Open Letter Mr. Kofi Annan
Rescue Iraq!Your Excellency: Greetings of peace and justice from the Christian Conference of Asia. We, the officers of the Christian Conference of Asia, an ecumenical organization of more than 100 churches in Asia, consisting of more than 55 million individual Christians, join the world community in expressing disapproval and condemnation of the war against Iraq. We believe that war is a crime against humanity. So are the unilateral and pre-emptive strikes which were waged against Iraq even before the war had “officially” taken place. We condemn the war as totally immoral, unwise, and illegitimate, breaching all the principles of the United Nations Charter. We uphold the purpose and reason for the existence of the United Nations. Hence, we condemn the war against Iraq, done without any UN sanctions. We therefore urge you to call for the United Nations Security Council to declare that the war be stopped and to demand the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq without any preconditions. We strongly appeal for the proper functioning of the United Nations Organization according to the principles for which it was founded. It should be the UN’s duty to strictly limit the use of military power, refrain from creating negative precedents, and lower the threshold for using violence in order to solve international conflicts. In view of this, the actions of the US, Britain, and other countries that support the war in Iraq should be vehemently condemned. We strongly urge the UN Security Council to send peacekeeping forces to Iraq and resume its weapons inspection there. We believe that disarming Iraq could not and should not be done with the use of weapons of mass destruction but through works for peace with justice. We pray for Peace with Justice. We pray for the United Nations and all world leaders of good will to help RESCUE IRAQ! Revd Jennifer Dawson (CCA President, Aotearoa New Zealand) 20 March 2003 |
