inside the glass house

Now, the guns turn on Annan
NEW YORK-- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, once accused of playing ball with the US, is now the victim of a neo-conservative, right-wing American conspiracy to oust him from office before his second five-year term ends in December 2006.

If he caves under US pressure by resigning, the Bush administration will very likely plant its own candidate undermining Asia's chances of legitimately claiming the job in January 2007.

Under a time-honoured system of geographical rotation, a principle much revered in the world body, it is Asia's turn to have a Secretary-General to succeed Annan.

Sri Lanka and Thailand-- who are expected to field their own candidates for the job-- may find themselves left out in the cold if Annan steps down before his term is over. The former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, has already been mentioned as a possible replacement for Annan.

Not surprisingly, Havel serves as co-chairman of the international wing of the new Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a US neo-conservative group.

The conspiratorial attempts to oust Annan can be thwarted-- and Asia's claims to the job protected-- only by a strong stand by member states. Last week, the 54 members of the African Group were the first to express their strong support in a letter to Annan, who is a national of Ghana.

But the largest political group at the UN-- the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which was once chaired by Sri Lanka-- has been slow in responding. A NAM meeting, however, is scheduled to take place shortly to pledge its collective support to the beleaguered Secretary-General.

"This will be a slap in the face of US politicians who are demanding Annan's head,'' says an African diplomat whose country is a NAM member. "The United Nations has 191 member states-- and the future of the UN Secretary-General cannot be determined by a single country, however powerful," he added. The demand for Annan's resignation-- mostly by right wing newspapers and neo-conservative politicians in the US-- has been prompted primarily by allegations of bribery and mismanagement of the now-defunct, UN-supervised "oil-for-food" programme in Iraq.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is accused of collecting over $21 billion in illegal oil revenues by subverting the programme, which was designed to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people caused by an economic embargo on the nation.

The programme is currently under investigation by a UN committee created by the Security Council and chaired by former US Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Paul Volcker. The committee is expected to release its preliminary findings in January 2005.

The secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, is also under scrutiny because of his links to a Swiss company that had contracts with the UN oil-for-food programme.

But supporters of Annan say that US right wing groups are rushing into judgement even before the UN committee could release its report. To complicate matters further, the US Senate has set up a parallel investigation. The demand for Annan's resignation is also being orchestrated by Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican who chairs the Senate's permanent sub-committee conducting that probe.

"Mr Annan was at the helm of the United Nations for all but a few days of the oil-for-food programme, and he must, therefore, be held accountable for the UN's utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses," Coleman wrote in an op-ed piece in Wednesday's 'Wall Street Journal', one of the major newspapers campaigning for Annan's ouster.

"As long as Mr Annan remains in charge (of the United Nations)", Coleman said, "the world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that took place under the UN's collective nose."

Some US politicians have also threatened to reduce American funds to the UN if Annan refuses to resign. Washington is the largest single contributor to the United Nations -- and also the largest single defaulter -- accounting for about 22 percent of the world body's regular budget.

But there is also a political side to the story. Annan does not seem to have much support in the Bush administration which was annoyed and angry that he described the US invasion of Iraq as "illegal".

The comment, which came weeks before the US presidential elections, was mistakenly interpreted as Annan's attempt to inject himself into the US presidential campaign.

As a result, the Bush administration has so far refused to express confidence in the UN chief. The only administration comments, described as "mild" by one African diplomat, have come from the outgoing US Ambassador John Danforth, who said last week: "I don't think the US government rushes to judgement before all the facts are in."

Asked by a reporter if Annan would relent to the demands by a "growing chorus" of politicians and newspaper columnists, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard shot back: "A few voices don't make a chorus."

"Everything on oil-for-food is being looked at by Mr Volcker. So, we're not going to talk about that until Volcker finishes his work. And as for judgement calls, I think it's much wiser to wait for the full investigation to be completed before allocating blame,'' he told reporters last week.

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