Secret UN plan to take over Iraq

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday March 5, 2003
The Guardian

The United Nations has drawn up confidential contingency plans for a postwar
role in Iraq, even before a security council vote on whether to back the
forcible ousting of Saddam Hussein, UN staff and diplomatic sources said
last night.
The planning began more than a month ago, in tandem with the bitter security
council debate on a US-led campaign to force a regime change in Baghdad, and
a panel of experts has produced a preliminary report on postwar
reconstruction, according to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman in the office of
the secretary general, Kofi Annan.

"The secretary general has appointed a small working group in case there is
a conflict, which we still don't believe is inevitable. The group would look
at any role of the UN in postwar reconstruction beyond immediate
humanitarian relief," Mr Dujarric said.

The report was put together by a Pakistani UN official, Rafeeuddin Ahmed,
and the whole postwar project is being overseen by Mr Annan's Canadian
deputy, Louise Frechette.

"Mr Ahmed has put some ideas on paper," Mr Dujarric said but he denied a
report in the Times that the UN could be breaching its charter and
interfering in a member state's internal affairs by contemplating the
aftermath of the removal of the Baghdad government.

"We are not assuming anything. There is no assumption of war," he insisted.

The US has drawn up its own plans to administer post-Sad dam Iraq with the
help of exiles and some of the existing bureaucracy until a new democratic
government can be elected. But the Bush administration is wary of being
perceived as a colonial power, and is anxious to pass the baton as soon as
an acceptable degree of stability is achieved. US diplomats said no position
had been taken on whether there should be an interim UN period between a
US-run administration and an Iraqi government.

Jay Garner, the retired US general who has been given the job of running the
civil administration of Iraq after the fall of President Saddam, visited the
UN to discuss the plans on Monday with Ms Frechette and the British UN
mission.

"He made it clear that he did not want his mission to run on for a long
time, but there is no way of putting a timetable on something so
unpredictable," a US official said.

One diplomat described the planning as "sensible" and "inevitable", in view
of the clear threat of war, but added that the UN secretariat had had to
carry it out "below the surface" because there has been no official decision
on military action.

A source in the security council denied that a definitive plan had been
drawn up, but rather a set of options dependent on "various possible
scenarios with the UN asked to take a greater or lesser role".

It seemed unlikely that any of the contingencies being pondered would
involve a comprehensive UN administration along the lines of missions in
Kosovo or East Timor. It was more likely it would follow the model of
Afghanistan, where the UN has played a supportive role focused on
nation-building and humanitarian operations rather than an administrative
one.

One diplomat from a security council member state said that one of the
candidates to run an Iraq operation was Lakhdar Brahimi, who played a
similar role in Afghanistan. "Whenever they talk about finding someone who
is internationally respected, experienced and someone who is Muslim,
everybody says 'what about Brahimi?'," the diplomat said.

The emergence of the contingency plans comes at a tense time for the UN. The
US, Britain and Spain have tabled a draft resolution declaring Iraq to be in
breach of its international obligations to disarm. Although the document is
not explicit, it would universally be seen as a mandate for US-led military
action.

However, France and Russia have threatened to veto the draft, potentially
opening a damaging rift in the security council.

Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, said that the administration still
plannned to press for a vote soon after the latest report on Iraqi
compliance by the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix. The report is due
on Friday.

Britain delivered a blunt warning to France and Germany last night that they
will "reap a whirlwind" if they refuse to sign up to the new Anglo-American
resolution.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, claimed that Washington would abandon
"multilateral" institutions such as the UN and Nato if Europe refuses to
fall into line.

"What I say to France and Germany and all my other EU colleagues is 'take
care', because just as America helps to define and influence our politics,
so what we do in Europe helps to define and influence American politics," Mr
Straw told MPs on the Commons foreign affairs select committee. "And we will
reap a whirlwind if we push the Americans into a unilateralist position in
which they are the centre of this unipolar world."





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