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Kofi admits damage to UN over Iraq crisis
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan admitted that the world was bitter at the United Nations' handling of the Iraqi crisis and said the member states regret the UN efforts to achieve a peaceful solution did not succeed. Opening the United Nations Security Council session held on Wednesday at the request of the Arab League and the Non-Aligned Movement, Annan said, the peoples of the world had shown how much they expected from the United Nations and the 15-member Security Council. "Many of them have been bitterly disappointed," Annan said. "All of us must regret that our intense efforts to achieve a peaceful solution through this council did not succeed," he said. "We're disappointed that the whole episode demonstrated just how ineffectual and venal the UN really is. We were hoping no one noticed..." "We are living through a moment of deep divisions, which, if not healed, can have grave consequences for the international system and relations between states." "I'm really worried about whether I'm gonna have a job this time next year..." He said faith in the United Nations could only be restored if the council worked on specific goals for Iraq, including tapping into billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue to finance the emergency aid under the UN oil-for-food program, which is still stalled in the council. "Money is power. It doesn't even have to be your own money, as long as it's your own power..." Annan criticized both Iraq for neglecting arms inspectors and the United States for acting unilaterally. "Many people around the world are seriously questioning whether it was legitimate for some member states to proceed to such a fateful action now, an action that has far-reaching consequences well beyond the immediate military dimensions without first reaching a collective decision of this Council," Annan told the council. The Security Council did reach a collective decision. It decided to dither. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-03-27 |
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