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UN Performance Problems UN Management Accountability Struggles Where is the Rule of Law? Inadequate UN Oversight Recent Developments
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211. "In an
ideal world, it would be good for significant structural changes to be
made to the {UN]
as good, no less, as an ideal transformation in the
membership of the Security Council and in the practices of
peacekeeping. But failing
seismic amendments to the [UN] Charter, there is still a lot that can be
done to improve today's rather sorry state of affairs: the
further reduction of overlapping agencies; a greater insistence on the
quality of incoming UN officials; less rigid emphasis on rotation; and
greater consistency regarding standards when applying
UN policies. The same recommendations also apply
to the Secretary General's office itself; like Caesar's wife, it has to be
above suspicion, a house of rectitude, efficiency, and
fairness. Much
has been done in this respect, but the larger point is that, because of
unfriendly and disdainful feelings toward the world organization in some
quarters, the Secretariat needs to have a
record that is spotless and
unchallengeable." Paul Kennedy, The
parliament of man: The past, present, and future of the United
Nations, Random House, New York, (June/July) 2006, pp.
271-272. [Note:
The assessment of "Much has been done" can be challenged in light of the
continuously emerging scandals (see the many preceding quotes and those
that follow), But faltering Secretariat credibility, especially at the
senior staff levels, indeed gravely undermines UN legitimacy.] 212. "The United
Nations steered clear of a financial shipwreck last week, but it also
steered clear of approving urgently needed management
reforms. That is a standoff, not a solution. If the less-developed countries
blocking those reforms continue to dig in, the United Nations will suffer
in diminished public credibility and greater resistance to dues-paying by
some of the largest contributors, including the United States.
The United Nations cannot move
forward unless both groups are satisfied. And if it doesn't move forward,
the less-developed countries will suffer the most.
[Various]
criticisms miss
the point. The reforms are
not a concession to Washington and other big donors. They are a necessity for all UN
members. The United Nations
cannot function effectively in the 21st century under budget and
management rules that were originally devised for a much smaller
organization.
Successive embarrassments like the oil-for-food scandal have made
that painfully clear."
"Crisis postponed at the UN",
International Herald Tribune, July 4,
2006.
213. "Three
decades have passed since the world first learned of the 'killing fields'
of Cambodia.
The horrified outcry when the
crimes of the Khmer Rouge came to light was only repeated later, over
Srebrenica, Rwanda, Sierra Leone.
Yet the international tribunals set up for these atrocities have
been painfully slow, frightfully expensive and sadly inadequate.
It should not be surprising
if victims of atrocities come to see international justice as an expensive
exercise in allaying Western guilt for failing to act in time. The Cambodian tribunal, with
[30
judges]
is set to spend $56.3 million over three years in a [very poor
country.] Yet that expense
can be justified if it
can demonstrate to the world that justice,
however delayed, awaits those who commit heinous crimes against
humanity.
The
international tribunals
should be supported by serious efforts to ensure that such atrocities do
not happen again. Getting a
UN force into Darfur would be a good start."
"The killing fields",
International Herald Tribune, July 7,
2006.
214. "The United Nations, which is trying
to root out corruption in its procurement services, is
spending over a million dollars on legal and consultancy fees in an
ongoing investigation which has so far offered little or no
productive results. As a result of preliminary
investigations by
[the OIOS], eight staffers were placed on
administrative leave with full pay last January. But no single charges have been
framed against them so far
leaving them virtually in limbo.
The Independent Procurement
Task Force, operating under the umbrella of OIOS, is investigating over
500 cases relating to procurement.
The overall losses cited by
the OIOS could be as high as 300 million dollars. But according to Deputy
Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, 'There is strong disagreement
between OIOS and the
[UN peacekeeping department] about the methodology
and quality of parts of the work, which we need to
resolve.' Singapore,
[with one
national among the eight UN staffers], has taken a lead role in pushing
the Secretariat to expedite the long drawn out investigation.
[Secretary-General Kofi] Annan
has pledged to take 'concrete measures on procurement reform
'" Thalif Deen, "UN to
spend a million dollars rooting out corruption", ipsnews.net, July 6, 2006. 215. "The United
Nations General Assembly has unanimously approved [without a vote] a
series of reforms that its President [Jan Eliasson] said will further
consolidate a 'culture of accountability, transparency and integrity' at
the world body, as well as make it more effective and efficient.
'I am particularly pleased by
the constructive atmosphere that has prevailed during the detailed
negotiations of the Fifth Committee
', he added, highlighting the
complexity of some of the issues in the resolution.
He also noted that, concerning
future work on management reform, the Assembly decided to defer to its
next session the question of peacekeeping accounts, proposals of the
Secretary-General on governance, oversight, and accountability as well as
human resources management. The eight-part resolution was
adopted just over a week after the Assembly lifted a spending cap on the
UN budget -- despite objections from the United States, Japan, and
Australia -- that had threatened financial crisis at the world
body." "General Assembly approves series of UN reforms
aimed at greater efficiency", UN News Service, 10 July 2006. [Thus, this glowing achievement was
actually done in a great rush, amid much complexity, and by postponing --
until "later" -- the severe disagreements and the most important
management items, including, as always, "accountability".] 216. "Under the
auspices of Kofi Annan, [Bonn, the former German capital city, yesterday]
was declared a "United Nations campus", caring for the world's climate,
its deserts and its bat populations. This sweeping new role
reflected Germany's status as 'one of the few ideal members' of the UN,
Mr. Annan
said at the inauguration.
There are now 12 [UN agencies]
in the city
[including a] four-person office dealing with conservation
of European bats
The main location is a
31-story skyscraper that used to house legislators' offices. [It and another building]
--- complete with security checks, a rooftop restaurant and an internet
cafι for the 530 staff -- have now been rebranded the UN Campus 'working
toward sustainable development worldwide.'" Hugh Williamson, "Bats help put small-town Bonn
back in the global spotlight", The Financial Times (UK), July 12, 2006. 217.
"Oil-for-Food has had its first airing in [a US federal court in
New York, and a South Korean businessman was found guilty]
The U.N. itself operates
immune to any system of justice ... but at least
[its] location puts
within reach of the law some of the private players who
feed illicitly off the U.N. stew of money, secrecy, diplomatic immunity,
and privilege.
The jury saw
[exhibits and
heard witnesses questioned] in open court -- unlike the [private
interviews conducted] by Paul Volcker's secretive probe, commissioned by
the U.N.
We now have a
verdict that begins to cut through the massive haze that has surrounded
the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, in which, at the U.N. itself, not a single
official has even been fired, let alone required to face a prosecutor in
open court. The next trial
is scheduled
for November, before the same federal judge
[A District Attorney's Office
document quoted an Iraqi Ambassador:] "
The Republic of Iraq is
grateful for the hard work and dedication of the United States Attorney's
Office
and the FBI for pursuing this case and continuing to investigate
criminal wrongdoing related to the Oil-for-Food
Program." Claudia Rosett, "Guilty", National Review
Online, July 14, 2006. Two
more of her detailed articles on this court process and related UN issues
are "No Free Parking", National Review Online, July 11, 2006, and "Central
Park", The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2006.
218a. "Are the United Nations'
Millennium Development Goals, meant to reduce poverty and disease,
working? Not according to
[a new British study which claims] that a likely focus on the urban poor
hurts [the world's 370 million] indigenous people, who tend to have higher
rates of disease [and]
make up 5 percent of the population, but 14
percent of the poor. The
danger is that target-chasing governments worried about U.N. goals aren't
allocating the funds needed to address specific indigenous problems like
alcohol and obesity.
Translation: indigenous groups could be on their way to
extinction." William Underhill, "Science: Aboriginal blues",
Newsweek International, July 17, 2006, p. 6. [Note: In its
ongoing struggles with development programmes, however, the UN has a lot
of company -- see the next five items.] 218b. "The European Commission,
the world's second largest aid donor [giving $9.5 billion in 2004]
will
come under fire from
[a Save the Children (UK) report] for its slowness
in disbursing funds.
Delays by rich countries in
distributing aid already pledged threaten to undermine the development
process
[and] jeopardize
achievement of the millennium development goals.
The EU's executive scored
particularly badly in the area of budget support
hugely important
[to
finance recurrent costs like teachers' salaries, medical supplies, and
textbooks.] The report finds that the EC
was consistently the worst performer [among five European donors],
disbursing only 17 per cent of its commitments in 2002, rising to 28 per
cent in 2003 and 76 per cent [in 2004].
'The EC [Commission] has
stated that 40 per cent of delays are due to inefficient and ineffective
administrative processes of the EC', Save the Children
said." Scheherazade Daneshkhu, "Brussels under fire for
slow dispersal of aid", The Financial Times (UK), July 11,
2006. 218c. "The World Bank's
support for education has largely failed to ask whether children are
actually learning anything, a report by the bank's independent watchdog
said yesterday.
The report] said that only
one fifth of bank-supported projects actually tested whether children
could read, write and do arithmetic after attending school. "Primary
education efforts need to focus on improving learning outcomes,
particularly among the poor
", the report said. The bank has adopted the
target of getting every child in the world to be able to complete primary
education by 2015, one of the 'millennium development goals' set by the
UN.
But the report said that
drop-out rates in many countries were unacceptably high, and even where
children completed primary school it appeared that many had learned
little.
Pressure on the World Bank and
other donors to prove that aid is making a difference has intensified in
recent years." Alan Beattie, "World Bank education effort
attacked", The Financial Times (UK), July 14, 2006. [Note: See also a
closely-related article, "Is our children learning? After $12 billion of
World Bank money, and the promise of more to come, donors still don't
really know", The Economist, July 15th, 2006, p. 65. 218d.
Pressing problems surrounded the leaders of eight of the world's
leading nations as they met in St. Petersburg this week. Oil prices soared
over $70 a barrel. War was
spreading in the Middle East. Iran was dodging straight answers about its
nuclear programs. And trade
talks neared breakdown over subsidies to farmers. There could hardly have been a
better moment for the annual meeting of the Group of 8 to prove
its worth. Instead,
the
entire weekend was an ill-disguised exercise in evasion on the major
issues.
But it might have been worth
the embarrassment if the assembled leaders had actually come up with some
serious joint initiatives for addressing the problems that beset their
countries and the world. Maybe next
year." "Alternative reality at the G-8", International
Herald Tribune, July 20,
2006. 218e. Millions of tablets of
a highly effective medicine for malaria may have to be destroyed in the
next few months because orders from the developing world are substantially
below original forecasts,
[a] French pharmaceutical group has warned.
The crisis highlights the
failure of the international system
for forecasting
and ordering malarial drugs, and
could have important repercussions for other suppliers
Each year
[malaria] affects more than 500m people and kills up to
3m. The warning follows similar
complaints from [a]
Swiss pharmaceutical group that official forecasts
were far in excess of actual demand.
Chris Hentschel, head of
Medicines for Malaria Venture, a charity for developing new drugs for the
disease, said: 'It's obviously a waste and a tragedy if drugs like this
are destroyed.'
The company is believed to
be attempting to avoid destroying the tablets by negotiating to donate the
medicines, while persuading countries to waive normal regulations
[against accepting drugs] with less than 70 per cent of their shelf life
remaining." Andrew Jack, "Up to 10m malaria tablets 'may be
destroyed'", The Financial Times (UK), July 24, 2006. 218f.
Remember Africa? A
year ago
the Group of 8 summit meeting
prepared to devote its
deliberations to Africa's revival.
Make Poverty History, as last year's campaign was called, rapidly
became history itself.
A South African
[foundation]
has calculated that, in the post-colonial era, donors have contributed a
staggering $580 billion to sub-Saharan Africa. The compact sought by Western
donors with African beneficiaries is that they break with old corrupt
habits and build
systems to permit help to reach those for whom it is
intended. That is not the
case now
As
[one observer said],
while Western shortcomings toward Africa have been 'gleefully exposed,'
'when it comes to the failings of African leaders there
has been an embarrassed shuffling of feet.
In southern Africa, in
particular, African leaders have devised a system of what they call 'peer
review'
But it is a feeble
mechanism, bereft of the power -- or even the readiness -- to enforce
sanctions on offenders such as Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe." Alan Cowell, "Lack of African dream lets a
nightmare prevail", International Herald Tribune, July 27,
2006.
219. The search
for a new UN secretary-general shifts into a higher gear
[late this
month, with] four formally declared candidates from India, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, and South Korea.
The candidacy of Shashi
Tharoor, an author and head of the UN's department of public information,
has perplexed some Indian diplomats and a number of foreign
governments.
Secretaries-general
have [mostly] come from small countries
Another potential obstacle to
Mr. Tharoor, 50, is the impression that he is closely linked with Mr.
Annan, and questions over his managerial record. 'One need look no further
than at the DPI
to know its leader should not get a promotion', said a
US official.
The London-born author and UN
lifer has so far been the beneficiary of only half-hearted lobbying from
Indian officials. Mischievous
diary items are making appearances in the Indian newspapers. Sceptics also
draw attention to a self-promotional website
replete with soft-focus
photos of an undeniably flattering vintage. But Mr. Tharoor, author of The Great Indian Novel, denies he
is too flamboyant
'Governments know I'm a serious and effective
official." A consummate
networker, he won strong applause at the recent African Union summit
." Mark Turner and Jo Johnson, "Search starts in
earnest to succeed Annan as Secretary-General", The Financial Times
(UK), July 19, 2006. [Notes: Mr. Tharoor is either very
uninformed or duplicitous about UN transparency and accountability issues
(see items 109 and 104 in Overview
quotes II, vs. items
160-162, and 165 in Overview
quotes III) He is also "close" with Mr. Annan --
see, at www.unforum.com,
under
"site map", "headlines", the articles "It is against the rules.
Does Annan have a 'dog in that fight'?" and "Tharoor and the Indian Iraq
food for oil" of 15 July 2006
(and then please see again item 211 above.)].
220. "
An
independent panel of experts today issued a series of recommendations for
overhauling the
[United Nations'] system of
internal justice.
The Redesign Panel
[said] a
'fundamental overhaul' is needed for managerial reform at the UN to
succeed.
The current appeals system 'doesn't work', said
[panel member Diego Garcia-Sayan], calling it 'too costly, too cumbersome
in its procedures, [with] too many people involved.'
[Restructuring]
'would mean
simplification of procedures, a streamlining of resources that today are
spread around different bodies and organizations.'
Another panel member said
the experts had found that staff members in the field had 'no clue' about
their rights about internal justice. 'A lot of frustrations, but nobody
knows where to go, what to do.' The new system, if adequately
resourced, will offer redress to staff grievances and deal with staff or
managerial misconduct far more quickly and effectively than the
[current system],
the experts said
'which is costly, in terms of time, staff
dissatisfaction and the reputation of the
Organization.'" "Experts call for
overhaul of UN's internal justice system", UN News Service, 20 July 2006. [Note: Such
official and public recognition of these long-standing defects is welcome,
but Mr. Annan's hand-picked "independent experts" focused on structure,
procedures, and resource adjustments rather than the fundamental failures
of an unjust justice system supporting managerial impunity, as emphasized in the parallel external
report of June 2006 (see item 202 in Overview
Quotes III, and "UN war crimes judge" on the IO Watch
home page). The new
Secretariat slogan seems to be "More bad judgements, faster."]
221 Food
emergencies in Africa are occurring three times more often now than in the
mid-1980s, but the global response to famine continues to be 'too little,
too late', the international aid agency Oxfam says today. Conflict, Aids and climate change
are all exacerbating food shortages for sub-Saharan Africa's 750m people,
with innovative solutions and massive long-term support needed to break
the cycle, the British-based group added in a new
report. "Famine response 'too little, too late'", Reuters,
Nairobi, in The Financial Times (UK), July 24, 2006. 222. "Life in Aceh, the
[Indonesian province] where 170,000 people perished in the December 2004
tsunami, has resumed a semblance of normality.
But
a veil of disenchantment with
international aid agencies pervades
To many, the $8.5 billion that
humanitarian agencies, foreign governments and Indonesia say they will
spend on the rebuilding of Aceh seems a mirage.
So far, the World Bank
says that only $1.5 billion
dedicated to the disaster has been
disbursed.
Much of what has been spent
has not been spent well. A scathing report
issued July 14 by the Tsunami Evaluation
Coalition, including [Western, UN, and aid agency experts says
that]
many of the hundreds of aid agencies
displayed 'arrogance and
ignorance', and were often staffed by 'incompetent workers' who came and
went quickly
The assessment
criticized
the aid agencies for paying more attention to advertising their 'brands'
and releasing self-laudatory reports than accounting for their
expenditures. Much of the
[initial
success] was largely due to local organizations
House building is the main
source of complaint.
About 25,000 new houses have been completed out of
a projected 120,000 that are needed
" Jane Perlez, "After the tsunami, anger: Promises
of aid have fallen short of reality", International Herald Tribune,
July 27,
2006.
223. "[This] report provides an
opportunity for the General Assembly to renew the system of governance and
oversight within the United Nations. It recommends a series of
improvements that affect both management and the governing structures that
have served the Organization since its inception. Many of the recommendations are
far-reaching and deserve careful attention.
[The report is]
an
independent external evaluation of the auditing and oversight system of
the United Nations, including the specialized agencies: and the roles and
responsibilities of management, with due regard to the nature of the
auditing and oversight bodies in question
within the context of the
comprehensive review of governance arrangements." "Comprehensive review
of governance and oversight within the United Nations and its funds,
programmes and specialized agencies: Report of the Secretary-General", UN
document A/60/883 and Adds. 1 and 2, 10 July 2006, Summary, para. 2, and
para. 1a. [Note: this report,
actually distributed on 28 July
2006, after the General Assembly debates on management reform
subsided, is a very in-depth, action-oriented, and long overdue analysis
with some excellent recommendations for correcting serious flaws in UN
governance and oversight. Its
five volumes (in some 400 pages) are available at www.un.org/documents under "General Assembly", "Session
Documents".] 224. "The
[global] proliferation of new microplayers capable of constraining their
mega-sized rivals is a rising trend everywhere.
This trend, where players can
rapidly accumulate immense power, where the power of traditional
megaplayers is successfully challenged, and where power is both ephemeral
and harder to exercise, is evident in every facet of human life. In fact, it is one of the defining
and not yet fully understood characteristics of our time.
What may be coming -- and in
some ways is already here -- is a hyper-polar world where many large,
powerful actors coexist with myriad smaller powers (not all of which are
nation-states) that greatly limit the dominance of any single nation or
institution. [Note: the USA? the UN?] Such a world opens many new
attractive opportunities for the little guy, whether a small country, a
new company, or a talented individual. But those opportunities must come
at the expense of something, and. in this case, that is stability. Whether you prefer cheering for
David or Goliath, the complex interplay of megaplayers and micropowers
portends a more volatile, fractious world." Moisιs Naνm, "Megaplayers vs. micropowers: Rising
instability is good news for the little guy -- and bad for everyone else",
Foreign Policy, July-August
2006, pp. 96-95.
225. [The
Congo's]
first multi-party poll in four decades appears to have come off
without serious violence.
The final vote count
[might still] create a new class of disenfranchised politicians eager
to
regain power. To prevent
this, the international community must invest more in creating all the
other fundamentals of a legitimate democracy with appropriate checks and
balances, a strong parliament, independent courts and a genuine sense of
government accountability.
Corruption is one of the
biggest killers in this country
People here see their
government primarily as a predator
[which runs] a massive extortion
racket. The government
provides next to no healthcare, education, or even security for its
citizens. In a recent
[World Bank] survey, Congolese were asked how they would treat the state
if it was a person. "Kill
him' was a frequent reply. The challenge is to
[establish a government] that actually delivers services.
As a World Bank official
explained, 'Systems are good -- but if the people in the system are
corrupt, you haven't got very far.'
Elections alone will not bring
an end to this tragedy but creating a functioning state just
might." Jason Stearns and
Michela Wrong, "The struggle for a functioning Congo", Financial
Times (UK), August 4,
2006. [Note:
Ms. Wrong is author of In the footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the
brink of disaster in the Congo.]
226. Congo:
The International Crisis Group calls
[the Congo election] 'the most
promising moment' in Congo's recent history, but warns that 'there are
huge dangers as well.' The
tale of the tape: Too much choice? Congo has 25.7 million registered
voters, many of them illiterate, who have to grapple with six-page ballot
papers that present 33 presidential contenders and more than 9,700
candidates. Bad history:
The setting for
Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" boasts a six-year civil war, leaving more
than 4 million dead, and more than 3 million displaced. Even now, 1,200 people a day die
on average; half of them are children. In Kofi we trust: The poll is
going ahead under the watch of the [UN mission], which has 17,600 troops
trying to keep the peace.
It's a $432 million initiative, and is considered the most complex
U.N. electoral assistance mission ever undertaken." Karen Macgregor,
"Periscope: By the numbers", Newsweek International, August 7, 2006, p.
5.
227.
"Diplomats [to the UN] from countries with high levels of
corruption
are far more likely to commit parking violations in New York,
according to a new study
[by two economists who examined diplomats from
146 countries relative to their country's ratings in the Transparency
International corruption index].
What they found was revealing,
if not necessarily surprising. Diplomats from low-corruption countries
behaved 'remarkably well',
[whereas] those from high-corruption
countries committed many violations. The study concluded: "Culture,
norms, and emotions -- in other words, factors other than legal
enforcement -- play a key role in government officials' corruption
decisions
understanding these factors should be taken seriously in
debates about the causes of corruption and the policy measures to combat
it.'" Mark Turner, "New
York finds out why parking fines were ignored", Financial Times
(UK), August 15, 2006, and
also "Diplomats and parking fines: Sleazy countries are best at breaking
New York City's parking rules", The Economist, August 12th, 2006, p. 37. [Note: Scofflaws in
the home country, scofflaws on New York streets, and perhaps/probably
scofflaws in decisions on UN anti-corruption and rule of law efforts and
programs as well? See also
the next item.]
228. "What do
the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, the defeat of Silvio
Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, and the indictment of Tom DeLay,
former US house majority leader, all have in common? In a word: corruption. Having worked on electoral campaigns
around the world, we are struck by the number of countries in which corruption has become a top-tier issue that mobilizes
voters, decides elections and shapes national agendas.
The slogan for many opposition movements in
[many]
countries revolves around the idea of 'enough!' Political elites are often the last to understand
that the people mean business in their calls for reform
Voters mostly talk about corruption not as a moral
failing, but as an economic problem -- and in surveys across many
countries they tell us it is a bigger cause of low living standards than
bad economic policies. Those politicians who take the lead on this issue --
explaining its costs, identifying its perpetrators and offering solutions
-- are likely to find themselves in line with most voters in their
national elections and marching in front of what is becoming a global
demand for transparency and change." Stanley Greenberg and Jeremy Rosner, "Leaders must
join voters in the war on corruption", Financial
Times (UK), August 18, 2006. [Note: the authors are
senior officers of a global public opinion research and strategy
company.]
229a. "The world has made
considerable promises
The time has come to keep them." -- UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urging G8 countries to make concrete pledges
to fight AIDS.
"Periscope: Perspectives", Newsweek International, August 21,
2006.
229b. "AIDS drugs do not cure: they merely hold
the virus at bay. Withdraw them and viruses will emerge
Treat someone for AIDS, then, and you take on a responsibility that ends
only at death.
People in the rich world are used to [paying for
fellow citizens. But last year the G8 meeting loudly called for drug
treatment available]
to all who need it
[At about $1,000 per year of drugs and support
facilities per person], the current annual cost would
be $6 billion-7 billion], but a bill of $40 billion by the end of the next
decade is conceivable. That is
[why the AIDS establishment
has swung
around to prevention. But new strategies will take time.]
Someone will have to pay
The rich world has been reasonably generous about
AIDS
and a lot of money is available. But
the main vehicles for
handing out the money are fragile
There must be a plausible long-term
commitment
The G8 countries
[should] understand what they are
getting themselves into. Taking on millions of medical pensioners is
indeed a huge commitment. But do not start what you cannot finish." "The war against AIDS: Look to the future", The Economist, August 19th,
2006, pp. 11-12. [Note: An excellent book
exploring in detail the gravity of these problems of "other people's
money" and myopic politicians' grand promises is Peter S. Heller, Who will pay? Coping with aging societies, climate
change, and other long-term fiscal challenges, International Money
Fund, Washington, D.C., 2003.]
230. "The prospect of large new peacekeeping missions in
Lebanon and Darfur would push the number of troops under United Nations
command to an all-time high, officials have warned, posing a
daunting logistical challenge as the world body seeks to restore its
battered reputation.
To some extent, these new missions are good news for
an organization that some critics had proclaimed irrelevant in the wake of
the Iraq crisis, and which has suffered a wave of scandals.
But officials are also nervous
In the early 1990s,
early optimism over a big new role for the UN was shattered by its
ill-prepared response to disasters in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia. ...
By 2003, peacekeeping was surging once more, but
new fears of overstretch began to mount.
'
At the end of 2005, we had 17 peacekeeping
operations with almost double the personnel [versus 2000], over 86,000",
[a UN official said.]
.Another UN official said the new
missions were a powerful example of why the UN needed far-reaching
management reforms. 'Unless you get broader reforms firmed up, it will be
very difficult,' he said.'" Mark Turner, "UN fears overstretch as number of
peacekeeping troops nears record", Financial
Times (UK), August 23, 2006. 231. "With water
availability shrinking across the Middle East, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
[experts say]
violent conflict between states is increasingly likely.
The specter is also on the agenda
at the World
Water Week forum in Stockholm.
Observing recent events, it is difficult to avoid
joining the ranks of pessimists who see water wars not as a future threat,
but a living reality.
What we are dealing with is a global crisis generated
by decades of gross mismanagement of water resources.
In effect, a large section of humanity is now living
in regions where the limits of sustainable water use have been breached --
and where water-based ecological systems are collapsing.
Governments have to stop treating water as an
infinitely available resource to be exploited without reference to
ecological sustainability.
Countries must avoid unilateralism.
Governments should look beyond national borders to basin-wide cooperation.
[Finally,] political leaders need to get involved.
'By means of water,' says the Koran, 'we give life to
everything.'
By means of water, perhaps we can display a capacity for
resolving problems and sustaining through cooperation." Kevin Watkins and Anders Berntell, "How to avoid war
over water: A global problem", International
Herald Tribune, August 24, 2006. 232. "The Israeli
military failed against Hezbollah. American and British forces are bogged
down in Iraq.
NATO is under intense pressure in Afghanistan
Why are the best armies in the world in
difficulty
?
The big U.S. military idea
[is] ever greater
distance between the force and its enemy.
But many [current conflicts
require]
close engagement.
Fear of risk is the cancer in Europe's
security effort. Most Europeans can neither afford advanced equipment nor
sufficient numbers of professional personnel. Lack of
either increases the risk to those deployed. [Thus]
the institutional
organization of security is talked up, and operational realism is talked
down.
If Europe is to become a serious security actor,
Europeans must invest properly in their militaries.
Put simply, Western military power must be sharper at
the point of contact.
Western militaries need more special
forces
forces capable of creating the security space in which
reconstruction can take place
[and much better military/civilian
synergies and] links with regional powers
Young western men and women in foreign fields face
daily the consequences of the West's military crisis. It is time
their political leaders recognized this." Julian Lindley-French, "Western military power is in
crisis", International Herald Tribune, August 26-27,
2006.
233. "After a long
period of being sidelined by freelance western interventions,
the United
Nations is back, [in Lebanon.]
[In such situations], the UN is prized less for its
[diplomacy than its peacekeeping capacity]
In general, there is no shortage of men for UN
peacekeeping.
Many developing countries are happy to contribute troops, and to
get paid for it.
However, [they]
often need logistics or other help
from more sophisticated militaries. So increasingly there has been a
pattern of hybrid operations with national or regional troops supporting
UN-flagged forces. France remembers
[its troops in Bosnia] being
micro-managed by UN officials in New York:
UN troops on the ground [do]
need more autonomy. One of the most debilitating aspects of UN operations
is delay; it may be November before the full UN force is deployed in
Lebanon. Yet if the UN tries to accelerate this, it is likely to incur
more than the usual quotient of criticism that it gets, often rightly,
from member governments for sloppy hiring, logistics and procurement.
In practice, [the UN] has a kind of standing army
but, unfortunately, one that has to be assembled piecemeal every time."
"UN's second coming", The
Financial Times (UK), August 26-27, 2006.
234. "[As UN
peacekeepers arrive in southern Lebanon, the]
'chain of command is a big
issue,' said an expert.
'There is definitely a
feeling that the old UN peacekeeping model doesn't work. The
[mission will have] a new strategic command
center in New York staffed by officers from the contributing countries
The ground commander will
[decide on any] immediate
use of force
The
"dual-key"
system required local commanders
to clear decisions with their national headquarters and with UN staff.
In the former Yugoslavia
the command structure was
a shambles, producing 'impractical, unenforceable, crucially ambiguous
mandates', according to a 1996 [expert report.]
'The UN had a peacekeeping culture based on
principles of impartiality' said the first expert. 'But if one
side violates the peace, then you become humiliated.'
[Another expert said the Yugoslavia failures were
called]
the Akashi syndrome, after Yasushi
Akashi, the Japanese leader of the UN effort until 1995. [It represented]
'playing Ping-Pong between the
civilian and military chain of command, decisions not taken in time,
commanders on the ground precluded from acting in self-defense', he said. 'It was shorthand for broader failure.' " Celestine Bohlen, "New rules give peacekeepers
greater leeway", International Herald Tribune,
August 31,
2006. 235. "An Indian on
deputation to the United Nations [Sanjaya Bahel] has been suspended by the
world body for directing millions of dollars worth of contracts to an
Indian public sector firm [Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd.
(TCIL.)]
In return, Bahel got apartments in New York for less than
market rates. In a statement, the UN said the evidence had been
shared 'with the prosecutorial authorities of the host country', in this
case, India.
Bahel was chief of commodity procurement for the UN
from 1998-2003.
During 1999-2004 TCIL received more than $100 million in UN
contracts
According to news reports, the investigation indicted
Bahel for ignoring evidence that TCIL withheld payments from employees
sent to UN peacekeeping missions
to do communications work. While the
workers claimed they were only getting a pittance -- sometimes as little
as $5 for daily expenses -- the money enriched another company associated
with [an] Indian businessman and his son. "UN
suspends Indian official", The Times of
India, 2
September 2006.
236. "The United Nations has failed to
[act on some] key
recommendations of an investigation into corruption in its oil-for-food
program in Iraq,
[Mark Pieth, one of three members of the
inquiry team, said in an interview.]
They're not really taking us
seriously," he said.
In its final report, the U.N. investigation accused
more than 2,200 companies in 40 countries of diverting $1.8 billion to
[the former Iraqi] government under the $64 billion program. Volcker's
probe
castigated top U.N. officials for tolerating
corruption and the
Security Council for ignoring $11 billion in smuggled oil and other
illicit earnings outside the program
The
Volcker inquiry said the United Nations needed a truly independent audit
committee. It has
established a panel, but it has only one
independent member.
The
inquiry also said the United Nations needed to weed out and remove
incompetent employees, but this has not been done. 'Its very
difficult, it goes against the spirit of the institution, but that's what
we are demanding,' Pieth said.
[He also observed that] som | |||
