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Press release Voices in the Wilderness UK Tuesday February 25th 0845 458 2564/ 0794 7839992 UK Government sets out to defy the authority of the UN Campaigners from Voices in the Wilderness UK today accused the British and US Governments of seeking to undermine the authority of the UN by defying a key UN Resolution (tabled by the UK in December 1999) to suit their own warmongering ends. UN Security Council Resolution 1284 requested that 60 days after UNMOVIC began work in Iraq they set out a work programme of key disarmament tasks for the Iraqi Government to complete. Para. 7 of Resolution 1284: the Security Council 'Decides that UNMOVIC and the IAEA, not later than 60 days after they have both started work in Iraq, will each draw up, for approval by the Council, a work programme for the discharge of their mandates, which will include... the key remaining disarmament tasks to be completed by Iraq... and further decides that what is required of Iraq for the implementation of each task shall be clearly defined and precise'. <www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/ However Jack Straw is quoted today in the New York Times as rejecting the idea of setting detailed deadlines for Mr Hussein to comply with UN Weapons Inspections http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/international/europe/25FRAN.html ) Milan Rai of Voices, author of War Plan Iraq, explained, 'It looks as if the US and UK are going to try to use Hans Blix's list of unanswered questions about Iraqi disarmament as a list of "30 things Iraq hasn't done" and use that as an argument for war, when the key UN Resolution on this, which was a Blair initiative in December 1999, says that the Blix list ought to be turned into a list of tasks that need to be done, which is an argument for more inspections.' Mr Rai added, 'Tony Blair is seeking to undermine a fundamental Security Council resolution which he tabled at the UN. He is doing that because the US is afraid that setting out a clear and unambiguous "key disarmament tasks" might actually avoid a war.' (For more details see ARROW briefing 31 at http://www.j-n-v.org ) Mr Rai also accused the US of manipulating the timetable for inspections. He pointed out that 'according to UNSC Resolution 1284 the key disarmament task list should have been presented to the Security Council 60 days after inspections started. The whole world knows that inspectors returned to Iraq on November 27th but UNMOVIC spoksperson Ewen Buchanan told me yesterday that UNMOVIC decided that their "work" didn't actually "start" until 27 January, describing the period before 27 January as a "build up" phase. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said that some members of the Security Council have been applying undue pressure on the inspectors. I believe that US pressure led to this bizarre re-timetabling, which pushes the definition of "key disarmament tasks" beyond the period when war is expected to start.' Call Voices on 0845 458 2564/ 0794 7839992 sign the pledge of resistance to the "war on terrorism" www.j-n-v.org _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk