Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-03-Speech-3-133"
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"en.20030903.6.3-133"2
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"Mr President, Liberal Democrats in this House join the tributes which have been paid to Sergio Vieira de Mello and all the other victims of the callous attacks on the United Nations in Baghdad.
The unstable and violent situation in Iraq shows that while a coalition of the willing may be able to win a military conflict, winning the peace without the legitimacy of the United Nations is a much more difficult matter.
My Group, therefore, welcomes the tentative moves towards a UN resolution which would place the coalition forces in Iraq within a multilateral framework. Liberals have always favoured a multilateral resolution to the problems posed by Iraq, and if the coalition is belatedly coming round to that view, then it is better late than never.
The so-called 'coalition of the willing' was a curiously outdated 19th century balance of power concept, which always carried with it the danger of leaving at least one nation feeling aggrieved. What we seek is a multilateral, rules-based framework for crisis management within which there is space for the hurts of nations to heal. There is no reason why the United States should not retain command of a multinational UN force in Iraq, but it must be based on a UN resolution and give the UN and contributing nations the central role in decision-making.
Failure thus far to find weapons of mass destruction is leading to searching questions at hearings in London, Washington and Canberra and raising doubts about the legitimacy of the enterprise. The way to give the international presence in Iraq a sense of legitimacy and regain the trust of the Iraqi people is to mount a UN-backed drive to restore security, to improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis and to move towards government by popular mandate.
The swearing-in of Iraq's first post-Saddam cabinet today is a tremendous step forward in that respect. We hope that the timetable for elections by the end of next year can be maintained.
My Group welcomes the Commission's initiative in convening a preparatory meeting today in Brussels for the important conference of international donors next month in Madrid."@en1
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