Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Does the UN have a secret plan already drawn up for post-Saddam Iraq?

The London Times said the plan was produced over the past month, as U.N. officials discussed Saddam's compliance with the world body's demand that he destroy his weapons of mass destruction, and as U.S. and British forces amassed in the Persian Gulf for a possible war if he fails to do so.

Asked about the report, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told The Associated Press: "We do not comment on leaked documents."

The Times, which said it had obtained a copy of the 60-page plan, quoted from the text in the story. The newspaper said the plan was ordered by Louise Frechette, the Canadian deputy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), and drawn up by a six-member group at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The paper said the plan envisages the United Nations stepping in about three months after a successful war against Iraq and steering the country toward self-government.

The Times said the plan resists British pressure to set up a full-scale U.N. administration. The report also says the United Nations should avoid taking direct control of Iraqi oil or staging elections under U.S. military occupation.

Instead, the plan proposes the creation of a U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq to help establish a new government, and recommends that the United Nations immediately appoint a senior official to coordinate its strategy, the Times said.

"Full Iraqi ownership is the desired end-state whereby a heavy U.N. involvement is unnecessary," the paper quotes the plan as saying. "The people of Iraq rather than the international community should determine national government structures, a legal framework and governance arrangements."

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