The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 23, 2005, Page 8, Image 8
U.N. refugee chief resigns, denies sexual harassment accusations
By EDITH M. LEDERER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITED NATIONS — After
months of criticism, Secretary
General Kofi Annan decided that
U.N. refugee chief Ruud Lubbers
had to go because of the growing
controversy over allegations that
the former Dutch prime minister
had sexually harassed femal^
staffers.
Lubbers didn’t go easily. He
resigned Sunday but proclaimed
his innocence, saying he felt
insulted and accusing Annan of
giving in to “media pressure.”
At a meeting with Annan on
Friday, U.N. diplomats said the
secretary-general offered the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees
two choices resign or face
suspension and charges of
breaking U.N. rules.
Allegations first surfaced last
year that he had made unwanted
sexual advances toward a female
employee, identified in media
reports as an American. But it was
only on Friday that the British
newspaper The Independent
published the first detailed
description of her allegations and
statements from four other
women who didn’t file official
complaints but claimed Lubbers
sexually harassed them.
As the United Nations struggles
to improve its image in the face of
scandals over the U.N. oil-for
food program and sexual abuse by
U.N. peacekeepers in Congo,
diplomats said Annan decided
that Lubbers had become a
liability but he was also a fighter.
After defiantly telling reporters
that Annan had not asked for his
resignation and he intended to
complete his five-year term,
Lubbers flew home to Geneva on
Friday. But after he left U.N.
headquarters, Annan’s office
contradicted the refugee chief,
saying the prime topic of the
meeting was his future.
U.N. lawyers then started
preparing charges against him,
U.N. diplomats said on condition
of anonymity.
Apparently knowing what was
coming, Lubbers, 65, decided to
resign on Sunday before being
suspended.
In his letter of resignation,
Lubbers maintained his
innocence, indicating that
Annan wanted him to step
down.
“For more than four years I
gave all my energy to UNHCR,”
he said. “Now in the middle of a
series of problems and with
ongoing media pressure you
apparently view this differently.”
“To be frank, and despite all
my loyalty, insult has now been
added to injury and therefore I
resign as high commissioner,”
Lubbers said.
On Friday, he insisted the
allegations of sexual harassment
were “made up” and “slander.”
He vehemently denied the
female employee’s allegation that
he put his arms around her waist,
pulled her back toward him and
pressed his groin into her at the
end of a meeting in December
2003.
■ CUTS
Continued from page 7
spending to about a 1 percent
increase the smallest in years. But
of the 65 programs he then
proposed eliminating to save $4.9
billion, lawmakers killed four,
saving just $270 million.
In another measure of the
staying power of most federal
programs, of the 154 programs
Bush wants to kill or cut this year,
he has targeted 86 in the past
including 41 he has tried erasing or
trimming every year since
becoming president in 2001.
Administration officials say
every program on their list has
shown little _ evidence of
effectiveness.
“Will we get everything we
want? Probably not, but by doing
this we help assure overall
spending isn’t growing so fast” that
it hinders Bush’s effort to control
deficits, said White House budget
office spokesman Chad Kolton.
Democrats say Bush s proposed
cuts will hurt needed programs.
They also complain that the
budget’s overall $389 billion for
non-security programs is just 15
percent of total federal spending.
Eliminate all of them and there
still would be a budget shortfall,
they argue.
“They end up doing a world of
hurt for very little effect on the
bottom line,” Rep. John Spratt, D
S.C., said of Bush’s suggested
reductions.
House Budget Committee
Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa,
and Senate Budget Committee
Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.,
have agreed to try to include
Bush’s 1 percent cut in non
security spending in the
congressional budget they will
write in coming weeks.
But underlining the shaky fate
of Bush’s effort to kill or cut
specific items, Gregg said he was
not sure he would support one of
those proposals to cut a prison
construction program, perhaps
affecting work on a prison in New
Hampshire.
Even many of Washington’s
staunchest supporters of spending
cuts say they doubt Congress will
eliminate and cut the programs
targeted by Bush. They also doubt
Bush’s own willingness to fight
hard for his proposed cuts.
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