On
Annan to
Damascus,
Syrian
"Thinks" He
Can Get In,
Ban
Comparison: of
Oil for Food
and Kofi's
Karma
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 23 --
In front of
the UN
Security
Council on
Thursday
morning, Inner
City Press
asked
Portugal's
Permanent
Representative
Cabral what
he'd think if
former
Secretary
General
Kofi Annan
were named
envoy to
Syria. Cabral
said Annan's
"name's
around, I like
the idea but
I'm not sure
he would take
it."
India's
Permanent
Representative
Hardeep Singh
Puri told the
Press of Annan
as envoy,
"Why not? You
need stature,
and he has
it."
Throughout
the day,
as a debate
on Women,
Peace and
Security took
place inside
the
Security
Council, a
range of
diplomats
weighed in
with Inner
City
Press. Several
of them noted
how much lower
profile the UN
Secretariat
has become
under Ban
Ki-moon.
"Kofi
did
Kenya," one of
them said.
"What's Ban
got to show?"
At
6:10
pm, Ban's
spokesperson's
office issued
a statement
that Kofi
Annan was, in
fact, the
joint UN -
Arab League
envoy.
Inner
City
Press asked Margot
Wallstrom,
Ban's sexual
violence in
conflict
expert, about
the
appointment
but she
declined to
comment.
When
Syria's
representative
who spoke in
the Security
Council came
out,
Inner City
Press asked if
Annan would be
allowed into
Syria, "can
he come in?"
"I
think
so," the
Syrian said.
There was a
buzz, with
some
hearkening
back to Annan
trip to Iraq
to see Saddam
Hussein -- who
later ended up
dead by
hanging. For
Assad, bad
karma? Or good
Kofi?
(c) UN Photo
Kofi, Ban and
bigger Kofi:
question of
stature
A
western
diplomat told
Inner City
Press that
Finland's
Martti
Ahtisaari was
in
consideration.
"But after his
Ahtisaari plan
on
Kosovo, the
Russians
wouldn't
accept him,"
the diplomat
concluded.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
while
now Rwanda and
Srbrenica are
being raised,
ironically the
UN
Oil for Food
scandal was
raised earlier
Thursday to
Inner City
Press
by a diplomat
from the Sri
Lanka mission,
angry at Inner
City Press'
questions
"leading to"
their General
Silva's
exclusion from
Ban's Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations, by
Annan's
one time
Deputy Louise
Frechette.
The diplomat
said, by what
right
does Fechette
point the
finger given
her role in
the UN Oil for
Food
scandal? For
the record,
Frechette
intervened
directly by
phone to
bar UN
auditors from
forwarding
their
investigations
to the
Security
Council, as
detailed on
page 186 of
the 219-page
interim report
Paul
Volcker’s
Independent
Inquiry
Committee
released
February 3,
2005.
Kofi's in
there too...
, 
