Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

This is a weird thought but I am wondering if the United States in calling for the resignation of Annan is trying to somehow mess up the process that is scheduled to put an Asian in as secretary-general?

In the Pacific Theatre Southeast Asia will be a crucial component of Bush’s world war.
#msg-3542419


That the protests from the United States are so vehement while outside the United States there is no clamor for Annan's resignation makes it seem another reason that is the real crux of the matter lurks beyond the oil-for-food scandal.

Since when did credibility ever bother Washington?

After successive secretaries-general from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, observers said it will be Asia's turn to provide a successor to Kofi Annan when the time comes. Beijing, which likes to keep a low public profile in the United Nations, may not want to appoint a Chinese diplomat to the post, but China will exercise considerable influence in the choice. It's too early for names to be mentioned, but observers say one possibility is that the Chinese may back a prominent Indian statesman as secretary-general.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040917-070011-7459r.htm

The U.S. government has cited China as the No. 1 threat to global security for the second time in less than a month.
#msg-3379438

-Am

Russia, China, Britain Rally to Back Annan

EDITH M. LEDERER

Associated Press

Posted on Fri, Dec. 03, 2004



UNITED NATIONS - The European Union threw its political weight behind beleaguered U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday but the United States again refused to back him and a U.S. senator reiterated his call for the U.N. chief to resign.

Outside the United States, there is no clamor for Annan's resignation, and the secretary-general has been picking up support from many of the 191 U.N. member states. He has the important backing of the four other veto-wielding members on the U.N. Security Council - Russia, China, Britain and France.

In a show of support from the powerful European Union, the ambassador of the Netherlands, which currently holds the EU presidency, went to Annan's 38th floor office at U.N. headquarters Friday morning to express support to the secretary-general on behalf of the 25-nation bloc.

Earlier, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, whose resignation as envoy to the United Nations was confirmed late Thursday, met the secretary-general. Danforth said that Annan's future wasn't discussed, but he refused several times to back him - virtually the same stance taken Thursday by President Bush.

Danforth was asked whether the United States had confidence in Annan in view of Washington's calling for a thorough, comprehensive and objective investigation of the allegations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.

It's important that those interested in the success of the investigation "go into this with an open mind - and that means neither prejudging it on the side of innocence or the side of guilt," said Danforth. The envoy will return to his home in St. Louis when Bush's first term ends in January.

Several U.S. newspapers have called for Annan to be replaced because of the oil-for-food allegations, but Sen. Norm Coleman's demand for the secretary-general to resign made headlines earlier this week.

The Minnesota Republican reiterated in a CNN interview on Friday that the U.N. chief executive presided over the "greatest fraud and theft" in the history of the United Nations.

"You need credibility and you can't have that if the guy who is in charge is still in charge," said Coleman, who is leading one of five U.S. Congressional investigations into the oil-for-food accusations.

The program began in 1996 to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It allowed Saddam's government to sell unlimited quantities of oil provided most of the proceeds went to buy food, medicine and humanitarian goods and to compensate victims of the 1991 Gulf War.

Two weeks ago, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which Coleman chairs said it had uncovered evidence that Saddam's government raised more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting U.N. sanctions and the oil-for-food program.

The secretary-general has appointed former U.S. Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker to head an independent inquiry into the program, handing over all U.N. documents and ordering U.N. officials to cooperate.

The 54 African nations sent a letter or support to Annan Tuesday, and he got strong backing Wednesday at a meeting with 11 ambassadors including Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea and Turkey.


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/10334254.htm