IRAQ: Caribbean Restores Unified Front Despite U.S. Pressure

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Apr 17 2003 (IPS) - After a rupture of their common front on Iraq following constant pressure from Washington, Caribbean leaders this week reasserted their original demand that the United Nations, not the United States or its coalition partners, play the central role in that country.

The need for the United Nations and the authority of its Security Council has never been greater that it is today, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said in a statement issued from the office of Dominica’s Prime Minister Pierre Charles, the body’s current chairman.

”In an increasingly inter-dependent world, all nations must now co-operate and collaborate in a wide diversity of areas. Global governance will only succeed if it is based on multilateralism,” the Community said, calling for the United Nations to take the lead in post-war Iraq.

Only three weeks ago, the leaders’ united stance was broken when they could not agree on a statement at a special U.N. session on Iraq, leaving Jamaica alone to issue its opposition to the U.S.-led invasion in March.

The fissure followed high-profile visits and letters from the administration. On Apr. 2, Otto Reich, President George W. Bush’s special envoy, told leaders their opposition to the war could have negative effects.

”We are not going to take retaliatory action or punitive measures, but the American people do listen and our Congress listens. It is not just the executive branch. These kinds of resolutions and this kind of language doesn’t help lead to a better understanding between our countries,” he said, referring to the CARICOM position adopted in February opposing an attack on Iraq.

In this week’s statement, the leaders made it clear that as a grouping of very small, mostly island, nations, they are much more comfortable with the United Nations as the main arbiter of international law and global obligations.

The leaders are correct to push for a lead U.N. role since Washington has controlled the international stage virtually unchallenged since the Cold War ended at the close of the 1980s, says Freddie Kissoon, a political science professor at the University of Guyana.

”They have to worry about American unilateralism at a time when everyone thinks that the world is less stable without a second superpower. There is now no epicentre of good or bad, just one power. The stability of the Cold War days is gone, hence their reliance on a body like the U.N.,” he says.

Reich’s comments earlier this month also included suggestions that the Caribbean’s stance could make it difficult for the United States to deal with pressing issues, such as the banana export row involving the European Union, the region and Washington.

But CARICOM, which celebrates 30 years as an integration movement in 2003, suggested that the will of the Iraqi people must be paramount to ensure lasting peace and stability in the aftermath of the current conflict.

Kissoon said that the region must maintain its principled stance as even Canada, which exports millions of dollars worth of goods to the United States each day, opposed the war on principle and wants the United Nations to be a key player in current and post-war developments.

”Canada was steadfast in its opposition and so we can understand where the Caribbean is coming from. It prefers multilateralism.”

CARICOM officials say that leaders have made the pro-U.N. comments deeply aware of the potential impact of war on their struggling economies.

A meeting of foreign ministers scheduled for early next month in St Vincent will take an in-depth look at the economic fallout for the Caribbean, its struggling airlines and flagging tourism industry in particular.

The larger carriers – Trinidad’s BWIA, Air Jamaica and the Antigua-based island hopper, LIAT – are operating with accumulated losses of close to 115 million dollars, with both BWIA and LIAT on the brink of collapse.

Last week, five Caribbean governments agreed on a bailout package for the airlines, given their importance to regional tourism, still suffering in the aftermath of the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.