Corruption fills United Nations 1 Feldman togetespccially concerned. David Hendrickson, smt Reporter __an international affairs expert and a critic of the ...... , . ... . UnitedNations.recentlysuggestedthataspe Tt0/in?^:Ti,*an?,ys,s,sl>arto,,eoftwo cially appointed commission above the Gen about the United Nations. eral Assembly should be formed to ensure that . the money was paid. Hendrickson says he he united Nations immense bureaucracy, believes financial difficulties will put a dent in a topic most sources tend to veer around, has the United Nations’ future. led with corruption. The list goes on and on, and the matters While the United Nations, like all major range from useless offices around the world, international governmental organizations, has which do nothing but expand the United Na always had to confront lions’ global presence, to mismanaged relief u FW C corruption, its degree was officials in Africa. previously controlled or Rakiya Omaar, an African human rights suppressed. official, expressed a great deal of anger toward But its impact is now the United Nations during the zenith of Somalia’s grand, and the organiza- cacophony. pears to be ove7bl‘lu own feet. Former Under Secretary Gen eral Brian Urquhart noted re cently that the corruption associ ated with the United Nations was “an enormous ramshackle struc ture.” Although the list is extensive some of the more significant ar eas of corruption include: •overspending on travel, sucli as the Law of the Sea talks ir Jamaica, which produced very little other than a rest from New York’s hustle and bustle. • an enormous budget for datt publications that arc issued ir tremendous volumes and arc largely out-of-date. • internal negotiations thai last for long periods of time.cosi money and don’t normally amount to much, such as debat ing whether to install a “wai room” at U.N. headquarters. As Marrack Goulding, a U.N. official, put it, the United Na tions is “trying to prevent wars, not make them.” The “war room’ was not installed, but critics ol the system had little difficulties slamming the organization foi wasting so much lime during 2 period when regional crises were Percent of the U.N. 'budget paid by various countries U.S. 25.0% Canada 3.1% Other 18.9 Spain 2.0 Japan 12.5 Brazil 1.6 Russia 9.4 Netherlands 1.5 Germany 8.9 Austria 1.5 France 6.0 Ukraine 1.2 Britain 5.0 Belgium 1.1 Italy 4.3 Sweden 1.1 i ininK mere s a greai :deal of incompetence, there’s a lot of corruption, and there’s no accountabil ity,” Omaar said. Another form of cor l ruplion exists with officials of various U.N. agencies. According to a recent report, officials of differ ent agencies in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Zaire, Angola and Iran have used an array of schemes to con - sum c large amounts of U. N. money. Stipulating unrealistic monetary exchange rates for personnel and grossly exaggerating refugee prob lems to bring in more food and supplies than neces sary were listed as two of the more common schemes. A Tanzanian U.N. offi cial, recently quoted in the Washington Post, asserted that such corruption did not exist. ‘‘That’s an absolute lie,” the official said. But critics of the system, many of whom arc former U.N. employees, claim it is preposterous to say that corruption is not a serious problem. reigning aoroaa. •Total unpaid peacekeeping dues now stand at $642 million, and the United States owes $290 million of that. Broken promises by member states arc very common, but the General Assembly never seems One critic pointed to a development agency in Nairobi, Kenya, which had to write off at least S368.000 stolen by an African employee over a two-year span. The money was taken through a scheme involving payments to phony companies for items that were never delivered. Profile Continued from Page 1 Leung said lhal if he heard about a culture and found it interesting, he would try to find out more about it. But wanting to go someplace and actually having the ability to reach it, he said, were two different things. He said tour guides didn’t know how to gel to all remote areas, so getting information could be tough. The best way to go about it is to head out and get directions along the way, he said. He said a trip to Ecuador in 1991 was one of his favorite and most eventful adventures. Leung said the first thing he noticed was the natives’ clothing. The toddlers ran around bottomless or without any clothes at all, he said, and adults’ clothing indicated their caste. Many of the natives he met in Ecuador were “reformed” headhunters. He said, however, that because many of the cultures were so remote, headhunting laws were almost impossible to enforce. It’s easy for a village not to adhere to the laws. Leung said when he got to his first village in Ecuador, he was disappointed “because the owner of the boat didn’t want to go any farther because he didn’t feel comfortable or safe to do that.’* Leung said he had heard a story about a Catholic bishop visiting a village only 25 miles away from his location. He said the instant the helicopter dropped off the bishop, he was killed by the headhunters in the village. “You just don’t kill for the head,” he said, “you also cat the guy.’’ Leung said he didn’t fear being killed. He joked that he was not worth the trouble. “They’d try to gel one with more meal than me.*’ However, Leung said, ‘‘It’s easy to say that now in an office in Lincoln, Ne -44 In many senses, a lot of these societies and cul tures are a lot more civi lized than any of the indus trial world’s cultures. At least they don’t kill people massively. — Leung astronomy professor -—99 _ braska. But when you’re in a certain area, you’re aware that you’re very mortal.” Leung said one group of natives in Ecuador wanted his gasoline. Leung tried to explain that his group needed the gas to make the 300-kilometer trip back to his camp. The natives were not interested in his story, and when his group realized they were outnumbered, they gave the natives the gas. , Luckily, Leung said, they kept enough gas to make it back. Headhunters weren’t the only problem he encountered, Leung said. Disease is a serious problem, one that requires Leung to carry two bags of medicine on all trips. This May, Leung said he was planning to go to Thailand to work on a National Science Foundation research project. After his work is completed, he said he planned to do some exploration in nearby Cambodia. Leung said the many diverse cultures ► he had visited had afTeclcd his outlook on life and made him view his own culture differently. For instance, he said, while the headhunters of Ecuador might kill once in a while, many more people arc being slaughtered in former Yugoslavia. “In many senses, a lot of these societies and cultures arc a lot more civilized than any of the industrial world’s cultures,” he said. 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