[lit-ideas] For your attention
- From: omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 05:44:09 +0000 (UTC)
Omar spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see it.
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Note from Omar:
The UN secretary general is commenting on an internal election in a contry -
rather remarkable.
O.K.
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To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Kofi Annan says Aznar author of his own defeat
Support for war and blaming Eta caused loss of election, says UN leader as
PM-elect calls on Bush to hand over control
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Wednesday March 17 2004
The Guardian
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said yesterday that the outgoing Spanish
prime minister, José María Aznar, whose party was defeated in
Sunday's general election, had paid for backing the Iraq war and for blaming
last week's attacks on the armed Basque separatist group Eta.
His comments came after Spain was forced to explain to the UN why, within hours
of the attacks and with no author identified, it pushed through the security
council a motion blaming Eta.
"I think there is a lesson here for everybody, including the council members,"
Mr Annan said. "We need international co-operation ... to work together, share
information, intelligence, work diplomatically and politically to contain
terrorism," he added in comments likely to please prime minister-elect
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who wants control of foreign troops in
Iraq handed to the UN.
Spain has written to security council members claiming that when the motion was
passed the government "was under the firm conviction that the terrorist group
Eta was behind the terrible attacks".
Mr Zapatero yesterday reiterated his challenge to George Bush to hand control
of Iraq to the UN or see Spanish troops withdrawn.
"I will listen to Mr Bush but my position is very clear and very firm," he
said. "The occupation is a fiasco. Combating terrorism with bombs ... with
Tomahawk missiles isn't the way to defeat terrorism. Terrorism is fought by the
state of law. That's what I think Europe and the international community have
to debate."
There were signs yesterday that, following his Spanish Socialist party's
victory on Sunday, Mr Zapatero's message on Iraq was getting through and the UN
would have a larger role.
The Iraqi Governing Council finally dropped its opposition and invited a UN
team to Baghdad to advise on an interim government and elections.
Washington also said it may seek a new UN resolution that could help persuade
Mr Zapatero not to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops. But a campaign against Mr
Zapatero and Spanish voters by Bush allies in Washington saw them labelled
"appeasers".
Mr Bush urged Spain and other allies in Iraq yesterday not to cave in to
al-Qaida pressure by withdrawing troops. "It's essential that we remain
side-by-side with the Iraqi people," he said.
Both the Aznar government's attempts to turn attention away from the
possibility of an al-Qaida strike and its support for the Iraq war were among
the reasons voters rejected them, Mr Annan said.
A growing sense of unease over the behaviour of the Aznar government has begun
to emerge, with German police accusing it of handing them false information on
the bombings, according to reports.
Fractures, meanwhile have reportedly appeared in Mr Aznar's People's party as
he and his successor, Mariano Rajoy, were blamed for throwing away the election
by mishandling the bombings.
Opinion was building that Mr Rajoy should be replaced by Alberto
Ruiz-Gallardón, the younger and more liberal mayor of Madrid, according to
the newspaper El Periódico.
With the Spanish system for creating a new government liable to last up to 40
days, Mr Zapatero's Socialist party is demanding that the outgoing government
coordinate all policies during the transition period, including foreign policy.
First on the list was the sensitive subject of how to handle a troop rotation
in Iraq next month.
"The changeover of troops must be consulted with us. The way of doing it, the
conditions under which it is done, should be discussed and debated with the
future government," Jesús Caldera, the party's official spokesman and a
probable future minister told El País yesterday.
Mr Caldera insisted that major decisions on foreign policy, where Mr Zapatero
has already pledged to ditch the Aznar government's pro-Bush stance for an
alliance with France and Germany, should be taken by the Socialists.
Mr Zapatero pledged yesterday that Eta would remain a government priority.
He said he planned to bring Spain's national police and Civil Guard under a
single director-general to help remedy what he saw as Spain's "deficient
security model".
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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