今日になってアメリカの平和省運動の知人から、イランの国連大使に手紙を送ったらどうか、という提案があり、私も早速、以下のような手紙を送りました。
現在、イラン周辺には米軍が集結しているという情報もあります。また、イギリス船員がイランの海域を侵犯したことで15名のイギリス人船員がイラン政府に拘束されている問題は、日本でニュースになっているでしょうか?今回のイラン攻撃の口実は、このイギリス人船員たちの救出のため、とされる可能性もあります。
英文を書かれる方、ぜひ、あなたもイランの国連大使に手紙を書いてみませんか。私の手紙を参考にしてくださってかまいません。
H. E. Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif
Permanent Representative
of the Islamic Republic of Iran
to the United Nations
Iran@un.int
Re: International Commission of Inquiry regarding present dispute between Iran and the United Kingdom
Dear Sir,
I am a concerned mother and a writer of Japan. There is a growing tension for the war in the middle east to escalate. War does not produce anything, it only destroys and kills. Let's be stewards of our beautiful planet, instead of escalating already devastating war in Iraq.
In relation to the present dispute between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland regarding the 15 captured British sailors allegedly trespassing in Iranian waters, I would like to urge that both countries put themselves in a good light by exemplifying to the world the due process of international law for the peaceful settlement of international disputes.
Both Iran and the United Kingdom are contracting parties to the 1899 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes.
Title III, Article 9, of the 1899 Convention states:
"In differences of an international nature involving neither honor nor vital interests, and arising from a difference of opinion on points of fact, the Signatory Powers recommend that the parties, who have not been able to come to an agreement by means of diplomacy, should as far as circumstances allow, institute an International Commission of Inquiry, to facilitate a solution of these differences by elucidating the facts by means of an impartial and conscientious investigation."
Subsequent articles of the Convention go into details of how to compose these Commissions.
The text of the Convention is readily available online at the United Nations web site and at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague01.htm#art9.
For Iran to call for an International Commission of Inquiry under the 1899 Convention would put it on a favorable moral high ground and would tend to assure the international community of Iran's good intentions to abide by international law in other situations as well.
Thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Yumi Kikuchi, founder, Global Peace Campaign
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