Report: U.N. Commits Human Rights Abuses Against Its Staff
By BENNY AVNI
New York Sun
June 13, 2006
. . .Mr. Coburn, who chairs the Senate's Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security, said that while he would like to see more transparency across the whole U.N. system, the main target of his visit to Turtle Bay yesterday was to inspect the plan to renovate the decaying 1950s tower on First Avenue, and assess the procurement system related to it.
For Congress to approve funds for the renovation plan it "is going to require real sunshine," Mr. Coburn told reporters, emerging from a meeting with the under secretary general, Mark Malloch Brown. He described the session as "frank exchange of views," a well-worn diplomatic jargon for deep disagreements.
The meeting, planned some time ago, took place one week after a well-publicized speech in which Mr. Malloch Brown expressed doubts about the way "middle America" understands Turtle Bay, and in which he called on Bush administration officials to inform Americans better than do adversarial press bodies like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.
"He misunderstands middle America," Mr. Coburn told reporters after the session with the United Nations's second in command. "We understand the value of the U.N." he added. "Nobody in Washington does not want a U.N. We want a U.N. that's functioning properly."
The subcommittee Mr. Coburn heads plans a oversight hearing on June 20 in Washington into the United Nations's so-called Capital Master Plan, the blueprint for the renovation of the crumbling building. . .
