Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

Amid Ban's 1 Candidate Anointment, Global Model UN Had 10, Staff Union Charged With Just What Ban Does

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 -- With the UN Secretary General for the next five years about to be anointed with only one candidate and no competition, the ironies abound. Even the Global Model United Nations had ten candidates to lead its upcoming meeting in Incheon, South Korea.

At a June 10 briefing, Inner City Press asked the winner, Tatiana Makarova of the Russian Federation, about the competition. As written up by the UN itself, “Asked how she had been selected to be Secretary-General and if there had been more than one candidate, Ms. Makarova said that 10 people had been nominated from around the world in a long and difficult process. Debates and interviews had followed.”

For Ban Ki-moon, by contrast, there have been no debates at all. He made his pitch in closed door meetings with regional groups, and now awaits a Security Council rubber stamp vote on June 16, when he won't even be in the country but rather visiting Security Council member Brazil.

A Caribbean nation's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press later on June 10, “once the Big Five signed off on Ban, it was a done deal, the rest of us are just window dressing.” He referred to the second stamp, even more rubber, set for the General Assembly on June 21.

But even without competition, sources in Ban's office tell Inner City Press that recently the re-appointment has been the focus of that offices work, putting pressure on member states to get instructions from their capitals within 24 hours and issue statements.

Deal signed for GMUN in Incheon, other deals not shown

Ironically, in the contested UN Staff Union election held from June 7-9, the incumbents who have been critical of Ban are charged with using their UN offices on 48th Street for campaigning - meanwhile, Ban's Office just to the south has long been devoted to politicking. What could happen, before June 16 and 21? Watch this site.

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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.

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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?

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Amid UN Complaints on Ban Ki-moon's "Arbitrary" 3.7% Budget Cuts, His Pre-Coronation Is Reported

By Matthew Russell Lee, News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- Even before it is decided who should be UN Secretary General from 2012 through 2016, news wire services have predicted with “100%” accuracy that Ban Ki-moon will and should be re-appointed, quoting unnamed “UN diplomats.”

But why? Beyond questions about silence on human rights issues, and compromising the UN's purported impartiality in Cote d'Ivoire and elsewhere, on June 3 members of the UN's budget advisory committee complained to Inner City Press about Ban's just-made budget proposal.

“He said it would be a three percent across the board cut,” a member of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs told Inner City Press. “Then he comes in with three point seven, but implemented very haphazardly. There are no cuts to UN Women, but larger cuts to other departments.”

Another ACABQ source wondered why member states would move so quickly to rubber stamp Ban for five more years right after he made a controversial but still secret budget proposal.

“This wouldn't happen in any democracy in the world,” the source said. In these fiscal times, how leaders proposal budgets is the major issue to judge them on. "Ban just dropped this one on us, the member states haven't even debated or even heard it -- and they want to give him a second term?”

Ban with Zoellick & DSK: successor & musical chairs not shown

Beyond this, as Inner City Press has pointed out since the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF and before, if that now vacant post goes to an Asian or even South Korean, it would change the UN balance, and quite possible bring out another candidate for the top UN spot.

If Ban is preaching democracy, why not at least wait to see if a competing candidate emerges? Watch this site.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

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

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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