Carry forward with inspections based on UNSC resolutions instead of going to war -- Statement by JCP Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo (March 8, 2003)

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo on March 8 issued a statement on the report the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) submitted to the U.N. Security Council on March 7 to explain their activities in Iraq. The text of the Shii statement is as follows:

The United Nations team of inspections of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in its report on March 7 stated that its three-month inspections of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have made substantive progress and achieved results and welcomed Iraq's cooperation with the U.N. inspectors as ﾒactiveﾓ or ﾒeven proactiveﾓ.

It said that inspections should continue for several months and that the U.N. inspection team will identify 29 points of "unresolved disarmament issues" in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1284 (1999) and that it will submit a draft work program at the end of March.

This confirms that inspections, which are aimed at achieving a peaceful solution to the problem, are effective and that the need now is to continue and even strengthen inspections. We demand that Iraq seriously listen to the international community and extend immediate, unconditional, and complete cooperation with inspectors.

The United States, Britain, and Spain have presented an amended draft resolution calling on Iraq to prove before March 17 that it has disarmed itself completely. They say that Iraq will have only 10 days to complete its disarmament in disregard of the inspectorsﾕ conclusion that it will take months to complete inspections even if Iraq actively cooperates. These three countries are thus demanding something impossible. This will only cut short the inspections, which are now on track, and pave the way for the use of armed force. We cannot condone such an act. It is not without reason that in the day's discussion in the U.N. Security Council, the majority called for continued inspections, and that France, Russia, China, and Germany opposed the revised resolution.

At a press conference on the eve of the publication of the U.N. inspectorsﾕ report, U.S. President George W. Bush said, "Inspection teams do not need more time or more personnel," and went on to say that the United States will start attacking Iraq to remove Sadam Hussein from power even without a new U.N. resolution. By this, the United States intends to rush into a war without a serious examination of the inspectorsﾕ report and in disregard of what others are saying. It's a total defiance against the United Nations' authority and the global wish for peace.

In following the United States uncritically, the Koizumi Cabinet was prompt to express support for the revised draft resolution and it even began lobbying for it, which is an unacceptable act. Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko in a published statement expressed support for the revised draft resolution by commending it as the last effort by the international community, but she stopped short of mentioning the possible use of force that will follow. This deceives the public in Japan and the world.

The JCP stresses that the responsibility of Japan, with the war renouncing Article 9, of its Constitution, is to oppose the war and do all it can to allow U.N. inspectors to carry on with their work in order to achieve a peaceful resolution based on U.N. rules. (end)