8:56 PM by The Moderator

ReutersAlertNet: NGOs need to be in on peacekeeping discussions.
Toby Porter is Emergencies Director of Save the Children UK. Writing in a personal capacity, he argues that it is impossible to come up with set guidelines on how to organise an "integrated mission" coordinating U.N. peacekeeping efforts, but unless humanitarian agencies are involved in the discussions, NGOs will walk away.
In September 2002, a senior official of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations said to me in New York:

"The Department of Peacekeeping Operations should convey to the humanitarian and development crowd: ‘We are offering you the opportunity to sit around the table and be part of what we plan to do; if you don't, we'll do it anyway. What do you think?’"

In the mid-1990s, the United Nations embarked on a plan to establish greater coherence among its various departments and agencies, especially where both military and humanitarian elements were involved.

The idea was for so-called "integrated missions" to work together with the shared goal of restoring peace, security, good governance and the conditions for sustainable

Posted 8:48 PM by The Moderator

UN Wire: An Independent News Briefing: "U.N. Security Council Calls On Sudan To Disarm Militias In Darfur

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

The U.N. Security Council late yesterday demanded that the Sudanese government rein in bands of marauding Arab horsemen in western Sudan's Darfur region as dictated by the terms of a Chadian-brokered cease-fire agreement.

In a unanimously endorsed nonbinding statement, the council reminded the government in Khartoum that under a 45-day cease-fire pact signed last month in the Chadian capital of N'djamena it had pledged to 'neutralize' the Janjawid militias, as the mounted groups are known (U.N. release, May 25).

The government-backed Janjawid have been attacking black Muslims in Darfur since February 2003, killing thousands and leaving hundreds of thousands of others at risk of starvation and disease (News24.com, May 26). They reportedly attacked five villages in Darfur yesterday, killing 46 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch (Chris Tomlinson, Associated Press, May 26).

The council's statement expressed grave concern about the plight of civilians in Darfur. It condemned 'indiscriminate attacks on civilians, sexual violence, forced displacement and acts of violence, especially those with an ethnic dimension' and called on the government to allow aid workers full access to Darfur, including by paving the way for a monitoring force (U.N. release)."

Posted 9:38 PM by The Moderator

Israel Pulls Out Of Gaza's Rafah Camp, Admits Killing Civilians: "Israel Pulls Out Of Gaza's Rafah Camp, Admits Killing Civilians

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Israeli troops withdrew from Gaza's Rafah refugee camp yesterday, ending a weeklong operation that left 45 Palestinians dead, 300 homes destroyed and another 200 severely damaged, according to Palestinian officials.

Associated Press reports that 'Operation Rainbow' was considered a failure by many, since the Israeli army was unable to find more than three arms-smuggling tunnels in Rafah and discovered no large stockpiles of weapons. It abandoned the operation before the sweep was complete.

An Israeli field commander was quoted by Israeli media as saying troops moved in the camp like a 'bull in a china shop' and destroyed dozens of greenhouses for no reason. The Israeli military says it demolished or damaged 56 houses, a figure far lower than the Palestinian estimate (Ibrahim Barzak, AP/Yahoo! News, May 25).

Yesterday the army admitted for the first time that at least seven of the people killed in a May 19 demonstration in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood were unarmed civilians, while only one person was identified as a 'terrorist.' Israeli government officials had previously said as many as five of those killed were militants (Donald Macintyre, London Independent, May 25)."

Posted 11:47 PM by The Moderator

t r u t h o u t - Susan Sontag | Regarding the Torture of Others

Posted 7:59 PM by The Moderator

UN Wire: An Independent News Briefing About the UN
Nonproliferation Treaty Meeting Collapses Without Decisions

Monday, May 10, 2004

By Jim Wurst
U.N. Wire


UNITED NATIONS — A meeting of parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) collapsed Friday night after the delegates failed to resolve differences on numerous political and procedural issues, notably how to refer to their own consensus decisions of 2000.

This was the final preparatory meeting before next year's review conference and delegates hoped that the meeting would produce recommendations for the conference, as preparatory meetings have in the past. Hours after the meeting was supposed to have ended, the meeting was simply adjourned with a final report containing minimum details. Breaking its own rules of procedure, the meeting did not even resume in open session to formally close it proceedings. Most of the meetings in the last week were held behind closed doors.

The political debate at the heart of all the procedural wrangling was the relative weight that should be given to disarmament and nonproliferation, specifically if the treaty's priority should be disarmament by the nuclear powers or addressing proliferation threats by countries such as North Korea and Iran.

Posted 10:12 PM by The Moderator

Open Letter to President George W. Bush
By Amnesty International
April 30, 2004

President George W. Bush

Dear Mr. President:

We former U.S. diplomats applaud our 52 British colleagues who recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair criticizing his Middle East policy and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States. As retired foreign service officers we care deeply about our nation's foreign policy and U.S. credibility in the world.

We also are deeply concerned by your April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan to reject the rights of three million Palestinians, to deny the right of refugees to return to their homeland, and to retain five large illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank. This plan defies U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for Israel's return of occupied territories. It ignores international laws declaring Israeli settlements illegal. It flouts U.N. Resolution 194, passed in 1948, which affirms the right of refugees to return to their homes or receive compensation for the loss of their property and assistance in resettling in a host country should they choose to do so. And it undermines the Road Map for peace drawn up by the Quartet, including the U.S. Finally, it reverses longstanding American policy in the Middle East.

Your meeting with Sharon followed a series of intensive negotiating sessions between Israelis and Americans, but which left out Palestinians. In fact, you and Prime Minister Sharon consistently have excluded Palestinians from peace negotiations. Former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo voiced the overwhelming reaction of people around the world when he said, "I believe President Bush declared the death of the peace process today."

By closing the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state, you have proved that the United States is not an even-handed peace partner. You have placed U.S. diplomats, civilians and military doing their jobs overseas in an untenable and even dangerous position.

Your unqualified support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories, and now your endorsement of Sharon’s unilateral plan are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends.

It is not too late to reassert American principles of justice and fairness in our relations with all the peoples of the Middle East. Support negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, with the United States serving as a truly honest broker. A return to the time-honored American tradition of fairness will reverse the present tide of ill will in Europe and the Middle East—even in Iraq. Because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the core of the problems in the Middle East, the entire region—and the world—will rejoice along with Israelis and Palestinians when the killing stops and peace is attained.

http://www.miftah.org/PrinterF.cfm?DocId=3636

Posted 7:48 PM by The Moderator

Members of this list may be interested in the following resources:

Middle East Librarians Association Committee on Iraqi Libraries
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/mela/melairaq.html

IraqCrisis: A moderated list for communicating substantive information on cultural property damaged, destroyed or lost from Libraries and Museums in Iraq during and after the war in April 2003, and on the worldwide response to the crisis.
https://listhost.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/iraqcrisis