[THE APPEALS FOR HELP HAVE BEEN EDITED OUT BY THE TRANSMITTER IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT PEOPLE IN BRITAIN ARE UNLIKELY TO BE ABLE TO GET TO THE 17TH PRECINCT IN TIME TO DO ANY GOOD.]
No Blood For Oil's action today at the UN included a fine, rainy-day turnout, a good amount of press attendance, lots of passionate resistance to war - and the arrest of 11 activists who refused to leave the main gates of the headquarters compund without being allowed to deliver an open letter against the Iraq invasion to the secretary general.

New York: 11 arrested at UN today

No Blood For Oil's action today at the UN included a fine, rainy-day turnout, a good amount of press attendance, lots of passionate resistance to war - and the arrest of 11 activists who refused to leave the main gates of the headquarters compund without being allowed to deliver an open letter against the Iraq invasion to the secretary general.

The arrestees included two women and nine men; at least four of the activists were among those who were arrested two weeks ago when No Blood For Oil occupied the General Assembly hall. Today's arrestees were taken in NYPD wagons to the 17th Precinct, on 51st Street between Lexington and Third Avenes. Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild were told by police that the arrestees would most likely all be given desk appearance tickets rather than being processed through the system, meaning that all are likely to be out within the next several hours.

No Blood For Oil faxed the secretary general last Friday to request a meeting at which members of the group could deliver the open letter, which was composed and signed by some 1,400 prominent academics, writers and artists from six continents. We received no reply, and were told that we could not check back with his office by phone. When the letter itself was originally mailed to the secretary general a month ago, it also received no reply or acknowledgment.

This fits an unfortunate pattern that the UN has followed ever since the prospect of an invasion of Iraq first arose: Just as the Security Council have engaged in closed- door negotiations on the proper "formula" for the UN to sue in responding to the US request for action, almost completely excluding public scrutiny, the secretary general and the other major UN bodies have almost completely excluded civil society from any participation in the debate. With only a few exceptions, the only persons allowed to address the UN on the subject of the Iraq invasion have been representatives of states and governments - not of the people who will have to endure the effects of an invasion.