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Iraq not the only guilty
country
By Stephen Zunes
Editor's note
In its
effort to justify its planned invasion of Iraq, the Bush
administration has emphasized the importance of
enforcing UN Security Council resolutions. However, in
addition to the dozen or so resolutions currently being
violated by Iraq, a conservative estimate reveals that
there are an additional 91 Security Council resolutions
about countries other than Iraq that are also currently
being violated.
This raises serious questions
regarding the Bush administration's insistence that it
is motivated by a duty to preserve the credibility of
the United Nations, particularly since the vast majority
of the governments violating UN Security Council
resolutions are close allies of the United States.
The following partial list of UN resolutions
that are currently being violated by countries other
than Iraq. The cases are listed in order of resolution
number, followed by the year in which the resolution was
passed, the country or countries in violation, and a
brief description of the resolution. Included here are a
sampling of the resolutions that continue to be
violated, followed by an explanatory note.
1319 (2000) Indonesia
The resolution
insists that Indonesia "take immediate additional steps,
in fulfillment of its responsibilities, to disarm and
disband the militia immediately, restore law and order
in the affected areas of West Timor, ensure safety and
security in the refugee camps and for humanitarian
workers, and prevent incursions into East Timor". It
stresses that those guilty of attacks on international
personnel be brought to justice and reiterates the need
to provide safe return for refugees who wish to
repatriate and provide resettlement for those wishing to
stay in Indonesia.
1322 (2000)
Israel
This calls upon Israel to scrupulously
abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the
responsibilities of an occupying power.
1359
(2001) Morocco
The resolution calls on the
parties to "abide by their obligations under
international humanitarian law to release without
further delay all those held since the start of the
conflict".
1402 (2002) Israel
This
calls for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities.
1403 (2002) Israel
This demands that
Israel go through with "the implementation of its
resolution 1402, without delay".
1405 (2002)
Israel
This calls for UN inspectors to
investigate civilian deaths during an Israeli assault on
the Jenin refugee camp.
1416 (2002)
Turkey/Cyprus
The resolution reiterates UNSC
resolution 1251 and all relevant resolutions on Cyprus.
1435 (2002) Israel
This calls on
Israel to withdraw to positions of September 2000 and
end its military activities in and around Ramallah,
including the destruction of security and civilian
infrastructure.
Explanatory notes
This list deals exclusively with resolutions of the
United Nations Security Council, a 15-member body
consisting of five permanent members (the United States,
Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom) and 10
non-permanent members elected for rotating two-year
terms representing various regions of the world.
The Security Council's primary responsibility,
under the UN charter, is for the maintenance of
international peace and security. For a resolution to
pass, it must be approved by a majority of the total
membership with no dissenting vote from any of the five
permanent members. Since the early 1970s, the United
States has used its veto power nearly 50 times, more
than all other permanent members during that same period
combined. In the vast majority of these cases, the US
was the only dissenting vote. The preceding list,
therefore, includes only resolutions where the United
States voted in the affirmative or abstained.
This list does not include resolutions that
merely condemn a particular action, only those that
specifically proscribe a particular ongoing activity or
future activity and/or call upon a particular government
to implement a particular action. Nor does this list
does include resolutions where the language is ambiguous
enough to make assertions of noncompliance debatable,
such as UNSC resolutions 242 and 338 on the Arab-Israeli
conflict that put forward the formula of "land for
peace", to cite the most famous.
Similarly, it
does not include broad resolutions calling for universal
compliance not in reference to a particular conflict,
particularly if there is not a clear definition. For
example, in a resolution that proscribes the harboring
of terrorists, there is no clear definition for what
constitutes a terrorist. This list does not include
nonstate actors, such as secessionist governments, rebel
groups or terrorists, only recognized nation-states.
Furthermore, this list does not include
resolutions that were also violated for a number of
years that are now moot (such as those dealing with
Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, South Africa's
occupation of Namibia, and Israel's occupation of
southern Lebanon). If these were also included, the
number of violations would double. In most of these
cases, the United States played a key role in blocking
enforcement of these resolutions as well.
Stephen Zunes
, University of San Francisco
professor and Middle East Editor for Foreign Policy in
Focus.
(Posted with permission from Foreign Policy in
Focus)
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