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Posted on Wed, Sep. 22, 2004
Bush, Annan Spar Over Iraq War at U.N.
EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - After two years, the United States and the United
Nations had hoped to take the spotlight off the bitterly divisive war in
Iraq. It didn't happen. At the opening of the U.N. General Assembly,
President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sparred over the war
that can't escape the headlines.
Annan made news last week when, for the first time, he said the
U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein was "illegal." Bush defended his
Iraq policy Tuesday before world leaders and ministers from 191 countries,
saying a ruthless dictator had been toppled and Iraq is now "on the path
to democracy and freedom."
The secretary-general also took aim at the United States in his
General Assembly speech, warning world leaders that basic laws to protect
civilians are being "shamelessly disregarded" around the world from Iraq
and Sudan to Russia and Uganda.
In his list of violations of the rule of law, he cited "Iraqi
prisoners flagrantly abused," clearly a criticism of the U.S. treatment of
detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. He also noted, without naming
names, that at times "the necessary fight against terrorism is allowed to
encroach unnecessarily on civil liberties."
Iraq has been a dominant theme for Bush at the United Nations since
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At the General Assembly ministerial meeting
in 2002, he laid out the U.S. case against Saddam. The U.N. Security
Council rejected it, refusing to authorize the U.S.-led war and creating
one of the most serious divisions in the United Nations since its founding
in 1945.
Bush warned that the United Nations risked becoming irrelevant. But
at last fall's General Assembly - six months after the war - he appealed
for international support to rebuild Iraq, and he repeated that appeal on
Tuesday.
This year, with just six weeks before the U.S. presidential
election, Bush softened his speech to discuss the "great issues of our
time," like fighting AIDS, human slavery, poverty, the violence in Sudan,
corruption and banning human cloning. He also appealed for greater efforts
to fight terrorism, to end the bloody violence in Sudan, to combat AIDS in
Africa, and "to promote hope and progress as the alternatives to hatred
and violence."
"Our great purpose is to build a better world beyond the war on
terror," Bush said.
He proposed establishing a Democracy Fund in the United Nations,
pledging an initial unspecified contribution and urging other nations to
donate to the fund, which would help countries lay the foundations of
democracy by instituting the rule of law, independent courts, a free
press, political parties and trade unions.
Despite the past differences with the United Nations, not just on
Iraq but over the perception of U.S. unilateralism, the president paid
tribute to the world body and its chief in a toast at a luncheon Tuesday
hosted by Annan for world leaders.
"Mr. Secretary-General," Bush said, raising his glass, "with
admiration for your leadership, and with confidence in this organization,
I offer a toast to you and your service, and to the United Nations."
The tribute pleased several diplomats, who saw it as a recognition
that the Bush administration has recognized that it needs the United
Nations, and can't operate as a lone superpower.
"When all is said and done," said Swiss President Joseph Deiss, "the
Iraq crisis has shown us that the international community remains attached
to a multilateral system for maintaining international peace and security,
but that the structures currently in place are no longer appropriate."
"There is now a clear need for reform and for strengthening the
means of joint action," he said.
U.N. reform - which is expected to be tackled at next year's General
Assembly session - was a topic in many speeches on Tuesday's opening of
the two-week ministerial debate. So was the need to close the widening gap
between rich and poor.
President Abel Pacheco de la Espriella of Costa Rica called for a
fairer world economic system, noting that in 2003, the world reached a new
record by devoting $956 billion to military expenditure. That is 17 times
the amount of resources devoted to development assistance and more than
the sum of the foreign debt of the 64 countries with the lowest GDP, he
said.
"These numbers show that mankind has not understood yet that
security does not result from a multiplication of the weapons but from a
multiplication of the loaves of bread," Pacheco said.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva appealed for economic
and social justice in a world where the disparity in per capita income
between the richest and poorest nations is now 16 times greater than it
was nearly two decades ago.
As one example of the human cost, he said, a lack of basic
sanitation has killed more children in the past decade than all military
conflicts since the end of World War II.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/9724425.htm
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