Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-12-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20030312.1.3-054"2
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"Mr President, history has taught us that it is almost impossible to work together with dictators, because they do not care if their own people suffer. That is also the case with the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi people have had to pay dearly for their leader’s unyielding attitude. Iraq’s leadership has not even wanted to fully exploit the ‘oil for food’ programme, but has preferred to allow its citizens to suffer from a lack of adequate nourishment and medicine.
For us Europeans, who work on the assumption that there should be compliance with international agreements and a policy of cooperation, it has been a difficult experience to find that only military pressure has persuaded Saddam Hussein to allow the work of the weapons inspectors to be carried out. Prior to that the Iraqi leadership had defied the decisions of the UN and not agreed to give up its weapons of mass destruction and weapons programmes. Although there has been progress with the weapons inspections there are still more than a hundred unanswered questions in the weapons inspectors’ reports. They concern such matters as unmanned fighter aircraft and the fate of scud missiles and the anthrax solutions.
My country, Finland, strongly emphasises the importance of the UN’s role in finding a solution to the Iraq crisis. President Halonen said yesterday that Finland will support the Security Council and its decisions and that force without its authorisation was unacceptable. Halonen also said that Finland supports the continuation of the work of the weapons inspectors as long as it is meaningful and useful. The Security Council must consider how much time it has got left on the basis of the weapons inspectors’ report.
It is extremely important that the Security Council members use all their skill to achieve unanimity. The aim should obviously be for Iraq to be disarmed without the use of force. If this calls for military action it must have the approval of the Security Council. Purposeful diplomacy must come before public appearances by the Security Council members. The weapons inspectors must be given enough time to do their work, but that must not mean that Saddam Hussein can play endless games with the international community.
Throngs of people throughout the world have gone onto the streets to demonstrate in favour of a peaceful solution to the Iraq dispute. There must be a genuine chance for peace, but the precondition for a peaceful solution is that the international community must be certain that Iraq does not have dangerous weapons of mass destruction in its possession or any programmes to develop them.
The role of the UN and its Security Council must come first in resolving the Iraq crisis. If the UN cannot now act we are in danger of losing the most essential global instrument we have in safeguarding world peace. The European Union must now take a united stand and use all its powers to shore up the viability of the UN."@en1
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