- (AFP) -- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the United
States that any decision to disarm Iraq through war must be taken by the
United Nations -- and only when all alternatives have failed.
-
- At the same time, he reminded Security Council members
opposed to the use of force that the UN was not founded by pacifists and
said they must face up to their responsibilities if Iraq continued to defy
them.
-
- The use of military might to enforce council resolutions
"is an issue not for any one state, but for the international community
as a whole," Annan said in a speech to the College of William and
Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
-
- The speech, broadcast live by television networks, came
only a day after US President George W. Bush said "the UN Security
Council has got to make up its mind soon as to whether or not its word
means anything."
-
- While Annan devoted more than two-thirds of his 20-minute
discourse to the threat of war in Iraq, he concluded with a resounding
defense of the United Nations and its importance to the United States.
-
- "War is always a human catastrophe, a course that
should only be considered when all other possibilities have been exhausted,
and when it is obvious that the alternative is worse," Annan declared
to applause.
-
- But he did not rule out the use of force.
-
- "Our founders were not pacifists," he said.
"They knew there would be times when force must be met by force, and
therefore they wrote into the United Nations Charter strong enforcement
provisions, to enable the world community to unite against aggression and
defeat it."
-
- War might "cause terrible loss and suffering to
the Iraqi people," and the duty to avert it lay " first and foremost"
with Iraqi leaders, he said.
-
- A few hours before Annan spoke, chief UN weapons inspectors
Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei arrived in Baghdad to tell the Iraqi authorities
what they must do to improve the level of cooperation required under Security
Council Resolution 1441.
-
- US Secretary of State Colin Powell has already said that
Iraq has "failed the test" of cooperation and of honest disclosure
of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles,
laid down in Resolution 1441.
-
- Bush declared Thursday that "the game is up"
for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and repeated his threat to disarm him
by force, with or without UN authorization.
-
- But Annan insisted that "inspections can work,"
noting that between 1991 and 1998, when inspectors were withdrawn, "the
UN inspectors destroyed many more weapons and facilities than all the bombing
had done" in the 1991 Gulf War.
-
- "If we succeed in getting Iraq to comply fully and
disarm, by effective and credible inspections, then the prize is great,"
Annan said.
-
- "Iraq would no longer be a threat to its neighbors,
and we would send a very powerful message to all other countries that are
tempted to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction."
-
- But, he said, "if Iraq fails to make use of this
last chance, and continues its defiance, the council will have to make
another grim choice."
-
- In an apparent call to council members which have so
far opposed the use of force, Annan said: "When that time comes, the
council must face up to its responsibilities."
-
- He noted that "there is total unanimity that Iraq
must disarm, and must do so proactively," and added: "That message
has been conveyed by a united Security Council, by the Arab League and
by Iraq's neighbors."
-
- It was "thanks in large part to the firm challenge
issued by President Bush, and the pressure that followed it, that the inspectors
are back in Iraq," Annan said.
-
- "When there is strong US leadership, exercised through
patient diplomatic persuasion and coalition-building, the United Nations
is successful, and the United States is successful," he said.
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
