While we are always near the top in total humanitarian aid dollars - even prior to private donations being counted - we are near the bottom of the list of rich countries when that money is compared to gross national product.
"We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries," Egeland said. "And it is beyond me, why are we so stingy, really.... Even Christmas time should remind many Western countries at least how rich we have become."
The thing is, for 40 years our country has never accepted these European standards of basing it on percentage of gross national product. We've always based it on actual dollars spent. The reason behind this, according to Andrew Natsios, chief of USAID, is that our GNP is so enormous. And our growth rates are so much higher than other wealthy nations.
This whole thing kind of pisses me off. While Egeland claims he wasn't referring to any particular nation, the inference was quite clear. Who the *hell* is the U.N to talk about how much money we donate for relief? The U.N is an institution full of corruption and total lack of accountability. Kofi Annan is so far out there it's ridiculous. The Oil for Food scandal? In theory it was set up so Iraq could sell limited amounts of oil & in return use the money generated to purchase needed commodities such as food & medical supplies for it's population. It started in 1996 and continued under U.N. supervision until Coalition forces toppled Saddam last year. While looking for WMDs, etc., files were discovered that detailed the Oil for Food program. Saddam used it as a way to get around economic sanctions, bringing in huge amounts of money, some of which was used on himself & his henchman, all the while bribing certain U.N. officials to look the other way. Saddam's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. Oil for Food program through these kickbacks
Even today the U.N. is so secretive that it can't officially verify the actual amount of money that went into the program! The fraud represented in the Oil for Food program, encouraged and virtually administered by the UN, gave Saddam funds to continue to procure missile technology from North Korea, pursue WMD research and development programs, and funnel money to his own thugs and terrorist groups like Ansar al-Islam, Islamic Jihad and suicide bombers. In short, the UN kept in power the very dictator they professed to condemn in the Security Council chambers.
The U.N., like it's predecessor, the League of Nations, is an idealistic concept but a dysfunctional reality. Virtually every U.N. peacekeeping mission has gone bad because of ineptitude and corruption. Take this for example:
~ During the 70s and 80s, the U.N. was responsible for running a large aid program in the former Somalia estimated at billions of dollars in order to sustain the lives of hundreds of thousands of artificial refugees from eastern Ethiopia on Somaliland soil. While this huge assistance was being given, UN officials knew that the influx of people from Ethiopia was actually instigated by dictator Siyad Barre who promised them a better livelihood through UNHCR support. After arming them to the teeth, Barre however used those "refugees" to terrorize the local population or join his government's fight against the SNM [Somali National Movement] rebels. The "refugees" did so in great numbers and of course this considerably contributed to the prolongation of the war of resistance and the suffering of the civilian population in Somaliland. It has also eventually led to the uprooting or flight of 2.5 million Somalilanders from their homeland to escape Barre's genocide. Disgustingly enough, the UN chose, then, not to tell the world about how international humanitarian aid was being utilized by a dictator pursuing ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses. Few courageous UN voices disclosing the truth about what was happening could have been detrimental [as received] to saving thousands of Somalilanders from death. (from Somalia Watch)
~ This came to light in 2001: The U.N. quashed an investigation earlier this year into whether U.N. police were directly involved in the enslavement of Eastern European women in Bosnian brothels, according to U.N. officials and internal documents. The decision to halt the investigation came when the U.N. Mission in Bosnia was reeling from the disclosure that several of its police officers had been dismissed for sexual misconduct.
David Lamb, a former Philadelphia police officer who served as a U.N. human rights investigator in Bosnia until April, said that in February he began to look into allegations against six Romanian, Fijian and Pakistani officers stationed in the town of Bijeljina.
The most serious charges, he said, were that two Romanian policemen had recruited Romanian women, purchased false documents for them and then sold the women to Bosnian brothel owners.
Within weeks, Lamb said, his preliminary inquiry found more than enough evidence to justify a full-scale criminal investigation. But Lamb and his colleagues said they also faced physical threats and were repeatedly stymied in their inquiries by their superiors, including a senior Ukrainian police officer who ordered an end to the investigation of the Romanians' conduct.
"I have to say there were credible witnesses, but I found a real reluctance on the part of the United Nations . . . leadership to investigate these allegations," Lamb said.
U.N. officials respond that they are committed to combating trafficking in women, but that a U.N. oversight team concluded there was insufficient evidence of systematic police involvement in the sex trade. They say it is difficult to penetrate the murky underworld of the Balkans and note that the responsibility for prosecuting U.N. police officers belongs to their home countries, not the United Nations.
According to some human rights advocates and former U.N. employees, the episode demonstrates the unwillingness or inability of the U.N.'s International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia to discipline its 1,600 officers from 48 countries.
The Washington Post reported in May that in the five years since international police officers were sent to help restore order in Bosnia, the U.N. police mission has faced numerous charges of misconduct, corruption and sexual impropriety. But in nearly every case, U.N. officials handled the allegations quietly by sending the officers home, often without a full investigation.
Two Americans also have filed whistleblower lawsuits alleging that they were fired by DynCorp, a private contractor that selects U.S. police to serve in Bosnia, because they had complained that fellow officers were patronizing brothels and purchasing women. DynCorp denied that the workers were fired for that reason.
But Lamb's investigation involved the most serious allegations yet: that some members of the IPTF directly participated in trafficking in women for forced prostitution. (from The Washington Post)
~A senior UN official was cleared of sexual harassment earlier this year because the secretary general rejected the verdict of an internal watchdog. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, 65, a former Dutch prime minister, escaped censure in July when Kofi Annan dismissed a complaint. But a revised report issued by UN watchdogs on Thursday revealed that investigators supported the allegation. Mr Annan refused to take action, saying the allegations were "not sustainable". Mr Lubbers was cleared of improper conduct after a 51-year-old woman on his staff claimed he had groped her. The UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated the complaint and backed the woman's complaint, it has now been revealed. In addition, the internal investigation recommended that "appropriate action" was taken.
Despite the recommendation, Mr Annan dismissed the complaint, but instead wrote to Mr Lubbers stressing his concerns "in the strongest terms". (from BBC)
*yawn* I'm too tired to find more examples, but the point is that perhaps the UN should monitor itself instead of trying to shame nations into offering more money for Aid in Asia. Please don't misunderstand - the tsunami's devastation was catastrophic and yes, we should send assistance, but the amount of assistance should be up to us, not a corrupt organization.
posted by Chris O. @ 12/28/2004 10:09:00 PM
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