Costa Rica Asks for Forgiveness From Iraq

WHEN Costa Rica requested inSeptember that its name be officiallystruck from list of the “Coalition of theWilling,” the countries that supported aU.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it was not immediatelyremoved.The Constitutional Chamber of theSupreme Court (Sala IV) ruled inSeptember that the country’s support forthe invasion of Iraq was unconstitutional(TT, Sept. 10).Following the ruling, the ForeignMinistry asked Washington to haveCosta Rica removed from the U.S. WhiteHouse’s list, published on its Web site.Rather than strike the name from thelist, the White House removed the entirelist from its Web site.According to a senior official fromthe U.S. National Security Council, whoasked that his name be withheld, theremoval of the list has nothing to dowith Costa Rica’s request. He added hedidn’t know the reasons why the listwas removed, and refused to saywhether Costa Rica is still named onany list.In response to Costa Rica’s supportof the invasion and the delay in theremoval of its name from the list, theSan José human-rights organizationCenter of Friends for Peace issued apublic apology from Costa Rica to thepeople of Iraq.“We ask forgiveness of the Iraqi peoplebecause, with the complicity of theCosta Rican government, hundreds ofthousands of people in Iraq have beenmurdered, massacred, bombed, jailed, andraped in the name of freedom and democracy,”the letter states.