So, Kofi Annan has been invited to speak at the Arab League meeting. I can’t think of a worst omen. This man is obviously taking a little coin on the side. He is a hired hand who just got a large tip from Ted Turner of CNN. He recently had some harsh words for Ms. Robinson, the ex president of Ireland, because she dared to raise human rights issues in a manner that Kofi found inconvenient for his career prospects at the United Nations.
Kofi has spent five years leasing out the United Nations to the State Department and CNN and has championed every American and Israeli initiative. Now, he is suddenly interested in addressing the Arab League. Or is he showing up to shake down the Arab sheiks for a few votes in the General Assembly?
When it comes to the Palestinians, Kofi Annan gets involved when America tells him to get involved. He conducts business at the United Nations as if it were an American Federal agency. And American involvement is completely at the discretion of the Israelis. Since June, of 1997, Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, has been United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She recently resigned and Kofi is getting another term. This splendid courageous Irish woman has spoken out about the Palestinians. Kofi has only read from the script provided by the State Department via Tel Aviv. And now he dares to show his face at the Arab League meeting, no doubt to water down any resolutions regarding Iraqi sanctions or Palestinian freedom.
Kofi, is a corrupt international civil servant. He has chosen to selectively enforce United Nations resolutions and has done everything possible to legitimize the work of Israeli thugs in the occupied territories. He has refused to press for international protection of the Palestinians from their Israeli tormentors. Why? Because America said so. And why is America dictating this policy to Kofi? Because America’s position is that the Palestinians should not get international protection unless the Israel agrees that the Palestinians need protection from Israeli goons. Why does Kofi buy into such an absurd policy? Because he wants to keep his job, get a book deal, speaking engagements, the works. He likes the limousine and the press constantly pumps him up. He has become quite the social butterfly in New York circles. In short, he has sold out big time.
It is hard to forget the spineless Butros Butros Ghali, a man who allowed the carnage in Bosnia to continue for a thousand days while he waffled and did his little anemic bureaucratic shuffle. But at least Ghali retained a little bit of independence for the organization. Not so with Koffi. Koffi sold the organization to the American government for the purpose of facilitating Israeli ambitions in the Middle East and to legitimize the strangulation and slaughter of the Iraqi people.
He has done well for his masters and I am sure they will throw the dog a bone. But there is no reason in the world for the Arab League to continue to turn a blind eye to what the United Nations has become; an instrument of justifying racist American policy in the Middle East. They would do well to demand that Kofi find another line of work. He has caused irreparable damage to the organization and to the Middle East. The blood of many Palestinians is on his hand. He has already acknowledged that he was largely responsible for the carnage in Rwanda. Apologies for these kinds of ‘mistakes’ should not be seen as a plus on his resume. He has failed and he should be treated as a failure.
The Arab governments should freeze their membership in the United Nations if Kofi is nominated. It would be no great loss, since it has already become a rubber stamp for American and Israeli policies. Under Kofi, it will continue to be selectively used as a blunt instrument of the American policy to humiliate and emasculate the Arabs.
Do not expect Kofi to show any sign of disgrace or shame. He is way beyond that. If it takes another generation of Palestinians living under occupation for this low life degenerate to get a larger pension check, he will do it and laugh all the way to the bank. It is truly unfortunate and ironic that the two secretaries from the African continent have reduced the organization to a state of virtual slavery to American whims.
The most tragic part of this is that most Americans continue to distrust the United Nations as a body that could potentially infringe on American sovereignty. Truth be told, Kofi Annan has solved that problem. The United Nations is now part of the American and Israeli arsenal available for use, at their convenience, to infringe on the sovereignty of all the little people of the world, starting with the Palestinians.
Kofi Annan does not deserve the time of day from the Arab League. It would be a mistake to be polite to him. His disgusting cowardly silence on the question of the Palestinians deserves contempt. That he would go so far as to silence Ms Robinson is criminal behaviour that amounts to condoning war crimes. For that alone, he should be sent packing without a pension.
Mr. Ahmed Amr is Editor of NileMedia.com in Seattle and a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN)