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IRAQ: British Minister Quits over U.S. Role
By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, May 12 (IPS) - Simmering tensions over Iraq within the British
government boiled over Monday with the resignation of Clare Short,
Secretary for the Department for International Development.
Short has been asking for the British government to support a central
role for the United Nations (UN) in the rebuilding of Iraq. Prime
Minister Tony Blair has instead been backing the U.S. government's moves
to stay in sole charge of Iraq for the foreseeable future.
Short, who had threatened to resign during the build-up to the war
was persuaded to stay on after she was promised that the British
government would support a central role for the UN, and that she would
have a strong role to play in the rebuilding process on behalf of the
British government. The government has not kept its promises, she said.
"As you know, I thought the run-up to the conflict in Iraq was
mishandled, but I agreed to stay in the government to help support the
reconstruction effort for the people of Iraq," Short said in a
resignation letter released by her office. "I am afraid that the
assurances you gave me about the need for a UN mandate to establish a
legitimate Iraqi government have been breached."
Short said further: "The Security Council resolution that you and
Jack (British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw) have so secretly negotiated,
contradicts the assurances I have given in the House of Commons and
elsewhere about the legal authority of the occupying powers, and the
need for a UN-led process to establish a legitimate Iraqi government.
This makes my position impossible. I am sad and sorry it has ended like
this."
Foreign Office minister Baroness Amos, also the government's
spokeswoman on international development in the House of Lords, replaces
Short.
But there is widespread unease among development agencies over
British government support to the U.S. rather than to a UN-led
administration in Iraq.
"It has been clear to many of us working in Iraq that the UN has a
vital role to play," Will Day, chairman of the non-governmental Care
International told IPS. "Our workers in Iraq tell us that the situation
is crying out for a global legitimacy that only the UN can provide. Our
staff cannot do any planning because of the insecurity. They are used to
working in difficult situations, but this is chaotic and dangerous."
Day said that it had been Clare Short's position, as it was that of
Care International that the UN has to be a "vital and fundamental" part
of the solution. "Britain as a member of the UN Security Council must
try to use its influence to achieve that," he said.
Several development agencies supported Short's insistence on
reconstruction of Iraq under a UN administration. "Clare Short was right
to say that the UN should be involved in Iraq," Jessica Woodroffe, head
of policy at ActionAid, a leading British development NGO told IPS.
"The UN must play a key role. Only they can ensure that local people
are central to reconstruction and that U.S. companies do not dominate
the rebuilding process."
Furthermore, she said, "the UN is the only body with international
legitimacy for weapons inspection."
The resignation of Short has meant the loss of a voice in the cabinet
that was speaking up for a UN role, but has also meant the loss of an
influential leader who has championed development causes.
"Clare Short's weaknesses were her strengths," Woodroffe said. "She
took no prisoners. One in three people don't know where their next meal
is coming from. Clare cared about that and continually reminded her
colleagues that the needs of poor people must be at the centre of
debates on aid."
She said that Baroness Amos who replaces her has excellent
credentials for the job. But she pointed out that Baroness Amos had been
appointed to the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament, and not
been elected to the powerful House of Commons.
"Tony Blair must pledge that choosing someone from the Lords, rather
than an MP, does not reflect a downgrading of commitment to the needs of
poor people," she said.
Development groups point out that Short was instrumental in having
the aid budget raised to 0.4 per cent of the GNI (Gross national
Income). That is still short of the 0.7 per cent recommended by the UN,
but it represented a significant advance.
Short also supported moves to untie aid from profits for domestic
companies. That initiative won her many enemies among governments and
industry at home and abroad. It led her into a constant tussle with
influential players in the European Union (EU), particularly with the
French government.
"Clare Short has been a high profile, passionate and powerful
champion for development issues in the Cabinet, with the British public
and on the international stage," Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns
and Communications, Oxfam said in a statement following the resignation.
Despite their group's differences with Short, he said that "with her
leadership, the aid budget has grown substantially and the UK has played
a key role in lobbying for increased debt relief and improved terms of
trade for developing countries."
He said the government should not allow the resignation of Clare
Short to "derail efforts to overcome poverty, and must ensure that the
role of Secretary of State stays at heart of cabinet.'"
But not all were agreed that Clare Short had done everything right
for development. There has been particular concern at the separation of
environmental issues from development issues.
"The Department for International Development has not always
understood the relationship between environmental and development
issues," Ian Willmore from Friends of the Earth told IPS.
"I'm not sure Clare Short was always very helpful in promoting that.
She said at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,
for instance that this was a development summit, and not an environment
summit."
Willmore said that the picture was not entirely bad "because some of
the work of the department was better than the rhetoric." But he said "I
hope the incoming Secretary of State will try to move issues about
environmental protection and sustainable development, and development
and aid together again." (END/2003)
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