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Security Council dismisses Annan resignation calls
Security Council members have expressed confidence in UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, dismissing calls by some US legislators for him to resign over the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program for Iraq.  Even US ambassador John Danforth said he had "great confidence" in Mr Annan although he repeated the White House view that no one could make a definitive judgment until all the facts were in from investigations into allegations of corruption in the $64 billion program. During a working luncheon of the 15-nation council, Mr Annan expressed his determination to "carry out the investigation and to make the facts known to everybody," said Algerian ambassador Abdallah Baali, the council president for December. "There was certainly a unanimous view that this was the right thing to do," Mr Baali said. "Nobody in the room called for Kofi Annan's resignation. On the contrary, we all expressed our confidence in the secretary-general," said German ambassador Gunter Pleuger. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, there have been widespread allegations of corruption and violations of the UN sanctions on Iraq, some connected to the UN program but others involving separate direct oil deals with governments. Mr Annan has also come under scrutiny because his son, Kojo, worked in West Africa for a Swiss firm, Cotecna, which inspected goods under the program and is under investigation. There is no evidence that the younger Annan dealt with the Iraq program, and no specific charges of wrongdoing on the part of the secretary-general in the December 1998 UN award to Cotecna to inspect goods under the oil-for-food program. But a handful of US Republican legislators have called on Mr Annan to step down. Council members, however, said they wanted him to stay on. Posted by: God Save The World 2004-12-08 |
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