Global Policy Forum

By Sheldon Alberts and Anne Dawson

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary-general, yesterday condemned the U.S.-led war on Iraq as a violation of the UN charter and said George W. Bush's policy of pre-emptive strikes is in "basic contradiction" with international law. Mr. Boutros-Ghali, the secretary-general of La Francophonie, an organization of francophone states, also said he fears the war will provoke civil conflict among competing ethnic factions in Iraq and destabilize the entire Middle East.

"I believe that this intervention is a violation of the charter of the United Nations," Mr. Boutros-Ghali told reporters in Ottawa after meeting with Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, to commemorate International Francophonie Day. "I believe that pre-emptive attack is in basic contradiction with the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter of the United Nations [says] you cannot use military forces, or even the threat to use forces, without the agreement of the Security Council."

Mr. Boutros-Ghali was echoing sentiments expressed recently by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. The UN Charter forbids war unless it is waged in self-defence or explicitly authorized by the UN Security Council.

The United States contends military action was sanctioned by the UN last November when the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, which threatened "serious consequences" if Saddam Hussein failed to fully disarm. The Bush administration has also argued it is acting in self-defence against a regime that poses a threat to the American people.

The U.S. action has put the UN in "crisis," Mr. Boutros-Ghali said, but he believes the organization will rebound from the split between the United States and Great Britain on one side and France, China and Russia, the three other permanent members of the Security Council, on the other. "Let us talk very frankly. I am afraid that this will diminish the image of the United Nations and the capacity to do work which is to settle peacefully international disputes," Mr. Boutros-Ghali said in an interview with Global Television's Ottawa Inside Out. "I hope that the United Nations will be able to overcome this crisis."

Mr. Boutros-Ghali said the war in Iraq puts into question the United States' ongoing war against terrorism. "It is difficult to set up a coalition against international terrorism if one doesn't have legitimacy," he said.

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