Bush Gives Saddam 48 Hours: UN Withdraws from Iraq

NEW YORK, New York, March 17, 2003 (ENS) - Saying it does not mean an end of involvement of the United Nations in the Iraqi situation, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today that he will withdraw UN staff from Iraq following the failure of efforts to achieve united action in the Security Council in removing weapons of mass destruction from the country.

Despite the lack of support from the UN Security Council and his traditional allies, President George W. Bush tonight issued an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, telling him to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face military action. Only Britain, Spain and Australia support the U.S. military threat.

President George W. Bush addresses the nation from the White House. (Photo by Paul Morse courtesy The White House)

Linking Iraq's possession of weapons with the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the President said, "The danger is clear, using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other."

Saying that many Iraqis could hear him via translated broadcasts, President Bush said, "It is too late for Saddam Hussein to remain in power. It is not too late for the Iraqi military to act with honor and protect your country by permitting the peaceful entry of coalition forces to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. Our forces will give Iraqi military units clear instructions on actions they can take to avoid being attacked and destroyed."

Secretary-General Annan said that on Sunday, U.S. authorities had informed him, as well as the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "that it would be prudent not to leave our staff in the region."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan speaks with reporters today at UN Headquarters in New York. (Photo courtesy UN)

Several UN mandates like the humanitarian oil for food program will be suspended. "We can not, for example, handle the Oil for Food when we do not have inspectors to monitor the imports, we do not have oil inspectors who will monitor exports of oil, and we don't have the humanitarian personnel who will monitor the distribution, receipt and distribution of the food supply. So, I have informed the Council of these suspensions," Annan said.

In August 1990, the Security Council imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq following that country's invasion of Kuwait. Concerned about the extended suffering of the civilian population as a result of the sanctions, the Security Council passed a resolution in April 1995 with an "Oil for Food" formula as "a temporary measure to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people."

The first oil under the program was exported in December 1996 and the first shipments of food arrived in March 1997. Currently, 72 percent of Iraqi oil export proceeds fund the humanitarian program.

To date, some $43 billion worth of contracts for humanitarian supplies and equipment have been approved. Supplies and equipment worth almost $26.8 billion have been delivered to Iraq, while another $10.1 billion worth of humanitarian supplies and equipment are in the production and delivery pipeline.

The Oil for Food Programme, as outlined in the latest report of the Secretary-General, has been expanded beyond its initial emphasis on food and medicines. Its scope and level of funding includes infrastructure rehabilitation and covers 24 sectors: food, food handling, health, nutrition, electricity, agriculture and irrigation, education, transport and telecommunications, water and sanitation, housing, settlement rehabilitation of internally displaced persons, mine action, special allocation for especially vulnerable groups, and oil industry spare parts and equipment.

The government of Iraq introduced the following 10 new sectors in June 2002 - construction, industry, labor and social affairs, the Board of Youth and Sports, information, culture, religious affairs, justice, finance, and Central Bank of Iraq.

U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton, California board a 747-400 to leave for an undisclosed destination in the Middle East. (Photo by Senior Airman Jorge Rodriguez courtesy U.S. Air Force)

The World Health Organization states that DU is weakly radioactive, and a radiation dose from it would be about 60 percent of that from purified natural uranium with the same mass.

The United Nations' top human rights official told the Opening of the 59th Session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva today that we are witnessing "an unusual convulsion in world affairs."

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello (Photo courtesy UN)

"There can be no security without the tools each person needs to live and to improve her life. Too many people continue to lack even the basics - water, sustenance, elementary education, health services - of a dignified life," said de Mello.

"We can never cease pursuing freedom from want, that is, the rights to food and to development, among others," he said. "Without them, security will be only a privilege of the powerful, and an endangered privilege at that, because it will be based on the faith that strong borders, mighty deterrence or authoritarian domestic rule bring security.That is a false sense of security, because it is not based on rights."

Annan told reporters in New York that the likelihood of military action in Iraq is "a disappointment and a sad day for everybody."

"War is always a catastrophe," Annan said. "It leads to major human tragedy, lots of people are going to be uprooted, displaced from their homes and nobody wanted that and this is why we had hoped that the Iraqi leadership would have cooperated fully and would have been able to do this without resort to use of force. But the little window that we seem to have seems to be closing very, very fast. I'm not sure at this stage the Council can do anything in the next couple of hours."