The International Movement For A Just World (Just) has initiated an open letter to the United Nations Security Council members urging them to reject war and stand for peace.

Its president Dr Chandra Muzaffar said today the time has come to send the message of peace to the council members to urge them to resolve the Iraq crisis through peaceful means.

He said the letter is now being circulated to thousands of individuals and groups throughout the world, mainly via the Internet .

"Just hopes that Malaysian citizens and public interest groups would endorse the letter. It is significant that more than 2.5 million Malaysians had signed a people's petition rejecting war o­n Iraq in the Peace Malaysia campaign," he said in a press statement.

Peaceful channels

The letter, titled "A plea for peace: choose life", had among others stated the UN was established to promote peace and to prevent war and therefore, the council has an obligation to explore and exhaust all peaceful channels for the resolution of the Iraq conflict

It said the council can change the course of history by opposing war o­n Iraq and that by choosing life, it would save "succeeding generations from the scourge of war which has brought untold sorrow to humankind".

Recently Chandra expressed his disappointment with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for not rebuking US for using the UN Security Council in its bid for a war against.

He said Annan had failed to defend and uphold the UN charter, which was primarily concerned with preventing war not pursuing it.

The UN Security Council's permanent members are France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States and China while the current non-permanent members are Germany, Guinea, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, Syria, Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon and Chile.