Monday, January 19, 2004

Halliday: UN return to Iraq 'Terrible Mistake': "Former U.N. official Denis Halliday said it would be a 'terrible mistake' for the United Nations to return to occupied Iraq, adding the organization should be restructured for the sake of world peace and justice. 'The U.N. should not be in Iraq lest it would give legal respectability to the invasion and occupation of the oil-rich Arab country, or further promote the impression that it has collaborated against the Iraqi people,' Halliday [said]"

"Halliday, a former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, believed the situation is precarious for the step, asserting that ordinary Iraqis feel resentful of – and betrayed by - the United Nations. "They no longer see the U.N. as a friendly organization. It is a deadly one through their eyes, as they had suffered under the totally bankrupt – if not illegal and immoral - concept of sanctions," he said. "It had allowed occupation of an independent sovereign country, and Secretary General Kofi Annan did not criticize the U.S. and Britain for their war ambitions sufficiently, Iraqis believe," said the former U.N. envoy."

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