The
Mettle Of A UN Secretary-General
By Stephen Lendman
17 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
UN
Secretaries-General aren't usually made of the kind of mettle that extends
beyond their willingness to serve the interests of the dominant country
that effectively runs the UN establishment. It's no secret that the
world body is largely a wholly owned subsidiary of the nation where
it's been prominently headquartered on Manhattan's east side since 1952.
It's also true no candidate gets the top job there without first passing
a careful US vetting process to assure a willingness to accede to its
agenda. A little wiggle-room is allowed but only as long as it doesn't
exceed the limits of the boss' tolerance.
Outgoing Secretary-General
Kofi Annan got the job because he agreed to play by those rules and
did such an admirable job of it he (and the UN) won a Nobel Peace prize
in 2001 as a reward for keeping his head down and doing what he was
told but not as disingenuously announced at the award ceremony for "their
work for a better organized and more peaceful world." Annan never
achieved or worked for peace anywhere, nor would a true airing of his
legacy show much more accomplished than he knew who the "management"
was, and he showed up every day to serve that "higher authority"
and its agenda of exploitative war and colonization.
The result is a 10 year record
of failing to fulfill the mandate he was sworn to uphold: "to save
succeeding generations from the scourge of war; to reaffirm faith in
fundamental human rights; to establish conditions (promoting) justice....equal
rights of men and women (in all nations)....(respect for) international
law....promote social progress....to ensure....armed force shall not
be used" and much more. Kofi Annan failed on all counts, and he'll
leave his UN post shortly with little to boast about except a Nobel
award so richly undeserved.
Annan's tenure is a shameless
and dismal record of failure:
-- He never condemned or
acted to end the devastating economic sanctions against the Iraqi people
that killed up to 1.5 million defenseless men, women and children.
-- He never used his high-profile
job to denounce the US criminal war waged there since March, 2003, based
on lies and now known to have likely killed another 655,000 or more
of them.
-- He failed to speak out
forcefully against or do anything to prevent that war or the equally
brutal and unjustifiable one waged against Afghanistan.
-- He's been appallingly
silent in the run-up to a potential Middle East apocalypse if the US
and/or Israel go ahead with their plans to attack Iran and use nuclear
weapons to do it.
-- He never used his sworn
power and influence to uphold the oath he took to work for peace and
protest Israel's genocidal wars on Palestine and Lebanon against defenseless
civilians there when the prestige of his office alone might have been
enough to stop or at least mitigate them.
-- He acted irresponsibly
during the three failed US-instigated and funded coup attempts against
democratically elected President Hugo Chavez failing in his obligation
to denounce them.
-- The Ghanaian-born Annan
tenure showed a disturbing indifference to the pain and suffering of
his own people throughout the continent of his birth. He chose instead
to be a dutiful agent of the Global North and its corporate predators
and conspiratorially allowed them to ravage Africa's vastness for its
resource riches including in Dhafur where control of its oil and other
valuable resources and the US's interest in them is central to understanding
what this conflict is all about.
-- He allowed Blue Helmet
stormtrooper thuggery in places like Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and what
now is likely ahead for South Lebanon following Israel's summer aggression
there. He dispatched UN so-called peacekeepers to these conflict zones
as de facto paramilitary enforcers for the US and Israeli imperial agendas
of plunder and exploitation, not with any intent or interest to keep
the peace or promote the public welfare.
-- Kofi Annan will leave
his post with a single notable achievement: a clear shameless record
of having pledged fealty to the Bush crime syndicate making him a willing
and willful co-conspirator in its reign of terror for world dominance.
This is a man who agreed
to his marching orders before showing up for work, understood who's
in charge and did his job to please the "management." He's
now wrapping up his tenure, will leave shortly with a disgraceful record
of mission unaccomplished and is preparing for the arrival of the new
man just elected to replace him. People of conscience won't miss him.
The Secretary-General-elect will have to work for the same "management"
and understands he'll have to serve by its same set of rules. To get
the top job, he, like Kofi Annan, had to have agreed in advance to go
along with them to get along, but if he does it he, too, will violate
the letter and spirit of the Charter all Secretaries-General are sword
to uphold.
Since he hasn't yet arrived,
it's premature to judge him, but it's fair to say Ban Ki-Moon never
would have been South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs if he hadn't
been respectful of the country that's occupied his for over half a century
and still has enough clout to dictate who gets the most important jobs
there affecting South Korean - US relations. Still, the new man on the
job will be interesting to watch. In his former capacity, he's at times
been a critic of US policy toward the peninsula and even went so far
as to rebuke Condoleezza Rice's Senate confirmation hearing statement
calling North Korea an "outpost of tryanny." He used diplomatic
language, of course, only saying her comment "would never help
create an atmosphere of dialogue."
In the aftermath of North
Korea's presumed underground nuclear test this month and the economic
and political sanctions (with no authorization for force) just imposed
against the DPRK, it will bear watching how firm the new Secretary-General
will be urging peaceful diplomacy instead of the usual US blunderbuss
harshness demanding repressive sanctions with enough latitude to lead
to war which often is the Bush administration's prime agenda in the
first place. It will also be interesting to see how the new UN chief
handles the continuing confrontation between the US and Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez. With the December presidential election fast approaching
and a fourth US attempt to oust and assassinate Chavez likely moving
toward implementation around the electoral period, will this UN leader
act any differently than his predecessor.
Venezuelan Foreign Vice-Minister
for North America, Jorge Valero, expressed a tone of optimism saying
while still in his South Korean post, Ban Ki-Moon wanted (and presumably
still does want) a strong relationship and spirit of cooperation with
the Venezuelan Mission to the UN and his country. He also acknowledged
Venezuela's progressive proposals and agenda in such multilateral bodies
as the Non-Aligned Movement (of 116 nations against imperialism, colonialism,
aggression and occupation) and the G-77 nations (that's since grown
to 132 developing member states). The Venezuelan Minister said "Ban
Ki-Moon assured that he will work with Venezuela on the region's integration.
Likewise, he ratified his interest in the results of the elections for
a seat on the UN Security Council, where Venezuela embodies a strong
contender."
A few diplomatic words prior
to heading up the UN Secretariat with an obligation to fulfill the body's
Charter in service to all nations is no substitute for what the new
man on the job will actually do once he's there. It won't be long to
find out though, and the oppressed people of the world in all its troubled
spots better hope Ban Ki-Moon takes his responsibilities more seriously
than his predecessor and others before him. Based on the past record
of UN Secretaries-General though and the oppressive power of the US
overshadowing their best intentions, it's hard to hold out much hope.
Still, it will be refreshing if Ban Ki-Moon actually takes his obligation
and sworn oath seriously enough to respect the rights of all nations,
uses his prominent public stage as an advocate for them, and works for
peace and an end to all injustice and conflicts still raging around
the world. That's his mandate, and it's about time someone in this post
took it seriously. Let's wish the new UN Secretary-General well and
ope one day he'll be deservedly rewarded for a job well done that he
actually did. The world is waiting to find out.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be contacted at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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