At UN, Bush stands all alone

President Bush got an earful of complaints from world leaders on Tuesday but responded with a mild defence of his actions in Iraq and a requ...

President Bush got an earful of complaints from world leaders on Tuesday but responded with a mild defence of his actions in Iraq and a request for UN help.

The White House was expecting a cool response as the President appeared before the 58th annual gathering of UN General Assembly. And the leaders, many of whom opposed the US invasion of Iraq, gave him just that. They warned that the Iraq war was a threat to the very purpose of UN. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in an impassioned condemnation of US policy, said ‘‘unilateralism’’ was an assault on the ‘‘collective action’’ envisioned by the UN founders. ‘‘This logic represents a challenge to the principles on which, however imperfectly, world peace and stability have rested for the last 58 years,’’ Annan said. ‘‘My concern is that, if it were to be adopted, it could set precedents that resulted in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without justification.’’

Annan, who began his address in French, warned: ‘‘Excellencies, we have come to a fork in the road. This may be a moment no less decisive than 1945 itself, when the UN was founded.’’ French President Jacques Chirac, speaking shortly after Bush, called the war ‘‘one of the gravest trials’’ in UN history and said it ‘‘undermined the multilateral system.’’ In an extended critique of Bush’s policy of pre-emptively attacking emerging threats, Chirac said: ‘‘In an open world, no one can live in isolation, no one can act alone in the name of all, and no one can accept the anarchy of a society without rules. There is no alternative to the UN.’’ Bush played down the contentious issue of Iraq and emphasised the good works of the UN. He devoted nearly half his speech to unrelated issues — weapons proliferation and sex trafficking — and made only a gentle request for assistance in Iraq. ‘‘Now the nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid, and all nations of goodwill should step forward and provide that support,’’ he said. Bush spoke as if the divisions over Iraq were largely in the past. He spoke of the militants in Iraq as ‘‘against all humanity’’ and suggested moving beyond the disagreement over the war.

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Bush defended US actions in Iraq, but he suggested those were in defense of UN wishes, not in violation of them. ‘‘Because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace, and credibility of UN, Iraq is free, and we are joined by representatives of a liberated country.’’ Bush played down the difficulties in Iraq, saying its people are ‘‘meeting hardships and challenges.’’

He said the war has made West Asia safer. He also hailed the actions of UN humanitarian services in Iraq and spoke of progress training police, rebuilding schools, hospitals, power plants and other infrastructure. He said a new UN resolution would expand the UN role in Iraq, but he suggested that role would be in developing a constitution, training civil servants and conducting elections not in leading the occupation. In an implicit rejection of the rapid transfer of power to Iraqis that France has proposed, Bush said ‘‘the process must unfold as per the needs of Iraqis, neither hurried, nor delayed by the wishes of other parties.’’ (LAT-WP)

Taliban vow attacks after Mullah Omar meeting
SPIN BOLDAK: Islamic Taliban commanders secretly met elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar last week and vowed to step up attacks on Afghan government and US-led allied troops.

Taliban guerrilla commander Mullah Sabir, alias Mullah Momin, said by telephone that Omar appeared ‘‘delighted’’ by a recent spate of Taliban attacks. At the meeting on September 17, held somewhere in southern Afghanistan, Omar urged around 50 top military commanders and former governors not to slow their activities, Mullah Momin said. ‘‘I salute my Taliban mujahideen brothers and the Afghan people. They have courageously carried out their jihadi responsibilities for the last two years to defend Islam,’’ Omar was quoted as saying.

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US airman charged with espionage
WASHINGTON: An Air Force enlisted man has been charged with spying and aiding the enemy while working as an Arabic translator at the US Base in Cuba where hundreds of suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners are jailed, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Senior US Airman Ahmad al Halabi of Detroit, Michigan, is in jail at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, where he is charged with 32 counts, including espionage and other criminal violations.

Officials said Al Halabi, 24, was found to have classified information on a computer in violation of strict security rules at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ‘‘He served as an interpreter at Guantanamo and was arrested on his return to US from Cuba,’’ the spokesman said. (Agencies)

MEANWHILE

Broadcaster calls Annan ‘cheeky darkie’, apologises
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s leading current affairs broadcaster Paul Holmes apologised on Wednesday for calling UN Secretary General Kofi Annan a ‘‘cheeky darkie’’ on his morning radio show. Holmes said he ‘‘surrendered to baseness’’ when he said on his daily Newstalk ZB programme that the world was not going to be told how to live by a Ghanaian. ‘‘It was an appalling thing to say,’’ he was later quoted as saying. ‘‘I think I felt like breaking out…Whatever I am I’m not a racist,’’ Holmes said. However, he stuck to his criticism of the UN, saying, ‘‘half of that General Assembly sitting there looking down their noses at Bush represent some of the most pernicious regimes in the world, some of whom probably survive on US favour. ‘‘It’s absurd to say UN kept the peace for 58 years,’’ he said.

2 killed in Mosul blast
BAGHDAD: A hand grenade blast ripped through a cinema in Mosul on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding 20, police said. Police said a witness had told them the movie theatre was showing a pornographic film when the grenade exploded. Islamic militants have attacked cinemas in post-war Iraq for showing movies they regard as immoral. Shopkeepers said they saw about 20 people carried out of the building, some with very serious wounds.

Council takes seat at UN
UNITED NATIONS: The representatives of the US appointed Iraqi Governing Council occupied the seat of their country in the UN General Assembly even though the Assembly has yet to give the Council formal recognition. The Council’s representatives took the seat yesterday as no member objected but it needs to go to the credentials committee to get recognition, world body officials said. Current Council President Ahmad Chalabi and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari were occupying the places assigned to Iraq. (Agencies)