The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 43 Issue: 7 - Thursday, April 07, 2005
Annan Explains UN Credibility Loss
According to Kofi Annan, the United Nations is suffering a credibility problem because the UN Human Rights Commission is hopelessly broken and in need of replacement.
According to Annan, "We have reached a point at which the commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole and where piecemeal reforms will not be enough."
Annan went on to note, "The commission's ability to perform its tasks has been overtaken by new needs and undermined by the politicization of its sessions and the selectivity of its work."
At last, an explanation for the UN's declining credibility! I thought it was in decline because of Kofi Annan's corruption, the Oil-For-Food Scandal, the UN peacekeepers rape scandal in the Congo, the UN's scandalous refusal to put an end to the genocide in the Sudan and the UN's hypocritical treatment of Israel vs. the Arab world.
Evidently, those are only peripheral issues. The real problem is the UN Human Rights Commission!
Sarcasm aside, reforming the UN Human Rights Commission won't restore UN credibility, but it might save a few million lives.
Annan's UN reform package calls for the creation of a permanent human rights council, possibly on a par with the UN Security Council. Currently, the UN Human Rights Commission meets only six weeks out of each year and can only address human rights issues during its annual session.
Among the UN Human Rights Commission currently, are such champions of human rights as China, Russia, the Sudan (honest!), Cuba and Zimbabwe.
Last year, the Human Rights Commission voted 50-1 to "express concern" about the ongoing genocide being committed against southern Sudanese Christians and animists by the ruling Islamic north.
That was it! It merely 'expressed concern' about the tens of thousands of human beings either being slaughtered or sold into slavery -- which in some cases is a fate even worse that death.
They 'expressed concern'-- but stopped short of a formal condemnation of Sudan. Not that it makes any difference. A formal condemnation by the UN Human Rights Commission carries no weight and involves no penalties. It is merely a 'black mark' on a nation's record -- a meaningless gesture.
An estimated 180,000 people have died and two million others are homeless in the Darfur region, and the Islamic-inspired genocide there has been termed by the UN as the 'world's worst humanitarian crisis'.
A 'crisis' that continues to claim lives in their thousands while the UN discusses how to prevent future similar situations.
It is far too late, and much too little, but the UN has given the International Criminal Court at The Hague a sealed list of 51 Sudanese suspected of slaughter, rape and pillaging in Darfur, the first step in the process of a war crimes prosecution.
Assessment:
Annan also held a rare meeting of his senior staff, evidently aimed at trying to convince THEM that the UN isn't as hopelessly corrupt or as irrelevant as even they are beginning to think.
Annan cited his 'personal pain' over his son's links to the Oil For Food Scandal, exonerating himself from any wrongdoing in the process.
"I know it has cast a shadow over all of us and you have no idea what a personal pain it has been for me as secretary-general and as a father having to deal with this situation."
(Evidently, it isn't as easy as Annan made it look to pull one's own son in front as a shield against an approaching bullet -- it caused Kofi some 'pain' to do it.)
And it wasn't just Kofi's son that has destroyed the UN's credibility -- the media hasn't been 'fair' to the UN, either.
"To see the institution you have devoted your life to being hammered and attacked, in most cases unfairly, was very difficult to digest, and I can imagine what impact it had on you and on staff morale," he said.
"It is also unfortunate that my own son seems to have been associated somehow with this program, and of course that investigation is going on," Annan added.
"SEEMS to be 'associated' -- SOMEHOW?" Annan makes it sound like it was just a coincidence that his son just happened to get a job currying favor for Cotecna with the UN, but it was 'somehow' linked in the minds of a vicious and unfair media to his own position as UN Secretary General.
After blaming the UN Human Rights Commission, his son, and the 'unfair attacks from the media Annan went after the real culprit -- the United States -- for damaging UN credibility.
He traced the current crisis to the "US-led" invasion of Iraq, which he and those nations most deeply involved in the Oil For Food Scandal opposed, but claimed that the UN 'suffered' in that the UN came under fire both from those who supported it and those who wanted the UN to prevent it.
In no case did he seem to think it had anything to do with his leadership. Kofi Annan's newly unveiled reform plan contains sweeping reforms to the makeup of the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Commission, 'ideas' for 'defining terrorism' and establishing new rules governing the use of military force.
Annan’s plan has four main parts. The first three parts list the most important goals in development, security and human rights. The fourth part proposes changing the U.N. into what Annan calls a 'more effective instrument' for carrying out those goals.
It was that fourth part that reporters seized on, asking Annan if he thought perhaps, in the wake of the UN's diminishing credibility, it might be time for him to resign. His response, "Hell, no!" makes it pretty clear that in Annan's world, it's everybody else's fault but his own.
Annan's reform package is both a tacit admission that the UN is broken and a transparently thin attempt to put the blame on the organization, rather than its leadership.
In point of fact, the UN is hopelessly broken, and beyond, I believe, and hope of reform. It isn't merely Kofi Annan, although Kofi Annan can take credit for presiding over its implosion. It's the entire system.
The UN, however, can't just 'go away'. The UN's infrastructure created an irreversible international interdependency upon which all global commerce relies. The collapse of the UN would result in catastrophic global financial collapse as well.
The European Union is in the process of mirroring the UN's infrastructure in order to administer the disparate needs of its various member states. Europe already has the infrastructure in place to absorb the functions and functionaries of the existing United Nations.
And Old Europe has made no secret of its intention to stand as a counter-balance to US supremacy on the world stage. Jacques Chirac is fond of describing America's supremacy as 'unipolar' and has dedicated himself to a global effort aimed at balancing the scales.
The European Union is, in fact, the ONLY viable alternative to the United Nations, and, thanks to its predictable opposition to all things American, would enjoy almost unanimous global support for its assumption of the role.
The only nations likely to have serious objections to subordinating themselves to the EU similarly to the way they did the UN would be the United States and Israel, effectively excluding them from the international community.
All this fits so perfectly into the Prophet Daniel's scenario that it staggers the mind to contemplate!
"So likewise ye, when ye shall see ALL these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till ALL these things be fulfilled." (Matthew 24:32-32)
Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter member features can be found at: www.omegaletter.com