And yet they hear little about these issues, whose feeble echoes are drowned out in the drumbeat over that other “i” word: Iraq.The media bears a vital share of the responsibility for this. The clich?bout television news is supposed to be: “If it bleeds, it leads”. Today, radio, TV and even the print media appear to be working on the presumption that: “If it might bleed tomorrow, it must lead today.” No wonder that, in the single-minded obsession with just one issue on the UN’s vast agenda, a reporter can presume to speak of the UN’s putative irrelevance. When I hear that “i” word I am reminded of an old story about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Adam finds Eve is becoming a bit indifferent to him. So he asks her: “Eve, is there someone else?”One could well ask the same question about the United Nations.

Is there any other institution that brings all the countries of the world together to pursue collectively the security and welfare so essential to our common humanity? This is why I am proud to use the other “i” word, and to affirm the UN’s indispensability as the only effective instrument the world has to confront the challenges that will remain when Iraq has passed from the headlines.Shashi Tharoor is the award-winning author of seven books about his native India, including three novels. He has served the United Nations since 1978, and is under-secretary general for communications and public information. These are his personal views.The UN weapons inspectors in IraqFEBRUARY 1991: UN weapons inspectors are sent to confirm Iraqi disarmament, stipulated in the ceasefire resolution 687 that ended the Gulf War. The chief inspector, Rolf Ekeus, expects his task to take six months.1991-1995: Despite destroying Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons facilities and tons of munitions, the inspectors suspect Iraq is lying about banned weaponry.

A key defector in 1995 confirms the extent of the germ warfare and nuclear programme.1996-1997: As the inspectors test Iraqi concealment attempts, they are blocked by standoffs. But the UN agrees to Iraqi guidelines limiting inspections of so-called “sensitive” sites.OCTOBER 1997: Iraq demands Americans on UN inspection team leave; they return a month later. Spying row intensifies, and in December inspectors are barred from “presidential” and “sovereign” sites.FEBRUARY 1998: UN Secretary general Kofi Annan meets Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. The UN and Iraq agree on palace inspections.NOVEMBER 1998: Faced with Iraq’s continued failure to co-operate, the UN inspectors are pulled out hours before the US and Britain launch military strikes in Operation Desert Fox.DECEMBER 1999: The inspections regime is replaced by a new body called Unmovic.AUGUST-OCTOBER 2002: Talks start between the new chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, and Iraq on inspections.NOVEMBER 2002: UN inspectors return to Iraq under resolution 1441 to verify the complete disarmament of Iraq.DECEMBER 2002: Iraq submits a 12,000-page “full, final and complete” declaration which repeats Iraq no longer has any weapons of mass destruction.. After the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq was banned from producing missiles with a range longer than 150km. Its claim that all such missiles were destroyed is still being verified.

So when the UN confirmed that Iraq had recently tested al-Samoud 2 missiles with a range of up to 183 km, they had to be destroyed under UN supervision. Iraqi missiles constitute a danger not simply because of their range, but because of the chemical or biological payloads they could deliver (although some experts say that Iraq has not perfected its delivery system). THE MISSILES
After the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq was banned from producing missiles with a range longer than 150km. But Iraq still hasn’t accounted for 3.9 tons of deadly VX nerve gas and 8.5 tons of anthrax. Saddam Hussein must also account for 6,500 chemical bombs as well as 550 artillery shells filled with mustard gas.THE AL-QA’IDA LINKThe US claims Baghdad has provided instruction in terrorist tactics to al-Qa’ida in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. But President Saddam has strongly denied any connection with either al-Qa’ida or Osama bin Laden, and British intelligence remains sceptical.