2005-2-27
The secretary-general had decided not to take action last summer
after a U.N. investigation. He says he had received legal advice
that the accusations could not be proven. Mister Annan now says the
continuing dispute had "made the high commissioner's position
impossible." But he says his acceptance of the resignation does not
mean that Mister Lubbers is guilty.
Mister Lubbers completed more than four years of a five-year term
as head of the refugee agency.
Mister Annan recently appointed Mark Malloch Brown as his top
aide. Mister Malloch Brown headed the U.N. Development Program. The
new chief of staff is seen as more aggressive than Mister Annan.
U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press that he was the one who
first informed Ruud Lubbers that Mister Annan wanted him to leave.
The United Nations has struggled recently to improve its public
image. The U.N. has been criticized for failing to supervise the
oil-for-food program in Iraq. And U.N. peacekeepers have been
accused of sex crimes against Congolese women and children.
Last week, writing in the Wall Street Journal, the
secretary-general argued that the U.N. remains important to
humanity. He offered examples of efforts to help people around the
world. One was the U.N. reaction to the tragedy from the tsunami
waves in the Indian Ocean in December.
World leaders are to consider reforms for the United Nations when
they meet in New York in September. Mister Annan says he will have
proposals for, in his words, "making the U.N. work better, and the
world fairer and safer."
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill
Moss. I'm Gwen Outen.