Greenpeace calls for UN solution to US-led attack on Iraq
Manila, March 23, 2003 — Greenpeace today called on President Arroyo to
invoke the United Nation’s Uniting for Peace Resolution to stop the loss
of lives and pave the way for a return to negotiations for disarmament.
Greenpeace activists unfurled huge anti-war banners throughout major
Metro Manila thoroughfares such as EDSA and Ortigas Ave. A gigantic
anti-war banner was also installed at the Guadalupe Billboard cluster
along EDSA. The banners carried the message ‘You can stop the war!’ and
was directed at morning rush hour motorists.
Greenpeace called on the public to take action through a global petition
in the group’s website urging the UN General Assembly to stop the war.
‘The war against Iraq is illegal, immoral and illegitimate. We urge
President Arroyo to stand for peace by initiating or supporting a
request for the General Assembly to intervene,’ said Greenpeace
campaigner Red Constantino. ‘We call on the public to tell President
Arroyo that the Philippines is against war and stands on the side of
peace.’
Calls to the UN General Assembly to stop the war has snowballed at the
UN headquarters during the last few days. Under the authority of a
little-used UN mechanism called Uniting for Peace/Resolution 377, the
General Assembly meeting in emergency sessions is widely seen as the
last chance to sue for peace in Iraq. Used only 10 times since 1950, a
majority of the General Assembly can invoke Uniting for Peace (UfP) and
bring global moral pressure to bear on the aggressor during a war. The
US has used UfP a number of times in the past; during the Suez Canal
crisis in 1950, for instance, the US succeeded via the UfP measure in
ejecting UK and French forces occupying Egypt.
Early this week, Rep. Apolinario Lozada, Jr., the Chair of the powerful
House Foreign Relations Committee, filed Resolution 1065 urging
President Arroyo to immediately authorize the country’s permanent
representative in the UN to either file or support the filing by another
UN Member State of the UfP mechanism. Many Filipino legislators have
since echoed the need for the President to seriously consider the Lozada
initiative.
UN General Assembly President Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic said last
week that it is ‘very likely’ that a special session would be called
this week to take up the UfP resolution. Indonesian President Megawati
Sukarnoputri has also called for the invocation of the UfP so that ‘the
UN General Assembly can meet to resolve the crisis. Many other
countries such as Brazil, Russia and Malaysia have stated their support
of the measure.
For more information, please contact Red Constantino at 0917-5241123.
NOTE:
Uniting for Peace (UfP) provides that if, because of the lack of
unanimity among the permanent members of the Security Council the
Council cannot maintain peace where there is a threat to the peace or
act of aggression, the General Assembly is obligated to consider the
matter within twenty-four hours. Uniting for Peace/Resolution 377 can
also be invoked by seven members of the Security Council.
