Dear friends,
Bombing of Iraqi Cities is, once again, immiment. Enclosed below is the latest information and an action alert.
** UNITED NATIONS, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Chief U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler said on Tuesday that Iraq had not fully cooperated with his weapons experts. In the conclusions of a report to the Security Council, Butler said that Iraq “did not provide the full cooperation it promised on Nov. 14” and thereby “ensured that no progress was able to be made in either the fields of disarmament or accounting for its prohibited weapons programmes.”
** Note: The lack of compliance to which Butler refers is based upon the Iraqi government’s decision not to allow UNSCOM inspectors into the political headquarters of the Ba’ath Building. When the UNSCOM inspectors were asked for a list of the items they were looking for in this political building, they refused to provide such a list.
** BAGHDAD, Dec 16 (AFP) – UN staff were being evacuated from the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, witnesses said. A source with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of disarming Iraq, meanwhile, said an evacuation was taking place. Caroline Cross, spokeswoman for the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), said after the arrival of 92 inspectors and support staff. “All U.N. international staff are now out of Iraq.”
** Note: The only UN staff that remain in Iraq are the oil monitors. According to Reuters, “Dec 16 Border monitors from Dutch firm Saybolt, employed by the United Nations to check Iraqi oil exports, remained at their posts on Wednesday, a industry source familiar with the operations of the company said.” However, the monitors of the humanitarian supplies were told to evacuate.
** Both London and Washington have reiterated that no warnings before bombing Iraqi cities.
** Bombing could occur any hour, any day. The US could bomb Iraq between 2 and 4 am; this would put it on prime time US on Wednesday or Thursday. A dark sky with little or no visible crescent is seen as the best time to launch an attack.
** Ramadan (the Moslem holy month of fasting from dawn till dusk) is expected to start either December 18 or 19. The US administration has said that Ramadan will not affect their bombing of Iraqi cities.
** Enclosed below is a draft letter of protest to Secretary General Kofi Annan, written by Elias Davidsson.
** In the next two e-mails, you shall find action alerts from Voices in the Wilderness regarding the US Treasury Department’s prepenalty notice, informing Voices of their intention to impose $163,000 in penalties on our organization and selected individual travelers.
** Please excuse the abudance of e-mails today; we appeal to you for action. Let your voice be heard. Please share with us your thoughts and activities. (To receive more information on the current crisis, please subscribe to the ADC-ITF Discussion list by sending a message to
“majordomo@leb.net” with the following command in the body of the message “subscribe adc-itf”)
In Solidarity,
-Rania Masri
———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 12:39:04 GMT
From: Elias Davidsson
DRAFT PROTEST TO THE UN SECR. GENERAL
Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General
United Nations
New York,
Your Excellency,
We have just learned with dismay that you have requested UN monitoring
personnel to leave Iraq as a result of threats by the United States to commit aggression against Iraq.
By requesting UN personnel to leave Iraq, you have in fact submitted to United States blackmail against the United Nations and given a green light for the commission of an act of aggression in breach of the Charter.
We kindly wish to draw your attention to the fact that thousands of civilians who are not UN personnel might be killed by such aggression. You did not offer these people to save their lives by leaving Iraq. By your act of cowardice you are implying that their lives are less worth than UN personnel.
While the United States, by levelling threats against Iraq, is already committing a breach of the Charter, your decision to remove UN personnel from Iraq in view of these threats, may mark the final moral demise of the
United Nations organisation as an independent organisation.
We urgently ask you to reconsider your decision to remove UN personnel from Iraq in response to US threats against Iraq and make it abundantly clear to the United States that any aggression against Iraq would constitute an aggression against the United Nations Organisation and its personnel and a breach of the Charter.
Sincerely yours,
——————————————————————-
Elias Davidsson – Post Box 1760 – 121 Reykjavik – Iceland
Tel. (354)-552-6444 Fax: (354)-552-6579
Email: edavid@itn.is