It's time to move forward with Kofi Annan by Kenneth H. Bacon Refugees International 1:31am 8th Apr, 2005   04/04/2005    The latest chapter of the investigation of the United Nation’s Oil for Food Program clears Secretary General Kofi Annan of the most serious charge against him—that he was involved in the award of a contract to a company that employed his son.       Now it is time to focus on what Mr. Annan is doing right, rather than on discredited charges that he did something wrong.      Mr. Annan is in the midst of three important initiatives that deserve the support of the United States and all countries that want the UN to play a greater role in making the world more peaceful and stable.      The first program is the Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty and starvation in half by 2015.  Poverty-related causes kill 20,000 people a day, so the program is life-saving.      The second is a far-reaching proposal to make the UN more effective.  The third is his continuing effort to generate stronger world-wide efforts to bring peace to Darfur, where President Bush and the U.S. Congress have said the government of Sudan is committing genocide.  Earlier last week, Mr. Annan met with human rights and relief organizations working in Sudan to seek new approaches for quelling the violence in Darfur.    The investigation of the Oil for Food Program, which allowed Iraq to sell enough oil to buy food to feed its people despite sanctions imposed after the first Iraq war, will continue, although the focus should no longer be on Mr. Annan.   Faced with charges that the program was manipulated by Saddam and poorly administered by the UN, Mr. Annan asked Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, to lead an independent investigation.    One part of the investigation has been personally embarrassing for Mr. Annan.  In 1998 the UN engaged a Swiss company, Contecna, to inspect humanitarian goods entering Iraq.  Mr. Annan’s son, Kojo, worked for Contecna before the company won the contract and continued to receive secret payments from the company after saying that he had resigned.      In a detailed 90-page report, the Volcker committee found that “there is no evidence that the selection of Contecna in 1998 was subject to any affirmative or improper influence of the Secretary-General in the bidding or selection process.”  Contecna won the contract because it was the lowest bidder, the panel said.      Mr. Annan’s critics aren’t satisfied by the panel’s conclusion. Sen. Norm Coleman (R - MN) repeated his call for Mr. Annan to resign following the report.  But the report is clear in its exoneration of Mr. Annan, and it is time to move on.      The challenges that Mr. Annan and the UN face demand his entire attention, and the goals he has set deserve strong support from all member countries, particularly the U.S.    To advance the Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, President Bush has announced a sharp increase in U.S. development assistance.  However, his initiative, the Millennium Challenge Corp., has been slow to get off the ground, and funding is not coming as fast as the president promised, slowing progress toward a more stable world.    Earlier this month Mr. Annan proposed reforms designed to modernize the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions and deploy peacekeepers, and to improve the UN’s ability to fight terrorism, promote democracy and protect human rights.  These are not abstract concepts; they are pillars of American policy.    Finally, Mr. Annan’s efforts to lead the UN to stop the death and displacement in Darfur have been only a partial success.  The UN’s aggressive humanitarian action is saving thousands of lives with food and medicine, but the U.S. and other nations have yet to put enough pressure on Sudan to stop the killing.      In the last two years, an estimated 300,000 people have died of war related causes and two million have been displaced.  The UN Security Council has refused to take assertive action, despite Mr. Annan’s leadership.    When Kofi Annan became secretary general eight years ago, he said that his goal was “to perfect the triangle of development, freedom and peace.”  It’s time to help him, not hold him back.    (Kenneth H. Bacon is the president of Refugees International, an independent advocacy organization).
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