United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has been the subject of a heated debate in the United States and Europe in recent weeks, accused of an oversight in handling the Iraq oil-for-food programme.
Allegations of conflict of interest in the Annan family concerning the initiative have also been made.
Annan’s son, Kojo, worked for Cotecna — a Swiss firm that is accused of benefiting from this association to get a contract for inspecting goods under the programme.
While Kojo had left Cotecna by the time the firm was awarded the contract, he continued receiving payments from it.
”It’s a tiny figure,” said David Monyae, a lecturer in international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, in reference to Kojo’s $2 300 (about R13 000) monthly salary.
”It’s not corruption. Kojo worked for it,” he said.
”I think it’s a racist kind of campaign against Kofi Annan. He has to be defended. The African Union must see to it that Annan serves his term fully,” Monyae said on Thursday.
The current term of the UN secretary general, the first from sub-Saharan Africa, ends in December 2006.
The oil-for-food scandal extends beyond the Annan family. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was apparently able to net billions of dollars through abuse of the programme.
Annan’s critics allege that he should take responsibility for the matter, as it happened on his watch. And some, like US Senator Norman Coleman, have called for Annan to resign.
But, many Africans believe Coleman and those who share his views form as much of a conspiracy as that which allegedly developed around the oil-for-food initiative.
”The plot being hatched by right-wingers in the US to oust [Annan] must be challenged,” wrote Farouk Araie in South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper on December 15.
”More than anyone else, [Annan] has understood the overriding significance of human rights in the work of the UN. Africa must stand up for Kofi Annan,” he said.
A group of high-profile South Africans comprising former president Nelson Mandela; his wife, Graca Machel; retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer; and renowned human rights lawyer George Bizos has also thrown its weight behind Annan.
Last week, they signed an open letter condemning attempts to force his resignation.
Nigerian newspaper the Vanguard, known for its bluntness, said Annan is being tried in ”the court of racists and hypocrites”.
Monyae believes part of the anger being directed against Annan has its roots in the failure by the US to secure a UN mandate to wage war in Iraq. — Sapa-IPS