Annan Lays Out Plans, Lashes Out at Media By EDITH M. LEDERER, The Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1431160 After a tumultuous year for the world, for the United Nations and for himself, Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he wants to spend his final year as U.N. secretary-general fighting poverty and promoting peace and U.N. reform. At a year-end press conference, Annan lashed out at what he said was unfair media coverage of his and his son's role in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, and told reporters that they had missed the big story. That, he said, was the charge that more than 2,200 companies and individuals from some 40 countries paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges to Saddam Hussein's government to get contracts. "I'm not afraid of criticism," the secretary-general told reporters. "Some criticisms have been constructive and helpful and I accept that. Some have been out of place and have really gone beyond the zone of all reasonableness, and you wouldn't expect me or anybody in this house to accept that." It was a rare outburst for the U.N. chief, who was cleared by an 18-month investigation of influencing an oil-for-food contract that went to a company that employed his son, Kojo. Annan was strongly criticized for his management of the $64 billion program. Former Federal Reserve Chief Paul Volcker issued his final report in late October, but questions arising from the investigation have continued to dog Annan's spokesman at the U.N.'s daily press briefing. At Wednesday's press conference, one of the most persistent questioners, James Bone of The Times of London, mentioned a Mercedes-Benz that Kojo Annan imported into Ghana using his father's diplomatic immunity to avoid taxes and customs duty, and said some of the secretary-general's accounts of oil-for-food related events, "don't really make sense." "I think you're being very cheeky," Annan interrupted. "Listen James Bone, you've been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let's move on to a serious journalist." The president of the U.N. Correspondents Association told Annan that Bone had a right to ask a question and was not an embarrassment. Bone walked out and said later: "The Volcker report raises many serious questions about the integrity of the U.N., and it's important that public officials paid with taxpayer money answer these questions fully and without accusing the press." Annan's public rebuke came amid heightened tensions at the U.N. over a new budget and the pace of management reforms, issues that have deeply divided the organization's 191 member states. Looking ahead to the final year of his second five-year term, Annan said there were "three priority areas I will focus on next year: the fight against poverty and disease, peace and security, and reform of the United Nations." He said other major issues for the U.N. would be terrorism and the situation in the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanese-Syrian relations and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. "We also should keep a very close eye" on the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and developments in Congo, he said. Annan, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations in 2001, said "there's always a second-term curse ... and one overcomes it and moves on." Asked about his legacy, Annan pointed to efforts to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS, to bring the private sector and civil society into partnerships with the U.N. and to promote peace and security. "But I will leave others to judge, and I think history will judge us quite fairly," he said. The secretary-general returned to the oil-for-food program when asked if there was something the U.N. should not become involved with in the future. "I have said very clearly that I hope U.N. will never be asked to take on an operation of that kind again," he said. As for regrets, Annan went back to the most divisive issue in his stewardship of the U.N. the bitter 2003 debate over going to war in Iraq, which the Security Council refused to authorize. "That has brought such division within this organization and the international community," he said. "That is one thing that I must say still haunts me and bothers me." U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Wednesday the search for a successor to Annan will be a top priority next year and Washington is looking for "a superior administrative officer." Annan said the next secretary-general should have other attributes as well, because he or she will be "the chief diplomat of the world." "They need thick skin thick skin," he said. "They need a sense of humor, and they should laugh inside and outside, and at themselves." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! 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