Global Policy Forum

By Kirsty Scott

The UN is in crisis because it is seen as little more than an American appendage, two of the organisation's most senior former leaders have warned. The former secretary-general Boutros Boutros Ghali said there was deep resentment against the UN across the developing world because of policies adopted under America's influence. He warned that nothing more than drastic reform would allow the organisation to start rebuilding trust outside the west.

His comments, in the wake of the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in which 23 people died, have been echoed by his colleague, Denis Halliday, the former UN assistant secretary-general, who says many senior figures at the organisation are similarly disturbed at America's dominance.

Mr Boutros Ghali, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House yesterday, said the UN was perceived as an extension of the US state department. "Many countries of the third world see a basic discrimination adopted by the United Nation system," he said. "The resolutions which are not respected by the Iraqis deserve the bombing of Baghdad. The same resolutions which are not respected by the Israelis deserve nothing." (. . . .) "So the perception in a great part of the third world is that the United Nations, because of the American influence or because of any other reason, is a system which discriminates [against] many countries of the third world."

He said the UN must find a new way of coexisting with America. He said if the situation in Iraq did not improve the US would be compelled to accept a UN presence in the country. "They [America] cannot be the policeman of the world," he said. "One, because the public opinion will not accept this role, and, second, be cause they do not have the capacity. You may have war tomorrow between North and South Korea. It is practically impossible even for the superpower to get involved in all the international disputes."

Mr Halliday, meanwhile, said the UN security council had been taken over and corrupted by America and the UK. "The UN has been drawn into being an arm of the US - a division of the state department," he said. "Kofi Annan was appointed 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 US and the UN are not one and the same."

Mr Halliday, who served under Mr Boutros Ghali and resigned his UN post over sanctions against Iraq, told the Scottish Sunday Herald that "further collaboration" between the UN, the US and Britain would be disastrous for the UN because it would be sucked into supporting the illegal occupation of Iraq.

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