World leaders blast US 'pre-emptive' strikes

World leaders have criticised US president George Bush’s policy of “pre-emptive” military strikes and demanded that conflicts and global threats be resolved collectively by all nations.

The fallout from the divisive United Nations Security Council battle over the Iraq war was a focal point of every speech yesterday, the opening day of the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial debate.

It was the first time world leaders were meeting since the United States went to war against Iraq without UN authorisation. Supporters and opponents of the war rallied behind Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call to join forces to build a peaceful democracy in Iraq, but sharp differences remained over the timetable and the UN role.

Bush rejected calls from France and Germany to speed up the transfer of power in Iraq, insisting that the shift to self-government could be “neither hurried nor delayed”.

French president Jacques Chirac challenged Bush by demanding a “realistic timetable” for restoring Iraq’s sovereignty. But he said France would not block a UN resolution which the United States was pushing to get other countries to contribute troops and money to rebuild the troubled nation.

Chirac, who led the opposition to the war, criticised the United States for launching a war without UN approval and undermining the international system of collective security which he said must now be urgently modernised and restored.

The problems facing the world today – including Iraq – could only be addressed in a multilateral forum like the United Nations which guaranteed “legitimacy and democracy, especially in matters regarding the use of force or laying down universal norms”, he said.

South African president Thabo Mbeki said Iraq raised questions about “the very future of the United Nations”. It was a test of whether the world body enjoyed the confidence of the world and was capable of being “the principal guarantor of international peace and security”.

“The poor of the world expect an end to violence and war everywhere,” Mbeki said. “For us, collectively, to meet these expectations, will require that each and everyone of us, both rich and poor, commit ourselves practically to act. This includes the most powerful.”

Annan set the stage for the two-week session, challenging the 191 UN member states before they arrived to re-examine the way the international community was dealing with wars, terrorism, poverty and other threats to international security. He urged world leaders not to shy away fromrecommending “radical” changes – including to the United Nations.

His call brought 86 presidents and prime ministers, three vice presidents, 99 foreign ministers, and three heads of delegation to UN headquarters in New York, a very large turnout for the annual session. Chirac said it “definitely shows that the UN is not discredited as some have tried to say or have us believe”.

In his keynote address at yesterday’s opening, the secretary-general criticised Bush’s “pre-emptive” attack on Iraq, warning that unilateral action could result in a proliferation of unlawful attacks “with or without credible justification”.

He underlined that all nations should collectively address the threats that prompted pre-emptive action – terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

But Bush was unapologetic about his decision to invade Iraq and the war’s chaotic aftermath, saying nations that fought terror would be judged favourably by history.

Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri pointedly began her address with praise and gratitude for the United Nations from the world’s largest Muslim nation and strong criticism for “the big powers” for their attitudes toward Islamic countries and for failing to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which she argued was spawning international terrorism.

“The war in the Middle East a few months ago is just another reflection of the situation,” she said.

“The war has created far many more problems than those it intended to solve. I do believe that a great many lessons can be learned from the Iraq war.”

Rejecting unilateralism, she said all nations “must have the courage to review, revitalise and empower” the United Nations and other regional institutions to strengthen international cooperation.

Brazil’s president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said the impasse over reconstruction in Iraq “can only be overcome under the leadership of the United Nations – leadership not only in re-establishing acceptable security conditions, but equally in guiding the political process towards the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty as soon as possible”.

“We must not shy away from our collective responsibilities,” he said. “A war can perhaps be won single-handedly. But peace – lasting peace – cannot be secured without the support of all.”