Live at the UN: Gaddafi hijacks the podium (extracts)
James Bone, Alexandra Frean, Catherine Philp, Times, Sep 23 2009
11:01 – Muammar Gaddafi, in black cap and flowing saffron robes, starts by offering congratulations “in the name of 1000 traditional kings of Africa” to “our son Obama,” the US’s first African-American president. 11:04 – Gaddafi begins his first-ever address to the UN General Assembly with a theory about swine flu: “Perhaps this swine virus may be one of those viruses that was created in the laboratory and it got out of control because it was meant to be a military weapon.” 11:08 – Gaddafi pulls out the little blue book which is the founding document of the UN and starts to denounce it. He says the Preamble, which begins “We the Peoples of the United Nations,” was drafted by all the states who attended the 1945 San Francisco conference. But the body of the Charter, the “Articles,” was devised, he claims, by a small number of states in their own interests. “This is what we are rejecting,” he explains, waving the Charter in his hand. Delegates nonplussed. 11:12 – Gaddafi just tossed the UN Charter onto the podium in front of him dismissively. He’s denouncing the SC veto held by Britain, France, Russia and the US. The only country who got a permanent seat on the SC, and therefore a veto, fair and square was China, he says, which was elected to replace Taiwan. The Libyan leader ridicules plans to reform the 15-nation SC by adding members. He says, memorably: “If we add more water, it will be more muddy.” 11:23 – Gaddafi is now telling his audience in the 192-nation GA that they are no more important than a person sounding off at Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park. “You are like a Hyde Park, without any substance,” he tells the surprised delegates. “it’s just a speaker like a speaker at Hyde Park corner – no more, no less. You just make a speech and disappear. This who you are right now.” Gaddafi wants the GA of all UN states to be the “Parliament of the World, the Congress of the World, the Master of the World,” and says it should tell the SC what to do. He wants Ban Ki-moon, the UN chief, to draw up a plan to put the GA in charge of the veto powers on the SC. 11:29 – Gaddafi is now comparing the current UN system, dominated by the SC, to al-Qaeda terrorism. “Terrorism is not just al-Qaeda. It can also be in other forms,” he says. The Libyan leader proposes that the current SC, where the five big powers hold a veto, be renamed the Terror Council, for terrorising the Third World. 11:40 – Gaddafi demands the African Union get a permanent seat on the SC. He challenges the delegates in the Hall to give him any reason why the African Union does not deserve a seat. 11:49 – Gaddafi says Africans are proud that a son of Africa is President of the US, and even suggests that he would support Obama in following the common African practice of clinging to power indefinitely. “We are content and happy if Obama stays forever as President,” he says. The Libyan leader says he is already worried about what will happen to the US after Obama in four or eight years. “Who can guarantee America … I am afraid we may go back to Square One.” 11:55 – The Libyan leader, making his first trip to the US, is obviously discomfited by his jet lag. He complains to the GA that he woke up at 4 a.m. New York time, “because it was morning in Libya.” Gaddafi has the answer: Move the UN somewhere “comfortable”. That would have the added advantage of security, he says, suggesting al-Qaeda may try to attack the UN in New York. “America may be targeted again, perhaps by a rocket, and tens of heads of state may die,” he warns. Moving the UN “is not an insult to America. This is a service to America.” He tells the assembled world leaders: “You will thank me for the proposal of (reducing) the suffering of flying for hours to come to this place.” 12:21 – Gaddafi has now been speaking for 100-odd minutes and seems just to be warming up. He was supposed to speak only 15 minutes. Some UN journalists are now betting he will run on for a Fidel Castro-like seven hours. 12:35 – Gaddafi has just wrapped up his unscripted 94-minute speech. He got absolutely no applause. Delegates just sat stunned.
