A map of the road to Hell

Few organisations reward incompetence as richly as the United Nations. Consider Kofi Annan, head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) during the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica. In January 1994 he twice refused General Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN peacekeepers in Rwanda, permission to raid the Hutu arms caches, despite Dallaire’s warnings of the planned mass slaughter of Tutsis. In early July 1995, as the Bosnian Serbs advanced on the UN safe area of Srebrenica, Annan and several of his colleagues were away. The Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was travelling in Africa. Shashi Tharoor, head of the DPKO’s Yugoslav desk, was on holiday. General Rupert Smith, the British commander of UN troops in Bosnia, was on leave. Two days into the attack, on Saturday 8 July, Annan and other UN officials met in Geneva to discuss Bosnia. Srebrenica, about to fall, was barely mentioned, even though one of the Dutch peacekeepers had been killed. Incredibly, Annan and his colleagues sent General Smith back on leave.

When Annan took over as Secretary-General in January 1996 he brought his protégés with him. Shashi Tharoor was promoted to be the UN’s communication chief. Iqbal Riza, his deputy who signed off the cables refusing General Dallaire permission to raid the Hutu arms caches, was made Annan’s chief of staff. Riza eventually resigned in the wake of the Oil-for-Food scandal but Tharoor, with Annan’s support, almost beat Ban Ki-Moon to the Secretary-General’s office this year.

What then are we to make of this peculiar organisation? James Traub is an even-handed guide, sometimes perhaps too even-handed. He was granted unparalleled access to Kofi Annan. He sat in on UN meetings, taking copious notes, travelled with Annan and interviewed him at length. He sometimes seems star-struck, describing Annan as ‘a spokesman for mankind who looked wonderful in a tuxedo’, especially next to his glamorous second wife, Nane, née Wallenberg.