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POLITICS:
Chávez Issues
Challenge for a More Democratic
U.N.
Alejandro
Kirk - IPS/TerraViva*
UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) -
Venezuela's President Hugo
Chávez criticised the United
Nations General Assembly, the
North and the United States, and
denounced the U.N. World
Summit's outcome document as
"unlawful".
But many of the national leaders
who endorsed the document Friday
were likely among those who
applauded Thursday when Chávez
delivered his fiery address
before the gathering of some 170
heads of state and government
for the three-day 2005 World
Summit.
"This is over. This document,
the manner in which it was
conceived, its contents, how
they are eroding the modest
Millennium Goals, all this shows
that at 60, the United Nations
system is suffering from
terminal cancer," Chávez said.
Three times delegates
interrupted Chávez to applaud,
especially when he said that the
document had been imposed by
diktat by the General Assembly
president, Jan Eliesson, the
Swedish ambassador to
Washington. Eliesson, meanwhile,
appeared irritated by the length
of Chávez's speech.
At a press conference later, the
Venezuelan president said that
the United Nations, as it is
now, is of no use and will have
to be rebuilt from scratch. The
document, ostensibly approved by
consensus Tuesday, was
negotiated by an "elite" group
of 30 countries and submitted
"five minutes before the session
started", he charged.
Chávez noted that before anyone
could react, there was the sound
of "the dictatorial gavel of the
president of the General
Assembly."
Given the circumstances of its
endorsement, he continued,
Venezuela considers the document
unlawful and will not recognise
it.
To illustrate his contention
that the document was illegal
under U.N. regulations, he read
the text of rule 78/38 of the
General Assembly, which states
that "no proposal shall be
discussed or put to the vote at
any meeting of the General
Assembly unless copies of it
have been circulated to all
delegations not later than the
day preceding the meetings."
"If others do not wish to
complain, well, let them be. But
I am complaining. I have a duty
to complain," Chávez said,
adding that he had support from
millions of people around the
world in his demands for a more
democratic United Nations.
The Latin American leader also
denounced the United States for
denying visas to his doctors and
security officers, who "are
stranded in an airplane 200
kilometres" from the U.N.
Secretariat. He described the
U.S. action of separating him
from his medical and security
personnel as "terrorism" and
went on to brand the United
States a "terrorist state" for
protecting Cuban native Luis
Posada Carriles, accused of
masterminding a 1976 bomb attack
that destroyed a Cuban civilian
airplane with 73 passengers on
board off the coast of Barbados.
In his speech, Chávez noted that
the purpose of the 2005 World
Summit had been "distorted". A
"reform process has been
imposed, leaving aside the most
urgent issue, which is the
adoption of measures to confront
the real problems that hinder
our countries' efforts toward
development", he said.
"Venezuela considers that United
Nations reform cannot be limited
to a simple cosmetic change of
the Security Council, aimed at
ensuring the unipolar hegemony
of developed countries," he
said.
Chávez told journalists that it
was time the world admitted that
it was not moving towards
realising the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), set by
the U.N. members in 2000, but
rather in the opposite
direction. He blamed much of
this trend on the industrialised
North, singling out the United
States and its thirst for oil
for special criticism.
"The world cannot afford the
'American Way of Life'," he
said, "The planet is dying."
(*This story was produced for
the TerraViva Millennium
Development Goals Journal.)
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