A Peaceful Future for Iraq ­

The United Nations special representative in Iraq, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, and twenty-four other United Nations officials were killed as a result of the criminal attack on the United Nations offices in Baghdad in the early evening of 19 August 2003. More than a hundred were injured, and some of them are still in critical condition.The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom expresses its deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of this act, and to the UnitedNations its deep felt sorrow for the loss of these members of the UN family.

We are shocked and horrified by what this attack on the institution of the United Nations represents. As others, we ask why this attack on the multilateral body, many of whose Member States pressed for it to be a major actor in the reconstruction of Iraq? Such a role was, of course, denied by the occupying power. However, busy with security issues and the protection of the oil fields as well as political tinkering, the occupying power was quite happy to unload onto the UN the burden of dealing with the humanitarian consequences of its attack. In the power dynamics of this occupation, how can the UN deal effectively with the tragic human conditions in the country?

Its attempts to do so have apparently left the UN wide open to interpretation that it is one with the occupying power. It has thus become a focus of hate by an increasingly frustrated and suffering population whose conditions worsen daily. In a BBC interview immediately following the attack on the UN offices, Ms. Mary Robinson, former High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that this tragedy should serve as a "wake-up call" to the international community to re-think the UN’s place in Iraq. We in WILPF agree with Ms. Robinson, and call on the UN Member States and their peoples to re-examine the place of the United Nations in Iraq and in the world.

Ever since the creation of the United Nations Member States have by-passed the organisation and taken it upon themselves to settle conflicts by military means in full violation of the UN Charter. When the damage is done, the UN is called in to pick up the pieces. Everyone must then pay for reconstructing what has been destroyed. Following the first Gulf War, the international community was compelled to contribute to the costs of the war. The Iraqi people have not only paid in terms of money but also in terms of sufferance. Iraq’s assets held in foreign banks, and the revenues from sales of oil have been largely used to help pay for the wars and repair the damage they caused. Little of the revenues have gone to relieve the sufferance of the Iraqi. Much of this has been done through United Nations machinery, which contributes to the negative image of the UN in the eyes of the Iraqis.

The many years of sanctions imposed against Iraq and the generous payments made to claimants for compensation of loss as a result of Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait and the subsequent war, all in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, are not forgotten by the Iraqi people. Therefore the place of the United Nations in this war-torn society today is critical not only for Iraq but also for the United Nations. There is an opportunity for the UN Member States to prevent the use of force in the future and to uphold and strengthen the principles of the UN Charter.

This spring, the majority of the members of the Security Council withstood the pressure of the US and a few of its allies to obtain UN approval to go again to war against Iraq. This time to prevent Iraq from attacking others with its alleged arsenals of weapons of mass destruction and to stop its purported nuclear weapons development programme. Millions of persons all over the world manifested their opposition to the war. The majority of the Members of the Security Council, to their credit, stood firm in demanding the continuation of UN weapons inspection and a peaceful settlement of contentions.

That the UN could not prevent the United States and its few allies from "going it alone" has not weakened the United Nations. On the contrary, the attempt to pursue a peaceful solution of the conflict has strengthened the organisation. It is on this position that the United Nations must build in order to regain the confidence of the world’s people.

Although not party to the war and the terrible destruction it brought with it, the United Nations cannot turn its back on Iraq. The insecurity, instability, deaths and further destruction will most likely continue and increase under the present occupying authority. According to the Washington Post several tens of billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Iraq's 'rickety infrastructure', which Iraqi oil revenues will in no way cover. While soliciting input from other countries, the US has made it clear that, politically and economically, they want to rule Iraq for some time to come, making sure that necessary services and national products will be privatized, with profits going to companies which the US will designate.
On the military front, according to an article in the New York Times, the Bush Administration is exploring different ways of maintaining control, including the possibility of a multinational force in Iraq under the sponsorship of the UN – as long as it is led by a US Commander.

We call on the UN Member States to refuse to have the United Nations work in Iraq under the rule of occupation of one power supported by a few other states. The United Nations should assume trusteeship over Iraq for a limited period of time during which a genuine democratic national government with equal participation of women, will be established, a constitution adopted and a social and economic system decided and developed by the sovereign Iraqi people. Immediately, a genuine international effort must be brought under way to rebuild the services and facilities needed for normalizing the daily lives of the Iraqi people, who have a right to be involved in this reconstruction process.

The United States Administration and its allies that have gone along with it and are present in Iraq today, have to assume responsibility for the Iraqi disaster. They must end their the military occupation of Iraq and instead put the vast sums of money, material and human resources, at the disposal of the United Nations to fulfil its trusteeship. This, together with Iraq’s resources and those of the international community as a whole, could prevent further disasters and help to build stability in the region. The US and the UK, being a party to the war against Iraq and now occupying it should not have the right to exercise their veto in the Security Council concerning any aspect of Iraqi reconstruction.

A solution along these lines may seem impossibly idealistic, and is probably not one the Bush Administration or the United Kingdom will even consider. But, the majority of global citizens are convinced that a way other than the Bush way is right, and are willing to work to make it possible.

We therefore call on people everywhere to demand and work for a halt to the occupation of Iraq by the US and its allies, and support an alternative through the United Nations system.