U.N. officials stole "oil-for-food" money out of mouths of poor and starving.
Now the cover-up steps into high gear.
Friday, March 19, 2004
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says Security Council members are being
consulted "to see if broader investigations can take place."
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Senior U.N. leaders are defending the world body against allegations of corruption in the Iraqi oil-for-food program and are discussing whether an independent investigation is merited.
The U.N.'s own investigative arm -- the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) -- has already launched a probe to determine if any U.N. employees profited from the program by skimming proceeds or accepting kickbacks from oil traders and companies that provided humanitarian goods, charges U.N. officials have denied.
The OIOS is currently questioning some former oil-for-food employees, and U.N. officials have asked that anyone with any proof of wrongdoing come forward.
But the OIOS has no authority to investigate or question U.N.-member states or Iraqi officials, raising the possibility that an outside investigation may be needed.
Earlier this week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members were being consulted "to see if broader investigations can take place."
The Oil for Food Programme, which began operations in December 1996, was established by the United Nations to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, who were suffering after years of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Under the program, Iraq would be able to sell limited quantities of its oil and use the funds only to buy humanitarian supplies for its citizens.
The U.N. has insisted that it merely managed the program on behalf of member states and that those countries were well aware of the problems with skimming.
At one point, the United Nations did reset the pricing mechanism on oil sales to "block overcharging".
This week, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said it was not the U.N.'s role to oversee and investigate the program in regards to the kickback and skimming allegations.
He said that job would fall to the Security Council committee on Iraqi sanctions, nicknamed the "661 committee" for the number of the resolution that imposed the sanctions against Iraq.
Accusations of corruption have plagued the oil-for-food program since its inception.
Questions swirled around the role of Kojo Annan, the secretary-general's son, in the Swiss company Cotecna, which was hired to inspect food and supplies going to Iraq under the program.
The United Nations has consistently denied there was any conflict of interest with the younger Annan's job, saying that the company "offered the lowest and best bid for its services".
Thursday, a senior U.N. official discounted the insinuations, saying that Kojo Annan resigned from Cotecna before the company won the bid to aid the oil-for-food program.
Benan Sevan, executive director of the program for the U.N., has also denied allegations that he profited from the project.
But members of the Iraqi Governing Council said Sevan's name is listed in Iraqi documents as having benefited from oil sales.
Sevan is currently in the middle of a two-month vacation and will retire next month.
The veteran U.N. staffer was working in the U.N. compound in Baghdad Aug. 29, 2003 and left just seconds before a truck bomb exploded near U.N. offices, killing 15 staff members. Among the dead was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.'s special representative to Iraq.
Meanwhile, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette is meeting privately with members of the Security Council about the program, which expired in May last year when U.N. sanctions against Iraq were lifted.
A U.S. diplomat said there is a lot of concern now about the oil-for-food issue.
"We hope no one from the U.N. is involved," the diplomat said.
Thursday, a General Accounting Office official testified in a House hearing that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reaped $10.1 billion in illegal revenues from the humanitarian program.
The official said $5.7 billion was from oil smuggled out of Iraq and $4.4 billion was the result of illicit surcharges on oil sales and after-sale charges on suppliers.
Richard Roth - source CNN http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/19/iraqi.money/
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Senior U.N. leaders are defending the world body against allegations of corruption in the Iraqi oil-for-food program and are discussing whether an independent investigation is merited.
The U.N.'s own investigative arm -- the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) -- has already launched a probe to determine if any U.N. employees profited from the program by skimming proceeds or accepting kickbacks from oil traders and companies that provided humanitarian goods, charges U.N. officials have denied.
The OIOS is currently questioning some former oil-for-food employees, and U.N. officials have asked that anyone with any proof of wrongdoing come forward.
But the OIOS has no authority to investigate or question U.N.-member states or Iraqi officials, raising the possibility that an outside investigation may be needed.
Earlier this week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members were being consulted "to see if broader investigations can take place."
The Oil for Food Programme, which began operations in December 1996, was established by the United Nations to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, who were suffering after years of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Under the program, Iraq would be able to sell limited quantities of its oil and use the funds only to buy humanitarian supplies for its citizens.
The U.N. has insisted that it merely managed the program on behalf of member states and that those countries were well aware of the problems with skimming.
At one point, the United Nations did reset the pricing mechanism on oil sales to "block overcharging".
This week, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said it was not the U.N.'s role to oversee and investigate the program in regards to the kickback and skimming allegations.
He said that job would fall to the Security Council committee on Iraqi sanctions, nicknamed the "661 committee" for the number of the resolution that imposed the sanctions against Iraq.
Accusations of corruption have plagued the oil-for-food program since its inception.
Questions swirled around the role of Kojo Annan, the secretary-general's son, in the Swiss company Cotecna, which was hired to inspect food and supplies going to Iraq under the program.
The United Nations has consistently denied there was any conflict of interest with the younger Annan's job, saying that the company "offered the lowest and best bid for its services".
Thursday, a senior U.N. official discounted the insinuations, saying that Kojo Annan resigned from Cotecna before the company won the bid to aid the oil-for-food program.
Benan Sevan, executive director of the program for the U.N., has also denied allegations that he profited from the project.
But members of the Iraqi Governing Council said Sevan's name is listed in Iraqi documents as having benefited from oil sales.
Sevan is currently in the middle of a two-month vacation and will retire next month.
The veteran U.N. staffer was working in the U.N. compound in Baghdad Aug. 29, 2003 and left just seconds before a truck bomb exploded near U.N. offices, killing 15 staff members. Among the dead was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.'s special representative to Iraq.
Meanwhile, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette is meeting privately with members of the Security Council about the program, which expired in May last year when U.N. sanctions against Iraq were lifted.
A U.S. diplomat said there is a lot of concern now about the oil-for-food issue.
"We hope no one from the U.N. is involved," the diplomat said.
Thursday, a General Accounting Office official testified in a House hearing that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reaped $10.1 billion in illegal revenues from the humanitarian program.
The official said $5.7 billion was from oil smuggled out of Iraq and $4.4 billion was the result of illicit surcharges on oil sales and after-sale charges on suppliers.
Richard Roth - source CNN http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/19/iraqi.money/
The Oil-for-Food Scandal - the Canadian Connection....
Charity Says Billions Missing in Iraqi Oil Revenues
Emad Mekay
Inter Press Service (IPS)
29 June 2004
WASHINGTON, Jun 28 (IPS) - Billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money have gone unaccounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), according to a new report released Monday.
The British charity Christian Aid says that at least 20 billion dollars in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds intended to rebuild the country have disappeared from banks administered by the CPA.
The group says that the U.S.-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without having properly accounted for what it has done with those 20 billion dollars of Iraq's own money.
”Christian Aid believes this situation is in flagrant breach of the U.N. Security Council resolution that gave control of Iraq's oil revenues and other Iraqi funds to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA),” the group said in a statement.
Watchdog groups have complained before about the opaque nature of the CPA's handling of Iraqi money and the lack of transparency by U.S. and Iraqi officials.
”For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq, it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq's money,” said Helen Collinson, head of policy at Christian Aid.
U.N. Resolution 1483 of May 2003 says that Iraq's oil revenues should be paid into the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), that the money be spent in the interests of the Iraqi people, and that it be independently audited.
But the group says that it took until April 2004 to appoint an auditor -- leaving only a matter of weeks to go through the books.
The group is concerned that the handover of power means that this money may never be tracked down and that the CPA is not going to be around to be held accountable.
The group compared the lack of audits of Iraqi oil money to the abundant information on the 18.4 billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer funds being spent in Iraq. No less than four separate audits of the U.S. funds are underway.
”Too many oil-rich countries go down the road of unaccountable government, riches for the few, and poverty for the many. Iraq can avoid this route, but only by ensuring transparency,” said Collinson.
Some U.N. Security Council diplomats had previously criticised the CPA for cloaking the DFI -- authorised by the Security Council to safeguard the oil revenues and other money earmarked for reconstruction -- in secrecy.
In its report, Christian Aid called on the Treasury Department, the U.S. agency responsible for pushing Iraq to privatise its economy and, before that, for confiscating billions of dollars in Iraqi assets worldwide, and the CPA to come out publicly with clear figures.
Last October, the Treasury Department responded to allegations by the same group that 4 billion dollars in Iraqi money was missing by saying that the money was actually returned to Iraq after the war ended in April 2003.
Even though Christian Aid says that since October the CPA has provided more information about what it is doing with Iraq's oil revenues, a lack of information still persists.
”We still do not know exactly how Iraq's money has been earned, which companies have won the contracts that it has been spent on, or whether this spending was in the interests of the Iraqi people,” says the report.
Christian Aid pointed to the difficulty of determining exactly what Iraq is earning from oil. Two different CPA documents give different figures for oil revenues through the end of May.
One says Iraq earned 10 billion dollars, while another cites 11.5 billion dollars for the same period.
Christian Aid says it attempted its own calculation of Iraq's oil revenues using publicly available figures and came up with 13 billion dollars.
Groups critical of the lack of transparency in the CPA's spending have been particularly angry that the authority is using Iraqi money to pay for questionable contracts -- some awarded without a public tendering process -- with U.S. companies.
Washington has restricted the most lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq to gigantic U.S. companies that appear set to rack up profitable contracts, fuelling accusations that the Bush administration is seeking to benefit a select few U.S. companies rather than find the best, and possibly the cheapest, options to help the Iraqi people rebuild.
Emad Mekay
Inter Press Service (IPS)
29 June 2004
WASHINGTON, Jun 28 (IPS) - Billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money have gone unaccounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), according to a new report released Monday.
The British charity Christian Aid says that at least 20 billion dollars in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds intended to rebuild the country have disappeared from banks administered by the CPA.
The group says that the U.S.-controlled coalition in Baghdad is handing over power to an Iraqi government without having properly accounted for what it has done with those 20 billion dollars of Iraq's own money.
”Christian Aid believes this situation is in flagrant breach of the U.N. Security Council resolution that gave control of Iraq's oil revenues and other Iraqi funds to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA),” the group said in a statement.
Watchdog groups have complained before about the opaque nature of the CPA's handling of Iraqi money and the lack of transparency by U.S. and Iraqi officials.
”For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq, it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq's money,” said Helen Collinson, head of policy at Christian Aid.
U.N. Resolution 1483 of May 2003 says that Iraq's oil revenues should be paid into the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), that the money be spent in the interests of the Iraqi people, and that it be independently audited.
But the group says that it took until April 2004 to appoint an auditor -- leaving only a matter of weeks to go through the books.
The group is concerned that the handover of power means that this money may never be tracked down and that the CPA is not going to be around to be held accountable.
The group compared the lack of audits of Iraqi oil money to the abundant information on the 18.4 billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer funds being spent in Iraq. No less than four separate audits of the U.S. funds are underway.
”Too many oil-rich countries go down the road of unaccountable government, riches for the few, and poverty for the many. Iraq can avoid this route, but only by ensuring transparency,” said Collinson.
Some U.N. Security Council diplomats had previously criticised the CPA for cloaking the DFI -- authorised by the Security Council to safeguard the oil revenues and other money earmarked for reconstruction -- in secrecy.
In its report, Christian Aid called on the Treasury Department, the U.S. agency responsible for pushing Iraq to privatise its economy and, before that, for confiscating billions of dollars in Iraqi assets worldwide, and the CPA to come out publicly with clear figures.
Last October, the Treasury Department responded to allegations by the same group that 4 billion dollars in Iraqi money was missing by saying that the money was actually returned to Iraq after the war ended in April 2003.
Even though Christian Aid says that since October the CPA has provided more information about what it is doing with Iraq's oil revenues, a lack of information still persists.
”We still do not know exactly how Iraq's money has been earned, which companies have won the contracts that it has been spent on, or whether this spending was in the interests of the Iraqi people,” says the report.
Christian Aid pointed to the difficulty of determining exactly what Iraq is earning from oil. Two different CPA documents give different figures for oil revenues through the end of May.
One says Iraq earned 10 billion dollars, while another cites 11.5 billion dollars for the same period.
Christian Aid says it attempted its own calculation of Iraq's oil revenues using publicly available figures and came up with 13 billion dollars.
Groups critical of the lack of transparency in the CPA's spending have been particularly angry that the authority is using Iraqi money to pay for questionable contracts -- some awarded without a public tendering process -- with U.S. companies.
Washington has restricted the most lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq to gigantic U.S. companies that appear set to rack up profitable contracts, fuelling accusations that the Bush administration is seeking to benefit a select few U.S. companies rather than find the best, and possibly the cheapest, options to help the Iraqi people rebuild.
U.N. staff in uproar over top leadership. (Theft issue still unresolved)
November 20, 2004
By Marc Carnegie
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
NEW YORK — The U.N. staff union met yesterday to discuss a no-confidence measure against senior management of the world body, which has been rocked by a series of scandals involving top officials.
But sources said a planned vote could be put off until next week after U.N. officials asked to meet with union members to quell the uproar over any no-confidence vote in senior management led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"The idea is to keep dialogue going and see if we can
sort out our differences so that it isn't necessary to adopt [the
no-confidence] resolution," Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
"We'd certainly like them to have more confidence in us, and we hope that we
can achieve that through dialogue," he told reporters.
A draft union resolution obtained by Agence France-Presse on Thursday complained of "a lack of integrity, particularly at the higher levels of the organization," and asked to "convey this vote of no confidence to the secretary-general."
The measure cites unnamed senior management, but both
sides — faced with heavy press scrutiny after news of the resolution broke —
insisted Mr. Annan was not the prime target.
Mr. Eckhard said it was a "misinterpretation" to call the measure a
no-confidence vote in Mr. Annan, even though he is the most senior official in
the United Nations.
In a press release, the staff union stressed that the
draft text had not yet been adopted and said the measure did not "express the
desire" for a no-confidence vote against Mr. Annan.
Sources said the immediate anger behind the resolution had been sparked by the
announcement Tuesday that Dileep Nair, head of the Office of Internal
Oversight Services, had been cleared of wrongdoing by Mr. Annan.
Mr. Nair had faced charges of harassment and favoritism but was exonerated after what Mr. Eckhard termed a "thorough review" of the case. Some accusations had been made in an anonymous letter, he said.
The staff crisis comes amid accusations of fraud and corruption in the U.N. program that oversaw oil sales by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.
Mr. Annan has publicly complained of a "campaign"
against the United Nations over the oil-for-food program in operation between
December 1996 and November 2003.
But it also follows the exoneration in July of Ruud Lubbers, the top U.N.
official for refugees who had been the target of a sexual harassment complaint
brought by a female member of his staff.
Mr. Annan cleared Mr. Lubbers of any wrongdoing in that case but reportedly sent him a letter conveying his "concerns" about the official's behavior.
Mr. Eckhard acknowledged the staff union was "not happy" with this week's decision on Mr. Nair, whose office functions as the U.N.'s internal watchdog, and said the question would be discussed next week.
"It's been a bit of an up-and-down relationship" with
the union, he said, but added: "We accept them as the legal representatives of
the staff."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20041119-110515-9504r.htm
The Oil-for-Food Scandal - the Canadian Connection
Galloway Delivers Scathing Remarks [see video on linked page]
____________________
U.N. Battles Sex Abuse by Peacekeepers
Wed Nov 24, 2:57 AM ET World - AP
By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - Linked in the past to sex crimes in East Timor (news - web sites), and prostitution in Cambodia and Kosovo, U.N. peacekeepers have now been accused of sexually abusing the very population they were deployed to protect in Congo.
And while the 150 allegations of rape, pedophelia and solicitation in Congo may be the United Nations (news - web sites)' worst sex scandal in years, chronic problems almost guarantee that few of the suspects will face serious punishment.
The problem is simple: The United Nations often implores nations to discipline their peacekeepers, but it has little power to enforce the rules. And when nations are reluctant anyway to contribute soldiers for dangerous missions like Congo, it's tough to turn the tables and shame them publicly.
"The U.N. goes around trying to cajole countries to provide peacekeepers," said Edward Luck, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. "They're having a hard time getting any member states to respond, and that doesn't give the U.N. a great deal of leverage in these kinds of situations."
While thousands of U.N. peacekeepers have served without incident, some have been accused of smuggling weapons and exotic animals, selling fuel on the black market, vandalizing airplanes, and standing by while mobs looted storefronts — if they didn't join in the chaos themselves.
Other times their inaction led to even more grievous crimes, as when Dutch peacekeepers under a U.N. mandate didn't stop Bosnian troops in the enclave of Srebrenica from loading Muslim men onto buses and taking them away to be killed.
That failure led the entire Dutch government to resign. It brought expressions of remorse at the United Nations, but no firings.
In the case of Congo, the accusations seem as bad as anything the United Nations has ever seen. Women and children have reportedly been raped, and there is said to be video and photographic evidence of crimes.
Similar allegations have been directed at U.N. peacekeepers and officials in East Timor. And, in Cambodia and Kosovo, local officials and human rights group charge that the presence of U.N. forces has been linked to an increase in trafficking of women and a sharp rise in prostitution.
In a new embarrassment, the United Nations confirmed Tuesday that a U.N. auditor in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, had been accused of hiring a prostitute. He comes from the agency that is investigating the latest claims, but isn't taking part in the probe.
The Web site for the Congo mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, reveals how bad the problem is but how little can be done. It includes a Nov. 11 report that details the "sensitization training" given to 143 South African peacekeepers when they arrived in the city of Goma.
"A Power-Point presentation explains — or reminds — that the U.N. considers that any person who is less than 18 years old is a CHILD," the report said, adding that sex with a minor is child abuse. "No matter whether the child seems to agree to the sexual relation or if the age of the child is not clear enough at the moment of the sexual encounter."
The Congo allegations come at a particularly bad time for the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).
U.N. officials have been accused of allowing corruption under Iraq (news - web sites)'s oil-for-food program. The refugee chief was accused of sexual harassment and cleared by Annan, which angered U.N. staff. The U.N.'s top investigator allegedly recruited and promoted staff based on their ethnicity, but was also cleared by Annan.
"The last 18 months have been one of the worst years and a half for the United Nations of any similar period that I can remember," said Jonathan Tepperman, senior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine. "This is the last thing that Kofi needed."
In the face of another potential public relations disaster, U.N. officials have come out early and loud with a denunciation of the problems in Congo. They have announced a spate of new investigations and reportedly made the complaint process easier in countries.
So-called "personnel conduct officers" have been sent to the missions in Congo, Burundi, Ivory Coast and Haiti.
Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, warned that the United Nations may even "generate new policies" to crack down on sex abuse.
The United Nations has also named Jordan's Prince Zeid Al Hussein a special adviser on sexual exploitation. Officials hope Zeid's background will give him the power he needs in the difficult task. He is one of the few U.N. ambassadors with peacekeeping experience, from Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. In addition, Jordan is a major troop suppliers.
Lute said it's possible sex abuses had gotten worse because there are far more peacekeeping missions than there once were. But right now, it must focus on prevention, with its ability to punish so limited.
"It's obvious the measures that we have had in place have not been adequate to deal with the changing circumstances," Lute said.
By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - Linked in the past to sex crimes in East Timor (news - web sites), and prostitution in Cambodia and Kosovo, U.N. peacekeepers have now been accused of sexually abusing the very population they were deployed to protect in Congo.
And while the 150 allegations of rape, pedophelia and solicitation in Congo may be the United Nations (news - web sites)' worst sex scandal in years, chronic problems almost guarantee that few of the suspects will face serious punishment.
The problem is simple: The United Nations often implores nations to discipline their peacekeepers, but it has little power to enforce the rules. And when nations are reluctant anyway to contribute soldiers for dangerous missions like Congo, it's tough to turn the tables and shame them publicly.
"The U.N. goes around trying to cajole countries to provide peacekeepers," said Edward Luck, a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. "They're having a hard time getting any member states to respond, and that doesn't give the U.N. a great deal of leverage in these kinds of situations."
While thousands of U.N. peacekeepers have served without incident, some have been accused of smuggling weapons and exotic animals, selling fuel on the black market, vandalizing airplanes, and standing by while mobs looted storefronts — if they didn't join in the chaos themselves.
Other times their inaction led to even more grievous crimes, as when Dutch peacekeepers under a U.N. mandate didn't stop Bosnian troops in the enclave of Srebrenica from loading Muslim men onto buses and taking them away to be killed.
That failure led the entire Dutch government to resign. It brought expressions of remorse at the United Nations, but no firings.
In the case of Congo, the accusations seem as bad as anything the United Nations has ever seen. Women and children have reportedly been raped, and there is said to be video and photographic evidence of crimes.
Similar allegations have been directed at U.N. peacekeepers and officials in East Timor. And, in Cambodia and Kosovo, local officials and human rights group charge that the presence of U.N. forces has been linked to an increase in trafficking of women and a sharp rise in prostitution.
In a new embarrassment, the United Nations confirmed Tuesday that a U.N. auditor in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, had been accused of hiring a prostitute. He comes from the agency that is investigating the latest claims, but isn't taking part in the probe.
The Web site for the Congo mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, reveals how bad the problem is but how little can be done. It includes a Nov. 11 report that details the "sensitization training" given to 143 South African peacekeepers when they arrived in the city of Goma.
"A Power-Point presentation explains — or reminds — that the U.N. considers that any person who is less than 18 years old is a CHILD," the report said, adding that sex with a minor is child abuse. "No matter whether the child seems to agree to the sexual relation or if the age of the child is not clear enough at the moment of the sexual encounter."
The Congo allegations come at a particularly bad time for the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).
U.N. officials have been accused of allowing corruption under Iraq (news - web sites)'s oil-for-food program. The refugee chief was accused of sexual harassment and cleared by Annan, which angered U.N. staff. The U.N.'s top investigator allegedly recruited and promoted staff based on their ethnicity, but was also cleared by Annan.
"The last 18 months have been one of the worst years and a half for the United Nations of any similar period that I can remember," said Jonathan Tepperman, senior editor at Foreign Affairs magazine. "This is the last thing that Kofi needed."
In the face of another potential public relations disaster, U.N. officials have come out early and loud with a denunciation of the problems in Congo. They have announced a spate of new investigations and reportedly made the complaint process easier in countries.
So-called "personnel conduct officers" have been sent to the missions in Congo, Burundi, Ivory Coast and Haiti.
Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, warned that the United Nations may even "generate new policies" to crack down on sex abuse.
The United Nations has also named Jordan's Prince Zeid Al Hussein a special adviser on sexual exploitation. Officials hope Zeid's background will give him the power he needs in the difficult task. He is one of the few U.N. ambassadors with peacekeeping experience, from Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. In addition, Jordan is a major troop suppliers.
Lute said it's possible sex abuses had gotten worse because there are far more peacekeeping missions than there once were. But right now, it must focus on prevention, with its ability to punish so limited.
"It's obvious the measures that we have had in place have not been adequate to deal with the changing circumstances," Lute said.