Since losing the vote last month, the United States, which
is supposed to be the organisation's biggest donor, has been
twisting the arms of weaker nations, refusing to pay its
dues unless they support it, with the result that the OPCW
could go under. Last week Bustani told me, "the Europeans
are so afraid that the US will abandon the convention that
they are prepared to sacrifice my post to keep it on board".
His last hope is that the United Kingdom, whose record of
support for the organisation has so far been exemplary, will
make a stand. The meeting on Sunday will present Tony
Blair's government with one of the clearest choices it has
yet faced between multilateralism and the "special
relationship".

The US has not sought to substantiate the charges it has
made against Bustani. The OPCW is certainly suffering from a
financial crisis, but that is largely because the US
unilaterally capped its budget and then failed to pay what
it owed. The organisation's accounts have just been audited
and found to be perfectly sound. Staff morale is higher than
any organisation as underfunded as the OPCW could reasonably
expect. Bustani's real crimes are contained in the last two
charges, of "bias" and "ill-considered initiatives".

The charge of bias arises precisely because the OPCW is not
biased. It has sought to examine facilities in the United
States with the same rigour with which it examines
facilities anywhere else. But, just like Iraq, the US has
refused to accept weapons inspectors from countries it
regards as hostile to its interests, and has told those who
have been allowed in which parts of a site they may and may
not inspect. It has also passed special legislation
permitting the president to block unannounced inspections,
and banning inspectors from removing samples of its
chemicals.

"Ill-considered initiatives" is code for the attempts
Bustani has made, in line with his mandate, to persuade
Saddam Hussein to sign the chemical weapons convention. If
Iraq agrees, it will then be subject to the same
inspections - both routine and unannounced - as any other
member state (with the exception, of course, of the United
States). Bustani has so far been unsuccessful, but only
because, he believes, he has not yet received the backing of
the UN security council, with the result that Saddam knows
he would have little to gain from signing.

Bustani has suggested that if the security council were to
support the OPCW's bid to persuade Iraq to sign, this would
provide the US with an alternative to war. It is hard to see
why Saddam Hussein would accept weapons inspectors from
Unmovic - the organisation backed by the security council -
after its predecessor, Unscom, was found to be stuffed with
spies planted by the US government. It is much easier to see
why he might accept inspectors from an organisation which
has remained scrupulously even-handed. Indeed, when Unscom
was thrown out of Iraq in 1998, the OPCW was allowed in to
complete the destruction of the weapons it had found.
Bustani has to go because he has proposed the solution to a
problem the US does not want solved.

"What the Americans are doing," Bustani says, "is a coup
d'etat. They are using brute force to amend the convention
and unseat the director-general." As the chemical weapons
convention has no provisions permitting these measures, the
US is simply ripping up the rules. If it wins, then the
OPCW, like Unscom, will be fatally compromised. Success for
the United States on Sunday would threaten the independence
of every multilateral body.

This is, then, one of those rare occasions on which our
government could make a massive difference to the way the
world is run. It could choose to support its closest ally,
wrecking multilateralism and shutting down the alternatives
to war. Or it could defy the United States in defence of
world peace and international law. It will take that
principled stand only if we, the people from whom it draws
its power, make so much noise that it must listen. We have
five days in which to stop the US from bullying its way to
war.

www.monbiot.com

---------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from the 9-11peace campaign of MoveOn.or

Wendy Strachan, Ph.D
Woodring College of Education-MH260-C
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225-9090
Phone: 360-650-7443
Fax: 360-650-7997
Wendy Strachan, Ph.D
Woodring College of Education-MH260-C
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225-9090
Phone: 360-650-7443
Fax: 360-650-7997

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