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Iraq
Question Causes New Divisions in
Region
Diego
Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, (IPS) - Mexico, a member
of the U.N. Security Council, is
calling for the end of the U.S.-led
military occupation of Iraq, while
fellow member Chile is keeping a low
profile, and three Central American
governments are sending soldiers to
the zone of conflict.
In the wake of the Aug. 19 bomb
explosion at the United Nations
offices in Baghdad, differences of
opinion about the occupation of Iraq
have returned to the fore in Latin
America.
Twenty people died in the blast,
including Brazilian Sergio Vieira de
Mello, who was U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights and special
representative in Iraq for U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan.
All of the Latin American governments
expressed indignation about the
attack, but Mexico -- one of the U.N.
Security Council's 10 non-permanent
members -- was the only to put itself
on a collision course with the United
States by questioning the occupation
and urging a review of the U.N. role
in Iraq.
In Chile, the political agenda is
currently dominated by domestic
affairs, and the Ricardo Lagos
administration has not repeated its
actions of the beginning of the year,
when it joined Mexico and other
countries in openly challenging
Washington and London's plans for war
on Iraq.
Following yet another path are El
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the
Dominican Republic, which together
have sent 1,144 soldiers to Iraq as
part of the Plus Ultra battalion,
joining 1,300 Spaniards.
The Vicente Fox government in Mexico
is defending principle and advocating
multilateralism, ”although the Fox
administration understands that not
everyone shares its positions,” as
is the situation with Washington and
some Central American governments,
Adolfo Aguilar, Mexico's
representative on the Security
Council, told IPS.
After the Aug. 19 bomb attack at the
U.N. offices in Baghdad, Aguilar first
demanded an in-depth reformulation of
the U.N. role in Iraq, and then
proposed a resolution, approved
Tuesday by the Security Council, which
defines attacks against humanitarian
workers as a crime of war.
The process for ending the occupation
of Iraq and continuing to rebuild the
country, with an active U.N. role,
”will not be an easy matter, but
Mexico will look for a way and will
promote it with the support of other
countries,” said Aguilar.
Mexico will wrap up its two-year
period on the Security Council in
December. The diplomat said Mexico
will follow its own vision until the
end, and will not be subordinated
”in any way” to the United States.
Before year-end, the Security Council
is to issue at least two
recommendations of great importance
for Iraq's future, laying the
groundwork for the end of the
occupation and for re-establishing
sovereignty, Aguilar said.
The United States has indicated that
it is considering a resolution to
encourage more countries to send
troops to Iraq, but has stressed that
Washington will not give up military
control.
Mexico, alongside permanent Security
Council members France, Germany and
Russia, propose that the U.N. have
greater authority in Iraq, and that
the occupation should end as soon as
possible.
As such, the Fox administration
refuses to consider sending troops to
Iraq as long as Washington does not
accept these criteria and does not
cede military control.
Nevertheless, Aguilar says the U.S.
proposal could open doors for
agreement on a more ambitious plan
than the one set out this week.
Meanwhile, the Iraq question has
practically disappeared from the
debate in Chilean political circles
and from the news media. Chilean
diplomats limit their discourse to
repeating the line that all action in
Iraq should be authorised by the U.N.
and the express mandate of the
Security Council.
The Lagos administration, after its
rejection of the war triggered
tensions with Washington, replaced its
ambassador to the U.N., Gabriel Valdés,
sending Heraldo Muñoz in his stead.
Muñoz is considered ”close” to
the White House.
”The pressure that the United States
exerted -- and exerts -- in the
international community about the war
in Iraq and the subsequent occupation
continues to generate divisions, and
Latin America is no exception,”
international relations expert Rafael
Fernández de Castro, of the
Autonomous Technological Institute of
Mexico, told IPS.
When Washington and London were
pushing for launching the war against
Iraq, most Latin American countries
opposed the move, and have paid the
political price for it. In Mexico's
case, it has meant chilly relations
with its northern neighbour and
principal trade partner.
But there were some exceptions,
particularly in Central America.
Costa Rica's President Abel Pacheco
expressed his political and moral
support for foreign intervention in
Iraq, and went so far as to say, ”I
would rather Iraqi children die than
Latin American and Costa Rican
children.”
Nicaragua's presidential spokesman
Joel Gutiérrez said in an IPS
interview that President Enrique Bolaños
decided to send 115 soldiers to Iraq
exclusively to help in the
reconstruction effort.
”Nicaragua has received aid from
around the world when we have needed
it, such as the 1972 earthquake, the
1979 war, and the natural disasters we
have suffered. That is one of the
motives that led the government to
send troops on a humanitarian mission
to Iraq,” said Gutiérrez.
But the political opposition and human
rights groups in Nicaragua condemned
the Bolaños administration's decision
to send soldiers.
”Iraq is occupied by an illegitimate
coalition that has even defied the
mandates of the U.N., which is why the
presence of Nicaraguan soldiers in
Iraqi territory violates international
law,” argues Gonzalo Carrión,
spokesman for the Nicaraguan Human
Rights Centre.
”The Nicaraguan military presence
there is, of course, insignificant,
but it -- and the fact that other
countries send troops -- gives the
United States political breathing
space,” he said in comments to IPS.
In addition to the 115 Nicaraguan
soldiers, the Plus Ultra Battalion
also includes 366 Hondurans, 361
Salvadorans and 302 Dominicans.
”Ours is a mission of peace and
reconstruction, and responds to the
U.N. goal of fomenting Iraq's
recovery,” a source from the
Honduran armed forces told IPS.
Mexican diplomat Aguilar said the
Central American countries ”have
their reasons” for sending troops to
Iraq, and that the differences among
the Latin American governments on the
Iraq question does not stand in the
way of fluid dialogue between their
delegations at the U.N.
He pointed out that every week Mexico
presents a detailed report on its
Security Council actions to most of
the countries of the region, through
political mechanisms like the Rio
Group, the maximum Latin American
political forum.
Mexico's actions in the Security
Council have hurt its relations with
the United States, and there are
international affairs experts who urge
the Fox government to take a more
moderate stance.
But Aguilar rejects such a notion,
arguing that Mexican diplomacy has
acted with decision in establishing a
mature relationship -- ”not a
prostituted one” -- with the United
States, one in which ”differences
can be clearly expressed, and without
alarming or hurting anyone.”
* Gustavo González (Chile) and José
Eduardo Mora (Costa Rica) contributed
to this report.
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