The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
To send letters to the New York Times Editor: Letters to the Editor The New York Times 229 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 E-mail: letters@nytimes.com New Times letter writing guidelines: "Letters to the Times should only be sent to the Times, and not to other publications. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters. When writing be certain to include your name, address and a daytime phone number. We do not set a limit to the length of letters, but we advise the shorter the better. We regret we cannot return or acknowledge unpublished letters. Writers of those letters selected for publication will be notified within a week to ten days. Letters may be shortened for space requirements." It would be particularly beneficial for letters to be sent from locales outside the United States, for the New York Times does like to occasionally demonstrate to readers that its readership base is geographically broad. With regards, Nathaniel Hurd http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/19wed1.html January 19, 2000 Security Council Stalling on Iraq For the past 14 months the world has been in the dark about whether Saddam Hussein has rebuilt his stocks of biological and chemical weapons. Last month the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution aimed at getting international arms inspectors back inside Iraq. But that goal is now being thwarted by Russia, France and China, which yesterday objected to Secretary General Kofi Annan's able nominee to head the new inspection commission, Rolf Ekeus. All three countries are permanent members of the Security Council. It will be up to Washington to make sure that Mr. Ekeus or an equally firm and credible chief inspector is approved this month. Richard Holbrooke, America's U.N. representative and council president for the month of January, has the diplomatic skills to be the point man in this effort, but he will need the energetic involvement and support of President Clinton and his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright. Appointing a qualified inspections chief would increase pressure on Iraq to readmit U.N. weapons monitors. Russia and France are the chief obstacles here. Both are putting narrow commercial interests ahead of their broader international responsibilities. Instead of working to ensure that council resolutions are enforced, they are cultivating Baghdad's good will in the hope that Iraq will reward them with valuable contracts once sanctions are no longer in effect. Mr. Ekeus served as chief arms inspector for Iraq from 1991 to 1997. He was widely regarded as both tough and diplomatic in his efforts to ensure that the disarmament provisions of the peace agreement that ended the Persian Gulf war were obeyed. That agreement requires Baghdad to supply complete information on its programs for making biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as well as longer-range missiles, and to cooperate in shutting these programs down. Despite the best efforts of Mr. Ekeus and his successor, Richard Butler, Iraq continued to defy its international obligations, exploiting every division in the Security Council to stall, evade and obstruct. The last U.N. inspection team was withdrawn just before the United States' bombing of Iraq in December 1998. Baghdad remains intransigent, saying it has no intention of readmitting U.N. inspectors, although that is the only way it can qualify for relief from economic sanctions. Before Mr. Ekeus's nomination, Secretary General Annan informally suggested more than 20 other candidates. All of those willing to be considered had been turned down by one or another member of the Security Council, several by countries friendly toward Iraq. As a result, the original Jan. 16 deadline for naming a commission chairman has already been missed. Further delay is extremely dangerous, giving Baghdad additional time to reconstitute its germ weapons and nerve gas programs, undetected and unmolested, Mr. Holbrooke, working closely with Washington, must now try to reunify the Security Council behind its own Iraq resolutions. The world needs a robust system of international arms inspectors under tough and unflinching leadership to protect itself from the dangers posed by Saddam Hussein's diabolical weapons programs. ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi