Office of the Historian

246. Telegram 14051 From the Department of State to the Mission to the United Nations1 2

Washington, January 29, 1969, 1633Z
[Page 1]

Subject:

  • Iraqi Executions

You should submit following letter to SC President soonest.

QTE I have been instructed by my Government to draw to your attention the following statement issued by Secretary of State William P. Rogers on January 27, 1969, when he learned of the public execution of 14 persons convicted for espionage in Iraq:

INNER QTE (Text as in Para 3 of State 13133) END INNER QTE.

QTE The Government of the United States recognizes the legal right of any government to bring to trial and administer justice to any of its citizens. However, [Page 2] the manner in which these executions and the trials that preceded them were conducted scarcely conforms to normally accepted standards of respect for human rights and human dignity or to the obligations in this regard that the United Nations Charter imposes upon all members. Moreover, the spectacular way in which they were carried out seems to have been designed to arouse emotions and to intensify the very explosive atmosphere of suspicion and hostility in the Middle East.

QTE The United States hopes that the world-wide revulsion aroused by the reports of these trials and executions will induce those responsible to carry out their solemn Charter obligations to promote INNER QTE universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion END INNER QTE. Repetition of the recent tragic events would be bound to make more difficult efforts within and outside the United Nations toward the goals [Page 3] of peace, tolerance, and human understanding among nations and peoples, in the Middle East and throughout the world.

QTE I respectfully request that this letter be circulated as a Security Council document. END QTE

FOR BRUSSELS. Inform FONOFF of our intention submit above letter to UN.

END

Rogers
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, POL 29 IRAQ. Unclassified. Repeated to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Brussels, Amman, London, and Jerusalem. Drafted by Betty Jane Jones (IO/UNP). Cleared by Davies, Atherton, C. Morgan Holmes (EUR/FBS); Robert G. Neumann, L/NEA, Seelye, George T. Walsh (S/S); and approved by Sisco.↩
  2. The Department submitted a copy of Rogers’ statement against the execution of the 14 Iraqi Jews to the Security Council of the United Nations.↩