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Gaddafi blasts big powers in first ever UN speech
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in his first ever address to the United Nations, on Wednesday accused the veto-wielding powers of the Security Council of betraying the principles of the UN charter.
- Agencies
- Published: 19:48 September 23, 2009
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi addresses the 64thUnited Nations General Assembly at the UN headquartersin New York on Wednesday.
United Nations: In his first UN appearance, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi issued a slashing attack on the Security Council and chastised the world body on Wednesday for failing to prevent some 65 wars since the UN was founded in 1945.
Gaddafi called for reform of the council - abolishing the veto power of the five permanent members - or expanding the body with additional member states to make it more representative.
"It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the "terror council," he said.
The veto-wielding Security Council members - the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia - treat smaller countries as "second class, despised" nations, Gaddafi said.
"Now, brothers, there is no respect for the United Nations, no regard for the General Assembly," Gaddafi said.
His speech followed President Barack Obama's first General Assembly address, but not before a recess of some 15 minutes was called by the president of the General Assembly so diplomats could take new seats.
Gaddafi , introduced as the "king of kings" by his countryman and assembly president Ali Treki, remained in his seat for long after the introduction.
The US Mission was represented at a low level by a note-taker and an African expert. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and US Ambassador Susan Rice departed before Gaddafi took the podium.
After waiting for the room to settle, Gaddafi rose, swept his robe over him and strode to the stage, using the handrail on his way up. He wore a shiny black pin in the shape of Africa over his heart, on his brown and tan Bedouin robes.
Gaddafi laid the yellow folder in front of him and opened some of the handwritten pages as he received scattered applause. Israel's UN delegation walked out on Gaddafi.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stayed on, but left before the speech ended.
The chamber was half-empty as Gaddafi gave his first speech and held a copy of the UN Charter in his hands, each with a large, shiny ring. For a moment, it seemed he lost his place in his speech while he sorted through the pages of his yellow folder.
He appeared to be speaking without a text, looking at a set of notes before him on handwritten pages. He was not reading from the TelePrompTer.
Gaddafi welcomed Obama as the leader of the host nation for UN Headquarters, and hailed Obama's maiden UN General Assembly speech.
But he said Obama's election as the first African-American US president was a historical moment in world history: "Obama is a glimpse in the dark for the next four or eight years, and I'm afraid we may go back to square one after he steps down", Gadhafi said.
When he suggested Obama should stay on as US leader indefinitely there was scattered applause. He railed against the "inequality" of UN member states, quoting from a copy of the UN Charter that calls for equality of nations, and then noting that five veto-wielding nations on the Security Council can block actions contrary to their interests.
Speaking rapid-fire Arabic, Gaddafi said the use of military power was contrary to the spirit of the UN, unless such actions are sanctioned by the United Nations.
Since the world body was founded in 1945, Gaddafi said it had failed to prevent or intervene in dozens of wars around the world.
"But 65 aggressive wars took place without any collective action by the United Nations to prevent them, Gaddafi said.
In his speech, Gaddafi cited UN chapter and verse in questioning the UN's lack of action to halt dozens of wars - elaborating at length on many of them individually.
Ninety minutes into Gaddafi's speech, the exhausted English-language interpreter was relieved by another simultaneous translator.
Fatigue may have been endemic. Well into Gaddafi's rambling speech, more than half the General Assembly seats were empty as the lunch hour arrived. Delegates had begun walking out after Gaddafi's reference to the Security Council as the "terror council."
The Libyan leader's speech ran 1 hour and 36 minutes, no threat to the record set by Cuban leader Fidel Casto in 1960, at 4 1/2 hours. Speakers are supposed to limit themselves to 15 minutes.
Gaddafi's exhaustion may have been complicated by his uncertain sleeping arrangements. He apparently intended to stay in his Bedouin tent in the suburban Westchester town of Bedford on property leased from Donald Trump, but ended up staying at the Libyan UN Mission in Manhattan instead.
Gaddafi will likely face protests over Scotland's recent release of Libyan Abdel Baset Al Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270 people.
Gaddafi had wanted to pitch a tent at Libya's five-acre estate in Englewood, New Jersey, and live and entertain there during the UN assembly. But local opposition turned him away.
Later, the Libyan government asked to use Manhattan's Central Park for a tent, but the request was denied.
Gaddafi said that if the UN was moved out of New York, "You will thank me for not having to travel for 20 hours to this place."
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