[extropy-chat] Invasion was illegal: UN chief

[Brett Paatsch]

This may be of interest (or not).

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10789955%255E2703,00.html

September 17, 2004

NEW YORK: The US decision to go to war in Iraq without the approval of the United Nations Security Council was illegal, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared yesterday.

"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time - without UN approval and much broader support from the international community," Mr Annan told the BBC World Service. 

The UN charter allows nations to take military action with Security Council approval as an enforcement action, such as during the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War. 

But in 2003, in the build-up to the war on Iraq, the US dropped an attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became clear it would not pass. At the time, Mr Annan underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without UN approval, saying: "If the United States and others were to go outside the Security Council and take unilateral action, they would not be in conformity with the charter." 

Yesterday, after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, Mr Annan told the BBC: "From our point of view and the UN charter point of view, it was illegal." 

     
     
     
      
     
     


John Howard disagreed. 

The Prime Minister, one of the strongest supporters of US President George W.Bush in the coalition of the willing that took part in the invasion, told local radio in Perth the war had been warranted. 

"I haven't seen that report but the legal advice we have, and I tabled it at the time, was the action was entirely valid in international law terms, and that was a legal opinion we obtained from the relevant people in Australia," he said. 

"There had been a series of Security Council resolutions and the advice we had was it was entirely legal." 

The British Government responded to Mr Annan by saying the invasion of Iraq was "not only lawful, but necessary". 

Mr Annan said the wave of violence now engulfing Iraq put in doubt the national elections scheduled for January. There could not be "credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now". 
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Brett


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