The former United Nations assistant secretary general, Mr Denis Halliday, has condemned the Government for "hiding behind" the organisation over the threatened war on Iraq.
The Irish-born former co-ordinator of the UN's oil-for-food programme in Iraq said suggestions by the Taoiseach that Ireland should support the US because of its investment here were "simply disgusting".
"I think he has let us down, and all those who have faith in Ireland and Ireland's membership of the United Nations," he said.
"The Government has already made huge mistakes over Shannon. To hide behind the UN now, thinking 'it must be OK if the UN is behind it', is not the answer."
At a public meeting yesterday in UCD, Mr Halliday said if Ireland was a friend of the US it would call a halt to the build-up to war. "Kofi Annan is no model to follow. He has been completely irresponsible by supporting ongoing sanctions against Iraq even though they are killing children, and he keeps standing behind America."
While unilateral action by the US against Iraq would undermine international law, "a UN war would be worse because it damages the UN and is incompatible with its work in the area of human rights", Mr Halliday said.
He argued there was an alternative to war, namely to lift the sanctions and allow the Iraqi economy to rebuild itself. Citing Indonesia, whose president Suharto was overthrown without major bloodshed, Mr Halliday asserted: "When life is back to normal, we will see change in Iraq."
Ireland could still play a role in such a non-violent solution, he added, although its influence had been reduced due to its policy on US military stop-overs at Shannon, and its "failed" two-year membership of the UN Security Council. Ireland had presidency of the council during 9/11, yet "we did not even ask why?" Mr Halliday, who spent last month assessing the humanitarian situation in Iraq, also addressed a symposium at Dublin City University.
Dr David Hickey, a transplant surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, said a study by Canadian doctors showed 500,000 children in Iraq were malnourished, and "if there is a war these children will die".
