Kofi Annan's UN A 'Division Of The State Department': Denis Halliday

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Rick Rozoff

http://www.sundayherald.com/36222

The Sunday Herald (Scotland)
August 24, 2003

Former UN chief: bomb was payback for collusion with
US
Exclusive: By Neil Mackay

-He warned that ?further collaboration? between the UN
and the US and Britain ?would be a disaster for the
United Nations as it would be sucked into supporting
the illegal occupation of Iraq?.
?The UN has been drawn into being an arm of the US ? a
division of the state department. Kofi Annan was
appointed and supported by the US and that has
corrupted the independence of the UN. The UN must move
quickly to reform itself and improve the security
council ? it must make clear that the UN and the US
are not one and the same.?
 

The reason the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad
were bombed is because the UN has been taken over by
the US and turned into a ?dark joke? and a ?malignant
force?, according to one of the UN?s most
internationally respected former leaders.
Denis Halliday, the former UN Assistant
Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in
Iraq, attacked the UN as an aggressive arm of US
foreign policy in the immediate aftermath of the
truckbomb attack on the UN mission in Baghdad which
killed at least 23 people ? many of whom were
Halliday?s former friends and colleagues.

?The West sees the UN as a benign organisation, but
the sad reality in much of the world is that the UN is
not seen as benign,? said Halliday, who was nominated
for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. ?The UN Security
Council has been taken over and corrupted by the US
and UK, particularly with regard to Iraq, Palestine
and Israel.

?In Iraq, the UN imposed sustained sanctions that
probably killed up to one million people. Children
were dying of malnutrition and water-borne diseases.
The US and UK bombed the infrastructure in 1991,
destroying power, water and sewage systems against the
Geneva Convention. It was a great crime against Iraq.

?Thirteen years of sanctions made it impossible for
Iraq to repair the damage. That is why we have such
tremendous resentment and anger against the UN in
Iraq. There is a sense that the UN humiliated the
Iraqi people and society. I would use the term
genocide to define the use of sanctions against Iraq.
Several million Iraqis are suffering cancers because
of the use of depleted uranium shells. That?s an
atrocity. Can you imagine the bitterness from all of
this?

He warned that ?further collaboration? between the UN
and the US and Britain ?would be a disaster for the
United Nations as it would be sucked into supporting
the illegal occupation of Iraq?.

?The UN has been drawn into being an arm of the US ? a
division of the state department. Kofi Annan was
appointed and supported by the US and that has
corrupted the independence of the UN. The UN must move
quickly to reform itself and improve the security
council ? it must make clear that the UN and the US
are not one and the same.?

Halliday said the US should withdraw from Iraqi within
six months and allow free elections to be held. The UN
could then start the work of helping the Iraqis
rebuild their nation. ?Bush has blown $75 billion on
this war, so he should spend $75 billion on
reconstruction ? and the money shouldn?t just go to
Halli burton [an oil firm now operating in Iraqi which
was once run by vice- president Dick Cheney] and the
boys either. Once the US goes from Iraq, the terrorist
will go as well.

?Bush and Blair have misled their countries into war.
By invading Iraq and placing the US inside the Islamic
world, America is inviting terrorists to come on the
attack.?

Halliday, who resigned from the UN in 1998, knows his
comments will upset London, Washington and Kofi Annan,
but he claims many senior UN figures feel the same
anger.