End of the Kofi era? - Kofi to resign as Sec-Gen of UN

Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee, has some very interesting stories about Kofi Anan’s son Kojo, an employee of the firm Cotecna, and of the former Iraqi Ambassador to Nigeria. Anan’s son Kojo has been held responsible for getting unaccounted for payments in the Oil for Food programme that the UN organized for Saddam, the deposed Iraqi ruler’ s regime.

Now with Vlckers report indicting Kojo’s role in getting favors for his firm Cotena, using his father’s position as Secretary General of the UN, the moral and logical outcome of this report would lead to

Kofi’s exist from the UN, bringing an end to an era where the secretary General had made the UN a toll to do the bidding of the Arab lobby.

We have some important new information on the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal tonight, indicating that Secretary General Kofi Annan may have been much more involved in his son Kojo’s activities with Cotecna than we have been led to believe: Special Report #1 - Oil-for-Food Investigation.

Pierre Mouselli, a businessman in Paris who was Kojo’s business partner has been interviewed by Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee, and told them some very interesting stories about Kojo, Cotecna, and the Iraqi Ambassador to Nigeria.

The committee has been interviewing Pierre Mouselli. Their relationship started in 1998 when then 45-year old Mouselli met young Kojo (then 23) at a Bastille Day Party in the French Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Mouselli, who has been a cooperative witness and is not under investigation himself, has told the committee numerous interesting things, which deserved to be followed up, They include:

1. Previously unrevealed private meetings between Kojo and two separate Iraqi Ambassadors to Nigeria, arranged by Mouselli in or about August 1998. At these meetings Kojo presented the business card of Cotecna, which subsequently won the lucrative oil inspection contract for Oil-for-Food. Cotecna had previously been blacklisted from doing business in Nigeria for alleged arms trafficking.

2. A trip in September 1998 by Mouselli and Kojo to the Non-Aligned Nations Movement Conference in Durban, South Africa during which they traveled with the Secretary General’s entourage and later had a private lunch with Kofi Annan. In Mouselli’s view, the purpose of the lunch was to make the Secretary General aware of the various business dealings in which he and Kojo were engaged, in order to get the Secretary General’s “blessing”. It was Mouselli’s understanding at the time that Kojo had previously discussed the Iraqi Embassy visits with his father, though he does not recall specific statements regarding the UN inspection contracts.

3. Early Autumn 2002. The Iraqi Ambassador to Nigeria makes a surprise call to Mouselli inquiring of the whereabouts of Kojo (at this point Mouselli and Kojo were not in close contact). Mouselli goes to the Iraqi Embassy where he is informed by the Ambassador that we (the Iraqis) have done favors for Kojo in the past and now need to see him. The Iraqis do not specify what these favors were or what they needed from Kojo, but offer Mouselli a visa to come to Baghdad for further discussion. Mouselli picks up the visa in Paris but does not go to Iraq because of the increasingly violent situation. So will this be the end of the Kofi era? And will Kofi resign as Sec-Gen of UN. Hopefully YES.