IRAQ: US Spying Will Not Affect Chile’s UN Security Council Vote

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Mar 6 2003 (IPS) - The Chilean government will proceed with caution on the matter of U.S. spying at its diplomatic mission at the United Nations, attempting to separate that situation from its actions on the Iraq crisis as a member of the UN Security Council.

President Ricardo Lagos, who has maintained a pro-peace stance, said Thursday that his government "is doing what needs to be done through diplomatic channels."

When reporters pressed him on whether he would present a letter of protest to the U.S. authorities, he responded, "We have tasks at hand that are a bit more important."

Lagos’s reaction, which the media deemed "ambiguous", coincided with foreign minister Soledad Alvear’s departure for New York to participate in the Friday sessions of the UN Security Council, which will include the presentation of a much-anticipated report on weapons inspections in Iraq.

Chile is one of the 10 non-permanent members of the council, and its UN offices, like the offices of the other "undecided" members, were targeted for surveillance via telephone taps and e- mail interception, according to the Sunday edition of the British daily ‘The Observer’.

The eavesdropping was apparently ordered by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and included the UN embassies of five other rotating members of the Security Council: Angola, Cameroon, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan.

According to the internal NSA memo cited by the British newspaper, the interception of communications at the diplomatic offices is part of the George W. Bush government’s bid to find ways to pressure those countries to back its plans for war against Iraq.

The United States needs nine votes in favour and no vetos from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council for its resolution to legitimise war against Iraq to be adopted.

Minister Alvear on Monday ordered an investigation into The Observer report. Mariano Fernández, Chilean ambassador in London, confirmed the authenticity of the document reproduced by the newspaper, said vice-minister Cristián Barros Wednesday.

Socialist senator Carlos Ominami said Thursday that Chile, like the other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, are subjected to all sorts of pressures from Washington to vote in favour of the resolution against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Britain and Spain are co-sponsoring the U.S.-led resolution.

Chilean foreign ministry sources told IPS Thursday that the Lagos government remains firm in its rejection of the resolution. With Mexico, Chile is attempting to build consensus within the Security Council to extend to Mar 28 the deadline for Iraq to dismantle its alleged arsenals of weapons of mass destruction.

In promoting this approach – backed by non-member but still influential Canada – the Chilean president does not want to create tensions with the Bush administration, and is thus keeping a "low profile" in the conflict triggered by the reports of U.S. spying at the United Nations, said the sources.

"The most important thing is to see if we are capable of advancing towards peace. Let’s not lose sight of what we are working on," Lagos said Wednesday during a press conference after being questioned about the as yet unconfirmed spying activities.

Former foreign minister and Christian-democrat senator Gabriel Valdés, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the government should present a formal protest before the UN about the U.S. espionage operations.

"I served 10 years at the United Nations. I was under-secretary general, and there were continuous complaints from countries that the U.S. government was tapping their telephones," said the senator, father of Juan Gabriel Valdés, Chile’s current ambassador to the UN and directly affected by the spying.

Senators Sergio Romero, of the National Renovation Party, and Carlos Bombal, of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), both of the right-wing opposition, spoke out in favour of a letter of protest against the espionage.

Senator José Antonio Viera-Gallo, of the co-ruling Socialist Party, said, "The United States should formally apologise to Chile."

The senators’ reactions came Wednesday, after minister Alvear appeared before the two chambers of Congress to report to the lawmakers about the government’s position on the Iraq crisis.

The upper and lower houses both approved declarations backing the Lagos administration’s efforts for a peaceful solution to the conflict, without recurring to force, and within the framework of UN multilateralism.

The lawmakers’ support is seen as a victory for the government, which was able to convince the socialists in Congress to back down from their efforts towards aligning Chile with the so-called "axis of peace" on the Security Council – France and Russia (both with veto power) and Germany.

Furthermore, Alvear was able to impose the official stance despite the fact that some members of the right-wing opposition proposed that Chile should support the pro-war resolution of the United States, Britain and Spain.

In her speech before Congress, Alvear stressed that the U.S. Congress’s ratification of the bilateral free trade treaty signed with the Washington in late 2002 is not contingent on Chile’s voting record in the UN Security Council.

She said the trade issue has never come up in the conversations about the Iraq situation that she has had with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.