Debate over UN’s role in Iraq

THE United Nations has a “do” and “don’t” list for Iraq.

What it does not want to do is run or administer Iraq, provide security or endorse a US hand-picked government in Baghdad.

But Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be

willing to help set up an interim Iraqi administration to steer the country towards new self-government as the world body did in Afghanistan, according to diplomats and UN officials.

Most American officials agree the UN should have a key role in humanitarian relief projects. But the Bush administration is wary about a UN political role. France, Germany and Russia, opponents of the war, want the world body to play a leading part in shaping post-war Iraq; Britain is somewhere in

between.

A Tuesday meeting between US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to clarify the issue. In the meantime, no concrete plans have been floated in the divided UN Security Council. To this end, Annan is travelling to Europe next week to see if there is any common ground among leading council members on what the UN should do.

“We are prepared to do whatever the council asks us to do. We won’t be disappointed if it’s only humanitarian but we think it would be unwise. We are waiting for our marching orders,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

No one doubts that the United States and Britain will do the initial organising and administration of post-war Iraq. But for an Iraqi transitional government to achieve any recognition, most countries in the world apparently believe the UN needs to give it legitimacy. And without UN recognition, the US might be hard-pressed to get reconstruction funds. More complicated are legal issues. At the moment the United Nations controls an escrow account for Iraq’s oil revenue, used to purchase civilian supplies. Many of the goods have to be approved first by Security Council members.

The United Nations

secretariat has drawn up contingency plans to cover a variety of possible requests. These plans reject a full-scale UN administration and reject any security force, diplomats say.

“Iraq is not East Timor and Iraq is not Kosovo,” Annan said. “There are trained personnel. There is a reasonably effective civil service.”

Instead, plans call for a UN mission to organise a political process that would result in an interim government as in Afghanistan, which had few viable government structures.