Open Letter to NATO

A letter asking respect international law was delivered to the heads of delegations of the participating states in NATO Summit Prague by the Czech Peace Society, joined by more than a hundred organizations and individuals from over the world. This letter was sent for information to the members of UNO Security Council.

The text of the letter with some of the signatories is as follows.

LETTER TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF STATES PARTICIPATING IN NATO SUMMIT, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, NOVEMBER 2002

The NATO summit in November 2002 in Prague is significant event not only for member states and candidate countries, but due to the fact that NATO is at present the largest military group in the world manifesting extraordinary political as well as power ambitions, a wide attention of the general public is also riveted to it. The original reason for founding NATO had been the defense against the military force and possible hegemony of the Soviet Union, which called for collective defense. However today the situation is different and this original reason passed away. The Soviet Union does not exist and all successor states fully accepted democracy. It is nevertheless evident that the international political development has brought up in last years new challenges and new demands with which are faced, but not only, the NATO member states. NATO today has been disposing not only with a huge capacity of classical military equipment of all kind, but particularly with nuclear potential, moreover its member countries have the most developed economies of the world. However all this material power enhances on the other side also the responsibility towards the world. In these connections we consider as important the following:

To state that the Washington treaty shall be applied to the territory of the NATO member states, To expect to be respected and applied by the NATO states the UNO Charter, use of armed force to be exceptionally solely for the purpose of maintaining peace and only after an explicit unambiguous resolution of UNO Security Council and the article 51 permitting only to a state under attack to defend itself against the aggressor by using its armed forces until the time when the Security Council would pass a resolution on the situation.

 Regarding the fact that all NATO members as well as candidate states are member states of OSCE, we remind their obligations from the Helsinki Final Act and the principle of the OSCE Helsinki Summit Declaration from 1992 stressing that "no international effort can be successful unless all states in a conflict seek for their conflicts peaceful solution".

We believe that the Prague NATO Summit will base its deliberation on principles and on all provisions to which member and candidate NATO states by accepting UNO Charter signed on. We believe that NATO member states would not set out on the way of casting doubt on principles of international relations and on valid international law. We anticipate for the NATO member states not to make unilaterally use of their power, to engage in international endeavor for lasting peaceful life, to respect the natural rights and interests of other nations and that facing new challenges they will follow the way of a broad equal and mutually beneficial international co-operation.

Czech Peace Society, Prague, Czech Republic Andrea Saladino, Milano, Italy Ankur Shah, Founder, SignUpForPeace.com, London, United Kingdom Antonino Drago, Ass. Prof. Univ. Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy Arnljot Ask, Board of Antiwar-nettwork Oslo, Norway ASSOCIAZIONE PROGETTO CONTINENTI, Roma, Italy Aurel Duta, MAMA TERRA / For Mother Earth-Romania B. Angourakis, Former member of the Greek Parliament and of the Council of Europe, Athens, Greece Beata Faracik, MA, Czestochowa, Poland Bosch, Ronald, Chairman - Franklin County HCV Project, Turners Falls, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Ekman Finn, Liaison Commitee for Peace and Security, Copenhagen, Denmark FLOR AVILA, UNIVERSITY OF NAPLES FEDERICO II, Napoli, Italy George Farebrother, Secretary, World Court Project, Sussex, UK Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Bucharest, Romania Hugo Braun, Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag, Düsseldorf, Germany Jane Freeland, Dr, Southampton Stop the War Coalition, Southampton, United Kingdom Janet Bloomfield, Saffron Walden, Essex, England Jean Tillie and Anny Tillie-Debets, Geulle, Netherlands Joan Michaels, M.A, CPC, Baraboo, Wisconsin Klicpera, Jiri Ing.PhD, Independent Ecologist Lazne Bohdanec, Czech Republic Lidia Kulik - Zimakowska, S³awomir Zimakowski, Warsaw, Poland Manuel Cristaldi, Milano, Italy Marcello Cini, Emeritus professor, Universita La Sapienza, Dipartimento di Fisica, ROMA, Italy Matthew Wootton, on behalf of the Wales Green Party, UK Mid Sussex Global Peace Campaign, Haywards Heath, Sussex, UK Mr. Makonero Wildor, The Power of Women and Children Ms. Pilar Villanueva, Valencia, Spain Odile Gordon-Lennox, Chevry, France Pasquale Angeloni, Presidente Lega Italiana dei Diritti dell'Uomo, ROMA, Italia Paul Hutchings, Sussex Action for Peace, Brighton, G.B. Peter Vanhoutte, MP, Belgian Chamber of Representatives Piotr Bein and Iwona Bein, Vancouver, Canada Rohan Salgadoe, Executive Secretary, Federation of Small Organisations (FSO), Sri Lanka Suad Elias, Mexico City, Mexico Sunil PaL, Lund, Sweden Swedish peace Committee, Sweden Tatiana Cacic Trifunovic, Madrid, Spain The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Brian Quail, Secretary, SCND, U.K. Ulla Kloetzer - Alternative to EU, Helsinki, Finland Van der Keur, Henk, Ing., Laka Foundation, Documentation and Research Centre on Nuclear Amsterdam, Netherlands Willem Van Leenhoff, Anti War Committee, Leiden, Netherlands Women for peace Geneva and Switzerland Women for Peace Switzerland, Luzern, Switzerland

Czech Peace Society, Czech Republic, Prague 2, Londynska 14, [email protected]