Free Republic

Food FightWhen the Food Workers Union stages an impromptu walkout at the U.N., the diplomats start looting for lunch and booze  By STEWART STOGEL/U.N. MILOS BICANSKI/GETTY IMAGESKofi's lunch service was cut short Saturday, May. 03, 2003 Hunger pains can apparently turn even the most upstanding diplomat into a looter. At noon on Friday, food workers at the U.N. headquarters walked off their jobs, calling a wildcat strike. The result: none of the U.N.'s five restaurants and bars was staffed. The walkout left thousands of U.N. employees scrounging for lunch — eventually, the masses stripped the cafeterias of everything, including the...

It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the Frogs. After raging against America's Iraq policy for months, French citizens are suddenly saying that President Bush was right and their own Jacques Chirac was wrong, the Christian Science Monitor reported today. "Since they saw the rapid fall of Saddam's empire, the French are asking themselves if they hadn't perhaps been wrong in making themselves irrelevant to the course of history," admitted Dominique Moisi of French Institute of International Relations. Three weeks ago, 84 percent of the French opposed Operation Iraqi Freedom. Only 55 percent felt that way last...

France is in a diplomatic pickle, wanting both to heal the rift with America and to play up the nation’s newfound prominence. How will its president balance the two desires? April 28 issue — Late in life, Francois Mitterrand let slip the news of a secret war. “France does not know it yet, but we are at war with America,” reports his biographer, Georges-Marc Benamou. “A permanent war... a war without death. They are very hard, the Americans—they are voracious. They want undivided power over the world.” FRANCE’S CURRENT PRESIDENT, Jacques Chirac, likens himself more to Charles de Gaulle than...

[OUTLOOK]Don’t expect UN to clean up Iraq Now that the huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad has fallen, who shall govern Iraq? Even before U.S. troops entered the Iraqi capital, the European Union demanded that the “UN must continue to play a central role” and “manage the whole process.” At their St. Petersburg summit this past weekend, French President Chirac, German Chancellor Schroeder and Russian President Putin strongly echoed these sentiments. This is curious. As the British magazine The Economist put it: “Having failed to stop the Americans and British from launching this war, France, Russia...

U.S. said near to declaring Iraq victory SYDNEY, April 20 (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces in Iraq will proclaim victory in the next few days, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Sunday, while a top European offical called for the return to Iraq of U.N. arms inspectors. With the war winding down, Downer said final touches were being made to a formal proclamation of victory. "There's just some tidying up going on in relation to the final proclamation," Downer told Australia's Seven Network television. Australia is one of a handful of countries, dubbed the "coalition of the willing" by U.S....

<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. arms inspectors are ready to get back into Iraq to finish the job of looking for any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons but don't want to work under a new U.S.-led disarmament effort.</p> <p>"We're not dogs on a leash," said chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix, who said it was key his teams remain independent. He said U.N. teams would be willing to confirm any discoveries of banned weapons the Americans report, but repeatedly noted that U.S. troops haven't found any such weapons thus far.</p>

NEW DELHI, April 17 (AFP) - UN special envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi told India's national television station in an interview broadcast Thursday that the war in Iraq was nothing but an invasion by the United States. In a wide-ranging interview to the state-run Doordarshan, Brahimi also lashed out at Washington for its policies in postwar Afghanistan. "Iraq was invaded and it is now under occupation. No matter what the people of Iraq say, the reality is that it is currently under occupation," Brahimi said. The UN official drew a distinction between the US-led war against Afghanistan's Taliban Islamic militia...

ATHENS, April 17 (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday the United Nations must decide exactly how sanctions on Iraq should be lifted, after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. Speaking after US President George W. Bush called for an end to the UN-administered "oil-for-food" program, Chirac reiterated that the United Nations must play a central role in post-war Iraq. "The lifting of sanctions is an aim which we have supported for a long time. Now it is naturally for the UN to define the modalities for lifting the sanctions," he said. "France wants the UN to play a...

HAMBURG, Germany, April 17 (AFP) - Iraq has to be governed by its own people and not controlled by the United States, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said in an interview released here Thursday. "The Iraqis have to govern themselves. Iraq must not become a country that distances itself from the values of the Islamic world," Mussa told Der Spiegel magazine in its edition to be released on Saturday. He said that work to rebuild Iraq following the US-led war should be run by the United Nations and the Arab League. The former Egyptian foreign minister also warned the...

GENEVA, Apr 17, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The top United Nations human rights watchdog on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution calling on Cuba to accept a visit by a rights investigator but rejected an amendment that would have criticized the country for a series of violations. The 53-nation Human Rights Commission voted by 24 votes to 20 in favor of a resolution, presented by Peru and Uruguay, urging Cuba to accept a visit by a U.N. investigator, French jurist Christine Chanet. There were nine abstentions. Cuba has refused to allow Chanet to visit, claiming such a visit could...

ATHENS, Apr 17, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday urged European leaders to heal the division over the Iraq issue, saying the war has divided the world more than any other issue since the end of the Cold War. Addressing a gathering of current and future European Union (EU) members and neighboring countries including Russia, Annan said: " It is vital that we heal that division now. The world cannot afford a long period of recrimination." Annan, who attended the EU summit in Athens on Wednesday and Thursday to learn at first hand what role...

DHAKA, Apr 17, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Bangladesh wants central role of the United Nations for an interim administration in Iraq for conducting election, reconstruction and medical assistance, Foreign Secretary Shamsher M. Chowdhury said here Thursday. While briefing newsmen, he said Bangladesh is closely watching the outcome of the meeting of EU leaders in Athens. Responding to a question about US threat on Syria, he said " Bangladesh cannot accept the concept of preemptive action any where."

<p>The chief U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq urged the U.S.-led coalition to allow his team back into the country to look for weapons of mass destruction, saying that would increase the credibility of any discoveries, a magazine reported Thursday.</p> <p>Hans Blix, who was in charge of searches for chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles in Iraq, also challenged President Bush's administration to present proof of its allegation that Syria has chemical weapons.</p>

Athens, Apr 17, 2003 (EFE via COMTEX) -- The nations of Europe are insisting that the European Union and the United Nations must play a "primary" and "central" role in helping Iraq reconstruct its economy and political institutions. In a statement issued Thursday at the Athens summit approving and welcoming the 10 new member states that will be joining next year, the European Union "reaffirms its commitment to plat a significant role in the political and economic reconstruction of (Iraq)" Reading out the declaration in the presence of UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan, the current holder of the EU presidency...

Every human being has the God-given right to live in freedom, for freedom is fundamental to realizing a quality life, a life of happiness free from the fear of persecution and oppression. Many liberals, however, refuse to acknowledge this basic human tenet: the tenet that all people are equal and deserve to live in freedom. The quality of life enjoyed by a free people is incomparably better than that of a life bound by subjugation. The people of Iraq are on the path to freedom, thanks to the Allied Coalition. But Iraq is not the only country where tyranny and...

The United States gives out $13.3 billion tax dollars in direct Foreign Aid annually. The United States is above and beyond the single most generous benefactor of the United Nations, donating $2.4 billion dollars of YOUR money, to primarily third-world dictators. This amount is 25% of the United Nations budget. In addition, the United States also gives another $1.4 billion tax dollars to United Nations' programs and agencies. The American taxpayers fund more for the United Nations than ALL of the other 177 member nations COMBINED. What most Americans do not realize is that the vast majority of the recipients...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) Apr 16, 2003 Syria introduced a draft resolution in the UN Security Council Wednesday that would make the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). "We believe such a draft resolution is a very important factor for the peace process and security in the Middle East," Mikahil Wehbe, Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters. He said Israel was the only state in the region not to have signed the body of treaties and conventions covering WMDs in the Middle East. The United States accused Syria late last week of carrying out...

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, deploring "catastrophic losses to Iraq's cultural heritage," urged coalition forces Tuesday to stop Iraqis from further pillaging and called on neighboring countries and international bodies to prevent trafficking in artifacts stolen from archeological, cultural and religious institutions. His comments were made in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York by a spokeswoman, Hua Jiang, as Annan was arriving in Athens for the European Conference to hold high-level talks on the latest developments in Iraq and as U.N. agencies reported incremental inroads into providing relief in the battle-scarred nation. "The secretary-general deplores...

Six hundred journalists embedded with the coalition forces have helped to ensure that the first casualty of the war is not truth. The first casualty of the coalition's success must be the notion that the United Nations is the basis for a new world order. The U.N. not only failed but tried to prevent America and Britain from acting against the Iraqi threat. The United Nations proved effective 12 years ago in Desert Storm, but since then the whole concept of collective action has been eroded. The U.N. was unable to implement any of the 17 resolutions of the Security...

ATHENS, April 14 (AFP) - Greek Defence Minister Yiannos Papantoniou, whose country holds the EU presidency, said in a televised interview on Monday that a new wave of US arrogance was the "principal danger" after the Iraq war. The risk of Iraq becoming a hotbed for terrorism apart, Papantoniou said the region was threatened by a fresh wave of US arrogance. "This victory... of the United States could lead to a new wave of arrogance or arrogant behaviour with new unilateral interventions," Papantoniou said in an interview with Greece's second-biggest commercial television channel. "That's the principal danger because if there...