US demands Annan repudiate UN deputy
NEW YORK -- The United States demanded yesterday that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan repudiate his deputy after the number two UN official accused Washington of failing to stand up for the United Nations against domestic critics.
An angry US Ambassador John Bolton, while not demanding the resignation of UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, said he told Annan the remarks were the worst mistake by a senior UN official he had seen in decades.
``Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations," Bolton told reporters. ``My hope is he looks at the potential adverse effects that these intemperate remarks would have on the organization and repudiate it."
Bolton accused Malloch Brown of employing ``a condescending, patronizing tone about the American people."
Annan agrees with his deputy's views, UN chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
``The secretary-general stands by the statements made by his deputy. So there is no question of any action to be taken against the deputy secretary-general," Dujarric said.
The United States is working through the United Nations in the dispute over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
But memories are still fresh in the world body of how the United States and its allies disregarded the United Nations in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
Malloch Brown, a Briton who was named deputy secretary-general last March after previously serving as Annan's chief of staff and head of the UN Development Program, delivered Tuesday what he called a ``sincere and constructive critique of US policy towards the UN by a friend and admirer."
``The prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable," Malloch Brown told a New York political conference.
``You will lose the UN one way or the other," he said.
By ``stealth diplomacy," he said he meant Washington's practice of looking for UN support to deal with global hot spots without letting the US heartland know, and allowing conservative UN-bashers to attack the world body without offering any defense.
