Military

DATE=2/19/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / FUTURE (L-O)

NUMBER=2-313280

BYLINE=JENNY FALCON

DATELINE=NEW YORK

INTERNET=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A high-level U-N official is calling for bold changes in the way the international organization confronts challenges, such as terrorism, weapons proliferation, and peace-building. Correspondent Jenny Falcon has more from V-O-A's New York Bureau.

TEXT: Late last year, Secretary General Kofi Annan announced a panel to identify changes to encourage collective international responses to challenging issues. Implicit in the panel's mission is a response to concerns about unilateral actions, such as the U-S-led war in Iraq.

The panel is not expected to submit its findings until the next United Nations General Assembly. But U-N Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast is hoping for far-reaching recommendations to allow earlier intervention during a new age of problems, ranging from terrorism to the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

/// FIRST PRENDERGAST ACT ///

I think we need to re-think intervention and have a broader and less threatening definition of it, as well as reserving the right, if things go badly on, to take collective action to make them right. If you have earlier intervention, earlier prevention, then the idea is that with luck and in most cases and in almost all cases, you should not have to get to the point where really radical action is contemplated and authorized by the Security Council.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Prendergast, a former British ambassador, said Afghanistan is one case that illustrates the need for a policy to deal with failed states, which can become incubators of terrorist organizations.

But he pointed out that it is up to the member states to implement future changes to give the Security Council a greater role in dealing with threats.

/// PRENDERGAST ///

But the question is, does the political will exist, would you prefer to have unilateral action or action by ad hoc coalitions, or would you prefer to have collective action? And if we are going to have collective action, self-evidently, people are not going to wait until the storm breaks, they are going to have to seek to take action at an earlier stage.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Prendergast made his remarks at the private Carnegie Council in New York. (SIGNED)

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