PM: We must back UN principles Gaddafi: It's a terror council

Published on Wednesday 23 September 2009 22:00

GORDON Brown distanced himself from Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi last night, mounting a vigorous defence of the United Nations after the Libyan dictator launched a withering attack on the global institution.

Years of trying to bring Libya into the international fold appeared to stall after Col Gaddafi's blistering address accused Britain and the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council of ruling by terror.

The Prime Minister rewrote the opening of his speech – which was delayed by the Libyan leader's 95-minute appearance – to declare support for the UN founding principles.

"I stand here to reaffirm the United Nations Charter, not to tear it up," he said. "I call on every nation here to support its universal principles."

Earlier, in a rambling address to the UN General Assembly in New York, Col Gaddafi ripped open a portion of a copy of the UN Charter and theatrically cast it aside as he lambasted the Security Council.

"It says nations are equal whether they are small or big – are we equal in the permanent seats? No, we are not equal. Do we have the rights of the veto?"

Col Gaddafi continued: "All nations should have an equal footing. For those who have a permanent seat, this is political feudalism. It shouldn't be called the Security Council, it should be called the terror council."

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The Libyan leader's address to the assembly, his first since he came to power 40 years ago, was billed as a further sign of his reintegration into the global community, following Libya's decision to relinquish its nuclear weapons programme.

It could barely have come at a more sensitive time, following the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi last month.

In a speech that managed to touch on subjects as wide-ranging as the assassination of John F Kennedy and the US invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada, Lockerbie was not mentioned.

He slated the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, the US, Russia, China, and France – accusing them of treating other nations as "second class, despised" nations, and accused them of failing to intervene in 65 wars.

In an aside, he said swine flu might have been genetically engineered to help rich nations dominate the developing world. "Perhaps tomorrow we will have fish flu," he said.

At one stage he upbraided the half-empty hall when many delegates left in protest. "Please can I have your attention," he declared. "All of you are tired, having jet lag … You are tired. All of you are asleep."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier walked out before Col Gaddafi took the UN podium. Mr Brown did not attend in protest at the celebrations that marked the return of Megrahi to Tripoli, and Foreign Secretary David Miliband left the chamber shortly before the Libyan leader's speech.

Outside the assembly hall, relatives of those who lost loved ones on Pan Am flight 103 said they were appalled that Col Gaddafi had been allowed to travel to the US and deliver a speech to the UN.

Kathy Tedeschi, who lost her husband, Bill Daniels, in the bombing travelled from South Carolina to attend the demonstration. "I am horrified that Gaddafi is here and he is welcomed as a member of the UN and able to speak. He showed no compassion to me, my husband or the 269 other people," she said, referring to those who died in the Lockerbie bombing.

Earlier in the day, US President Barack Obama had called for nations to come together to tackle "global challenges", promising a new era of co-operation: "We have sought in word and deed a new engagement in the world."

As Col Gaddafi was speaking, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning the reception Megrahi was given in Libya last month and criticising the decision by the Scottish Government to release him.

Senator Charles Schumer said: "The hero's welcome Libya gave to this terrorist truly shocks the conscience and deserves a formal rebuke."

Mr Brown had used an interview with NBC news to insist that there had been no deal between him and the Libyans to release Megrahi. He said: "There was no double-dealing, there was no conspiracy, there was no prior agreement."

While he acknowledged the hurt and suffering of the families of the people killed in the bombing, he stressed Megrahi's release had been purely a matter for the Scottish Government.

"I can give an absolute and unconditional assurance there was no deal for oil, there was no deal for anything else," he said. "This was a decision that the UK Government had no control of because it was made, under the law of our country, by the devolved Scottish administration."

And he denied that the fact that there would be no one-to-one meeting with Mr Obama during his time in the US represented a snub: "I do say that the special relationship is strong, it continues to strengthen."

In his speech at the UN, Mr Brown highlighted what he said were the five main challenges facing the world – the economy, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, poverty and climate change. Echoing Mr Obama's call for a new age of co-operation, Mr Brown called for a "progressive multilateralism" that would create "a truly global society".

Mr Brown confirmed that Britain would play its part in efforts to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament: "If we are serious about the ambition of a nuclear free world we will need statesmanship, not brinkmanship."

The Prime Minister is expected to set out details of his offer to consider cutting Britain's fleet of Trident nuclear-missile carrying submarines from four to three at a special session of the Security Council today.

He said "bold and global action" had prevented last year's financial meltdown from becoming a catastrophe, and called for bold action on climate change.

"If we miss this opportunity to protect our planet, we cannot hope for a second chance some time in the future," he said. "There will be no retrospective global agreement to undo the damage we have caused. This is the moment now to limit and reverse climate change we are inflicting on future generations."

British officials said Mr Brown had no plans to meet Col Gaddafi at today's Security Council meeting, though a handshake would not be refused, adding: "It's a smallish chamber, I don't think if the hand was offered he (Mr Brown) would snub it."

Storm of protests blow away big tent

COLONEL Muammar al-Gaddafi's big tent last night stood empty in upstate New York after his attempt to set up a Bedouin-style reception site was blocked by a local council.

Gaddafi ordered that the sprawling khaki tent be pitched over the weekend, in land rented from tycoon Donald Trump, outside Bedford, 40 miles north of the UN's Manhattan headquarters.

As outrage grew among local residents, planners slapped a stop order on the tent being used, and the Libyan leader seems to have conceded defeat.

Attorney Joel Sachs, representing Bedford, said the town might seek an injunction – if the tent, now empty, had been occupied – which would "have the tent taken down and individuals residing in the tent removed from the property".

The Libyan leader makes a practice of taking his tent with him on his travels, pitching it in Paris two years ago and this summer in a Rome park, and he hoped to use it to host receptions marking the start of his country's chairing of the UN General Assembly.

America, where memories of the Lockerbie bombing are fresh following the recent release of convicted bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, has proved a harder sell.

Requests to set up the tent in New York's Central Park were turned down this summer, and earlier this month a storm of protests deterred attempts to erect it on Libyan-owned land in New Jersey.

TIME TO TRUST

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday warned global leaders they "no longer have the luxury of indulging our differences".

The president sought to draw a line under "reflexive anti-Americanism", which he said had mushroomed in the Bush era, insisting that the world now shared a "common future".

In his maiden speech to the United Nations' general assembly, Mr Obama said that America should no longer be viewed with "scepticism and mistrust".