The United Nations is the future, because only by working together can the countries of the world end war, famine, poverty and injustice. There is no other forum where all this can be achieved. Since its 1945 foundation in the ruins of World War II the UN has felt its way, not always steadily, toward its goals. There have been good times, as with the peacekeeping and elections in Cambodia in 1993. There have been bad times, and they are now.
It seems that in the breaking scandal of bribery and corruption around the $60 billion Iraq oil-for-food program, UN officials are deeply involved, either through the outright abuse of their position or through sheer incompetence. The UN has a history of waste and embezzlement, but in fairness to the organization, given its diversity and the sheer breadth of its responsibilities, what is perhaps most remarkable is that its record has not been significantly worse. What makes the oil-for-food allegations so serious is that they come at the very moment and in the very place where the UN needs to be strongest. Iraqis have despaired that the US-led coalition can give them an interim government that commands respect across all the country’s different communities. They were looking to the UN to step in and oversee this extremely challenging and delicate process. Now the moral authority of the only organization that might be able to save Iraq from descending into bitter internal conflict could be seriously damaged.
The revelations come on top of a little-noted incident in Kosovo which in its way is almost more disturbing. Last week Jordanian troops serving in the UNMIK forces in Kosovo opened fire on US soldiers also serving on the mission. While this may demonstrate Arab fury at Washington’s sellout of Palestinians to Ariel Sharon, it goes entirely against the spirit of UN service. When troops from whatever country put on the light blue UN beret, they are serving a higher purpose than their national interest. To have one country’s UN contingent turn on another’s is both tragic and unacceptable.
Unfortunately, it has been the United States which in the last 18 months has done so much to undermine UN authority by seeking to manipulate the Security Council. As it prepared to invade Iraq, the UN proved a thorn in the side of the White House. It might therefore be tempting to imagine that Bush administration was overjoyed when investigators trawling through captured Iraqi government archives uncovered apparent evidence of extensive dishonesty by UN officials. Were that true, the US president and his people would be compounding their already manifold errors in Iraq. The scandal could prove a disaster for the Iraqis and for the world at large. Only swift and determined investigation and action, by the UN itself, can restore its reputation.
