I.P.O. Information Service

Call for immediate resumption of arms inspections in Iraq
 
Appeal by the NGO Committee on Peace (Vienna)
 

Vienna, 24 October 2002/P/RE/17974c-is

The NGO Committee on Peace, a group of international NGOs accredited at the United Nations Office in Vienna, has sent an urgent message to the permanent pepresentatives of the member states of the Security Council, calling upon them to undertake all measures for the immediate resumption of arms inspections in Iraq. The International Progress Organization is among the signatories of this appeal.

The representatives of international NGOs accredited at the United Nations (Vienna) and co-operating in the NGO Committeee on Peace, have expressed their grave concern about the further delay of concrete steps towards resolving the question of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They demanded that the Security Council  decide immediately on the beginning of the work of the inspectors of UNMOVIC and on the resumptions of inspections by the IAEA, and that inspections should be undertaken on the basis of the modalities agreed upon between Iraq and the United Nations at the conclusion of negotiations held at the UN Office in Vienna at the beginning of October.

In their message, the members of the NGO Committee on Peace urged the Security Council member states to make the necessary decisions without delay so that a further escalation of the conflict and any unilateral military action against Iraq can be prevented. Such unilateral military action, according to the NGO Committee on Peace, would violate key provisions of the United Nations Charter. The NGO representatives expressed the view that the Security Council alone has the right to evaluate eventual reports of the arms inspectors and to decide on any further procedures within the Council's mandate to maintain international peace and security.

END/Call for immediate resumption of arms inspections in Iraq/2002-10-24/P/RE/17947c-is