Reuniting for peace
published: Tuesday | March 11, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
GIVEN THAT the United Nations Security Council is unrepresentative of world opinion, because of the undemocratic method used in allocating its membership, the onus for ensuring global peace and security rests with the UN General Assembly, which operates on the democratic basis of one state, one vote.
On November 3, 1950 the UN adopted Resolution 377A, paragraph one of which empowers the General Assembly to convene in emergency session within 24 hours, in the event of a failure by the permanent members of the Security Council to act unanimously in the face of a threat to peace in order to maintain global peace, and to make recommendations for the resolution of the issue in hand, as happened during the Suez and Hungarian crises in 1956.
I call upon all CARICOM Governments, in the interest of saving thousands of Iraqi innocents now earmarked for certain death, to immediately use their good offices to try to ensure the convening of the UN General Assembly, under Resolution 377A, to rein in the bellicose and oil-thirsty regimes in London and Washington.
Failure to act will leave the blood of these innocents (euphemistically called collateral damage) also on their hands! We must not prostitute our principles in the hope of receiving thirty blood-stained pieces of silver! I hope that this call for action will be taken up by other CARICOM citizens, and also by civic groups.
