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UN Lawyers Back Iraqi View - Attacks Not Authorized

The United Nations' legal department says it sees no language in
existing UN resolutions that would give the United States, Britain
and France authority to enforce the no-fly zones they have imposed
in Iraq - including the area involved in yesterday's [1/21/93]
incident.

The interpretation by the U.N legal staff, first reported
Wednesday, on whether the allies have authority to enforce the no-
fly zones came as a surprise and appears to bolster Iraq's case -
at least technically - that the coalition's actions may be illegal.

The allies traditionally have based their enforcement actions on
U.N. Security Council Resolution 688, which condemns the Iraqi
government's repression of minorities like the Kurds and Shiites. 
They argue that enforcement authority is inherent in the language
there.

But the UN interpretation is that because the resolution was not
enacted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which authorizes the
use of force to maintain international peace and security, it
contains no enforcement power.

Even so, U.N. officials conceded yesterday that the advisory ruling
probably does not mean that the allies must stop using military
power to enforce the resolution.

"It's not our function... to tell a member state how to define a
resolution," one official said.

(Reprinted from SF Chronicle, 1/23/93, p. 2)