War on Iraq affects UN, Nepad
26 March 2003
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has appealed to the international community to rally behind the United Nations and to ensure that its legality and centrality inform actions of all its 191 member states, including the United States and Britain.
The minister's appeal, made during her department's budget vote in Parliament, Cape Town, comes as the world, including governments and civil society organs, robustly question the influence of the New York-based UN over international events, specifically the US-led attack on Iraq.
"The United Nations, imperfect as it may be, is the only instrument that governs the international political system and gives legality and legitimacy to our actions," said the African Union executive council chair.
"The multilateral system of global governance must remain our only response to all challenges facing humanity today ... We must have common rules shared and applied equally by all, without fear or
favour."
The invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies has sparked worldwide protests and diplomatic rows among UN Security Council members, with countries such as Germany, France, Russia, China and South Africa condemning the US move to bypass the UN.
'A world where the fittest survive'
Dlamini-Zuma said the international community should reject any attempt by the powerful, the rich and the technologically-advanced to rule the world using their economic and military might.
"They want us to build a world where the rich and powerful can impose their will on the poor and weak ... a world where the powerful and the rich can change regimes at will. A world where the lives of the innocent and weak are not protected. A world of the survival of the fittest," she said.
Dlamini-Zuma warned that the war would lead to a new world order outside the framework of the UN.
Positive spin-off for
Africa
Meanwhile, others reflected on the impact of the war on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) at the Development Bank of Southern Africa Dialogue Series in Midrand this week.
International liaison manager of the Nepad Secretariat, Dave Malcomson, said that if the war had any effect on Africa it should be to spur Africans into partnerships with one another to ensure the success of Nepad.
It should be turned into a positive spin-off for Africa, as it provided Africans with an opportunity to be self-reliant and start defining and determining their own future, Malcomson said.
"... Because now Africa can really realise that it has to stand on its own two feet. Africa has to mobilise its own resources and look at its own problems first to develop African solutions to African problems."
Malcomson added that the unilaterism posed "serious risks and dangers" for Nepad, as the African Union's (AU's) economic master plan to
develop the continent stressed the need for peaceful solution to crisis.
He said that the US had undermined the political muscles of the AU and Nepad, at a time when African diplomats were trying to strengthen institutions and mechanisms to curb conflicts.
His statement echoed President Thabo Mbeki's remarks this week, in which he said that the attack on Iraq should encourage African governments and civil society organs to pull up their socks to ensure that Nepad bore fruit.
"We have to rely on ourselves, we going to rely on our efforts ... our resources in order to address the many challenges that face us on the African continent," said the African Union (AU) head while addressing the African Continental Ecumenical Project on Nepad.
Source: BuaNews
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