Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has called on the international community to reassert the United Nations role as the world’s only legal and legitimate authority for world peace and security.
Speaking during debate on her budget vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday, she said the days ahead were ”going to be very trying for the international community”.
”We have to re-establish the unity of the international community and the centrality of the UN in dealing with the aftermath of the war (in Iraq).
”Some would want us to choose a path where the world is premised on the law of survival of the fittest, which departs from the very essence and founding principles of the United Nations.”
The UN’s founders wanted a world of peace and security, solidarity, dignity and equality; a world of tolerance and good neighbourliness, she said.
”They wanted us to build a world based on the centrality of multilateralism respected by all. It makes international governance predictable.”
”Those who want us to depart from the principles of the charter want us to believe that the powerful, the rich and the technologically advanced should rule the world using their economic and military might.
”They want us to build a world where the rich and powerful can impose their will on the poor and weak. They want us to build a world where the powerful and the rich can change regimes at will.
”A world where the lives of the innocent and weak are not protected. A world of the survival of the fittest. This will lead to a new world order outside the framework of the UN,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
The multilateral system of global governance should remain the only response to all challenges facing humanity today.
”We must have common rules, shared and applied equally by all, without fear or favour.
”We saw the worst forms of terrorism in Kenya, Tanzania, on September 11, and in Bali. Again we have to continue to work together, through the United Nations, to rid the world of terrorism. We can only succeed if we do this collectively and comprehensively.
”We must be encouraged… by the peoples of the world who have expressed their opposition to war and in solidarity with the ordinary people of Iraq, not because of their support for the regime, but for their love for peace and their understanding of the pain, suffering and destruction that war brings.”
The international community, through the UN, should do something to minimise the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, Dlamini-Zuma said. – Sapa