Annan Answers Critics on Iraq
By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, January 20,
1999; 4:23 a.m. EST
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has launched a campaign to
answer criticism of his role in the Iraq crisis, defending his record and stressing the
limits of his office.
In an opinion piece in Tuesday's New York Times and a speech Tuesday night to the
Council on Foreign Relations, Annan rebutted allegations that he was appeasing Saddam
Hussein and insisted his goal was to make Iraq obey U.N. Security Council resolutions.
``Whatever means I have employed in my efforts in dealing with Iraq, my ends have never
been in question,'' Annan told the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent think
tank. ``By precedent, by principle, by charter and by duty, I am bound to seek those ends
through peaceful diplomacy.''
In the past two weeks, newspaper editorials and magazine articles have attacked Annan
personally and professionally, charging that he appeased Saddam and undermined U.N.
weapons inspections.
The criticism began soon after Annan negotiated a February accord with Baghdad on
access for inspectors. It escalated with his efforts in October to persuade Iraq to resume
cooperation with inspectors and culminated with reports in The Washington Post and The
Boston Globe this month that the United States was spying on Iraq via the U.N. weapons
inspection system.
``The Indecent Decent Man,'' is the title of The New Republic's Feb. 1 profile of the
U.N. chief, in which both his intellectual and moral judgment are severely attacked.
In a Jan. 8 column, The New York Times called Annan ``Saddam's greatest single asset at
the U.N.'' Columnist A.M. Rosenthal charged that Annan worked with Iraq's sympathizers to
``whittle U.N. arms inspections down to a useless splinter and lift U.N. economic
sanctions on Iraq.''
One of Annan's top advisers, John Ruggie, countered the charges in an opinion piece in
The Washington Post on Sunday, saying the allegations were without merit and triggered by
frustration that Iraq hasn't obeyed U.N. resolutions.
The criticism comes in sharp contrast to Annan's relatively trouble-free first two
years in office, when it seemed the career U.N. bureaucrat could do almost no wrong.
Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard acknowledged Tuesday that the honeymoon may be over.
``When you are acting as he is at a certain level of prominence in world affairs, you
expect to take your knocks,'' Eckhard said.
In his speech Tuesday night, Annan told his critics that a U.N. secretary-general
cannot be judged by the same standards as a head of state because he is bound by the
demands and interests of 185 heads of state -- the U.N. membership.
``With no enforcement capacity and no executive power beyond the organization, a
secretary-general is armed only with tools of his own making,'' Annan said. ``He is
invested only with the power that a united Security Council may wish to bestow, and the
moral authority entrusted to him by the Charter.''
(c) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
Source:
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990120/V000364-012099-idx.html
