The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is fighting for his job in the face of an increasing campaign by Republican congressmen who have launched a series of investigations into the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.
Annan is facing three separate congressional investigations into oil-for-food and a UN Security Council source said a further four are pending.
US President’s George Bush’s Republican party is hostile towards the UN in general but Annan in particular, especially after he last year declared that the war in Iraq was illegal.
Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican senator whose committee on Thursday published a report naming George Galloway, the MP for the anti-war Respect party, and Charles Pasqua, the former French minister, in connection with oil-for-food, has called on Annan to resign.
Coleman also hinted that the US could withhold its funding, which he said amounted to about 22% of the UN’s total budget.
Annan, who was badly undermined by revelations that his son Kojo was paid by a company that secured a lucrative UN contract for Iraq, is refusing to resign. He is due to retire in December 2006.
If Annan does not resign before then, the US will try to ensure that the next appointment, who is due to be chosen from Asia, will be in the American camp.
Coleman’s inquiry is being conducted by the Senate permanent sub-committee on investigations. Separate inquiries are being carried out by the House of Representatives international relations committee, led by the Republican Henry Hyde, and the house sub-commitee on national security, emerging threats and international relations, headed by Christopher Shays, another Republican.
These come on top of an internal UN inquiry ordered last year by Annan and headed by Paul Volcker, who has already issued two interim reports and is due to publish his final report in the summer. A spokesperson for Volker said on Thursday the timetable could slip and that a decision on a publication date was ”not yet on the horizon”.
The two interim reports by Volcker have been extremely damaging to Annan, criticising his officials as well as Kojo.
The inquiry is into the programme in which Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell limited quantities of oil in return for food between 1996 and 2003. Various companies and individuals are alleged to have benefited from illegal payments.
As long as only Volcker was involved, Annan could contain the row, and UN officials hope that publication of his report would mark an end to the affair.
But, with Republican congressmen piling in, Annan will face month after month of rows and allegations.
UN officials admitted on Thursday that a clash between the world organisation and the US Congress has put in jeopardy a programme of reforms on which Annan has staked his reputation.
Heads of government are due in New York in September to ratify the reform package, including expansion of the security council, which would amount to the biggest overhaul of the UN since its founding in 1945.
But relations between the UN and Congress have deteriorated sharply in the last week over oil-for-food to the extent that a US federal judge has been called upon to intervene.
One UN official admitted Annan, who wanted the reforms to be his legacy, is being ”distracted” by oil-for-food. The official admitted it is now possible that Annan will not achieve in September anything other than minimal changes, and the grandiose plan for increasing the security council from 15 members to 25 will be shelved.
A UN official close to Annan acknowleged that the publication of Volcker’s report will not end the controversy. ”Yes, that is true. It ain’t over with Volcker,” the official said.
He added that Annan had said the disclosures about the oil-for-food programme had been embarrassing but that he was determined to press ahead. Asked at a recent press conference if he was considering resigning, Annan said: ”Hell, no.”
The UN official said that if relations between the US and the UN continue to deteriorate at the present speed, he feared Congress will once again impose a freeze on funding, as it did 15 years ago.
The official said: ”We are doing all we can to give them information they need. We hope it will have a sensible ending. There were mistakes [in the oil-for-food programme] but not gross corruption — just minor.” – Guardian Unlimited Â