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IRAQ-UN: Mexico Assumes Presidency of Security Council at Tough Time
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Apr 1, 2003 (IPS) - Mexico assumed the temporary presidency of the
United Nations Security Council Tuesday at an extremely difficult moment in
the history of that body, and of the United Nations in general, said
diplomats and analysts.
The delegation of Mexico, one of the non-permanent members of the Council
that opposed the attack on Iraq, announced that it would work on forging a
consensus on humanitarian post-war aid in that country, while seeking to
bridge the bitter divide in the Council over the U.S.-British war.
Mexico does not plan to sponsor any resolution condemning the U.S.-led
attack on Iraq, and is not keen on irritating the United States, its main
trading partner, more that it already has with its stance towards the
conflict.
''We will not accept anything outside the sphere of multilateralism,''
said Adolfo Aguilar, Mexico's representative on the Security Council, the
highest UN body.
He said his country would lead an effort for the Council to play a role
in restoring peace in Iraq.
''Holding the month-long rotating presidency of the Council is an
extremely sensitive job, because it is not appropriate for the president to
take sides or confront other members, although perhaps that will turn out to
be inevitable now,'' Mexican diplomat and expert in international affairs
Agustín Gutiérrez told IPS.
Aguilar said his country's role on the Security Council this month would
be ''institutional,'' and stressed that Mexico would not enter into
confrontations but would seek common ground.
He admitted, however, that Mexico was assuming the presidency at one of
the most difficult junctures in the history of the Council in particular and
the UN in general.
Observers say the Security Council and the UN demonstrated their weakness
by failing to reach agreement on Iraq or block the U.S. attack. On Mar. 20,
the United States and Britain launched the military strike without UN
approval.
''Today the United States is exercising its power with no
counterweights,'' which makes it necessary at this time for ''the rest of
the world to throw all its support behind the United Nations, in order for
it to recover its strength and influence,'' Guatemalan Nobel Peace
Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchú said in Mexico.
Washington has expressed its ''disappointment'' with the lack of support
it was given on Iraq by the Mexican government of Vicente Fox.
A full 90 percent of Mexico's foreign trade is conducted with the United
States, which is home to more than 20 million people born in Mexico or their
descendants.
Some have expressed fears of animosity towards Mexican immigrants as a
result of the country's opposition to the war, which is shared by at least
80 percent of the population, according to opinion polls, as well as
politicians of all stripes.
In the past few months, the U.S. administration of George W. Bush
unsuccessfully pressured Mexico, as well as Chile - the other Latin American
country currently sitting on the Security Council - to back its war
resolutions.
But Mexico, like most of the countries of Latin America, remains firmly
opposed to the war, and wants the UN to administer the post-war humanitarian
aid effort and reconstruction of Iraq.
Washington, however, wants to play the leading role in the relief efforts
and occupation of Iraq.
The last Latin American country to hold the presidency of the Security
Council was Colombia, in December.
But Colombia firmly aligned itself with the United States with respect to
Iraq, to the point that in late 2002 it handed Washington a report on Iraq's
weapons stockpiles before an edited version was distributed to other members
of the Council.
By doing so, Colombia ''acted as a toady and a stool pigeon,'' Carlos
Lemos, a former Colombian interior minister, wrote at the time.
Some analysts say Mexico, as president of the Security Council, should
ensure that a proposed resolution by Arab countries for the war on Iraq be
declared illegal be debated by the 15-member Council.
The presidency of the Council rotates between the members for one-month
periods. The presiding delegation is in charge of proposing the working
agenda and schedule, as well as the major thematic issues to be discussed.
This is the third time Mexico has sat on the Security Council. The first
was in 1946 and the second in 1980-1981.
But this time around, Mexico is facing one of the greatest diplomatic
challenges in its history, said Gutiérrez.
Social activists and politicians on the left are demanding that the Fox
administration sponsor, as president of the Security Council, a resolution
for a ceasefire in Iraq and a condemnation of the United States for having
started the war without UN sanction.
''This is the time when Mexico must show determination and vigorously
condemn the war,'' Miriam Contreras, a university student and activist who
has taken part in virtually every street march held in Mexico City to
protest the U.S.-British war on Iraq, commented to IPS.
For her part, Menchú lamented that Mexico has assumed the presidency of
the Security Council under the current circumstances because due to the
grave nature of the conflict, ''it is nearly impossible for it to remain
neutral.''
But the Mexican government says it will do everything within its reach to
become a bridge bringing together the members of the Security Council.
''It is clear that we did not seek a spot on the Security Council to sit
back and observe the tragedy that the world is experiencing, but to push for
constructive solutions to conflicts,'' said Fox.
The April agenda proposed by Mexico indicates that the Council will deal
with the question of Iraq, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the
reunification of Cyprus, and troubles in African nations like Somalia,
Liberia and the Ivory Coast.
Mexican diplomats also said they would call special meetings this month
with the aim of strengthening regional organisations that work with the UN,
as well as a seminar on the work of non-governmental organisations in
conflict situations.
(END)
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