Last Minute UNSC statement.docx (Ann Wright)

On the Issue of Weapons Supplied into Conflict Areas and their Detrimental Effect on the Prospects for the Settlement of Conflicts

By Retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. Diplomat Ann Wright

Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Security Council, Excellencies and Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored to have been asked to speak on the issue of weapons supplied into conflict areas and their detrimental effect on the prospects of settlement of conflicts.

I served 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. While in the U.S. Army, I taught the Law of Land Warfare and the Geneva Conventions at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was in the U.S. Army during the U.S. wars on Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama and the U.S. Central American wars in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

I was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia.  I was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2001. At the last four Embassies, I was the Deputy Chief of Mission.

In Somalia, I was seconded to the United Nations Mission in Somalia, UNOSOM, in 1993-1994 as the head of the Justice Division with the mission of reconstituting the Somali police, judicial and prison systems.

I resigned from the U.S. government twenty years ago in 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq, a war that, to its credit, the U.N. Security Council refused to authorize.

I recount this history, to underscore my unfortunate familiarity with conflict areas in many regions of the world and to challenge to the reliance of all too many countries, and most definitely my own country, on military action instead of diplomacy to resolve disagreements and conflicts.

As a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat, I speak on my own behalf now as a very concerned U.S. citizen who as a taxpayer pays for the weapons my country uses and sells to fuel wars that kill innocent civilians.

On the topic of today, there is no doubt that weapons supplied into conflict areas have a detrimental effect on the prospects for settlement of conflicts.  In fact, the continued supply of weapons will prolong any conflict.

The important question is, how do you get conflicts to end?

As you well know in this institution, the process for getting to resolution of a conflict is long and many people are killed until there is an agreement on a ceasefire.

I will take a few minutes to remind us of how long agreements take and how many innocent civilians die during the process.  During the 3-year Korean war from 1950-1953, talks between parties to the conflict began in 1951 and finally concluded after 575 meetings with an armistice in 1953.  During that war, over 4 million Koreans, 500,000 Chinese, 35,000 U.S. and tens of thousands in the U.N command were killed.

Today, the United States is involved providing weapons to two conflicts—providing weapons in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Israel-Gaza conflict.

In the 70 days of the Israeli-Gaza conflict, over 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza have already been killed, 7,000 children and 4,000 women.  An estimated 6,000 are still under the rubble of their homes. 43,000 have been wounded. Over 260 Palestinians have been killed and 3,365 wounded during this period in the West Bank and thousands have been arrested and subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment.

The Israeli military has reported that 1,147 civilians in Israel and 418 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the October 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

There has been only one six-day temporary ceasefire in the fighting, to allow for the release of hostages and release of Palestinian young detainees who were jailed without charges or trial.

This temporary ceasefire allowed for a very short time for a minuscule amount of medical, relief and food supplies to come into the Gaza ghetto for the 2.3 million who have been ordered by Israel into one-third of the area of the Gaza in forced displacement. The World Health Organization reports that Palestinians are starving.

Now, the Biden administration has asked the U.S. congress to approve another $14 billion for Israel’s use to kill Palestinians with the goal of exterminating Hamas and genocide on the Palestinians in the Gaza Ghetto and now without the approval of the U.S. Congress has authorized $106 immediately for artillery shells that will to be by Israeli forces to kill Palestinian children in Gaza.

In contrast, in the 22-month war between Ukraine and Russia, the number of deaths acknowledged by the Ukrainian government are reported to be about 10,000 and no data of casualties have been released from the Russian government.

We do know much more about how much military equipment has been provided by the U.S. government to the Ukrainian government than the military equipment the Russian Federation has expended.

On December 7, 2023, only four days ago, in a press conference with the new UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron,  Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that over the last two years, the United States has provided $70 billion to support Ukraine and European allies have provided more than  $110 billion.   “If you look at the investments that we’ve made in Ukraine’s defense to deal with this aggression, 90 percent of the security assistance we’ve provided has actually been spent here in the United States with our manufacturers, with our production, and that’s produced more American jobs, more growth in our own economy.  So this has also been a win-win that we need to continue.

The win-win is not for civilians in conflict areas.  The win-win is for the military industrial complex and the politicians and retired government officials who are offered a senior position immediately after their retirements!

And its certainly not a win-win for the innocent civilians who are killed in these conflict.
Fueling the conflicts with enormous amounts of weapons that profit corporations and politicians inside and outside the conflicted countries must end.  Please watch the new Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal in which U.S. weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Atomics are put on trial by a citizens’ tribunal for knowingly producing and selling products which attack and kill not only combatants but non-combatants as well. These manufacturers may have committed Crimes Against Humanity as well as violated U.S. Federal criminal laws.  The third session of the Tribunal is December 30, 2023.
Peace talks must NOT be torpedoed!!!

Numerous news reports allege that the U.S. and the U.K. demanded that the Ukrainian government NOT enter into peace negotiations with Russia.

In October 2023, former German Chancellor Gerhard tried to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia in 2022 but said the U.S. government would not allow Ukraine to agree.

In February 2023, Israel’s ex-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that he had been a mediator between Ukraine and Russia in 2022.

“Anything I did was coordinated down to the last detail with the US, Germany, and France”, Bennett said. And “there was a legitimate decision by the West to keep striking Putin”. Referring to the NATO bloc’s response to the peace proposal, the interviewer asked, “So they blocked it?”  Bennett replied, “Basically, yes. They blocked it, and I thought they’re wrong”.

Peace talks must NOT be torpedoed!!!

Criminalizing opposition to wars must end…in Russia, in Ukraine, in Israel and in the U.S where criticism of the State of Israel is called anti-semitic and where 26 States in the U.S. require anyone having a contract with the state must sign essentially a loyalty oath to Israel.

In closing, I will read part of a poem that describes how some parents in Gaza have resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they, the parents, or the children be killed in Israeli bombing.

It was written for the children of Gaza but is applicable to children in all conflict areas-in Ukraine, in Russia, in Israel, in Yemen:

+++++++++++++

Write My Name on My Leg, Mama.

By Zeina Azzam

• Write my name on my leg, Mama
• Use the black permanent marker
• with the ink that doesn’t bleed
• if it gets wet…
• Write my name on my leg, Mama
• and on the legs of my sisters and brothers.
• This way we will belong together
• This way we will be known as your children.
• Write my name on my leg, Mama
• When the bomb hits our house
• When the walls crush our skulls and bones
• our legs will tell our story, how
• there was nowhere for us to run.

On behalf of the people of the world who want to live in peace and safety I say again:

STOP THE KILLINGS!

CEASEFIREs NOW!

NEGOTIATE ANY DISAGREEMENTS!

 Thank You.

---

Ann Wright attached the statement that she wanted to give primarily on Gaza (UNSC statement with revisions), but couldn’t give as it did not comply with the topic of the meeting. Here it is.

On the Issue of Weapons Supplied into Conflict Areas and their Detrimental Effect on the Prospects for the Settlement of Conflicts

By Ann Wright, U.S. Army Colonel (retired) & Diplomat (resigned)

Mr. President

I am pleased to address you on the issue of weapons supplied into conflict areas and their detrimental effect on the prospects for settlement of conflicts.

I served 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. While in the U.S. Army, I taught the Law of Land Warfare and the Geneva Conventions at the JFK Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was in the U.S. Army during the U.S. wars on Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama and the U.S. Central American wars in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

I was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia.  I was on the small team that reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2001. At the last four Embassies, I was the Deputy Chief of Mission.

In Somalia, I was seconded to the United Nations Mission in Somalia, UNOSOM, in 1993-1994 as the head of the Justice Division with the mission of reconstituting the Somali police, judicial and prison systems.

BUT, I resigned from the U.S. government twenty years ago in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq, a war that, to its credit, the U.N. Security Council refused to authorize.

I recount my personal history to underscore my thorough familiarity with conflicts in various regions, and to share my view of the futility of relying on military action instead of diplomacy for conflict resolution.

As a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat, I speak on my own behalf now as a very concerned U.S. citizen who as a taxpayer pays for the weapons my country uses and sells to fuel wars that kill innocent civilians.

On the topic of today, there is no doubt that weapons supplied into conflict areas have a detrimental effect on the prospects for settlement of conflicts.  In fact, the continued supply of weapons will prolong any conflict.

The important question is, how do you get conflicts to end?

I will begin with a reminder that the process for ending wars begins with a ceasefire. The process can be very long and thousands of people – millions even – can be killed before there is an agreement on a ceasefire.

For example, during the Korean war from 1950-1953, talks between parties to the conflict began in 1951 and finally concluded, after 575 meetings, with an armistice in 1953.  During that war, over 4 million Koreans from the North and South, military and civilian, 500,000 Chinese military, 35,000 U.S. military and tens of thousands in the U.N military command were killed.

For our planet’s situation today, on behalf of the MILLIONS of concerned citizens worldwide who have been demonstrating over the past two years for a CEASEFIRE in Ukraine, and for the past two and one-half months for a CEASEFIRE in Gaza, I say:

STOP THE KILLINGS!      CEASEFIRE NOW!      NEGOTIATE !

In the 70 days of the Israeli-Gaza conflict, over 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza have already been killed, 7,000 children and 4,000 women.  An estimated 6,000 still under the rubble of their homes. 43,000 have been wounded. Over 260 Palestinians have been killed and 3,365 wounded during this period in the West Bank and thousands have been arrested and subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment.

The Israeli military has reported that 1,147 civilians in Israel and 418 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the horrific October 7 Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. We now know that the Israeli military knew of the pending attack and did not defend against it.

There has been only one six-day temporary ceasefire in the fighting, to allow for the release of hostages and release of Palestinian young detainees who were jailed without charges or trial.

This temporary ceasefire allowed for a very short time for a minuscule amount of medical, relief and food supplies to come into the Gaza ghetto for the 2.3 million who have been ordered by Israel into one-third of the area of the Gaza in forced displacement. WHO reports that Palestinians are starving.

Only 10 percent of the food to feed 2.3 million has been allowed into Gaza by Israel.  Israel is again starving the people of Gaza as they did in 2006 when they infamously put “Gaza on a diet” and only allowed into Gaza food of a limited caloric value.

Food items such as pasta, flour, yeast, rice, salt, sugar, chickpeas, lentils, beans, olives, canned tuna and powdered milk were restricted or prohibited.

Sanitary items such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, diapers, baby wipes, detergent and dish-washing liquid were also restricted or prohibited.

A 2012 joint report by Save the Children and UK-based Medical Aid for Palestinians revealed that 10% of children under the age of 5 experienced stunted growth due to prolonged malnutrition due to the Israeli blockade and siege on Gaza.

The same study revealed that 58.6% of Gaza’s school children were anemic, as were more than 68% of children aged nine to 12 months and nearly 37% of pregnant women.

There is NO safe place left for Palestinians in Gaza from the massive U.S.-supplied Israeli bombs, rockets and other munitions.

The targeting of the general population of Gaza and level of destruction of medical, academic, residential and commercial areas under the guise of eliminating Hamas is a textbook case of genocide and it must end now.

U.N. Secretary General Guterres invoked Article 99 and has warned: “Amid constant bombardment by the Israeli Defense Forces and without shelter or essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.” He also warned of possible epidemics.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said there is a “gap between … the intent to protect civilians, and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground” in Gaza.  Yet, three days ago, on Friday, December 8, in this very room, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. security council resolution for a humanitarian pause/ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza which would have protected civilians. This veto was, in my view, indefensible and WRONG.

The U.S. veto of the Ceasefire in Gaza is a moral failure and a dangerous move that ensures continuation of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

That U.S. veto does not reflect the view of the U.S. citizenry who want the killing in Gaza to end. The Biden administration is on thin ice with the American public on its support and protections of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.S. speaks of its shared values with Israel.

U.S. values do NOT include the bombing, shelling, destruction of hospitals, schools, universities, residential areas, water supplies, electrical networks, sewage networks, degrading behavior towards those who are still alive, and making return of 75% of Gazans to their homes purposely impossible—the genocide in the Gaza Ghetto.

U.S. Values do not include 13,000 tank shells worth $106 million to be immediately sent to Israel for shelling Palestinians civilians bypassing any Congressional oversight.

Somehow the U.S. government, the President, White House, State Department, Congress seem to have forgotten that everyone has the right to “Self-Defense.”

Israel is not the only country that can use that term.

Palestinians have the right of self-defense against 75 years of occupation, blockade, siege, quarantine, theft of lands, bombing of homes, hospitals, universities, schools, imprisonment without charges.

My remarks are NOT anti-semitic.  They are honest assessments of the actions of the State of Israel and my own government, the United States.

This is not anti-semitism; it’s the description of the criminal actions that Israel and the United States are perpetrating on the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Today, the United States is providing weapons to two major conflicts: the one between Israel and Gaza, and the one between Russia and Ukraine.

The U.S. provides $3.8 billion annually to the Israeli government for Israeli military use.

Now, the Biden administration has asked the U.S. congress to approve another $14 billion with virtually no restriction on their use against the people in Gaza.

On December 7, 2023, only four days ago, in a press conference with the new UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that over the last two years, the United States has provided $70 billion to support Ukraine and European allies have provided more than $110 billion.  Biden said, “If you look at the investments that we’ve made in Ukraine’s defense to deal with this aggression, 90 percent of the security assistance we’ve provided has actually been spent here in the United States with our manufacturers, with our production, and that’s produced more American jobs, more growth in our own economy.  So this has also been a win-win that we need to continue,” Blinken said.

The win-win is not for civilians in conflict areas. The win-win is for the military industrial complex and the politicians and retired government officials who receive senior positions in the weapons industry after their retirements!

In closing, I will read part of a poem that describes how some parents in Gaza have resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they, the parents, or the children be killed in Israeli bombing.

It was written for the children of Gaza but is applicable to children in all conflict areas:

+++++++++++++

Write My Name on My Leg, Mama.

By Zeina Azzam

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Use the black permanent marker

with the ink that doesn’t bleed

if it gets wet…

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and on the legs of my sisters and brothers.

This way we will belong together

This way we will be known

as your children.

Write my name on my leg, Mama

When the bomb hits our house

When the walls crush our skulls and bones

our legs will tell our story, how

there was nowhere for us to run.

 

On behalf of the people of the world who want to live in peace and safety I say again:

STOP THE KILLINGS! CEASEFIRE NOW! NEGOTIATE ANY DISAGREEMENTS!

 

Thank You.

Zeina Azzam’s poem can be found here: https://www.commondreams.org/further/this-is-how-we-live-people-come-

together-die-together-are-buried-together-in-the-same-shroud;;;;;;