...and Libya is chairing the Commission on Human
Rights. File this as Reason #3462 why the UN system
is broken...
JDG
Iraq to chair U.N. disarmament conference
>From Richard Roth
CNN New York Bureau
Wednesday, January 29, 2003 Posted: 6:49 AM EST (1149
GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Iraq will chair the United
Nations' most important disarmament negotiating forum
during the panel's May session.
At the rules-minded United Nations, it's not a
country's status with international weapons
inspectors, but the letters in its name that determine
which member state chairs the Conference on
Disarmament.
"The irony is overwhelming," a U.S. diplomat said.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed
ElBaradei, director-general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Monday delivered their 60-day
report on the status of weapons inspections in Iraq.
It was a less-than-glowing summary, with both men
saying Baghdad is not cooperating with inspectors and
is not being forthcoming on disclosing information
about its weapons programs.
Iraq will take its turn as the head of the conference,
a U.N. spokesman said, because of a "purely automatic
rotation by alphabetical order."
Therefore, joining Iraq as co-chair for the session in
Geneva, Switzerland, will be Iran.
The conference chair helps organize the work of the
conference and assists in setting the agenda.
The May 12-June 27 conference will be the 25th
anniversary session since the conference was
established in 1979 after a special U.N. General
Assembly session.
The conference is made up of 66 countries who have
been divided in recent years on several issues,
including the prevention of an arms race in outer
space.
The conference and its predecessors have negotiated
such major multilateral arms limitation and
disarmament agreements as:
� Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
� Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any
Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification
Techniques
� Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological
(Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their
Destruction
� Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons
and on Their Destruction
� Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
=====
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"First... to clarify what we stand for: the United States must defend liberty and
justice because these principles are right and true for all people everywhere. No
nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them."
-US National Security Strategy 2002
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