Ruth King

Recently (on March 15, to be precise) the Secretary General of the United Nations and his lovely wife were rubbing elbows with the rich and famous at the "Byzantium Faith and Power (1261-1557)" preview and dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kofi looked positively spiffy in his formal duds, but the rest of the month was not so happy for the poor dear.

That week ethnic Albanian Moslems killed 28 ethnic Serbian civilians in Kosovo, injured 850, burned hundreds of Serbian homes and 30 Serbian Orthodox churches, some of them medieval treasures. At least 3,500 Serbians and other non-Albanians fled their homes. Mr. Annan did not comment on any of these events. He did, however, manage to take time from his busy social whirl of balls, benefits, dinners, premieres and parties to scold Israel for the assassination of Hamas chief Ahmed Yassin. And, oh yes, while his tux was at the cleaners, his son Kojo was implicated in the scandals involving the money-grabbing at the UN sponsored "Oil for Food Program."

Next came Kofi's mortification at the Memorial Conference on the Rwanda Genocide where Mr. Annan publicly apologized for not having done more to prevent the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates who were slain in 100 days by Hutu extremists and their followers, armed with machetes, garden hoes and spiked clubs. "The international community is guilty of sins of omission," said Annan, who was head of the United Nations peacekeeping agency at the time and thus in charge of the "omission." He lamely added: "I believed at the time that I was doing my best. But I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support."

The UN investigation was spurred by Canadian Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire, who had been head of a small U.N. force, and was driven into a suicidal depression after returning home from Kigali because the Security Council did not send in reinforcements as Rwandans begged him for help. The commission accused the world body of being "timid, disorganized and misguided before the massacres and failing to intervene once the killing had started."

Not that missing a genocide or two has hurt Kofi's career as champion of human rights. He and the UN scooped up a Nobel peace prize in 2001. Then again, he is in good company in the Nobel Laureate Association, right up there with Yasser Arafat, Rigoberta Menchu and Bishop Tutu.

To be sure, no one can accuse Kofi Annan of taking his eye from even the most imaginary ball when it comes to Israel. Not long ago Annan slandered Israel by demanding an investigation into a possible "massacre" in Jenin by Israel's army. He subsequently admitted that there had been no mass killings and no massacre. It was a sullen admission from Mr. Annan. While he occasionally issues perfunctory regrets when Arabs commit atrocities against Israelis, most headlines about his response to Israel read as follows: "A visibly angry Mr. Annan demanded that Israel..."