Kofi Annan is the world's number one diplomat as secretary-general of the United Nations. I recently saw him in action a few times at the World Summit in Tunis and was impressed. As such, it is very rare for him to lose his cool.
But at the end of the year press conference that Annan gave yesterday, he showed his frustration with the press over its coverage of the UN's oil-for-food programme.
Whichever way you look at it and whatever you believe, there is no doubt that the US adminstration used the scandal to try to undermine Kofi Annan, mostly because of Annan's outspokenness on the Iraq war and other actions by the US government in the name of the “war on terror”.
You can't even mention the UN in a story without receiving emails from irate Americans going on about the UN's corruption and how Kofi Annan must have personally received millions etc etc. The truth is that the UN regrets having taken on the programme in the first place and has vowed never to do it again.
The US criticism also conveniently overlooks the fact – that's fact – that the people that most benefitted from the oil-for-food scandal were US companies and US citizens. But such was the US adminstration effectiveness at pushing home the same (strongly angled) message time and again, that in the United States at least, the UN is viewed as hopelessly corrupt.
But back to Annan. Asked about his tough year and oil-for-food in particular, he rounded on the reporters in the room and said that the UN had reflected on the issue and that the press should “also do some reflection on your own”. In particular “how you allowed deliberate leaks to lead you in one direction but when the actual story came out… you missed a story”.
He went on: “We all have to be careful not to be fed by people with agendas.”
A question from the New York Sun set him off again. The reporter made allegations that Annan's chief of staff has taken two salaries at the same time. Annan did not like this. My gut feeling as a journalist is that this allegation has been dreamed up by a White House staffer to keep the “UN is corrupt” story alive.
Annan said: “Some of the things you have said this morning for a serious journalist is quite libellous. When you ask a question about my chief of staff taking two salaries, that is quite patently false and you must know that that sort of story is not even logical for you to accept it and use it as the basis of a question.”
But it really kicked off with an arrogant question from UK reporter James Bone for The Times about a Mercedes bought by Mr Annan and apparently given to his son – which has been repeatedly used as an entry point into criticism into Annan personally.
Annan was having none of it. “You are being very cheeky here. Listen James Bone, you have been behaving like an overgrown school boy in this room for many, many months. You are an embrassment to your colleagues and to your profession, please stop misbehaving, let's move on to a serious journalist.”
You can listen to the whole thing in a cut-down MP3 I've knocked up (see attachment below), or alternatively, you can see the whole press coverage, with pictures, here at http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/pressconference/pc051221am.rm [RealPlayer file].