December 12, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 7, 1423

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday rejected charges that the United Nations had become Washington’s puppet after allowing the US to whisk away the 12,000 page Iraqi weapons report which was meant for UN weapons inspectors.

In an interview with BBC World Service which was released to the press here, Annan noted that Security Council members had criticised the United States for breaking ranks and grabbing Iraq’s report.

“The consensus of the group was that in substance perhaps the decision was fine, but the approach, and the style and the form was wrong because the Council had decided last Friday that nobody would get it,” he told an invited audience in New York.

“It was unfortunate and I hope it is not going to be repeated,” Annan said of the way the US had circumvented the UN decision.

“But I should also say that for those who maintain that the UN is being pushed around by the United States, I will remind them to look back to the eight-week period when we were discussing this issue and Washington was quite frustrated that things were not moving fast enough.”

In a direct appeal to the people of Iraq over the British Broadcasting Corporation’s world network Annan called on Baghdad to fully disarm in order to avoid war.

Annan said to “you who are listening in Iraq, under the threat of new hostilities if your government complies fully with its obligations under Security Council resolutions,” there will be no war.

“It is essential, if Iraq is to be put back on the path to peace and prosperity, that this work of disarmament be done thoroughly and completely,” the secretary-general said. “You cannot hope to see the sanctions lifted so long as your government retains weapons of mass destruction. I would be deceiving you if I were to suggest otherwise.”

Annan said: “When I think of victims of conflict today, I think first of my fellow Africans.”

He voiced “anger and outrage at the suffering of our continent’s people, and the plunder of its natural resources, at a time when we also have to face the onslaught of famine and HIV/AIDS.”