The Hindu : India hopes hostilities would end soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 28, 2003

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International

India hopes hostilities would end soon

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington March 27. In calling the United States-led military campaign against Iraq "unjustified and avoidable", India has called for efforts to bring an early end to the hostilities.

"... securing Iraq's cooperation with the inspections process and compliance with all relevant Security Council Resolutions should have been the main focus of the Council's efforts. That, unfortunately, did not happen. As it is, we are now presented with a situation where some members have decided to proceed unilaterally," the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vijay Nambiar, told an open and special meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday.

"In the circumstances, we sincerely hope that the military campaign, which was unjustified and avoidable, would be short-lived. We strongly urge all possible efforts be made to bring hostilities to an early end.''

Most of the member-states not represented on the Council were downright critical of the U.S. regarding the ongoing crisis and conflict in Iraq. "The international community must quickly get involved in restoring peace in Iraq in the eventual reconstruction of the country and in alleviating the plight of its long-suffering people," Mr. Nambiar said.

"India has already announced its willingness to participate fully in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq... Our long-standing friendship with the people of Iraq would demand nothing less of us; we would be happy to discharge our duty to share this burden.''

"One can have differences over the necessity of war, but one cannot have differences about the urgent need for restoring peace. War is sometimes waged unilaterally but peace has to be built together," Mr. Nambiar said.

Various members denounced the present goings-on, with the Iraqi envoy, Mohammad al Douri, questioning the legality of the U.S.-led "barbaric aggression" that has led to thousands of casualties.

"Iraq, a founding-member of the United Nations, is being subjected to a criminal, barbaric American-British military aggression," Mr. Al Douri charged while calling on the Security Council to address this issue first.

He took the Council to task for discussing the humanitarian issue rather than dealing with aggression.

The meeting was held at the request of the Arab nations and the non-aligned community, both of whom have been vocal about the manner in which the Iraqi crisis has taken shape.

The U.N. Secretary General had critical observations for both Iraq and those in the Security Council who went about military operations in a unilateral fashion.

Mr. Annan wondered why the Iraqi regime did not take full advantage of the final opportunity offered by the Security Council and meet the disarmament deadlines and requirements.

"But at the same time, many people around the world are seriously questioning whether it was legitimate for some member-states to proceed to such a fateful action now — an action that has far-reaching consequences well beyond the immediate military dimensions — without first reaching a collective decision of this Council," Mr. Annan said.

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