31 December 2002 00:00
STATEMENT BY THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF RUSSIA AT THE FORMAL MEETING OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL HELD ON DECEMBER 30, 2002
2701-31-12-2002
Russia has always regarded the United Nations humanitarian program for Iraq as the opportunity for realizing the participation of the international community in satisfying the elementary requirements of the civilian population of the country. In the conditions of a continue trade-and-economic embargo - this is the only way of solving the humanitarian problems of Iraq.
We hope that as the appropriate resolutions of the United Nations Security Council are implemented with the full cooperation of the Iraqi side there will open up the prospect of a suspension, and then the lifting of sanctions. But this moment has not yet set in. That's why uninterrupted supplies to Iraq of basic humanitarian goods have a vital significance.
The resolution just adopted by the Security Council provides for the introduction of a number of changes to the accomplishment of humanitarian supplies to Iraq with the activation of the Goods Review List and of the procedures for its application. Russia could not support this resolution and refrained from voting.
We note that in the course of the preceding consultations the text of the resolution had acquired a more balanced character. In it, more specifically, there has appeared an important statement that the aim of subsequent reviews under the GRL will be not only additions to the list, but also exemptions from it. We hope that the Office of the Iraqi Program, UNMOVIC and IAEA will take into account the experience in carrying out SC resolution 1409 and submit recommendations for adjusting the GRL and its procedures with a view to expanding the flow of humanitarian and other civilian goods to Iraq.
It is crucial that the resolution envisages the prospect of lifting the sanctions.
At the same time, those consultations did not make it possible to achieve a full consideration of the different views, including the proposals of the Russian Federation. We believe that a number of GRL formulations bear an excessively restrictive character and affect not only dual-use products, but also goods having exclusively civilian application.
Thus, in our opinion, the restrictions on freight motor vehicles are unjustifiably too high. I mean the vehicles necessary for ensuring the usual kind of civilian transportation. In this context we are seriously worried by the information that has been coming in from the UN Secretariat of late about the blocking in the Sanctions Committee of practically all the requests falling under the purview of the GRL for supplies to Iraq of freight motor vehicles and handling equipment. This trend affects in the most adverse way the possibilities for a full-fledged distribution of humanitarian goods among the Iraqi population, and complicates the already not simple situation in so important industries for the economy as water supply, electricity production, irrigation and oil extraction.
We took the decision not to object to the adoption of the resolution, proceeding from the assumption that the GRL is not a prohibitive list but only envisages the adoption of well-thought-out and justified, including from the humanitarian viewpoint, decisions on specific contracts in the Sanctions Committee. We hope that in the future all the members of the Committee will show a constructive approach in examining the appropriate requests. Our attitude to further work on improving the GRL and its procedures will to a significant extent depend on the efficacy in the work of the Sanctions Committee in terms of the approval of humanitarian and other civilian contracts.
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