Annan Believes UN Reform Deal Reachable by Sept

[Said1]

JAKARTA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Saturday he believed general agreement on sweeping reforms of the United Nations could be reached by September, when world leaders meet in New York for a summit.

"I have suggested to the member states that they try and reach agreement by September when the heads of state come to New York to take decisions. I think it is possible and I hope they will aim to do it," Annan told a news conference on the second day of a summit meeting of Asian and African nations in Jakarta.

The United Nations will hold a summit on development, security and human rights in September.

Among Annan's recommendations, made in March, are a timetable for rich countries to combat poverty in poor nations, a resolution on when military intervention could be justified and an overhaul of the key human rights body.

But there has been widespread criticism of some of the proposals and concerns the September timetable is too hasty.

Poor countries have said not enough emphasis was being placed on development while some powerful nations have been lukewarm to expanding the 15-member Security Council.

Many see the historic reforms as an effort to revive confidence in a world body shaken by the U.S. invasion of Iraq, scandals in the oil-for-food program and sexual abuse charges against U.N. peacekeepers.

Annan said he did not believe any of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom -- would veto proposals to expand the council if there was common agreement to do so.

"If there were to be broad consensus...I think it would be difficult for a permanent member to veto the proposal," said Annan, who Friday made an impassioned plea for Asian and African leaders to be ready to compromise on his proposals.

He has said the Security Council needed to be expanded to reflect 2005, not the post World War II order of 1945.

Some big powers have supported Germany, Brazil, India and Japan for permanent membership.

China, however, remains steadfastly opposed to Tokyo because of its wartime past, an issue which has developed into a bitter row between the two. Washington has also been cool to any quick expansion of the council.

Annan added there was a "general sense" the next secretary general should come from Asia.

His second term finishes at the end of 2006. The last Asian to hold the job was U Thant of Burma, now called Myanmar, from 1961-71.

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[Annie]

Anyone should listen to this guy? Why???

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion...,0,7577983.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines

UN scandal won't go away
Kofi Annan’s role in the oil-for-food program looks increasingly bad

April 23, 2005

As the investigation into the corruption of the United Nations oil-for-food program grinds away with its periodic interim reports, a disturbing development has reopened the issue of Secretary General Kofi Annan's future: Two senior investigators working for the committee probing the scandal have resigned in protest, saying the March report that cleared Annan of criminal wrongdoing in the administration of the $64-billion operation was far too soft on him.

The investigators' objections should lead to a re-assessment of Annan's involvement, a closer look at allegations of wrongdoing by Annan's son, Kojo, in the program and Annan's knowledge of his son's actions. More broadly, this casts increasing doubts on whether Annan can retain enough credibility to be an effective leader of the UN.

Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan, top investigators for the Independent Inquiry Committee led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said the panel played down their findings, which were far more critical of Annan's role than the March report indicated. A spokesman for the committee and one of its three leaders, Mark Pieth, acknowledged that the panel's conclusions were different from those the two investigators would have preferred.

That, of course, could be the difference often seen between police detectives and a district attorney's office, with investigators usually pushing for harsher criminal charges than prosecutors can live with. The two investigators who quit are very credible. Parton is a lawyer and former FBI agent. Duncan is a member of the Rockefeller Family Fund's governing board and a granddaughter of billionaire David Rockefeller.

The report to which they objected concluded that Annan could be faulted for a lack of effective oversight and mismanagement of a program designed to bring food and medicines to Iraqis hurt by the international embargo imposed on Saddam Hussein's regime. But the report cleared Annan of trying to influence the awarding of a $10-million-a-year contract to a Swiss company for which his son worked. Annan said the report exonerated him - an exaggeration - and rejected any suggestion he should quit. The investigation is still continuing. But Annan's administration is so already besmirched by this scandal that he ought to re-consider seriously whether he should do the honorable thing and resign.

http://www.torontofreepress.com/2005/klaus042205.htm

[...]

There are some UN organizations that are doing a great job. The World Health Organization (WHO), for one. But for the most part the rest are a joke. The fact that the UN pays lip service to a wide variety of human rights, while many member states sitting on the UN’s Human Rights Commission are themselves guilty of the most heinous human rights abuses makes it a joke in poor taste. The ineffectiveness of that organization was highlighted last December when the very smug Jan Egeland, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called the west "stingy". Yet it took that organization nearly four weeks to get a team into the area and they were only there to assess the disaster, while the "stingy" West had boots on the ground and relief supplies in the area within 24 hours. As an aside, it seems that the longer and more complex an official’s title is, the less effective he and his organization are.

Reform or re-form. I can’t think of one good reason to reform the UN. It’s throwing good money after bad. The more I think about the idea of re-forming the UN, the more attractive it becomes. In that respect, I’m with John Bolton (or whoever it was that said) "There is no such thing as United Nations".