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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (671106)	2/4/2005 5:07:01 AM
From: sandintoes	Respond to of 769670

Where's Kofi? Smokescreen for UN started? Paul Volkers article in the WSJ Today, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nation's Oil for Food Program is issuing its first Interim Report. Much more work lies ahead in thoroughly investigating the full range of issues raised in the administration and implementation of that Program. The Committee's intention is to provide a comprehensive report around midyear. Today's Report is limited, but covers in almost excruciating detail three potentially vulnerable parts of the Program's administration: More disheartening are our findings with respect to the performance of the Executive Director in administrative charge of the Program, Benon Sevan, a long-term senior United Nations official. The evidence is conclusive that Mr. Sevan, in effectively participating in the selection of purchasers of oil under the Program, placed himself in an irreconcilable conflict of interest, in violation both of specific United Nations rules and of the broad responsibility of an international civil servant to adhere to the highest standards of trust and integrity.In making its findings, the Committee is consciously judging the United Nations against the highest standard of ethical behavior. Moreover, we believe that few institutions have freely subjected themselves to the intensity of scrutiny entailed in the Committee's work. If the United Nations is to effectively discharge the enormous responsibilities that have been placed upon it by member states, no lesser criteria for our investigation are appropriate. The new humanitarian crisis in the Indian Ocean is but another demonstration of the need for a truly effective international organization -- an organization that can command the confidence of member states and the citizens of the world alike. To read the full article in the Wall Street Journal you must be a paid subscriber.