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Pour publication immédiate: 20 septembre 2002


WCC cautions Iraq, US, UK, France, Russia and China on threatened military action

Cf WCC Press Release, PR-02-23.08e of 02 September 2002

The new director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, Peter Weiderud, yesterday sent messages to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and to the diplomatic missions of the US, UK, France, Russia and China.

The letter to Saddam Hussein, routed via the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations in Geneva, refers to an enclosed statement, adopted by the WCC Central Committee in early September, on the threats of military action against Iraq. The statement expresses "concern and alarm about the efforts of the US government to gather international support for a new military action against Iraq".

In its statement, Weiderud stresses, the WCC Central Committee calls on the Iraqi government "to respect the resolutions of the UN Security Council, including demands that it destroy all weapons of mass destruction and related research and production facilities, to cooperate fully with UN inspectors deployed to oversee compliance, and to guarantee full respect of the civil and political, economic, social and cultural human rights for all its citizens".

Weiderud's letter to the US, UK, French, Russian and Chinese diplomatic missions refers to the same Central Committee resolution, and draws attention to its call to the "international community to uphold the international rule of law, to resist pressures to join in preemptive military strikes against a sovereign state under the pretext of the 'war on terrorism', and to strengthen their commitment to obtain respect for UN Security Council resolutions on Iraq by non-military means."

In addition to the Central Committee statement, Weiderud also sent a copy of the minute on the tragedy of 11 September 2001 and the implications of the US government's response, to the US ambassador in Geneva, HE Kevin Edward Moley.

The text of the 2002 Central Committee statement on Iraq is available on our website at:
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/ccdocuments.nsf/index/pub-5-en.html#iraq
Ce texte peut être reproduit gratuitement.

Informations complémentaires: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

Le Conseil œcuménique des Eglises s'attache à promouvoir l'unité des chrétiens dans la foi, le témoignage et le service, en vue d'un monde de justice et de paix. Communauté œcuménique d'Eglises fondée en 1948, le COE réunit aujourd'hui 349 Eglises protestantes, orthodoxes, anglicanes et autres, représentant plus de 560 millions de chrétiens; il travaille en coopération avec l'Eglise catholique romaine. Son secrétaire général est le Pasteur Dr Samuel Kobia, de l'Eglise Méthodiste du Kenya. Siège: Genève, Suisse.