Indonesia should put UN back in line, analyst says

Indonesia should put UN back in line, analyst says

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia and other Asian countries should make use of their
resources to ensure world issues are decided by the United
Nations, not military might, analyst says.

Karl Kaiser, director of the Research Institute of the German
Society for Foreign Affairs, said Asian countries could make the
UN more relevant in the coming years.

"This can only be done if all parts of the world and of course
Asia, where most people in the world live, play an active role.

"And Indonesian diplomacy can make a considerable contribution
towards it," he said.

Kaiser was speaking to reporters after a discussion on the new
world order after the Iraq war, organized by the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

He said the world would like to see reforms taking place
within the UN, but even without the reforms, the world body,
especially its Security Council, could be used to prevent
unilateralism in resolving problems.

"I must admit that there could be special circumstances
involving imminent danger that is impossible to get a quick
resolution, like the use of weapons of mass destruction," he
said.

"But as a rule, like with Iraq, when we have plenty of time
and no imminent danger, we should explore all possibilities
within the UN system," he said, apparently alluding to the United
States's unilateral attack and invasion of Iraq.

He expressed hope that the United States would get back on
track to help build a strong UN.

Kaiser claimed that the U.S. population had supported the
presence of a strong UN.

Early this year, the U.S. and its allies declared war on Iraq
without a mandate from the UN, claiming the attack was necessary
to liberate Iraqi people from a cruel regime and destroy weapons
of mass destruction.

They claimed they believed that Iraq was able to launch
weapons of mass destruction in just 45 minutes. No such weapons
have been found.

Kaiser said the Iraq war was a sign that the U.S. military,
which was far superior to any other force, had its own
justification to start a war.

"In the Iraq case, there should be a new mandate from the UN
to establish a peace keeping mission there," he said.

"In the future, we should return to the UN system so that
unilateralism can be stopped."

He said the U.S. role in the new world order would be still
dominant, but the dominance would only exist in the military
field.

"We must live with that. However, the U.S. will also depend on
other countries in dealing with terrorism ...," he said.

For example, in the world fight against terrorism, 90 percent
of the efforts involved cooperation among police, intelligence
and then bureaucracy instead of the military, Kaiser said.

Kaiser also said that European and Asian countries would have
more power than they were aware of in the increasingly
interdependent world.