UN: Speech Uproar Comes As Budget Deadline Looms

UN Deptuy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown (file photo) (epa) UNITED NATIONS, June 12, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown complained in a speech on June 6 that top U.S. officials are prone to bash the world body at home while using it as a diplomatic tool abroad. His remarks prompted strong rebukes from the U.S. administration.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on June 9 that it is unacceptable for a UN official to criticize a member country in such a way.

"We were very disappointed by the fact that a high-ranking UN official would single out a member-country, as [Mark Malloch Brown] did," McCormack said. "We find this very disappointing, almost unprecedented. I don't think that we could really find another example of that before."

In his speech, Malloch Brown told a New York conference of U.S. foreign policymakers largely from the opposition Democratic Party that the UN's failures were to some degree "because the U.S. has not stuck with its project, its professed wish to have a strong effective United Nations, in a systematic way.”

"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," he said.

U.S. Failure To Compromise?

But what appears to have caused the most ire in Washington is Malloch Brown’s opinion that the United States tends to hold on to maximalist positions when it could be finding more middle ground.

In the days since those remarks, some U.S. critics have called the speech an anti-American attack.

But Malloch Brown says anti-Americanism was not his motive or intention.

“I don’t think [the speech] could be possibly characterized as anti-U.S. but which is intended as a very pro-U.S. speech and that its central point is an appeal for more consistent public leadership by the United States in the United Nations," Malloch Brown said.

Secretary-General Backs His Deputy

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stood firmly behind Malloch Brown’s words and said that any controversial remarks have been taken out of context.

“The message that was intended is that the U.S. needs the UN and the UN needs the U.S. and we need to support each other," Annan said. "The UN in terms of power structure is too narrowly based where most member states believe five countries call the shots and some adjustments will have to be made. In fact in the past I’ve even referred to a 'democracy deficit' in the way we govern the UN. So I think the speech by my deputy should be read in the right spirit, and let’s put it behind us and move on.”

Ian Williams, the UN correspondent for the weekly magazine "The Nation" and the author of the book "UN For Beginners," says the remarks have created divided opinions in the U.S. capital.

“You have to remember that Senator Christopher Dodd [Democrat, Connecticut] has come out in support of him [Malloch Brown], Congressman Jim Leach [Iowa], ranking Republican who was there, I believe is supporting him. He actually spoke at the same conference and was equally critical," Williams said. "[U.S. Ambassador to the UN] John Bolton is speaking for the administration, but he is not speaking for America as a totality. Many Americans are deeply concerned about this sort of isolationist attitude, which has been hampering U.S. diplomacy.”

A Prelude To Reform?

Williams says that Malloch Brown, who is British, has been largely regarded within the UN administration and among the Third World member states as pro-American.

“So I almost suspect [that] he did this calculated to disarm those critics so he can get through with the reforms," Williams said.

Malloch Brown, who regularly speaks at public forums keeping only brief notes, emphasized that for this speech in particular he prepared himself diligently.

“The speech was very, very carefully worked," Malloch Brown said. "I struggled with every word of it and some of you know that normally I may speak spontaneously from notes. But I felt this was something very important to say and to say now because we are in crisis.”

Looking At The Budget

The crisis to which Malloch Brown refers is a budgetary one. In December 2005, largely on the U.S. insistence, the UN budget was approved for only six months instead of the usual two years. That budet expires at the end of this month.

Secretary-General Annan, for his part, said he is confident that there will be no crisis and that the budgetary limbo will be overcome before the deadline passes.