Attack on UN in Baghdad Escalates Cycle of Violence Making Multilateral Response More Urgent

Statement by Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University

The Center for Women's Global Leadership deplores the attack today in Baghdad on United Nations Headquarters and mourns the deaths of UN personnel there including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Special Representative to Iraq and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

It is particularly sad and troubling when peacemakers and humanitarian workers who are trying to bring a greater international presence and respect for human rights to Iraq become victims of the cycle of violence. Mr. Vieira de Mello was killed just as he was seeking to develop a stronger and clearer mandate for the UN in Iraq that could address the humanitarian crisis, peace-keeping, and reconstruction.

Further, as head of UN Operations in East Timor and in his short time as High Commissioner for Human Rights, Vieira de Mello was an effective advocate for the human rights of women in such conflict situations, and his voice will be sorely missed. Indeed one of the immediate impacts of the attacks in Baghdad is the cancellation of a UNIFEM/UNDP sponsored conference scheduled for next week with Iraqi women to discuss their particular needs and roles during the conflict and reconstruction process.

While condemning all such acts of violence, we also call upon the US government and US citizens to understand and take responsibility for policies of the US government that have contributed to this unprecedented attack on the United Nations. The damage done by the occupying forces in attempting to "liberate" Iraq through military bullying rather than by multilateral negotiations has put ever more lives in danger - the lives of Iraqis, of US and other soldiers, of journalists and now of international civil servants and humanitarian workers. Further, this administration's practice of defying international treaties, violating human rights in the name of "security," and belittling the importance of multilateralism has undermined the authority of the United Nations and of human rights globally at the very time when the world most needs these.

This cycle of violence can only be broken by addressing the frustrations of the Iraqi people and giving the UN a greater leadership role in Iraq. The international community, including US citizens, should rally around the UN in this crisis and take it as the occasion for demanding changes in US policy in the region. We must call for a larger and clearer mandate for the United Nations in Iraq that will allow them to deploy a fully multilateral peace-keeping mission to meet the humanitarian crisis and create the conditions for a reconstruction process that enables Iraq to return to self-government.