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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!hri.com!ukma!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: vpcsc11@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Subject: UN Lawyers Back Iraqi View
- Message-ID: <1993Jan26.031452.27115@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Date: 26 Jan 93 03:14:52 GMT
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Distribution: misc.activism.progressive
- Organization: San Francisco State University
- Lines: 32
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
-
- UN Lawyers Back Iraqi View - Attacks Not Authorized
-
- The United Nations' legal department says it sees no language in
- existing UN resolutions that would give the United States, Britain
- and France authority to enforce the no-fly zones they have imposed
- in Iraq - including the area involved in yesterday's [1/21/93]
- incident.
-
- The interpretation by the U.N legal staff, first reported
- Wednesday, on whether the allies have authority to enforce the no-
- fly zones came as a surprise and appears to bolster Iraq's case -
- at least technically - that the coalition's actions may be illegal.
-
- The allies traditionally have based their enforcement actions on
- U.N. Security Council Resolution 688, which condemns the Iraqi
- government's repression of minorities like the Kurds and Shiites.
- They argue that enforcement authority is inherent in the language
- there.
-
- But the UN interpretation is that because the resolution was not
- enacted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which authorizes the
- use of force to maintain international peace and security, it
- contains no enforcement power.
-
- Even so, U.N. officials conceded yesterday that the advisory ruling
- probably does not mean that the allies must stop using military
- power to enforce the resolution.
-
- "It's not our function... to tell a member state how to define a
- resolution," one official said.
-
- (Reprinted from SF Chronicle, 1/23/93, p. 2)
-