Goff questions Iraq elections and effectiveness of UN

12.00pm

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff believes it will be very difficult to establish the level of stability and security in Iraq necessary for elections to be held in January.

Mr Goff, attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, said today many member countries were worried about the situation in Iraq and whether a meaningful election process could take place.

He also said the United Nations needed to be reformed to ensure its ongoing relevance and effectiveness.

Permanent membership of the UN Security Council reflected the power structure of the world as it was in 1945, ignoring developments of the past 59 years, Mr Goff told the UN General Assembly today.

"The violence and the acts of terrorism that are occurring in Iraq at present make it unlikely that anybody is going to be able to do the work on the ground to make it happen," he said on National Radio.

"Many people here are concerned that in current conditions of instability and insecurity, it is going to be very hard for a meaningful election process to take place."

Mr Goff said that unless greater security was provided, it would be very difficult to achieve an election turnout that could be deemed representative of the view of the Iraqi people.

Mr Goff said there was strong sympathy among UN member states for Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's call for international support, but he did not think that would translate into security personnel on the ground.

"Much of the anger of the Iraqi people is directed at the US, and not the terrorists, because they feel the US is responsible for the situation they're in," he said.

"We have to ask ourselves how we can change that, so that the people sent there are regarded as being there to help. That's the dilemma many countries find themselves in."

Mr Goff reiterated Prime Minister Helen Clark's comments on Monday, when she said the Government would consider any UN request for military headquarters staff but there were no plans to replace the army engineers due to return later this month.

"We have no plans to put peacekeeping forces into Iraq. The focus of our energies in this region will continue to be Afghanistan," he said.

Speaking about the role of the UN, Mr Goff added: "If the UN approached us to help with military liaison officers (in Iraq)... that is the sort of request New Zealand may respond to.

"It is with shame that we recall the horror of genocide in Rwanda in which 800,000 people die and the massacre at Srebrenica, where over 7000 were murdered in cold blood while the world stood by.

"A similar catastrophe is occurring in Darfur, where the World Health Organisation estimates that 10,000 people a month are dying or being killed."

UN member states must unite to stop the tragedy, Mr Goff said.

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Iraq