The Real Refugee Scandal

Opinion Journal ^ | 2-23-2005 | Claudia Rosett

[Pendragon_6]

So prolific in scandal has the United Nations become that it's getting hard to keep tabs. You can surf the channels, from rape by peacekeepers in the Congo, to theft at the World Meteorological Organization, to a Human Rights Commission crammed with despots; from inadequate auditing to botched management to wasted money to running the biggest heist in the history of humanitarian work--the Oil for Food program in Saddam's Iraq.

An aggrieved Secretary-General Kofi Annan has chosen to describe the reporting of such outrages as "attacks on the United Nations"--as if the problem lay in the reporting, rather than the scandalous behavior that is the real threat to the U.N.'s peace-and-human-dignity mandate. But at least a little daylight has prompted some acknowledgement from the U.N. Secretariat itself that there is a need, as Mr. Annan's new chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, just wrote in London's Sunday Times, for reform at the U.N. "through deeds, not words."

Continued

[indcons]

The best way to reform the UN is to shut it down.

[2banana]

They do a great job of protecting muslim refugees (kosovo, afghanistan)...they don't really care about refugees that islamic or communist countries cause...

[mvpel]

But at least a little daylight has prompted some acknowledgement from the U.N. Secretariat itself that there is a need, as Mr. Annan's new chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, just wrote in London's Sunday Times, for reform at the U.N. "through deeds, not words."

Given that it took them 12 years, and finally unilateral action by several member states over the opposition of the organization, to go from words to deeds on Iraq, I'm not optimistic about reform.

[Carry_Okie]

I'd rather deform it than reform it.

[Fudd Fan]

the UN might have been formed with lofty ideals back in the day, immediately after WWII when people were happy to have the war behind them. It's become (as we well know) a place where irrelevant, pissant countries can superficially feel better about themselves by tearing and clawing at the US. It is beyond a joke. National sovereignty is paramount. If the UN can't be shut down, we should just get out and kick it out.

[maryz]

Kofi Annan had an op-ed in the WSJ yesterday. I couldn't make myself read it, but I glanced over it. One "point" he made is how much he's managed to reform the UN in the eight (?) years he's been there.