Thursday, March 31, 2005
TIME TO GOFI, KOFI? “HELL, NOFI!”
The deeply concerned UN chief stooge is in more trouble:
Kofi Annan is facing calls to resign after a report into his son’s links with a company embroiled in the UN’s oil-for-food scandal revealed that documents held in the Secretary-General’s office were ordered destroyed the day after the Security Council approved an official inquiry.
The shredding of documents covering the crucial period from 1997 to 1999—during which the Swiss company that employed Kojo Annan as a consultant was awarded a lucrative UN contract in Iraq—was ordered by Kofi Annan’s former chief of staff Iqbal Riza last April and continued until December 7.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Mark Coultan seems moved by this epic tragedy:
The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has had to confront many difficult issues during the past year, including corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program, sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers, and his most senior officers sacked or in disgrace. However, none has been harder than the one involving his son …
Mr Annan said he loved his son and had “always expected the highest standards of integrity from him”.
“I am deeply saddened by the evidence to the contrary that has emerged and particularly by the fact that my son had failed to co-operate fully with the inquiry. I have urged him to co-operate and I urge him to reconsider his position and co-operate,” Mr Annan said.
The scandal has capped a bad year for the UN and its leader. Asked if he would resign, the normally urbane diplomat replied: “Hell, no.”
And then he scampered away, leaving flunky Mark Malloch Brown to answer questions. He invoked the awesome power of Move On:
“Time to move on, there’s a lot to get done,” Mr Malloch Brown told journalists, referring to the report as a “final slaying of the ghosts”.
Final? Mark may have spoken too soon. Here’s another ghost to slay:
The head of the UN elections unit has been charged with violating staff rules after an internal review said she made unwanted sexual advances toward a male employee and created a sexually charged work environment, UN officials and diplomats said today.
What a rabble. And people wanted these raping, thieving, lying, document-shredding horndogs to oversee the liberation of Iraq …