UN Secretary General Kofi Annan took a fresh jab at US President George W. Bush yesterday, in a clear sign that world opinion was still far from making peace with the war in Iraq.
Annan opened this year's annual debate of world leaders at the UN by criticizing Bush's plan to deliver democracy to Iraq through force in a pointed speech aimed at underlining the importance of the rule of law.
"Those who seek to bestow legitimacy must themselves embody it, and those who invoke international law must themselves submit to it," Annan said, according to his prepared remarks.
"In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood while relief workers, journalists and other non-combatants are taken hostage and put to death in the most barbarous fashion," he said.
"At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused," he said, drawing a parallel between the Iraq bloodshed and the prisoner scandal in a way destined to irk Bush, who was to due to speak after Annan.
Annan has labored for a year to heal the deep divisions over the war that brought down former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and his wide-ranging address referred to the catastrophe in Sudan, the ongoing Middle East conflict and Russia's hostage tragedy.
But the UN chief, who just last week called the war "illegal," also dropped repeated hints about what he has called Bush's unilateral decision to invade Iraq against the grain of international opinion.
"It is the law, including Security Council resolutions, which offers the best foundation for resolving prolonged conflicts -- in the Middle East, in Iraq and around the world," he said.
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