THE WEDNESDAY WATCH
Analysis and Commentary from UN Watch in Geneva
Wednesday, 22 December 2004
Issue 126

Kofi Annan's "Annus Horribilis" and Proposals for UN Reform

As the year 2004 comes to a close, all discussion at the United Nations is
overshadowed by two seemingly unrelated events: a corruption scandal
bearing possible connections to Kofi Annan, and the release of an
international panel's proposal for drastic reform of the world body.
Whether or not U.S. conservatives such as Senator Norm Coleman have
sufficient grounds to demand the Secretary-General's resignation, the
average person on any continent recognizes that, even if only 1% of the
Oil-for-Food accusations are true, the UN is in dire need of reform. Yet
the recommendations of the high level panel not only neglect to consider the
plague of UN mismanagement, but they fail to resolve some the most
significant problems they set out to fix.

At the root of Annan's self-described "annus horribilis" are allegations
that Saddam Hussein, with the help of bribed foreign supporters, skimmed
some $20 billion from Iraqi oil revenues that the UN was supposed to direct
toward the country's humanitarian needs. Closer to home, Benon V. Sevan,
the man Annan appointed to head the Oil- for-Food program, stands accused of
having received millions in oil allocations, while Kojo Annan, the
Secretary-General's son, is alleged to have used his filial connection to
secure dubious payments from a Swiss company profiting from the program.

Several major investigations, including five by the U.S. Congress, are now
underway. The inquiry led by Paul A. Volcker, former U.S. Federal Reserve
chairman, is set to publish an interim report next month. With nothing
proven yet, some patience is in order.

That said, explanations provided by Kofi Annan have been less than
convincing, with most information on the affair released hesitantly at best.
And now with the resignation of Iqbal Riza, Annan's chief of staff -
announced just as we go to press - many will wonder if this was in
anticipation of damning findings from the Volcker report, and also whether
more resignations will follow.

Riza, to be sure, may have had other reasons for leaving. Harsh criticism
from the UN staff union accused the former Pakistani diplomat of protecting
abusers within the system and targeting the whistleblowers instead. Riza
was also accused of nepotism because of his son's UN job in Lebanon. Nor
will he be missed by those who recall the events of 1994. Riza's reputation
will be forever marred by his role, together with Annan, in overseeing the
UN's spectacular failure to prevent the Rwandan genocide. As Dore Gold's
new book reminds us, when Canadian general Romeo Dallaire begged the
peacekeeping department for permission to destroy weapons and avert the
massacres, Riza ordered Dallaire not to intervene. In an interview with PBS,
Riza dismissed the tragedy. "Look, since the 1960s, there have been cycles
of violence - Tutsis against Hutus, Hutus against Tutsis. I'm sorry to put
it so cynically." Peace cannot succeed where there is an inability to
recognize evil.

Coming back to Annan, pro-democracy forces need to ask: would his
replacement be any better? As it happens, we now have at least two declared
candidates to replace Annan after his full term ends in December 2006. It's
Asia's turn under the tradition of geographical rotation, and Thai Foreign
Minister Surakiart Sathirathai is competing for the nomination against
Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former ambassador to Washington and
former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs. Neither shows any
particular promise of standing up against the alliances of repressive
regimes that dominate many UN institutions.

Which brings us to the new 95-page report of the high level panel,
envisioning an overhaul on everything from poverty to peacekeeping, chemical
weapons to collective security.

The report offers several surprisingly useful recommendations. Most
notably, it urges the UN to finally adopt a definition of terrorism. If you
don't know what something looks like, you can't fight it. To be sure, there
is the predictable nod to "root causes" such as poverty - never mind that
the world's terror masterminds, from Osama bin Laden to the Iranian mullahs
to Yasser Arafat, were hardly dissuaded by their billions. On the whole,
though, the section on terror is strong. It certainly puts the lie to the
Arab League's repeated justification, parroted in various UN resolutions,
that violence against Israeli civilians can never constitute terrorism.
"Nothing in the fact of occupation," says the report, "justifies the
targeting and killing of civilians."

But the report's treatment of other major issues demonstrates a failure to
confront the true problems of the UN. The report envisions an expanded,
geographically representative Security Council that would grant the UN
greater legitimacy. Ironically, however, it is precisely in many of the
states that stand to join - Germany, for example- where the UN already
enjoys the greatest legitimacy. The true legitimacy deficit lies in the
reality that the UN's premier human right bodies this year were unable to
condemn the world's worst human rights crime - Sudan's killings in Darfur;
and, a corollary, that repressive regimes, never elected to represent
anyone, continue to dominate UN proceedings.

Thus when it comes to confronting the glaring failures of the Commission on
Human Rights, the report - while frank in recognizing the Commission's
"eroding credibility and professionalism," and that "States have sought
membership [.] to protect themselves against criticism" - ultimately offers
up a remedy that is a demonstrable failure. Expanding membership from the
current 53 to all 191 states would be clearly damaging to the cause of human
rights.

First, we know exactly what a 191-member UN human rights body looks like -
it's called the Third Committee of the General Assembly, and it's the one
that voted only last month to take "no action" for the victims of Darfur.
Second, universalizing membership would rob the human rights lobby of one of
its sole powers: embarrassing the worst violators. Every time a Sudan,
Libya or Syria obscenely wins election to the Commission, the moral outcry
from around the world sheds a vital spotlight on their shameful records.
Trivial as it may sound, this rhetorical device is one of the few tools
available to human rights advocates. Why the high level panel would do away
with it is a mystery. On the contrary, we should consider how membership
might be further limited, to exclude states that fail to meet basic human
rights commitments.

Will Kofi Annan's legacy be a disgraced exit prompted by evidence of
corruption, or will he go down in history as the UN's great reformer? The
next year will decide.

Also Watched.

* Like Swiss Cheese: A sophisticated bugging device was found in a room used
for high-level meetings at the UN Office at Geneva, exposing the
embarrassing state of UN security. The device is believed to be of Russian
or East European origin, but it is not known who was responsible for this
latest reported tapping of UN premises. The device was discovered during
recent renovations to the elegant Salon Français, which has hosted such
sessions as Kofi Annan's trilateral meeting with Presidents Jacques Chirac
of France and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in March
this year. The salon is also used for video teleconferences with the UN's
New York headquarters. According to a UN security source, the Geneva office
- which services over 8,000 meetings every year, making it one of the
busiest intergovernmental conference centers in the world and a focal point
for multilateral diplomacy - is probably riddled with listening devices.
"It's like Swiss cheese," the security source said.

* Democracy Caucus: Representatives of the NGO coalition for a UN Democracy
Caucus were briefed in New York last week by Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of
Chile, current chair of the Community of Democracies, U.S. Ambassador Jack
Danforth and Hungary's Ambassador Andras Simonyi. Munoz confirmed to UN
Watch his commitment to intensify cooperation among democracies at the
upcoming 2005 session of the Commission on Human Rights. With Commission
membership being relatively small, said Munoz, coordination is considerably
easier in Geneva than at the General Assembly in New York. Nevertheless, in
November, governments in the Democracy Caucus managed to agree on giving
positive consideration to Assembly resolutions on torture, cooperation among
religions, promotion of democracy and the status of women.

* Strange Solemnity: As every year, the UN on November 29 held a "solemn
meeting", addressed by Kofi Annan, to observe the International Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Oddly, the UN treats the date in
1947 when it first voted for a Palestinian Arab state as an occasion for
mourning - because it also recognized the right of a Jewish state. Only the
Palestinians are given an annual day, just one part of the larger Arab
campaign at the UN to delegitimize Israel. Additionally, there are two
Committees and one 16-member Division, lodged in the Secretariat and with
millions in funding, devoted to the same purpose.

*
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