Danforth withholds support of Annan, voices frustration with UN

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 3, 2004 (Bloomberg) — The day after disclosing his resignation as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth declined to support embattled Secretary-General Kofi Annan and voiced frustration with his five months of diplomacy.

US President George W. Bush seen here with outgoing United Nations ambassador John Danforth, July 2004. Bush paid tribute to Danforth, singling out his efforts to end the violence in Sudan. “Because of his tireless efforts as Special Envoy to the Sudan, the world is closer than ever to seeing an end to the Sudanese North-South conflict,” Bush said a day after Danforth’s resignation was announced. (AFP)

Danforth repeatedly declined requests from reporters at the UN to add the U.S. to the nations expressing support for Annan as he faces demands from U.S. lawmakers to quit because of evidence of fraud in the program that let former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein use oil revenue to buy food and medicine. U.S. Senate investigators said Hussein stole $21.3 billion through the exchange, which was supposed to support sanctions.

“Very serious charges have been made relating to oil-for- food and they have to be taken seriously,” Danforth said. “It is important when you go into an investigation to keep your mind open. Do not prejudge.”

Relations between the U.S. and the UN have been strained since the Security Council refused to authorize the war to topple Hussein. While the U.S. has been seeking more international help to stabilize Iraq and create a democratic government, Annan has approved only limited involvement of UN workers in election preparations.

Danforth’s Frustration

Danforth, 68, said he took himself out of the running for any position in President George W. Bush’s second term at a Nov. 5 meeting with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. The former U.S. senator from Missouri said he wanted to “go home” to St. Louis to spend time with his wife, Sally, and family.

“Am I used to this way of operating? No,” Danforth said, referring to UN diplomacy. “I think the role here is not one for someone who is an independent operator.”

Danforth said he was frustrated by the success last month of African nations in blocking a General Assembly resolution critical of human rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan, where the U.S. has said genocide has been committed.

“I am concerned that the General Assembly is essentially a place where 191 countries make statements that are not very helpful in solving the problems of the world,” Danforth said.

Support for Annan

French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder jointly called Annan yesterday to express their confidence and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did the same today, according to the UN. The European Union sent a letter of support, delivered today by Netherlands Ambassador Dirk Jan van den Berg, and the African group of nations sent a similar letter on Nov. 30.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who also is leaving the Bush administration, today defended Annan and noted that the secretary-general isn’t the focus of investigations.

“Secretary-General Annan is a good secretary-general,” Powell told Reuters, in the first praise of Annan by a top U.S. official since Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican investigating the oil-for-food program, said Annan should resign because the UN failed to detect and stop the suspected abuses.

Bush, asked yesterday whether Annan should resign, said, “It’s important for the integrity of the organization to have a full and open disclosure of all that took place with the oil-for- food program.”

`Tea Leaves’

The U.S. is trying to placate lawmakers calling for Annan’s resignation while maintaining good relations with the UN to get maximum support for Iraq’s recovery from the war to topple Hussein, former U.S. State Department policy planner and Pentagon adviser Lee Feinstein said.

“The Bush administration is reading the tea leaves,” Feinstein said. “There is a lot of conservative pressure on oil- for-food, but at the same time they don’t want a fight with the UN because there are so many places in the world where the UN can be helpful, like Iraq.”

Feinstein said Bush would likely choose a UN ambassador who has “street credibility with the right wing” in Congress, which he said Danforth possessed.

Among the first names mentioned as possible successors are former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and Republican Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia, who is leading a six-month analysis of UN operations.

UN diplomats said Danforth’s tenure at the UN would be remembered for his efforts to press the Sudanese government to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, including the Nov. 18-19 Security Council meetings in Kenya that produced a commitment by government and rebel forces to end a 20-year civil war in Sudan.

Danforth “was seen as someone passionate about this issue but, unfortunately, for reasons beyond his control, the Security Council wasn’t willing to act on Darfur, which is another stain on the institution,” Feinstein said.

The former senator “was frustrated because we have to do all this work to get language that everyone can support, so at the end we do not get anything bold and clear,” said Ambassador Abdallah Baali of Algeria, president of the Security Council this month. “I will miss him because he brought a new spirit to the council and I really bonded with him.”

Danforth’s term, scheduled to end Jan. 20, would be the shortest of any U.S. ambassador to the UN since Daniel Patrick Moynihan held the post from July 1975 to February 1976.