| "Stop hitting me! I quit... Well, no I don't quit. But I'll be good..." |
The measures were some of the toughest of Annan's tenure, and aides and former colleagues said they were intended to assure critics that he is serious about fixing problems. "The whole scandal, and then the avalanche of criticism and personal charges against him, sent him a wakeup call the likes of which he has never seen," said John Ruggie, a former assistant secretary general at the United Nations who teaches at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "In that sense, the scandal may have done Annan a favor."
It is unclear whether those actions will be enough to quell a torrent of criticism and calls for Annan's resignation from some Republican quarters in Washington. Rep Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said yesterday's findings by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker paint a "picture of mismanagement, neglect and political manipulation." "I am reluctant to conclude that the U.N. is damaged beyond repair, but these revelations certainly point in this direction," Hyde said. But Annan's new chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, countered during a news conference that the report also showed that the United Nations fed millions of Iraqis under the oil-for-food program and reversed a slide toward a humanitarian disaster in a country under harsh U.N. sanctions. He urged countries to halt sharp attacks on the organization and give Annan's team a chance to put revisions and management changes in place.