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As prepared for delivery...
Building Peace and Understanding:
Challenges the International Community Must Confront
Remarks by Ambassador Michael Klosson
To the Rotary Club of Nicosia - Salamis
February 24, 2003
 Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am very happy to be with you and to have this chance to discuss several important issues, including the war on terrorism and Iraq.
I would like to congratulate you on the 98th anniversary of the founding of the Rotary organization. Rotarians worldwide, I understand, are joining together this February to observe “World Understanding Month”.
Rotarians have much to celebrate. Around the world, Rotary clubs have helped build international understanding for almost a century. And Rotary has the resources to make a big impact. I was truly impressed when I learned that Rotary has more than thirty thousand clubs in over 160 countries that are home to some 1.2 million Rotarians. That’s a lot of people joining together to promote mutual understanding across international borders.
BUILDING INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING
As a diplomat, it is one of my jobs to promote understanding every day among governments, people, and cultures. Rotary clubs like yours also do that, bringing people together to share ideas and experiences, helping each other and serving those in need. Rotary’s motto “Service above Self” describes your organization’s ethos beautifully. I want to salute the work of the Rotary Clubs in advancing the cause of international understanding.
World understanding is an elusive goal. Globalization has brought everyone closer together – shrinking distances between continents, bridging time zones, promoting a universal language on the worldwide web, and putting us almost instantaneously in touch at a fraction of yesterday’s costs. We are more aware, more quickly of what is going on in more places. Yet it’s hard to say there is enough world understanding.
The challenges to world understanding come from many quarters – national policy, cultural differences, media interpretations and even individual experiences. The path to world understanding has to be laid brick by brick through the work of governments, nongovernmental organizations and individuals.
Many times, promoting world understanding means that we must work to change long-held opinions and fight harmful stereotypes. Throughout my life I have found that person-to-person contact has the most profound and lasting impact. When members of other countries or cultures meet each other face-to-face, they discover first-hand what the others are like as individuals and this personal experience changes minds and attitudes.
When I was young, my father, also a diplomat, was assigned to Moscow. That was during the height of the Cold War when world understanding was under severe pressure. We lived in an apartment complex that mixed diplomats and Russians. At first, my siblings, other Embassy children and I were very wary about the Russian children living around us. After all, they were the children of communists! They, no doubt, felt the same way about us – children of capitalists. Over time, however, and despite the language barrier, we started to get to know one another. In fact, we taught the Russian children how to play American baseball in the central playground. They got so good at it that one day, a Russian boy hit a home run through one of the nearby apartment windows. An angry Russian adult came running out. The Russian children vanished in an instant. We Americans were left holding the bag! And we learned some new, but not repeatable Russian words that afternoon.
Although that day’s experience was probably not the best way to build Russian-American friendship, our overall experiences in playing together as individuals helped break through the stereotypes. We learned an important lesson: even if our governments pursued opposite policies, it was possible for individual Russians and Americans to forge friendships. I’m convinced that this kind of interaction, multiplied many thousand fold over the years, laid the foundation for the very productive relationship that now exists between Washington and Moscow.
World understanding also grows from the emergence of common practices and values. International business is often at the forefront of such efforts. In the 1980s and 1990s, business people like you helped to transform China by introducing international business practices and values. Although the experience was by no means uniform, I visited one company in southern China several years ago where workers took quickly to the concept of performance-based pay. In fact, at that company, the workers often resigned before the end of their contracts, returned to their home province and set up their own small-scale enterprises. That’s how free market practices and attitudes most quickly take root. There’s another important lesson there: cultures do matter, but international values can transcend cultures.
Rotary International promotes person-to-person contact. Programs like the “Rotary Friendship Exchange,” “Rotary Youth Exchange” and the “Open World Program” are very exciting because they give people first-hand experience of another culture. I believe that these types of programs can transform the minds and attitudes of people.
American embassies worldwide are also involved in exchanges. Each year approximately 5,000 people from around the world -- including from Cyprus -- travel to the U.S. under the International Visitors Program. This program is run by U.S. Department of State in partnership with non-profit organizations and community-based groups across the country. Each exchange program focuses on a specific topic and enables the visitors to meet and confer with their professional counterparts in the U.S. The itineraries of the programs see the visitors crisscrossing the country to experience the full diversity of people, attitudes, ideas and opinions that make up America. Since many of our International Visitors travel on group exchange projects, not only are the visitors exposed to Americans but also to individuals from other countries, fostering mutual and international understanding.
OUR WORLD TODAY
Today is both a wonderful time and a critical time to be building understanding. We live in a time of promise. Democracy and freedom are on the rise. Free markets are expanding. Enlargement of both NATO and the EU is extending prosperity and security to millions more Europeans. Advances in communication – like the ever widening spread of the internet – mean that ideas can travel quickly around the world and reach even the most remote areas.
Yet, looking around the world, no one can deny that we also face some significant challenges. These challenges are diverse. We are fighting HIV/AIDS, poverty, drought and hunger in many parts of the world. These problems are not new. We have been fighting them for decades.
The world also faces new challenges. Lethal challenges. The terror attacks in New York and Bali, the assassinations in Kuwait and Lebanon, and the recent arrests of terrorist plotters in Britain and across Europe have made it plain that terrorism and its supporters have not yet been defeated.
There has also been an increase in the proliferation of weapons. This presents a danger to us all. Increased proliferation means that weapons of mass destruction can find - and are finding - their way into the hands of rogue countries and even terrorist groups who might use them, either against their own people or against their neighbors.
WAR ON TERRORISM
The war on terrorism is ongoing. Progress has been made: Afghanistan has been liberated from terrorist control, and international efforts to help that country get back on its feet are underway. Worldwide, over three thousand terrorist suspects have been detained in over 100 countries in the past 18 months. Over 165 countries and jurisdictions have blocking orders in force against terrorist entities; almost one hundred and twenty five million dollars worth of terrorist assets have been frozen. But more needs to be done. No country can afford to mount less than an all-out effort.
To be effective, the response must be global and coordinated. Governments must implement UN resolutions and ratify the 12 international conventions; they must strengthen international police work, shut down financial networks that support terrorists, and bolster their domestic capabilities to prevent such incidents.
President Bush unveiled earlier this month our national strategy for combating terrorism. Known as the “4D strategy,” it outlined four lines of attack:
-- Defeat terrorists and their organizations;
-- Deny sponsorship, support and sanctuary to terrorists;
-- Diminish the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit;
-- Defend U.S. citizens and interests at home and abroad.
Ever since September 11, Cyprus has been a valuable partner in the campaign to combat terrorism. Its geographic position and regional links make it an especially important member of the international coalition. We deeply appreciate its level of commitment, just as we look to strengthen that cooperative partnership even further.
IRAQ
The greatest threat facing the world today is the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. If terrorists are prepared to fly commercial aircraft into skyscrapers, just imagine what would happen if they get their hands on weapons of mass destruction.
Today Iraq, because of this nexus and because of its dogged defiance of the international community, presents us all with the most critical challenge. The international community cannot tolerate a regime like Saddam Hussein’s developing weapons of mass destruction.
Some say our concern is driven by oil. Others claim it is based in religion. Still others say imperial designs underlie our policy. None could be further from the truth.
We have made clear that come what may, we believe Iraq’s oil belongs to all Iraqi people and we will respect that. And what’s more: Iraqi production accounts for only 3 percent of world supply, and the United States bought only 5 percent of its oil last year from Iraq.
Regarding the other misplaced theories, the United States has repeatedly defended the rights of Muslims with American lives: in 1991, we helped restore Kuwait to its legitimate government. We defended Bosnians and we led NATO’s intervention in Kosovo later in the decade. We helped liberate Afghanistan from terrorist control, and returned it to legitimate Muslim leaders. For many years, the United States has been the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to its people.
So why Iraq and why now? Our concern is simple. It is straightforward: Saddam Hussein’s regime represents a clear and present danger to the international community, to Iraq’s neighbors and to its own citizens. For twelve years, he has refused to abide by international law, established ties with known terrorist groups and pursued weapons of mass destruction. His actions have defied seventeen UN Security Council resolutions. Our collective security and the credibility of the United Nations are both at stake.
Iraq must come clean and comply immediately. The international community must confront this challenge head-on. Ducking the problem, ignoring the problem will not make it go away.
Last November, the UN Security Council adopted unanimously Resolution 1441. All fifteen members, including the United States, supported that resolution. It laid out a clear approach to the problem. That approach was all about compliance and disarmament, not inspections.
Let me remind you of its elements:
-- First, the resolution found that Iraq was in material breach of its obligations for the past eleven years. In other words, Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs were accepted as fact. Secretary Powell’s February 5 presentation laid out in detail the evidence of Iraq’s deception.
-- Second, the resolution said that Iraq must now comply and disarm. This was its final opportunity. As tests of Iraq’s seriousness, it called on Iraq to declare all its activities within 30 days. What happened? Iraq submitted a declaration that nobody on the Security Council could say was a full, complete and accurate declaration. Resolution 1441 also called on Iraq to cooperate with inspections. What happened? We have not seen the level of cooperation that was expected, anticipated, indeed hoped for. Even UN chief inspector Dr. Blix said that what is required is not more inspectors; what is needed is immediate, active and unconditional compliance.
--Third, the resolution said that if Iraq came into new material breach with a false declaration or unwillingness to cooperate, then the matter had to be referred to the Council for serious consequences.
So here we are. The UN Security Council must enforce the provisions of Resolution 14 41 calling for serious consequences if Iraq does not immediately and fully disarm weapons of mass destruction. Or, the United States is prepared to act with a coalition of the willing. The way to a peaceful resolution to this crisis is straightforward: let Saddam Hussein know that the Security Council and the international community are going to stand united this time and enforce its resolution. He had better disarm or the world will disarm him. If Saddam complies, there will be no war.
What weapons of mass destruction are we talking about? As outlined by Secretary Powell at the UN earlier this month, we are talking about ballistic missiles that exceed a U.N.-mandated range of 150 kilometers; large quantities of anthrax and botulinum toxin; the powerful nerve agent VS; bombs and artillery shells for delivering chemical and biological weapons and – ominously -- efforts to procure uranium from abroad for its nuclear weapons program.
Some people have construed Resolution 1441 as requiring the inspectors first to find a “smoking gun” before the international community acts. As I discussed earlier, that is not what Resolution 1441 says – and remember, all fifteen members of the UN Security Council unanimously approved this Resolution last November. Inspectors were not sent into Iraq to find the weapons of mass destruction the Security Council knew he has. The inspectors were not sent to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Iraq’s job, as Secretary Powell said in a recent interview, is to say, “Here’s the haystack. We’re taking the hay out of the way. There’s the needle. You can verify it is there. And that’s where a needle used to be and we can prove why it isn’t there any longer.”
Countries that decide to disarm voluntarily declare publicly their intention to disarm. They lead inspectors to weapons and production sites, answer questions before they are asked, and urge their citizens to cooperate. That was what South Africa did in 1989 when it decided to dismantle its covert nuclear weapons program: it destroyed its arsenal and gave IAEA inspectors complete access and all the documents they sought. That’s not what Iraq is doing today. Waiting while inspectors continue their weapons hunt through Iraq’s vast “haystack” only benefits Saddam and makes the world an even more dangerous place. The Security Council must act.
Cyprus Settlement
Iraq is a challenge for us all, including Cyprus. At the same time, all Cypriots also have a tremendous opportunity in the period ahead. These are momentous times. As every single conversation I have had with Cypriots since my arrival last summer has made clear, there is no issue nearer and dearer to your hearts than the future of your island, Cyprus. That’s understandable.
I believe that all Cypriots, from one end of the island to the other, have a unique, historic opportunity to resolve the division of the island on terms that are fair and viable. The UN Secretary General will arrive in Nicosia the day after tomorrow following his discussions in Ankara and Athens. His spokesman has indicated he hopes to bring the search for a comprehensive settlement to a decisive conclusion by 28 February, in accordance with his proposal.
I certainly won’t speak for the Secretary General, but I will say the United States strongly backs his initiative. President Bush spoke to Secretary General Annan last Friday about Cyprus. He reaffirmed his support for the Secretary General’s mission and the importance of reaching a Cyprus solution. Our Special Coordinator for Cyprus brought the same message in his weekend visit to Cyprus. We have left no stone unturned in our vigorous support for the Secretary General’s Good Offices Mission. We believe it holds out the opportunity for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to achieve a fair and comprehensive settlement. We urge both sides to seize this unique opportunity. A settlement would enable all Cypriots to benefit from the accession of a reunified Cyprus to the European Union in April, and make a lasting contribution to regional security.
Conclusion
Now I know that all of you are wondering when I am going to talk about last Sunday’s “big news,” the election of Mr. Tassos Papadopoulos as the next President of the Republic of Cyprus. President Bush and I have congratulated him on his election, and, as I said last week when I met with Mr. Papadopoulos, we intend to work with the new President to build on a strong record of bilateral cooperation. Achieving a fair and durable settlement on the basis of the UN plan is the most immediate and pressing of many issues on which the United States and Cyprus work together.
The future of Cyprus is bright. EU membership is just around the corner, bringing larger markets and more opportunities for you, and, with a settlement, your Turkish Cypriot colleagues alike.
As Rotarians you can make a difference in a new Cyprus. As business people you are well placed to take full advantage of the economic opportunities ahead. As members of a service organization, committed to building understanding across cultures, you can help strengthen Cyprus’ ties to the EU and her efforts to harmonize commercial and other procedures and regulations with EU requirements. A Cyprus solution and entry of the island into the EU as a unified entity will free all Cypriots to realize their full potential -- their full economic potential and their full international potential to be a beacon of stability in a sensitive region. A settlement and EU accession will bring the stability and prosperity of Europe to Cyprus, allowing Cyprus to play a greater role in this region.
The choice is yours. The time is now. Thank you.
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