MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 000562 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER LONDON FOR GURNEYNS PARIS FOR NEARY NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPAO KMDR ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAQ; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "End of the road for U.N. system" the pro-government daily "The Daily Mirror" used its March 19 editorial to accuse the United States and Britain of usurping United Nations authority over the Iraq crisis. ".the U.N. system will never be the same again after the U.S.A. and Britain openly disregarded not only the majority of the U.N. Security Council members, but the voices of all those people who demonstrated against war in their millions all over the world," the editorial said. Excerpts: ¶2. ". . .The past one month has clearly shown the world how the power of the U.N. has been eroded. . . It is sad that, after so much hard work of inspections and weapons destruction, the U.N. weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix were not given a chance to complete their work. There was so much hope that Blix and his team were going to accomplish the disarmament of Iraq without a single shot being fired. Now, it appears as if the United States President was using the U.N. inspectors to point out whatever weapons Iraq possesses, and neutralize them to allow American forces to invade Iraq with minimum resistance. It is now clear that the U.S. President was never really serious about U.N. diplomacy. It is also ironic that in his war speech, Bush asks the U.N. to continue with its work and provide humanitarian assistance to Iraq. True, some U.N. agencies will not stand by and leave Iraqis to die after the expected bombardment by American and British forces. But the U.N. system will never be the same again after the U.S.A. and Britain openly disregarded not only the majority of the U.N. Security Council members, but the voices of all those people who demonstrated against war in their millions all over the world. . . ." SULLIVAN