By Peter Kammerer
South China Morning Post
Published Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Behind The News; Pg. 16

    The man behind the  United Nations'  voice,  Shashi  Tharoor, has known for some time that he is being drowned out by Iraq. It is a situation that he laments, but is determined to change.

    Armed with intelligence, charm, wit, facts and the skills of a critically acclaimed author, Dr Tharoor has embarked on a global offensive. There can be few people as qualified for the job - yet the battle is still far from won.

    Dr Tharoor, the UN's under-secretary-general for communications and public information, acknowledged that during a speech to the Asia Society in Hong Kong on Monday. The war in Iraq had brought the UN's future into question in some minds, damaged its image and continued to detract from its myriad other projects, he said.

    Other urgent matters, ranging from child soldiers in Uganda to a looming political and humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic, deserved as much international attention as Iraq, he contended.

    But questions after his speech revealed that Iraq is preoccupying minds. One journalist, his questions on the US occupation of Iraq answered, left without touching on any other issue involving the UN.

    "See what I mean?" Dr Tharoor observed, confirming that in his mind, Iraq was getting "400 times more attention than the next nearest story".

    Iraq, as a middle-income country, was essentially not a priority for the UN in terms of what had become the organisation's main role of poverty reduction. Reality seemed to show otherwise, though.

    "In terms of the time and the attention it takes of the top management - the secretary-general, ambassadors and Security Council - Iraq is the No1 priority," Dr Tharoor said.

    "But that does not mean that the problems of Iraq deserve attention to the exclusion of problems anywhere else. The problems of poverty, famine, drought and Aids in parts of Africa threaten far more human lives than Iraq ever did. Those priorities cannot be neglected."

    His efforts to alter the balance began earlier this year following a speech by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in which the disparity of attention was highlighted. The idea evolved into a list of 10 other neglected stories that the world should pay more attention to, the details of which were posted on the UN's website to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

    Despite the UN website's massive traffic - it got two billion hits in 2003 and the volume is expected to rise 50 per cent this year - the international media mostly ignored the list.

    Decided on from a list of some 60 suggestions by UN departments and agencies, the story about children aged between eight and 14 being kidnapped, armed and trained to kill people in northern Uganda from bases in Sudan came top. The silent crisis looming in the Central African Republic and Aids orphans in southern Africa also featured prominently.

    Dr Tharoor was disappointed, but not surprised, that the list was not widely reported. Lead stories are what counts to the media and Iraq, being political, was bound to be considered more interesting, he explained.

    "Iraq is important, but there are other things that are as important which have been completely starved of media attention," he said. "Raising the consciences and consciousness of the rich and tranquil to the problems of the poor and strife-torn is never easy."

    Whether the strategy of speaking engagements and press conferences will reverse the trend will only be determined over time. There is no doubt, though, given Dr Tharoor's background, that he will try his hardest.

    Born in India's commercial capital Mumbai in 1956, he was educated in Calcutta, New Delhi and the US, where he earned his doctorate from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy aged just 22.

    He joined the UN in 1978 and has moved up the promotion ladder to now be considered one of Mr Annan's most essential aides. There has even been talk of him becoming a future secretary-general.

    But it is not as a UN bureaucrat that Dr Tharoor is best known. He is also a prolific writer of books and newspaper and magazine articles and has won numerous awards for his writings.

    His epic, India-themed novels have won him a wide audience, while his latest release, Nehru: A Biography, about India's first post-independence prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, has been praised by reviewers. He has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writer's Prize in 1991.

    Literary matters are far removed from Dr Tharoor's day job, though, which since his appointment as under-secretary-general in June 2002, has been  heavily centred around Iraq-related events.

    Within three months, US President George W. Bush had begun pushing at the UN Security Council for a resolution for war against Iraq. Half a year later, the credibility of the UN was threatened by the US and its allies going to war without international approval.

    The role of under-secretary-general for communications and public information became one of the UN's most demanding and has remained so amid debate on what role the world body should have in determining Iraq's future.

    That was resolved earlier this month with a unanimous Security Council resolution giving the UN a mandate to help the interim government, with American-led military support, work towards free and fair elections next January.

    Given continued insecurity - which nine months ago claimed the lives of 22 UN employees in Baghdad including top human rights envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello - the UN's future role after the June 30 handover of power may yet be limited.

    For now, the UN has a limited international presence in Iraq. Iraqis are doing most of the organisation's advocacy and humanitarian work, flying in and out of the country for training.

    Dr Tharoor said it would be irresponsible for the UN to have a larger presence given the instability.

    "There has to be a combination of fairly ruthless law and order enforcement mechanisms and at the same time open, liberal, political engagement with those who can be engaged," he suggested. "The ones who will never engage will have to be dealt with in a different way from those who can be persuaded and given an opportunity."

    Iraq aside, he's in no doubt that the UN has been strengthened, rather than weakened, by the conflict. The latest, US co-drafted UN resolution, had mended the perceived rift and shown the organisation's indispensability.

    Although 60 years old next year, the UN was not about to retire, Dr Tharoor asserted. Founded as a response to a world that had seen the horrors of the first and second world wars, it would continue to be seen as essential to resolving the world's problems.

    "Every country on Earth belongs to the UN," he told the Asia Society audience. "As soon as a new nation is born, it seeks entry to the UN almost as its first order of government business. Its seat on the UN is its most fundamental confirmation of its membership in the community of nations."

    So essential was the UN to the future of the world that even Switzerland, long a holdout of membership in the name of neutrality, had opted to join two years ago.

    Iraq had not been the first test of the UN's importance, he said.  Nato-led bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999 had raised the same question, but the world had also then turned to the UN to administer Kosovo.

    "Who but the UN could confer international legitimacy on the arrangements that were required and then support and resource the enterprise?" Dr Tharoor asked. "Iraq is not the first time that the UN has been written off by some during a war, only to be found essential to the ensuing peace. The UN offers a legitimacy that no country or ad hoc coalition can muster for itself."

    There are still critics, of course. They claim the UN is inefficient and wastes resources. The organisation has acknowledged some of their complaints by setting up a committee which is examining ways to improve how it operates.

    Dr Tharoor agreed that the UN had failings.

    "It's not perfect - it has acted unwisely at times, failed to act at others as in Bosnia or the genocide in Rwanda," he said. "It has sometimes been divided as was the case with Iraq. But the UN is at its best a mirror of the world. It reflects our divisions and disagreements as well as our hopes and convictions."

    Such words come from the heart of a believer. As muted as Iraq has temporarily made them internationally, up close the message is loud and clear.