At
UN,
Lack of GRULAC Endorsement Delays Ban's Re-Appointment
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 16 -- When Ban Ki-moon ten days ago announced he wanted
a second term as UN Secretary General, he went to meet behind closed
doors with the UN's Regional Groups. As first
reported by Inner City
Press on June 7, in the Latin American and Caribbean States group,
called
GRULAC, at least five countries said they needed more time.
Nevertheless
it was
announced that the Security Council would meet on June 16 to
recommend Ban for a second term. Ban's Spokesperson's Office on June
15 issued a schedule with re-appointment on the Council's agenda.
But
early on June
16, this changed. Ban's Spokesperson's Office put out another
announcement, that only the Council's “Program of Work” would be
considered on June 16.
Sources
tell Inner
City Press this is because GRULAC has still not endorsed Ban for a
second term. Ban has spend the last five days in Latin America. But
as one source put it, “look at his record, especially in Latin
America.”
In
typical UN
fashion, the source pointed first to Ban's appointments, or doling
out of top posts. “Oscar Fernandez Taranco he calls a high Latin
appointment. But some say the guy's Italian,” the source said.
Asked about Ban's recent appointment of Mariano Ferandez, a Chilean to
head up the UN's
Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), another source said “that was only for
Bachelet.” The Haitian government, it's said, preferred a
Trinidadian candidate. “What has Bachelet accomplished for Ban?”
the source asked.
Ban & book; rights communications withheld to keep access
(Inner
City Press
notes that Bachelet's UN Women office has responded to questions
about allegations of rape by UN peacekeepers in South Kordofan in
Sudan, by asking the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the
highest level.)
More
generally as
one GRULAC source told Inner City Press, “Ban has not focused on
Latin America enough. We want a commitment that this would change in
a second term.” Watch this site.
* * *
As
Ban
Ki-moon Moves For 2d UN Term, Human Rights Groups Go Silent To Keep
Access, Press Controlled
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 13 -- Ban Ki-moon has been subject to critiques for
being weak on human rights for nearly all of his four and a half
years as UN Secretary General. While such weakness is surely a
comfort to many UN member states, to others at least on paper it
should be a problem, in supporting him for a second term.
So how did
Ban seek to turn this around?
One
way is to
control what people say. In the run-up to Ban's drive for a second
term, Human Rights Watch had been critical of Ban's record. But
after HRW director Kenneth Roth met with Ban this Spring, and Inner
City Press asked HRW on the record if Roth had brought up Ban's record
in Myanmar,
Sudan or Sri Lanka, the response by HRW's UN Director,a former
journalist, was:
“To
preserve our ability to have frank discussions with UN officials and
advance our advocacy goals, we don't typically communicate on the
content of discussions we have with them.”
UN
officials, of
course, should not condition listening to or acting on human rights
concerns on the silence of their interlocutors. (Separately, it is
unclear to whom HRW would communicate what it raised: only donors?)
But
such a
non-answer, delivered less than ten days before the June 6 campaign
kick off for a second term as UN Secretary General, is certainly
better for Ban.
Earlier
this
Spring a group of ethnic Tamils came to the UN trying to deliver a
petition calling for an international investigation into what they --
and Ban's own Panel of Experts -- call the killing of tens of
thousands of Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka's government.
They
asked Inner
City Press to cover their demonstration across First Avenue from
Ban's office. The Ban administration told them that a mid level
official would be willing to accept the handover of their petition in
the lobby of the UN General Assembly, but that no members of the
press should be among their group.
Inner
City Press
stood to the side, to not hear anything that was said, and took two
photographs of the handover. Shortly thereafter, Inner City Press
was told that if photos of the handover were published, the Ban
administration would not meet again with that group.
There
are in the wider world worse ways to silence people. But questions
exist
as to whether these actions are appropriate to the UN, not only for
the past five years, but for five to come. Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN,
Ban Ki-moon 2d Term Set June 16 in Council, June 21 in GA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 10 -- The final steps of the one
candidate
reannointment of Ban Ki-moon as UN Secretary General have now been
scheduled. The Security Council met behind closed doors on June 10
and decided that they will vote -- or merely “gavel” -- Ban has
their single recommendation on June 16.
Then,
they say, the
General Assembly will take final action on June 21. There was no such
scheduling of date for other candidates to be presented, as even the
International Monetary Fund did. The IMF said candidates by today,
June 10, interviews and a decision by June 30.
At
the UN, Ban
announced on June 6 in a press conference at which Inner City Press
asked him if he didn't think there should be more than one candidate,
given what he's said about democracy and the Arab Spring. Ban said
it's up to member states.
Ban & Assad, both in the news, one set to be re-annointed
After
Ban held
closed door meetings with regional groups, Inner City Press asked
Ban's spokesman Nesirky if he would be giving a speech or taking
questions in the General Assembly.
Nesirky
referred
back to the meetings with regional groups and others, all of which
were behind closed doors. Those, apparently, were the interview,
except for commitments the Permanent Five members who could block Ban
have extracted.
Among
many of
those working for the UN there is dissatisfaction with Ban for making
the UN lower profile, less independent, more partisan. Many diplomats
too, have voiced that, for example when the scathing review of Ban by
outgoing Office of Internal Oversight chief Inga Britt Ahlenius was
leaked.
But
in the world
of diplomacy, once the fix is in few see an upside to speaking out.
“What can we do?” one Latin American country's Permanent
Representative asked Inner City Press.
The
deciders are
the Permanent Five members, and clearly they like a relatively quiet
and pliant Secretary General. To go otherwise would be akin to
allowing a sixth veto. And so it goes.
* * *
At
UN
as
Ban Pushes for 2d Term, Sees No Need or Time for Other
Candidates
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June
6 -- Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the press he is seeking
a second term as UN Secretary General. Inner City Press asked Ban
if
he thought the UN should have a more formal process of soliciting
more than one candidate, holding interviewed, developing a short
list.
“It's up to
member states,” Ban said, then said it would be natural if both the
Security Council and the General Assembly took up his request for a
second term this week, while the Presidents of Nigeria and Gabon are
at the UN. So, no time for any other candidates to declare.
Ban
intends to meet
with the African Group Monday at 3, then on Tuesday with the Eastern
European states then Western European and Other Group and GRULAC.
Ban's
first
move
was to tell the Asia Group, at a breakfast Monday morning, that he
wants a second term. Ban said they have supported him.
After Ban's
press conference, Inner City Press interviewed a Deputy Permanent
Representative who attended the meeting. He said that no vote was
taken, but rather “acclamation.”
Ban & Gaddafi: one candidate elections not shown
Inner City
Press asked if Sri
Lanka spoke, and the DPR said yes, Syria as well. He did not see any
North Korea representative in the room, he said. We will have more
on this.
Update
of
1:30
pm -- US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo,
exiting the Security Council, answered about Ban second term by
saying the US will be issuing a statement. In the IMF race, Timothy
Geithner hedges on whether US supports Christine Lagarde, there being
a Mexican candidate Agostin Carstens in the race. So why this
one-candidate process at the UN?
Click
for Mar 1, '11
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption
Click
here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12
debate
on
Sri
Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis
here
Feedback: Editorial
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Copyright
2006-08
Inner
City
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Inc.
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