Letter to the Members of the United Nations Security Council

2 September 2002

15 October 2002

To the Members of the United Nations Security Council

We ask you to recall the U.N's purpose of saving humanity from the "scourge of war", and the specific duty of the Security Council to maintain the peace and to settle disputes by pacific means.

We ask you to remember the events of 1990-91, and how the United States gained support for Resolution 678, which authorised the use of "all necessary means" to evict the Iraqi forces from Kuwait. On that occasion, in our view, one Council Member manipulated others to vote in favour, by inappropriate means which are set out in the Appendix below.

We ask you to remember the terrible suffering of the Iraqi people as a consequence of that phrase "all necessary means" - suffering which continues to the present day.

We ask that you stand firm now and confer together to prevent a repeat of that process whereby the 1990 Security Council members were manipulated, one by one.

Now, in 2002, please do not support any measure that is at variance with the spirit of the UN Charter. Please stand firm to ensure that the Security Council performs its true function of ensuring peace and justice in the world.

Sincerely,

Anthony Maturin,
on behalf of Quaker Peace & Service Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Appendix:
The Security Council in 1990 passed a Resolution 678 authorising the use of "all necessary means" to evict the Iraqi military from Kuwait. But let us look at some of the bribery and threats by which that resolution was brought about.

Immediately after the November 29 1990 vote in the UN authorising force, the US administration unblocked a $140 million loan for the World Bank to China and agreed to meet with Chinese government officials.

The Soviet Union was promised $7 billion in aid from various countries and shipments of food from the United States.

Zaire was promised forgiveness of part of its debt as well as military assistance.

A $7 billion loan to Egypt was forgiven, a loan the President had no authority to forgive under U.S. law.

Syria was promised that there would be no interference in its Lebanon actions.Saudi Arabia was promised $12 billion in arms sales.

The U.S., which owes the most money to the U.N., paid off $187 million of its debt immediately after the vote authorising the use of force.

The US administration attempted to coerce Yemen by threatening the cut-off of U.S. funds.

The end result was that Coalition aircraft dropped 88,500 tons of bombs on Iraq in 43 days. More than 90% of the country's electrical capacity was out of service within the first few hours; major multipurpose dams, irrigation works, water pumping stations, municipal water and sewage facilities, water purification plants were attacked nation-wide; radio and television stations, tele-communications hit nation- wide; 139 road and rail bridges, food-processing, storage and distribution attacked systematically; milk powder, vegetable oils and sugar factories and frozen meat works were bombed, as was a tractor assembly plant; 90% of the country's poultry production was destroyed, as were grain silos, farms and hundreds of farm buildings; 28 civilian hospitals, 52 community health centres damaged; 56 mosques damaged or destroyed along with the people who had entered them for protection; 676 schools damaged or destroyed; damaged or destroyed were civilian government offices, Baath Party Head Quarters, Baghdad City Hall, Supreme Court, Justice Department, Ministry of Labour, National Palace; textile factories, engineering plants, three chlorine plants, chemical, petro-chemical and phosphate plants were bombed, as were a major hypodermic syringe facility and all major cement plants; cosmetics, razors, clothes factories were destroyed as were many hundreds of shops and homes; misiles hit 11 oil refineries, 5 pipeline and production facilities, many oil tankers and storage tanks, distillation towers, and gas/oil separators; two civilian airports together with civilian aircraft; aircraft attacked rail and bus stations and yards and car lots; civilian vehicles on the Baghdad-Amman highway were intentionally strafed as were trucks carrying humanitarian supplies and equipment.

The estimated number of civilian deaths from the bombing was 25,000. The estimated number of Iraqi soldiers killed was above 150,000. The US lost 148 men.

These murderous attacks far exceeded any force needed to persuade the Iraqi military to leave Kuwait. They violated the UN Charter, and the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.

We ask you not to allow that to happen again.

We quote Nelson Mandela saying of the US, "They think they're the only power in the world. They're not and they're following a dangerous policy. One country wants to bully the world. We must not allow that."

Anthony Maturin
Quaker Peace and Service, Aotearoa New Zealand

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