The Case For Reform At the U.N.
BY BENNY AVNI
May 23, 2005

The United Nations last week pleaded for increased autonomy for the secretary-general, which would have made sense if the United Nations were well-managed. It is not. Far from being on a huge reform kick as the organization claims, Secretary-General Annan's United Nations is mired in inertia.
While the U.N. chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, made his case for independence at a hearing before the House International Relations Committee, a new congressional legislative initiative argued for the opposite approach. Congressional Republicans called for changes to be dictated from outside the world body, threatening to slash American funding to the United Nations if reforms failed to materialize.
Despite Mr. Malloch Brown's attempt to present an internal reform process with the potential to reshape the United Nations into what he called a principled, problem-solving, action-oriented body, the organization has been held back by its staid ways and screams for intervention.
Here is how: Last week, the head of the department of political affairs, Kieran Prendergast, retired, vacating a position that greatly influences how the United Nations is perceived around the world. The United Nations wants to replace Mr. Prendergast with one of his lieutenants or some other U.N. veteran who knows how the organization operates and could begin work immediately.
Other diplomats, especially Americans, instead believe it's time that new blood be pumped into the department that most famously opposed the Bush administration at every turn on Iraq. A Paris-based Italian diplomat, Francesco Olivieri, is Prime Minister Berlusconi's candidate for the job, and America might support him.
How well has the current political department performed lately? It issued a statement last week about the situation in Uzbekistan, in which Mr. Annan expressed concern about recent developments. Mr. Annan, the statement read, is saddened by the news of the loss of life, including civilians, and appeals to all parties concerned for restraint in the use of force.
All parties concerned? President Karimov has admitted that his troops killed 169 in demonstrations a week earlier. Human rights organizations put the civilian death toll at 700 or more. The indiscriminate shooting at unarmed men, women, and children has been compared in press reports to Tiananmen Square, and clearly only one party needed to be restrained from using force.
This principle-lacking, inaction-oriented statement cooked up by the political affairs department certainly was not designed to solve any problems.
Turtle Bay declined to call for an outside investigation of the Uzbek massacre, which might have helped matters. Instead, the Geneva-based human rights commissioner, Louise Arbour, requested an independent probe. Mr. Annan called Mr. Karimov, where the idea of an independent investigation was apparently brought up and summarily rejected by the Uzbek strongman. Mr. Karimov, incidentally, denied that Mr. Annan even mentioned it.
Late last week, even Ms. Arbour dropped her request. A human rights commission rapporteur, Phillip Ashton, asked the Uzbek government to allow him to visit so he could urgently assess the current situation. In the U.N. system, rapporteurs have outsider status, and the secretary-general often distances himself from their statements. The request by Mr. Ashton, noted by Turtle Bay's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, seemed designed to allow the United Nations to present some action, while allowing Mr. Annan deniability if Mr. Karimov protested too much.
Mr. Annan, to be sure, is under tremendous pressure. The Bush administration is yet to determine its Uzbek policy. Mr. Karimov, though a well-known thug, has helped a bit in the war on terror. His location, in a region where the rise of Islamic-oriented forces is dangerous, has kept the American support of him intact for years. Perhaps Mr. Annan is picking his fights with Washington carefully and has decided to sit this one out.
The likelier explanation, however, is that his political department is operating on automatic pilot. Pro forma formulations that see both sides in every situation have long been a staple of U.N. rhetoric.
Adult supervision is required now, from Congress and others. The old hands that brought the United Nations to its current state will not suddenly turn it into the lean, mean fighting machine for global freedom and justice that Mr. Malloch Brown envisioned in his congressional appearance as the organization's face for the future.