inside the glass house

The father, son and the unholy deal
NEW YORK - The 38th floor of the UN Secretariat in New York, which houses the offices of the Secretary-General, continues to be hit by political tidal waves. The scandal surrounding the now-defunct oil-for-food programme in Iraq -- involving mismanagement, fraud, nepotism and kickbacks -- is refusing to die.

Besides an independent UN commission, which has been entrusted with the task of investigating charges of misdemeanour, there are no less than five US congressional committees in Washington DC which are hounding Kofi Annan.

The probe by multiple congressional committees, some of which are complaining of non-cooperation by the UN Secretariat, is rare, if not unprecedented in Capitol Hill.

Last week Annan also came under attack in Sri Lanka for a statement condemning the killing of "a senior political leader of the LTTE". The statement was an unusual reaction by Annan's office to the assassination of a rebel leader from a designated "terrorist organisation."

Annan is sure to survive the controversy over the LTTE but he is perhaps less confident of stemming the continued barrage of attacks from right wing groups and neoconservative politicians in the US.

A preliminary report by the independent UN commission, released in early February, has nailed two senior UN officials of mismanagement of the oil-for-food programme. A second report by the independent UN commission, to be released by the middle of this year, will focus primarily on the Secretary-General's son, Kojo Annan.

As a onetime employee of a Swiss company with contracts in the oil-for-food programme, he is accused of using his father's connections to lobby for his employer even long after he left the company.

In a letter seeking compensation for eight days of work in July 1998, he admitted having made "many contacts at the presidential, political and ministerial levels with certain influential people" during his father's visit to Nigeria for an international conference. Since Annan is sensitive to charges of nepotism, he reacts strongly and testily to questions relating to his son.

When he enters the UN building every morning, he is confronted by a phalanx of bleary-eyed reporters who keep firing questions at him -- some of them about his future or about his son. Asked on several occasions whether he plans to resign, he has insisted that he has personally done no wrong and will not quit his job.

The independent commission apparently has phone records of calls made by Kojo (who is based in Lagos, Nigeria) to the UN Secretariat in New York. One report said he had stayed in a hotel in South Africa signing his name as "K. Annan, United Nations."

When asked for a reaction, the UN spokesman was defensive: "I assume the documents you're referring to are ones that were provided by Kojo Annan to the independent commission and that may have been shared with (US) congressional sources. I can't imagine why they would be leading those documents to the press. We'll leave the commission to evaluate all those evidence."

Following the commission's preliminary report, Annan has suspended two of his officials: Benon Sevan and Joseph Stephanides. If, however, there are criminal charges against the two, Annan has promised to lift their diplomatic immunities so that they can be brought before a court of law. But so far, there are no charges of criminal conduct.

But last week one reporter queried about the immunity surrounding the Secretary-General himself? The answer lies in Article V Section 20 of the 1946 ''UN Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations'' which says that only the Security Council can do that.

The UN has consistently refused to answer sensitive questions on the grounds that any comments could be prejudicial to the ongoing investigations by the commission.

Every single piece of paper -- including letters and memos -- is within reach of the commission. But in this age of rapid-fire communication, much of the evidence is likely to be in email messages.

Last week, the UN spokesman also refused to answer whether the Secretary-General meets with his son during his frequent overseas visits -- a particularly secure means of communication especially since phone conversations are vulnerable to tapping.

"I don't want to go into details about the Secretary-General's meetings with members of his family, except to say that when he travels, he often meets with his children, if it's convenient, in Europe or in Africa. But I will not comment on specific meetings or say what was discussed,'' he said.

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