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Jewish World Review April 1, 2005 / 21 Adar II, 5765 Scandal at UN doesn't necessarily mean the end of UN By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In his interim report on corruption in the United Nations' Oil for Food
program, Paul Volcker found there wasn't enough evidence to prove UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan steered contracts to a Swiss firm that employed
his son. That was enough for Annan to declare Volcker "has cleared me of
any wrongdoing."
That view isn't universally shared.
"We did not exonerate Kofi Annan," Swiss organized crime expert Mark Pieth,
one of Volcker's three investigators, told the AP.
The Scotsman newspaper noted that Volcker faulted Annan for an "inadequate"
inquiry when the Oil for Food scandal first broke.
"Under Mr. Annan, the UN allowed the food-for-oil programme to degenerate
into a corrupt empire in which Saddam Hussein bribed numerous UN and other
diplomats to turn their backs while he looted his country and starved its
people," the Scotsman said in an editorial.
In an editorial headlined: "Report spells the end of Kofi Annan," the
Montreal Gazette noted that Annan's then executive assistant destroyed three
years worth of files on Oil for Food the day after the Security Council
passed a resolution authorizing Volcker's inquiry.
"Just connect the dots," the newspaper said. "What a damning picture it is.
Its reputation already in tatters, the UN stands today weaker than it ever
was. Only major governance reforms can save the world body now, and the
first order of reform business needs to be finding a credible replacement
for Annan."
Volcker did his level best not to connect the dots. His is like CBS'
investigation into the Rathergate scandal, which was more concerned with
protecting CBS' reputation than in getting at the truth. He who pays the
piper calls the tune.
Oil for Food is by far the largest financial scandal in the history of the
world, but it is hardly the UN's only problem. There are the sex scandals
involving UN peacekeepers in the Congo and elsewhere, and the UN's inability
or unwillingness to put a halt to genocide in Darfur. The UN came late and
brought little to the aid of victims of last December's tsunami.
"Up until four or five days ago...the UN was nowhere to be seen — except
quite overwhelmingly in Jakarta's luxury hotels, a few UNocrats in Medan,
and a tiny handful at the airport in Aceh writing up press releases claiming
all the credit for the UN and bad-mouthing the hard working Aussies and
Americans," wrote the Diplomad, a foreign service officer involved in the
relief effort in Indonesia, on Jan. 27th, a month after the tsunami struck.
On March 21st, Annan announced proposals to "reform" the UN. The thrust of
his proposals is to dilute the influence of the United States on the
Security Council, while trebling the dues the United States must pay. The
Bush administration is not enthusiastic. But while others were howling for
his head after the Volcker report came out, the administration issued a
tepid endorsement of the embattled Annan.
I think that was the right thing to do. Annan is corrupt, incompetent and
anti-American, but not notably more so than his predecessor. And in order
to keep his job, the normally dictator-friendly Annan is more likely to
insist that Bashar Assad, Syria's weak-chinned strongman, get his army and
his Gestapo out of Lebanon pronto.
The UN requires real reform, but that's more likely to occur after Annan
twists in the wind a while. Just putting a new secretary general atop the
rotten edifice changes little.
I get a lot of email from people who want the US out of the UN, and who
assume I agree with them. I don't. Winston Churchill was right when he
said "jaw jaw is better than war war." The UN is where jaw jaw takes place.
A United Democracies won't work. We need to talk to countries like China
and Russia which aren't.
Annan's term expires at the end of next year. Bill Clinton would love to
replace him. But no citizen of a permanent member of the Security Council
should get the job. It should go to a genuine democrat of unquestioned
integrity and demonstrable guts, such as former Czech president Vaclav
Havel, current Czech president Vaclav Klaus, Polish president Aleksander
Kwasniewski, former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, or Australian
foreign minister Alexander Downer.
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
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