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| Kathmandu, Wednesday March 12, 2003 Falgun 28, 2059. |
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A grave decision
KOFI A ANNAN
The Charter of the United Na tions is
categorical. "In or der to ensure prompt and effective action by the United
Nations," it confers on the Security Council "primary responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security".
That responsibility can seldom have weighed more
heavily on the members of the Council than it does this week. Within the next day or two,
they have to make a momentous choice.
The context of that choice is an issue whose
importance is by no means confined to Iraq: the threat posed to all humanity by weapons of
mass destruction. The whole international community needs to act together to curb the
proliferation of these terrible weapons, wherever it may be happening.
But the immediate and most urgent aspect of that
task is to ensure that Iraq no longer has such weapons. Why? Because Iraq has actually
used them in the past, and because it has twice, under its present leadership, committed
aggression against its neighbours – against Iran in 1980, and against Kuwait in 1990.
That is why the Security Council is determined
to disarm Iraq of these weapons, and has passed successive resolutions since 1991
requiring Iraq to disarm.
All over the world, people want to see this
crisis resolved peacefully. They are alarmed about the great human suffering that war
always causes, whether it is long or short. And they are apprehensive about the
longer-term consequences that this particular war might have.
They fear that it will lead to regional
instability and economic crises; and that it may – as war so often does – have
unintended consequences that produce new dangers. Will it make the fight against terrorism
or the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, even harder? Will it sow deep
divisions between nations and peoples of different faiths? Will it compromise our ability
to work together in addressing other common concerns in the future?
Those are serious questions, and the answers
must be carefully considered.
Sometimes it may be necessary to use force to
deal with threats to the peace – and the Charter makes provision for that. But war
must always be a last resort. It should be used only when every reasonable alternative has
been tried – in the present case, only if we are sure that every peaceful means of
achieving Iraq’s disarmament has been exhausted. The United Nations, founded to
"save succeeding generations from the scourge of war", has a duty to search for
a peaceful solution until the last possible moment.
Has that moment arrived? That is the decision
that the members of the Security Council now face.
It is a grave decision indeed. If they fail to
agree on a common position and some of them then take action without the Council’s
authority, the legitimacy of that action will be widely questioned, and it will not gain
the political support needed to ensure its long-term success, after its military phase.
If, on the other hand, the members of the
Council can come together, even at this late hour, and ensure compliance with their
earlier resolutions by agreeing on a common course of action, then the Council’s
authority will be enhanced, and the world will be a safer place.
Let’s remember that the crisis in Iraq does
not exist in a vacuum. What happens there will have a profound impact on other issues of
great importance. The broader our consensus on how to deal with Iraq, the better the
chance that we can come together again and deal effectively with other burning conflicts
in the world, starting with the one between Israelis and Palestinians. We all know that
only a just resolution of that conflict can bring any real hope of lasting stability in
the region.
Beyond the Middle East, the success or failure
of the international community in dealing with Iraq will crucially affect its ability to
deal with the no less worrying developments on the Korean peninsula. And it will affect
our work to resolve the conflicts that are causing so much suffering in Africa, setting
back the prospects for stability and development that that continent so badly needs.
Nor is war the only scourge that the world has
to face. Whether they are protecting themselves against terrorism or struggling against
the grim triad of poverty, ignorance and disease, nations need to work together, and they
can do so through the United Nations. However this conflict is resolved, the UN will
remain as central as it is today. We should do everything we can to maintain its unity.
All around the world, these last few months, we
have seen what an immense significance not only States, but their peoples, attach to the
legitimacy provided by the UN, and by the Security Council, as the common framework for
securing peace. As they approach their momentous decision this week, I hope the members of
the Council will be mindful of this sacred trust that the world’s peoples have placed
in them, and will show themselves worthy of it.
(The author is Secretary-General of the
United Nations)
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