PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, 23 July 2003 — Visiting French President Jacques Chirac, accepting a Malaysian peace award for his opposition to the US-led war on Iraq, said yesterday the world should not be ruled by the “law of the jungle”.
Chirac was speaking after being presented with the inaugural Kuala Lumpur World Peace Award by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was also a strong opponent of the war.
“We can’t agree any longer on the law of the strongest, on the law of the jungle,” Chirac said through an official translator.
“What we need is an international structure, an international mechanism, that can do away with unilateralism and bring about multilateralism.”
All countries should be able to make their voices heard so that none felt sidelined, marginalized or humiliated, he said.
“That undoubtedly is going to be the foundation of peace in the world.”
Chirac said the United Nations “may not be a perfect organization. It could be better structured, modernized, brought up to date, but it is an unavoidable organization.”
His words would have been music to the ears of Mahathir, 77, whose bitter criticism of the invasion of Iraq has seen a souring of relations between Washington and this mainly-Muslim Southeast Asian nation.
Both leaders have called for the United Nations to take a leading role in postwar Iraq, with Chirac last week saying France would only join a peacekeeping force in Iraq if it were formed under a UN mandate.
Chirac said he had known Mahathir for a long time and described him as “a great man” whose strong and outspoken views were always heartfelt.
He said he was pleased to receive the award, a pewter trophy of a pair of clasped hands and a dove, which has been launched by a non-governmental organization called the Malaysian World Peace Foundation.
Chirac was given the award for his unflinching opposition to the Iraq war and his courage in standing up for the oppressed, a Malaysian government official said.
