Bolton: U.N. official's criticism of U.S. a 'grave mistake'
The United States strongly criticized the No. 2 United Nations official on Wednesday for a speech in which he accused the U.S. government of using but not defending the organization and for leaving Americans in the dark about the world body's good works.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called Tuesday's speech by Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown a "very, very grave mistake" that could undermine Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts to push through an ambitious reform agenda at the world organization.
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In the speech, Malloch Brown said the United States relies on the United Nations as a diplomatic tool but doesn't defend it against criticism at home. That policy of "stealth diplomacy" is unsustainable, he said.
While praising Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessors, Malloch Brown lamented that the good works of the U.N. are ignored.
"Much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," he said.
"The U.N.'s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world," Malloch Brown said.
U.S. officials, including Bolton, said they were especially upset that Malloch Brown, a Briton, mentioned "Middle America."
Bolton said Malloch Brown's "condescending, patronizing tone about the American people" was the worst part about the speech.
"Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American government, by an international civil servant," Bolton said. "It's just illegitimate."
He demanded that Annan repudiate the rare public criticism by a U.N. official, and even suggested that the fate of the organization itself might be at stake.
"I spoke to the secretary-general this morning, I said 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time,"' Bolton told reporters on Wednesday.
Later Wednesday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Annan stood by Malloch Brown's speech. Malloch Brown then met with reporters and said the thrust of his speech was that United Nations cannot function well without the U.S. playing a central role.
Malloch Brown described it as a calculated effort to spur the U.N. reform process, which has bogged down in a clash for power between poor and rich nations. That could lead to financial trouble because member states imposed a six month budget cap that ends in June and can be lifted only if they see reform.
"You have to engage to help make this institution a better institution," Malloch Brown told reporters. "And you need to engage, if I dare say so, with your own public opinion to explain better why the U.N. matters to American interests."
The dispute underscored the difficult relationship between the U.N. and the United States in recent years. That "unhappy marriage," as Malloch Brown called it, has been strained by sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers, fraud and corruption by officials involved in the U.N. oil-for-food program, and the Security Council's refusal to back the invasion of Iraq.
A Gallup Poll in March found that 64 percent of Americans think the United Nations is doing a poor job, but the vast majority still want the U.N. to play an important role in international affairs. The findings reflected the lowest ever U.S. opinion of the United Nations.
Malloch Brown's speech was delivered at a conference sponsored by two think tanks, the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation. Malloch Brown called it a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer."
It was a rare instance of a senior U.N. official directly and openly criticizing a member state.
Malloch Brown used the speech to defend U.N. peacekeeping missions in 18 places round the globe. He criticized the United States for voting against the creation of a new Human Rights Council. It was joined by just three nations, with 170 countries voting for the body.
He acknowledged that the U.N. desperately needs an overhaul -- in the Security Council, over its budget, and even the headquarters building itself, which hasn't been renovated for decades.
But the U.S. tendency to criticize the United Nations and to take "maximalist positions," rather than seeking the middle ground, has made other nations suspicious of its intentions, Malloch Brown said.
Bolton warned that Malloch Brown's comments could undermine the very reforms that Annan wants and that the United States supports.
"Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations," Bolton said.
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