Annan tells staff of his 'pain' from UN inquiries

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told his staff of his "personal pain" from attacks on the United Nations over the scandal-tainted oil-for-food programme for Iraq and his son's links to it.

"I know it has cast a shadow over all of us and you have no idea what a personal pain it has been for me as secretary-general and as a father having to deal with this situation," Annan said at a rare public meeting with staff.

"To see the institution you have devoted your life to being hammered and attacked, in most cases unfairly, was very difficult to digest, and I can imagine what impact it had on you and on staff morale," he said.

"It is also unfortunate that my own son seems to have been associated somehow with this programme, and of course that investigation is going on," Annan added. UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard later said that statement did not reflect any new development in the investigation.

The hour-long question-and-answer session was held in the UN General Assembly hall in front of a few hundred New York staffers. Many more looked on or listened via electronic hookups from other UN centres.

It was Annan's 10th meeting with staff since taking office in 1997.

An outside inquiry into the US$67 billion ($95.94 billion) humanitarian programme for Iraq, led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, concluded last week that Annan had not influenced the award of a UN contract to a Swiss firm that employed his son, but it faulted the UN chief for taking only a superficial look at the controversy as it unfolded.

Annan had previously said the probe exonerated him but he was "deeply saddened" to have learned his son, Kojo Annan, had been less than truthful with him on the matter.

But staff members, in their questions, focused more on their own workplace woes than on Annan's. Two questions came from Arab-language translators complaining about their bosses.

"The staff union in New York and throughout the global secretariat have expressed confidence in your leadership. As you said, we are proud of this organisation and the hope it gives to people all over the world," said Rosemarie Waters, the staff committee president.

Annan traced the current crisis at the United Nations to the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, when the world body came under fire from both foes of the war, who wanted the United Nations to prevent it, and its supporters, who resented UN opposition to it.

The August 2003 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, including UN mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, and injured 150, was a further blow.

Over and above the casualties, that attack changed the way UN staff approached their work as it shattered the assumption they would be viewed as neutral in conflict situations.

Annan said that despite "major lapses" in UN management of the oil-for-food programme, it had achieved its objective of helping ordinary Iraqis cope with hardships from UN sanctions imposed after Baghdad's 1990 invasion of neighbouring Kuwait.

He hoped that when Volcker's final report came out later this year, the world body would be able to draw the necessary lessons, institute needed reforms "and turn the page and move on."

- REUTERS