International brief ~ Iran could face mandatory UN resolution on nuclear compliance

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International brief ~ Iran could face mandatory UN resolution on nuclear compliance

April 25, 2006 09:00:00 am

[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's international brief, Iran could be the target of a new UN Security Council [official website] resolution mandating compliance with an International Atomic Energy Agency [official website] order that Iran cease production of enriched uranium [BBC report]. US, UK, and French officials have reportedly met and agreed on a template for a binding resolution that would force Iran to cease production of nuclear materials. A previous UN resolution passed in connection with the same order was not worded to invoke Chapter 7 of the UN Charter [official text], which gives authority to the Security Council to mandate the compliance of a UN member in the name of international peace and security. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Monday that sanctions would hurt other nations more than Iran, and hinted again [JURIST report] that if the UN passed the resolution, Iran would consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [official text]. Aljazeera has local coverage. AFP has more.

In other international legal news …

Spokesman for the US Mission to the UN Richard Grenell told reporters Monday evening that the US may call for a vote on the Sudan sanctions resolution [JURIST report] currently before the UN Security Council [official website] despite continued opposition to the measure by permanent members Russia and China. Both nations view the sanctions as risky, in light of current negotiations between Darfur rebels and Sudan being mediated by the African Union [official website]. Either China or Russia could block the resolution with a veto, due to their position as permanent members of the Security Council, but the call to vote on the resolution would force the representatives to actually use the veto, instead of merely threatening its use, as is usual in Security Council negotiations. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Darfur [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.
A key state witness in the ongoing treason trial against Ugandan opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye [JURIST news archive] has admitted on cross-examination that he lied under oath while testifying for the state. George Abedo, a self-confessed murderer and rapist and acknowledged member of the Lord's Resistance Army [MIPT backgrounder], told the court during his Monday testimony for the state that he had been granted amnesty for his crimes. When asked on cross-examination to produce his letter of amnesty, however, Abedo could only produce a letter he had intended to send to the local government requesting amnesty. Upon questioning by the judge, Abedo admitted that he lied about his amnesty. The judge said he would rule on what actions would be taken by Abedo following the conclusion of the testimony. The admission creates concerns about the credibility of a star witness of the state and continues the trouble faced by Ugandan prosecutor's trying Besigye. Uganda's Daily Monitor has local coverage.
The head of South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority [government website] has issued a denial of Monday's report that NPA Chief Executive Officer Marion Sparg and a significant number of other NPA officials faced charges of corruption and tender rigging [JURIST report] in an ongoing public probe into the department. Vusi Pikoli told reporters that no criminal charges were pending against any NPA employee, but did confirm that Sparg and other employees were facing an internal disciplinary hearing for "alleged poor administration in the NPA during the period 2001 to 2003". Vusi said that internal disciplinary matters are confidential and not open to press review. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Africa [JURIST news archive]. South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online has local coverage.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.