By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- In an effort to help protect international aid workers from attacks, the U.N. Security Council August 26 unanimously adopted a resolution calling attacks against peacekeepers and humanitarian personnel "war crimes" and urging nations to ensure that such crimes not go unpunished.

"I can think of no issue about which I feel more strongly, as secretary general -- and I believe none should be more important to each of you, as members of the Security Council -- than the safety of those brave men and women who serve this organization in the places where it matters most, that is, in zones of conflict and danger," Secretary General Kofi Annan said.

"Last week's vicious attack on our headquarters in Baghdad, with all its tragic consequences, has brought this vital issue to the forefront of our priorities," he said. "It shows us what we must expect if we allow the impression to continue gaining ground that international workers are a soft and cost-free target."

In passing the resolution, Annan said, the council sends "an unambiguous message to all those who mistakenly believe that, in today's turbulent world, they can advance their cause by targeting the servants of humanity."

The resolution was first proposed by Mexico while it was president of the Security Council in April. The August 19 attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed at least 23 people including U.N. special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and injured more than 100, prompted Mexico to table the resolution for a vote. Several days of negotiations during which references to the International Criminal Court (ICC) were deleted, ended in the unanimous adoption of the draft, which was co-sponsored by Mexico, France, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, and Syria.

Mexican Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser said that the Security Council members "owe it to (aid workers) to give support and create better conditions of security, particularly since the events of Baghdad, and to shoulder a clear responsibility to show we appreciate them and stand side-by-side with them."

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte said that "the importance of the work done by humanitarian workers and the need to protect them has never been more evident."

"As the Security Council, we count on them to carry out this body's mandates," Negroponte said. "They cannot carry out those mandates if they cannot operate in safety and it is right that we call for the protection in this resolution."

"We live in a world where failed states, conflict, poverty, hunger, and privation are all too common. Humanitarian personnel, United Nations personnel, and associated personnel play a vital and indispensable role in easing suffering during times of conflict and hardship and in helping countries that are emerging from conflict return to health. In Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, or Iraq, humanitarian workers willingly and courageously serve wherever need exists," Negroponte said after the vote.

The resolution, the secretary general and diplomats pointed out, does not add to the body of international laws that protect humanitarian and other aid workers. But it does focus attention on the issue and the need to follow through with action against the perpetrators.

Mexico's Ambassador Aguilar Zinser said that "the legal bodies exist but they have not been applied and they have not been adopted as a decision by the Security Council."

The "added factor" of the resolution, Aguilar Zinser said, is that it "provides the capacity to take action. It specifies when and how the secretary general has to raise the issue of protection of humanitarian workers so the Security Council takes action."

In the resolution the council strongly condemned "all forms of violence including ... murder, rape, and sexual assault, intimidation, armed robbery, abduction, hostage-taking, kidnapping, harassment and illegal arrest and detention to which those participating in humanitarian operations are increasingly exposed, as well as attacks on humanitarian convoys and acts of destruction and looting of their property."

The resolution emphasized that there are "existing prohibitions under international law against attacks knowingly and intentionally directed against personnel involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission undertaken in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations which in situations of armed conflicts constitute war crimes."

The council expressed its determination "to take appropriate steps in order to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and United Nations and its associated personnel." The council asked the secretary general to include key provisions on the prevention of attacks in status-of-forces and host country agreements and to bring instances of violence against workers to its attention.

While there was no disagreement on the basic objectives of the resolution, the United States had objected to a reference to the International Criminal Court. The United States was not a party to the formation of the ICC, because of concerns the court could be used for politically motivated prosecutions of Americans.

Mexico's Aguilar Zinser said that the intention was not to make any statement about the ICC. The most important point was that the resolution preserved and enhanced "in clear and unequivocal terms that an attack against humanitarian workers is a war crime," he said.

Making the point as a statement of the council without drawing on any other body of law, including the statutes of the ICC, Aguilar Zinser said, "actually strengthened the resolution."