UN
G-20
Team Cuts Out UNDP & Jomo, Ban 2d Term in View, DC House
Looming
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 9 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in
South Korean for the G-20 meeting, UN sources in New York complained
to Inner City Press about an “unprecedented level of
micro-management” by Ban's office in the run up to the G-20.
South
Korea having
this G-20 is a laurel in the country's crown, as is Ban's position in
the UN. But Ban wants to use this G-20 meeting, if possible, to get
endorsements for a second term as Secretary General, publicly or
privately. So nothing can go wrong.
For
that reason,
the sources tell Inner City Press, unlike before other G-20 meetings
when a range of UN system officials have been involved, this time
Ban's closest advisers seized control of preparations.
Excluded
or
elbowed out among others the sources tell Inner City Press were
Norwegian Olav Kjorven, assistant
secretary-general and director of policy at UNDP and Malaysia Jomo
Kwame Sundaram, the assistant secretary general of DESA under Sha
Zukang, the Under Secretary General who wined and dined with and gave
an award to the Tiananmen Square general during Ban's recent trip to
Shanghai.
This
of course is
bad form. But Ban is under pressure, especially after the controversy
surrounding his craven suck-up to China during his four day visit,
not once publicly mentioning the name of this year's Nobel Peace
Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
Ban & Sagong
Il of G-20 Korea Summit Coordination Committee, Jomo & Olav not
shown
Even
the generally liberal and pro-UN New
York Times ran an editorial questioning whether Ban should be
supported for a second term.
Now,
after the
November 2 election, Ban and his advisers know they face a buzz saw
in the Republican controlled House Foreign Relations committee,
probably under UN knowledgeable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who may look into
issues ranging from UN inaction in Darfur to Myanmar as well as UNRWA.
Their
tour guide to Washington Robert Orr, reportedly the crafter of the
“US is a deadbeat” line, may lose his way in the new Committee. Will
they hire a lobbyist? Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN,
Finger
Pointing on Ban Human Rights in China Flap,
Nobel & Sha Unaddressed
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November
5 -- With UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon under
fire for not raising human rights or the new Nobel Peace Prize winner
when he met with Chinese President Hu, for external consumption Ban
on Friday morning read out a defensive statement in a press
conference on climate change financing.
Ban
insisted that
“the record is clear” that he mentioned human rights in Nanjing
-- as a “shared value” -- and in Beijing in a speech to students.
Ban did not mention, in China or in his Friday statement, Nobel Peace
Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, nor his Under Secretary General Sha Zukang
having given a “World Harmony Foundation” award to Chinese former
military chief on October 27. (Inner City Press got Sha's side
of the
story on November 4, click here.)
Inside
the Ban
administration, sources tell Inner City Press, the finger pointing
has begun. Ban's senior adviser Kim Won-soo, the sources say, lays
the blame for the coverage on his putative superior Vijay Nambiar and
Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe.
They
in turn pass
the blame further downstream to Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky,
pointing at days of Nesirky saying Ban did not raise human rights to
President Hu, then emailing out a late night statement that rights
had been raised to other Chinese officials, whom Nesirky has left
unnamed.
A
range of UN
officials and staff interviewed in recent days have expressed concern
that the brand of the UN has been hurt by the flap, culminating they
said in the New York Times editorial questioning whether Ban should
get a second term as Secretary General.
UN's Ban, Sha and Nambiar, Chinese rights & general not shown
While
it appears
that the staged Q&A at Friday's press conference is intended as
Ban's response to the media, some say there's a need for Ban to
address UN staff members and explain what has happened, and why. And
if his climate change press conference was “not the proper
occasion,” as he put it, to address human rights, he should set up
a separate press availability to answer questions, and not from
notes. Watch this site.
Footnote:
even
on
the topic of Friday's press conference, the report of the
High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing given to Ban by
Jens Stoltenberg of Norway and Meles Zenawi from Ethiopia, there was
no answer to the following question asked by Inner City Press at
Thursday's noon briefing:
Inner
City
Press:
On climate change, there are various people saying that,
in light of the elections that took place on Tuesday, and Obama,
President Obama’s comments yesterday afternoon at a press
conference that this makes the passage of climate change legislation
less likely in the United States, that this will impact not only the
Cancun process, but even this report that the Secretary-General is
getting tomorrow. Some that have seen the report say that it assumes
a median price of carbon of $25 a tonne by 2020, and if there is no
US legislation that will not be accurate. So, I am just wondering
what, it’s not so much a comment directly on the elections of what,
what does this, what is the Secretariat, and it… the global goods
team of the UN, does the results bode well for this report tomorrow
and for the process that he is involved in? And, if not, what’s
the plan to stay on track with the report that he is getting
tomorrow?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well,
two things. First of all, the key word there is
process. It is a process that involves all the countries in the
world in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
That is an enormous undertaking, as you know. And it involves all
countries. The second point is that the report is being launched
tomorrow. And I think it would be better to wait until then. You
will have an opportunity to see the report tomorrow.
Inner
City
Press:
Well, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Spokesperson:
You’ll
find out. And there are other ways to address it, even if
it isn’t at the press conference, because of the shortage of time
or whatever, but there are always [ways] to address these things.
We'll
see. Watch
this site.
* * *
, 
