By Joseph Klein
Thursday, February 9, 2006
China and the so-called Group of 77, representing one hundred thirty-two developing countries, delivered a stinging letter to Secretary General Kofi annan on February 7th. The letter complained about press briefings by members of Kofi's staff "regarding allegations of mismanagement, fraud and corruption" at the United Nations. They want everything to be cleared through them first. Of course, China and many of its autocratic co-signers are used to controlling the press in their own countries. So it is no stretch for this gaggling group to expect Kofi annan to impose a gag order on his staff's dealings with the press. Their message to a democratic free press — go to hell! Our message to them should be to lay off the messenger and focus on the message that something is indeed rotten at Turtle Bay.
Of course, Kofi himself is a master cover-up artist. Still in a state of denial about the UN's central role in the oil-for-food scandal and the involvement of his son and closest deputies, he has little interest in helping those journalists who insist on digging for the truth wherever that might lead. Who can forget Kofi's graceless year-end press briefing last December when he dressed down the respected London Times reporter, James Bone, for daring to ask Kofi about the circumstances surrounding his son Kojo's purchase of the infamous Mercedes? and how else can we explain Kofi's tirade during a question-and-answer period in London last month when he blamed "politically motivated campaigns" for perpetuating the scandal?
"and I think the other thing that has hurt the organization, myself and the staff, is the distraction that has been caused by these politically-motivated campaigns against the UN and against instances of corruption by staff members blown completely out of proportion. In fact when you look at the records and the facts, up to $36 million of investigation, and the kind of scrubbing the UN was given, only one staff member was found to have, maybe have taken $150,000 out of a $64 billion programme. If there was a scandal, it was with the companies and not so much with UN individuals. There may have been instances of mismanagement, yes, maybe we didn't manage it effectively, but not corruption. accusations which have really hurt quite a lot."
(www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=1907)
annan apparently wants to have us forget that this "one staff member" was Benon Sevan, annan's oil-for-food point man at the UN. Kofi did not want him singing to the authorities or the press, so he allowed Sevan to slip away with full diplomatic immunity to his homeland of Cyprus which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
and annan continues to defend his former chief-of-staff, Iqbal Riza, who shredded documents potentially relevant to the scandal just one day after the Security Council established the independent Volcker inquiry.
There is still a serious question of what will happen to the treasure trove of documents compiled by Volcker's investigative committee. When the Secretary General's spokesman was asked at a recent press briefing about access to the documents, he was equivocal:
Question: What about press access to those documents?
Spokesman: Well, as of now, if you want to access the documents, you would have to go through Mr. [Paul] Volcker's office. We will try to find a way to make the documents as accessible as possible, keeping in mind the confidential nature of some of the government documents that are within Mr. Volcker's possession. But as I said, those discussions are ongoing, and I don't want to preclude or prejudge the outcome.
Question: The UN documents you'll be happy to release, right?
Spokesman: I do not want to prejudge or preclude the outcome of those discussions.
Excerpt from Spokesman's Noon Briefing (January 23, 2006) (www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2006/db060123.doc.htm)
Shouldn't copies be turned over immediately to reporters who request them so that they can plumb for the full story of what went wrong before they are simply returned to the UN Secretariat where they most certainly will be destroyed? Not if China and the Group of 77 — the gaggling gaggers group — get their way with Kofi's help.
The United States pays 22% of the UN's annual budget. But you wouldn't know it from the pronouncements of the gaggling gaggers club, who believe that they should control the General assembly despite their miniscule financial contributions. They even went so far as to ask Kofi to circulate their letter as "an official document of the General assembly." If he goes along, Kofi annan will no longer have to stonewall the press on his own initiative. He can just say that the "General assembly", to which he reports, made him do it and punish the whistleblowers in his organization as well.
We must not let the press censors prevail. Without a continuing open dialogue between UN personnel and the press, bad behavior will continue to be tolerated in the halls of the United Nations and stonewalling will continue as the organization's modus operandi.
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