FED: Former UNSCOM boss calls for security council reform

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-1999
FED: Former UNSCOM boss calls for security council reform

By Stephen Spencer, Diplomatic Correspondent

CANBERRA, Aug 31 AAP - Australia's former UN weapons chief today called for an overhaul of
the United Nations Security Council in the wake of the collapse of his mission to Iraq.

Richard Butler also called for better targeting of UN sanctions on Iraq to ease the
humanitarian crisis which has killed thousands of children.

He led the UNSCOM mission until last year when Saddam Hussein ordered the weapons
inspection team out of Iraq after it presented him with a final list of weapons to be handed
over for destruction.

Mr Butler says his mission was on the brink of success, but the failure of the UN to take
further action against President Hussein undermined its authority and encouraged a new arms
race.

"If he (President Hussein) succeeds in facing down the security council of the United
Nations he will have cracked the authority of the key body that we've had for 50 years now
with the collective responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,"
Mr Butler told the National Press Club.

"That's serious for all of us and it's serious for Australia."

Mr Butler said the failure of the security council had been exacerbated by the increasing
willingness of permanent members like China to veto security council action against allies
like North Korea, even when they were clearly in breach of arms control treaties.

This in turn persuaded the United States to bypass the UN, as it had done by sending NATO
troops into Kosovo.

Mr Butler said increasing concern about the US being the world's only superpower could be
counteracted by reforming the security council to make it more relevant.

"They should reach an informal understanding that they will not use their veto with respect
to arms control treaties," he said.

"That in the future, where it can be shown that a state whether it be Iraq or North Korea
or whatever, is in violation of an arms control obligation, that that council should stand as
one and say you have nowhere to go here but to obey the arms control law."

On the other hand, Mr Butler said UN sanctions against Iraq over its ban on the weapons
inspection team needed to be urgently reformed.

"Sanctions, in order to bring about compliance with the law, very often fail to do that,
and harm the people that they shouldn't," he said.

Mr Butler said the sanctions should be more directly targeted at President Hussein, rather
than the Iraqi people.

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KEYWORD: UN BUTLER

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