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By now, you have probably heard about the Volcker Report and that Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, was heavily implicated in the failures at the UN to oversee the Oil for Food program. Kofi's failures have direct and real consequences for the world, and for those most in harms' way in places like Dafur and Kosovo and Aceh Province and Nias Island.
On top of the colossal failures under UNSCAM, Kofi has overseen some of the greatest humanitarian nightmares to ever hit the UN - Rwanda's genocide in 1994 (as the point man for the UN), and Sudan genocide of 2004 onwards and the South Asian tsunami of 2004. I'm talking about the unanswered systematic mass murder and genocide under Kofi's watch coupled with Secretariat-wide corruption, extending to the highest levels and the incredibly slow response to handle emergency humanitarian crises. These two interrelated issues serve as the grounds on which to call for Kofi's resignation. On the one hand, is the blind eye to the mass corruption throughout the Secretariat under the Oil for Food program. Kofi, his son Kojo, and the head of the OFF program, Benan Sevan are all implicated in the mass corruption scandal that dwarfs all scandals to date. Over $23 billion was stolen from the OFF program over the course of the decade the program operated. Then, there's the sexual misconduct of the peacekeepers in various operations. A lack of oversight and penalties for violations leads to widespread violations, including on the Congo and Kosovo operations. As I have noted elsewhere, instead of taking part of the blame on himself, Kofi has instead chosen to deflect criticism over UNSCAM, inaction in Sudan, and various other misdeeds, by calling for reform that affects the US ability to guide the UN towards humanitarian goals. I wrote: Annan's calls for reform, which are nothing but an indirect method of reducing US influence on the outcome of any Security Council decision, is hardly a means for improving the situation in the Secretariat, or for preventing the kinds of abuse that are pervasive on peacekeeping operations. The strongest steps that can be taken, and the ones most likely to succeed, are the ones Annan refuses to consider - his resignation, and the firing of all others involved in UNSCAM, the sexual misconduct of peacekeepers, and the sexual harassment cases within the Secretariat. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Kofi's Failures Demand Action in Middle East Politics is owned by . Permission to republish Kofi's Failures Demand Action in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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