The New York Sun is a right-wing paper, so one hopes that Annan’s comments are not taken out of context in what follows:
In what was dubbed by one observer as “re-Baathification,” Mr. Annan called for enlarging the American-appointed Governing Council making it “more inclusive” in order “to bring in national groups and individuals that have thus far been excluded or have excluded themselves.”
The undersecretary general, Kieran Prendergast, said Mr. Annan meant adding some Baathists–or as he called them “Arab Sunni nationalists”–and Shiites to the 24-member council. The American policy has been to exclude all remnants of the Baath Party leadership from a future role in Iraq’s leadership.
Mr. Annan also reserved some very sharp criticism to the evolving American policy of exerting military pressure in areas where terrorist activity is rampant, which some critics said mirrored Israel’s tactics in its own occupied territories. Citing “military responses to threats to coalition forces, dispersal of demonstrations, raids on homes, and confrontations as well as at checkpoints,” Mr. Annan called for “adhering strictly to international humanitarian law and human rights instruments.”
…Mr. Annan concluded that as long as the U.N.’s conciliatory methods of dealing with security threats were not accepted by the coalition, the organization would not return to the perilous conditions of Iraq. [12/11/2003]
Good riddance!