Britain, France, Germany (& Russia & China) Back Annan; Bush Wavers
By REUTERS
December 3, 2004
Filed at 0:57 a.m. ET
nytimes.com
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Britain, Germany, France, Russia, and China rallied around U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday, but President Bush did not explicitly endorse the U.N. chief, under fire over suspected corruption in the now-defunct Iraq humanitarian program.
``Mr. Annan is doing an excellent job as secretary-general,'' said Foreign Minister Jack Straw of Britain, a major U.S. ally on Iraq, in a statement released in New York as other major powers and U.N. members expressed support for Annan.
The reactions came a day after U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican who heads a committee investigating mismanagement in the U.N. oil-for-food program, called on Annan to resign.
Coleman, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said Annan should go because he had to be held ``accountable for the U.N.'s utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses.''
The plan, administered by the U.N. secretariat and supervised by the 15-member Security Council which includes the United States, allowed Saddam Hussein's Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods in an effort to ease the impact on ordinary Iraqis of U.N. sanctions, imposed in mid-1990.
Asked by a reporter whether Annan should resign, Bush did not answer directly. ``I look forward to the full disclosure of the facts, get an honest appraisal of that which went on. And it's important for the integrity of the organization to have a full and open disclosure of all that took place with the oil-for-food program,'' he said.
The State Department said suggestions that Bush was wavering in support for Annan was ``an overinterpretation of what the United States said.''
``I talked to Secretary (of State Colin) Powell about this and he said he and the president have the highest regard for the work Kofi Annan is doing, especially his humanitarian work,'' spokesman Richard Boucher told Reuters.
``But at the same time, the United States wants to wait for the results of the (oil-for-food program) inquiry before making any statements about its implications for anyone,'' he added.
WASHINGTON'S CHOICE
Annan, a Ghanaian, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, was easily elected to second five-year term as U.N. secretary-general, which ends on December 31, 2006. He had been Washington's choice after the Clinton administration refused to endorse Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali for a second term.
Since Saddam's fall, there have been widespread allegations of corruption and violations of U.N. sanctions, many connected to the U.N. program but others involving oil deals with governments directly.
Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. arms inspector, who did a detailed survey on Iraq in September, said Saddam earned $3 billion by cheating the $64 billion oil-for-food program and another $7.5 billion outside of the program. Coleman's committee, using Duelfer's data, has doubled this amount.
On Thursday, President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany voiced strong support for Annan after their meeting in Luebeck, Germany.
The two leaders telephoned Annan to send him ``a message of friendship and support for his work in the service of peace, development and United Nations reform,'' a Chirac aide said.
Strong support for Annan was unanimous among the Security Council's permanent members other than the United States.
Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, told Reuters there was no question the United Nations could do a better job in many areas. But he said ``The United Nations is doing a good job. Ask those people who need it most in west Africa, for example, or in south Asia.''
China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya told reporters that Annan had strong support among U.N. members. ``He has done a good job.''
Russia's deputy foreign minister, Yuri Fedotov, told the Interfax news agency that the ``surge of criticism'' of Annan ``is groundless in our opinion.''
The current president of the Security Council, Algeria's ambassador, Abdallah Baali, told a news conference that there was no discussion among U.N. members about whether Annan should resign. ``As far as we are concerned, Algeria and the other members of the United Nations, the secretary-general has been elected for five years,'' Baali said.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd. |
