Corruption At The Top Of The Un-

[Rinrada]

Coud a Thai UN sec Gen do better?

I have always had a lot of respect for Kofe Annan the UN Sec.Gen.(met him once)but it looks as though certain questions regarding what i suppose must be considered "dubious pratices"have arisen. so is it time for a change and as has been suggested before for a certain Thai Gentleman (not Mr T..of course ) to have a go....

James Bone (Times man in the Big Apple)asked him a simple question on a TV Q&A about the importation of an alledged dodgy Merc to Ghana,and the big guy went mad.

THE UN Secretary-General has used his end-of-year press conference to lash out at the media in general, and The Times in particular, for their coverage of the Oil-for-Food scandal and his role in it.

Kofi Annan singled out James Bone, New York correspondent of The Times, after he questioned Mr Annan about a Mercedes jeep that his son, Kojo, imported into Ghana using his father’s diplomatic immunity to avoid taxes.

Saddam Hussein’s manipulation of the UN’s $64 billion Oil-for-Food programme enabled him to circumvent international sanctions and raise hundreds of millions dollars, through kickbacks on UN-supervised sales of oil and imports of humanitarian supplies.

Kojo Annan worked for a Swiss firm, Cotecna, that won a lucrative UN contract to monitor those imports.

Mr Bone has persistently questioned Mr Annan about these issues, and on Wednesday night the Secretary General’s patience snapped.

“I think you’re being very cheeky,” he exclaimed, and continued: “Listen, James Bone, you’ve been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years.

You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving.”

At the end of the conference Jim Wurst, president of the UN Correspondents’ Association, told Mr Annan that Mr Bone had a right to pose questions and was not an embarrassment. “You have the right to ask all questions you want to ask,” Mr Annan replied. “I reserve the right to refuse to answer questions I don’t want to answer. But there is a certain behaviour and a certain mutual respect which we have to respect.”

An investigation by Paul Volcker, former US Federal Reserve Chairman, cleared Mr Annan of influencing the award of the contract, but strongly criticised his management of the programme.

Mr Annan told reporters that they had focused unduly on himself and his son, and missed the big story — the thousands of companies and countries that paid kickbacks to Saddam’s Government.

comment from James>>>>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1957482,00.html

[phuketsiam]

slightly off topic, but its well known that the "Annan plan" for Cyprus was drafted by the US, Annan has been in the US pocket for years, he is as bent as GWB himself

Edited December 23, 2005 by phuketsiam

[Chang_paarp]

Maybe it needs a Thai to show Kofi how it is done.

An opening to demonstrate to the world the centre of excellence the candidate has been trained in.

[kat]

This is very sad, but there is so much going on here, I don't know what to think. Geoge W.'s administration has it out for the UN and Kofi; the Oil-for-Food Program is riddled with problems and corruption - with many, many other players; Kofi's son is dubious, and most definitely used his father's ticket for a few benefits, but has there been substantive evidence linking him to Oil-for-food?

There's so much more than meets the eye here.