The secretary-general had decided not to take action last summerafter a U.N. investigation. He says he had received legal advicethat the accusations could not be proven. Mister Annan now says thecontinuing dispute had “made the high commissioner’s positionimpossible.” But he says his acceptance of the resignation does notmean that Mister Lubbers is guilty.
Mister Lubbers completed more than four years of a five-year termas head of the refugee agency.
Mister Annan recently appointed Mark Malloch Brown as his topaide. Mister Malloch Brown headed the U.N. Development Program. Thenew chief of staff is seen as more aggressive than Mister Annan.U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press that he was the one whofirst informed Ruud Lubbers that Mister Annan wanted him to leave.
The United Nations has struggled recently to improve its publicimage. The U.N. has been criticized for failing to supervise theoil-for-food program in Iraq. And U.N. peacekeepers have beenaccused of sex crimes against Congolese women and children.
Last week, writing in the Wall Street Journal, thesecretary-general argued that the U.N. remains important tohumanity. He offered examples of efforts to help people around theworld. One was the U.N. reaction to the tragedy from the tsunamiwaves in the Indian Ocean in December.
World leaders are to consider reforms for the United Nations whenthey meet in New York in September. Mister Annan says he will haveproposals for, in his words, “making the U.N. work better, and theworld fairer and safer.”
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. I’m Gwen Outen.