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`France appreciates India's stand against Iraq war'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD April 14. The French Government appreciates the stand taken by India against the war on Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition forces, as it is very similar to what France had been saying all along.

Talking to presspersons here today, the French Ambassador, Dominique Girard, said India had expressed anguish over the war at the very outset and described it as unjustified.

It would be illogical to expect India to take a more formal position since it was not a member of the U.N. Security Council.

Mr. Girard made it clear that France did not want a role in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, leave alone trying to make money out of it.

``We are only fighting for a principle, not a gratuitous one at that, with an international vision and not vying for a piece of the reconstruction cake,'' he said.

The envoy, while reiterating his country's disapproval of military action against Iraq without the U.N. backing, said France never defended Saddam Hussein's regime since it was totalitarian.

Now, it wanted the U.N. to get back its legitimacy and not be reduced to a rubber stamp.

Mr. Girard welcomed the statement issued during the Bush-Blair summit that the U.N. would have a vital role in the post-war reconstruction, a stand that could not have been imagined earlier.

While the statement lacked full clarity, it showed that the U.S. and the U.K. were contemplating different options.

Spelling out the French stand on the issue of reconstruction, he said it wanted the U.N. to be the `central actor' and play a pre-eminent role.

France was in close contact with Russia and Germany to press for this policy and was ready to be part of any reconstruction activity starting with humanitarian assistance like supply of food and medicines.

The French envoy said he attached no significance to speculation that Ahmed Chalabi would be installed as a leader of Iraq.

People of Iraq wanted a Government which was legitimate and was not a puppet of any country. Only the U.N. could bestow legitimacy on such a regime after discussions with the international community.

To a question why the onus on reconstruction of Iraq should not be left to the U.S. and the U.K., he said this proposition was right in moral terms but any effort without the U.N. involvement was politically impractical.

Asked why France had failed to prevent the United States and Britain from starting the war, he quipped, `because we played by the rules of the (U.N.) game'.

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