Hassan attacks unilateralism in Iraq war
Hassan attacks unilateralism in Iraq war
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda launched a harsh
attack on Monday against unilateralism on the part of the United
States in the Iraq war, saying it had destabilized the world and
failed to address any global security issues.
Confronting the United States' claim that it was a "just war"
to end terrorism and eliminate weapons of mass destruction that
could threaten the world, Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hassan Wirayuda said those threats have remained and found new
justification.
"The situation in Iraq today shows that smart bombs and air
strikes cannot turn the tide in the war against terrorism,"
Hassan said when addressing a regional security conference here.
"Terrorists have no fixed addresses that can be obliterated
once and for all with surgically precise military strikes," he
said.
Hassan further said that civilian casualties and the deaths of
combatants in any military operation would create an emotional
fallout.
"They create martyrs and make it so much easier for the
terrorists to gather new recruits," he said.
The United States and its close allies invaded Iraq in March
to destroy weapons of mass destruction believed to have been
produced by president Saddam Hussein. Up until now, however, they
have found no evidence proving the existence of such weapons.
The unilateralism has also angered some Muslim countries
around the globe, who believe the war against terrorism as
directed at Islam and Muslims.
Citing the fact that no weapons of mass destruction had been
found in Iraq, Hassan said: "An entire country has been leveled
to the ground for no good reason."
"The keen sense of grievance has become even more pervasive
all over the Muslim world. That can only be a setback in terms of
global security," he remarked.
Indonesia has been a staunch critic of the U.S.-led strikes
against Iraq aimed at ousting Saddam Hussein's regime and
eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
Just hours after allied forces started pounding Iraq,
President Megawati Soekarnoputri strongly deplored the attack
that had sidelined the United Nations and undermined the
sovereignty of another country.
Indonesia has also criticized Washington for its failure to
ensure security in Iraq, as casualties grew after the war was
declared over in May.
Hassan further said that the ongoing sporadic gunfights and
suicide bombings in Iraq showed that there were powers that
remained strong against the U.S. occupation.
He said that the ongoing conflicts may incite civil war among
Iraqis and at the end pose threats to the Middle East region.
In the regional conference organized by the Council for
Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), Hassan said the
war proved that not all security problems in the world could be
addressed with the use of military power.
Awesome firepower, he said, had been unable to obliterate
stubborn resistance or remove the threat to global security which
the occupation forces sought.
He said that the war against terrorism was a struggle for the
hearts and minds of the population. "That struggle calls for wise
policies, not smart bombs," he added.
The minister said that the world's basic problem today was
alienation that made individuals, groups or nations go their own
way.
"The antidote is of course the affirmation, either we are
ruined together or we achieve common salvation. That salvation is
what the United Nations has been all about," he stressed.