UNITED
NATIONS, April
2 -- As the
situation
between the
Koreas heats
up, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon is in
Andorra. But
he made a
point of
speaking on
the issue at a
press
conference
opening, then
in response to
a question on
it.
He
said, “rising
rhetoric and
threats by the
DPRK
authorities
has gone too
far, and it
has heightened
the level of
tensions on
the Korean
Peninsula.
That is why I
am taking this
opportunity
visiting
Andorra to
make a special
mention.”
But in
what capacity
was Ban
Ki-moon
speaking?
Earlier
on
April 1, Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey was asked
for Ban's
comments “in
his national
capacity.”
To
some it seemed
a strange
request. The
phrase is used
when a monthly
president of
the Security
Council is
speaking, to
get him or her
to step out of
that role and
state a
national
position.
But a
UN Secretary
General is not
supposed to
have, or at
least say or
act on, a
“national
capacity.”
This is for
example what
some say the
French chief
of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
does: use the
UN to advance
his country's
position.
But
the Secretary
General? And
the president
of the UN
Correspondents'
Association,
sometimes know
as Ban's UN
Censorship
Alliance,
being the one
to ask for
Ban's position
in his
“national
capacity”?
Perhaps
this
is what was
discussed in
the luncheon
between Ban
and UNCA's 13
opaque
apostles, a
meeting after
which some of
the 13 wrote
stories
quoting Ban
but refused to
release a
transcript or
recording of
the session,
even to their
own UNCA
members.
The UN
also refused
to release a
transcript or
recording,
beyond a set
of canned
“highlights.”
No highlight
concerned
Sudan or
Haiti, but
there was
discussion.
Why only for
13? And was it
there at that
luncheon, on
the Peninsula,
that some wink
and nod about
Ban's position
in his
“national
capacity” was
given? Watch
this site.
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