by Jim Addington
The UN Security Council is a flawed institution. It can act
quickly as it did after the Madrid bombs by blaming ETA even
before the real perpetrators could have been known. It can move
too slowly for the United States when that government wants
to go to war. But the effects of its indecision over former
Yugoslavia and the actions of some UN members have led inevitably
to the invasion of Afghanistan, to last year's attack on Iraq
and to the renewed crisis in Kosovo.
The principal reason for the failure of the Security Council
is its manipulation by the United States, aided from time to
time by other self-interested governments. We need only look
at the US backed campaign to break up Yugoslavia during the
1990's supported by the German government when it unilaterally
approved the independence of Croatia. This encouraged other
constituent parts of Yugoslavia to break away.
When the attack on Yugoslavia was launched in 1999 in aid of
the Albanian majority of Kosovo it was too late to invoke the
1975 Helsinki Declaration when 33 European states, together
with the US and Canada, guaranteed never to breach another state's
borders. In its illegal attack on Yugoslavia, unsanctified by
a UN Security Council resolution, the US government was supported
by 18 other NATO member states.
Since the break up of Yugoslavia foreign troops have been deployed,
ostensibly on behalf of the UN Security Council, in Bosnia,
Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain alone has troops in eight
foreign countries.
In Afghanistan, because of the terrain and the fragmented nature
of power in that country, the presence of foreign troops is
tolerated while they stay mainly within the environs of Kabul.
Even NATO, which has been invited to send military forces to
control the rest of Afghanistan is showing understandable reluctance
to become more involved.
The history of the last fourteen years shows the urgency of
the need for UN reform. In 1991 the massive attack on Iraq after
its invasion of Kuwait destroyed much of its infrastructure.
This was followed by 13 years of penal UN sanctions enforced
by the US and UK governments.
During that period we saw the dismantling of Yugoslavia and
an attack over Kosovo without UN authority. After September
11 (2001) Afghanistan was invaded under a UN resolution which
authorised retaliation against the perpetrators although they
had come from Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan was not mentioned in
that resolution. Once again the UN had given carte blanche to
the US and anyone else who wanted to go to war.
Last year, without the support of a UN resolution endorsing
war Iraq was attacked by three UN members, the US, UK and Spain.
The result is now well known. The occupiers are unable to keep
the peace. While parts of Iraq are calm and some of the infrastructure
has been repaired, there is an underlying atmosphere of resentment
with frequent attacks on the occupiers and their surrogate Iraqi
forces. The incoming Spanish Socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodrigues
Zapatero said last week "My
position is very clear and very firm. The occupation is a fiasco.
Combating terrorism with bombs, and with Tomahawk missiles,
is not the way to defeat terrorism. Terrorism is fought by the
state of law. That is what I think Europe and the international community have
to debate".
Promises of an independent Iraq and the withdrawal of the occupiers
are shown to be false by the plans of the US government to build
three massive military bases and the world's embassy. Typically
the British government also intends to build a major new embassy
in Iraq to support the American occupation. Now the focus has
switched back to Kosovo. More UN-supported troops are being
sent in to prevent ethnic cleansing. When will its inhabitants
decide that they too are in an occupied state?
The UN Charter does not give authority to remove a regime or
for a pre-emptive attack. Attempts to use the Charter as a basis
for spurious humanitarian reasons of self-interest should be
resisted. While we must be concerned about coercive regimes
and work for their reform the Charter must be upheld.
Next year the UN will be 60. Action for UN Renewal, a very small
group among UN reformers, plans to alert ministers, parliamentarians
and the media to support UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposals
for the reform of the Security Council. It must be enlarged,
with far more regional members, to give it the power to act
responsibly.
Jim Addington is chair of the UK organisation Action for UN
