Kofi the Clueless
I know that I come down hard on the United Nations but their track record over the last few decades has been abysmal for anything but meetings, resolutions and the lack of will to act.
Here is the latest from Kofi Annan as reported by
Yahoo/Reuters:
bq. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Sunday he would decide in the next day or so if he would send a mission to Iraq to study the feasibility of holding early elections.
bq. "I would expect to make a decision in the next day or so," Annan told Swedish television in an interview, a day before he is to speak at an international conference on preventing genocide in Stockholm.
bq. He said he had been asked to send such a team at a meeting last Monday with the U.S. governor of Iraq Paul Bremer and Governing Council President Adnan Pachachi.
bq. The team's job would be to determine if elections could be organized between now and the end of June so a provisional national assembly and government could be chosen in time for the June 30 transfer of political power to Iraqis.
And more:
bq.
"We have not been asked to play a role yet. But if we were asked, I'm sure that we are capable of playing a role. We have a vast experience in this," Annan said.
(emphasis mine)
He starts off by saying that he is intending to decide if he would send a mission to Iraq.
He then says that he had been asked to send such a team at a meeting last Monday with the U.S. governor of Iraq Paul Bremer and Governing Council President Adnan Pachachi.
He then says that "We have not been asked to play a role yet".
What is it Kofi - are you in or not... Sounds like you are trying to justify your presence there but nobody is committing to giving you anything to do beyond make speeches and hold meetings...
And more:
bq. Instead, the secretary-general probably would link the departure of the team to a U.N. security assessment in Iraq, required since the attack on U.N. headquarters in Baghdad on August 19 that killed 22 people.
Which could have been prevented if the U.N. had listened to the coalition forces and used coalition security instead of their own choices of ex-Baath party forces. They didn't listen to people who knew the situation and they paid the price. They
admitted this in a report (see below for update) but this report has not been mentioned since... Do not blame the coalition forces for your own stupidity Kofi.
bq. SHI'ITE CLERIC WANTS FULL-SCALE ELECTION
bq. Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, wants a full-scale election, which would likely favor Shi'ites, who make up an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people.
This is one guy - he is powerful but he is only one person with an agenda and someone who sees himself in a position to carve out a nice little empire. This is not the wish of the Iraqi people, this is the wish of one person and his hangers on. Do not give in!!!
UPDATE: I tried to find this report at the UN website and there are references to a memorial service, to the putting-together of a panel to look into the bomb blast but I do not seem to find the report there anymore. The USA State Department
has a review of it here:
bq. The U.N. security management system failed in its mission to provide adequate security to U.N. staff in Iraq, a special panel investigating the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad reported October 22.
And more:
bq. The panel concluded that the current U.N. security management system is "dysfunctional" and said that "it provides little guarantee of security to U.N. staff in Iraq or other high risk environments and needs to be reformed."
bq. It also concluded that the breaches in U.N. security rules and procedures in the field and at U.N. headquarters in New York are so serious that a separate and independent audit process should be undertaken. Personal accountability in the security system should be paramount, it said.
bq. The failure of U.N. management and staff to comply with standard security regulations and directions left the U.N. open and vulnerable to the attack, the report said.
And more:
bq. The panel said that the security challenge in crises zones requires the highest level of professionalism and expertise from security management, and the current system is not able to provide such expertise. Any new system should have a clear chain of command, an audit trail, extensive information management capabilities, a clear division of labor and coordination, and adequate financing, it said.
bq. Resolution 1511, adopted by the Security Council on October 16, gives the United Nations a greater role in assisting Iraq in the political process and other areas such as human rights, humanitarian aid, and development projects. However, since the bombing the U.N. has been maintaining a skeletal staff of about 36 international personnel in the country and the secretary general has said that he will not increase staff until security circumstances improve.
Heeeyyy - let's just pass a resolution saying that we are rulers of the Universe.
Yeah - that has a catchy ring to it... Hubris anyone? The 'Gaul' of these people.
Posted by DaveH at January 25, 2004 7:24 PM