LAW Letter to Guinea

Ambassador Francois Lonseny Fall

Permanent Mission of Guinea

140 East 39th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016

Telephone: (212) 687-8115/8116/8117, Fax: (212) 687-8248

Congratulations on your acceptance of the new responsibility of your great country...You are about to preside upon the most important challenge in the history of the Council...the vote on Iraq. Aside from the many serious issues that arise: the recognition that up to 1.2 million Iraqi children under age 5 may die as " collateral damage"; that thousands of peace loving citizens from around the world will die as " human shields"; that "regime change" is one of the stated purposes of the US war; that oil may be the real interest; that there is no evidence of the present existence of weapons of mass destruction; that the US may have already violated the international laws of this world; that Bush has authorized the use of prohibited chemical weapons ( each of which should cause one to pause), there is the issue of the democratic process of the vote being conducted.

Unprecedented in world history, billions are watching the next vote and the process of the model of democracy being played out at the Security Council. Essential to a democratic model is the concept of a free vote...that one vote's in the freedom of their conscience. Most nations prohibit and criminalize the buying or selling of a vote. Most also criminalize the use of coercion to secure a vote for their cause. The model unfolding before us is tainted with such crimes....The US is offering billions of dollars to secure votes. They are offering military and other forms of aid to secure a vote. They threaten others to intimidate them into voting for them.( like no access to Iraqui oil ) And they have stated publicly that they will act if you do not vote for them...that the UN Security Council may become " irrelevant" if you do not support them!

As chair of this process, I implore you to protect the sanctity of the democratic process. The citizens of the world carry the freedom of conscience within their souls. Democracy breathes in that freedom. This next vote may be democracy's final vote....or its greatest example for us all. The US cannot be allowed to make democracy irrelevant...for if that happens, how do we respect that for which the UN exists. You know what the consequence of such a failure must be.