UNITED
NATIONS, June
26 – During
the recent G8
meeting in
Lough Erne,
the
managing
director of
the
International
Monetary Fund
Christine
Lagarde and
World Bank
chief Jim Yong
Kim were both
there.
But
where,
Inner City
Press asked,
was Ban
Ki-moon,
the Secretary
General of the
United
Nations?
Physically,
he
was in China.
But the
question was,
had Ban
Ki-moon even
been
invited to the
G8? The
question was
asked at the
UN, of Ban's
Deputy
Spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey.
He said
he didn't
know, he said
he
would check;
there was
never an
answer. This
seemed to
imply Ban had
not been
invited –
particularly
since the
meeting
touched on
Syria
– but it
seemed to make
sense to ask
the host, the
United
Kingdom.
The
UK Mission to
the UN's
spokesperson,
Iona Thomas,
told Inner
City
Press she
didn't know
but would ask
“the capital”
but that it
might take
time. On
Wednesday
morning, Inner
City Press
asked again.
She indicated
that maybe now
that the dust
had settled,
an answer
might be
possible.
And
then it came.
Wednesday
afternoon at
an otherwise
empty Security
Council
stakeout as
the Council's
meeting on the
long
delayed Sahel
report by
Romano Prodi
started up,
Iona Thomas of
the UK told
Inner
City Press
that No, Ban
Ki-moon was
not invited.
So there you
have
it.
What
does it mean?
Often
people
critique not
only the G8
but also the
G20 for being
unrepresentative,
contrasting it
to the G193 of
the General
Assembly. The
UN Secretary
General could
be a bridge,
and it seems
to some
that previous
Secretary
General Kofi
Annan might
well have been
invited.
So
what is
happening to
the UN? As
another UN
official
pointed out to
Inner City
Press, even on
Mali, a case
right in the
UN's
wheelhouse,
it was not the
UN brokering
the deal --
not Prodi or
Bert Koenders
or Said
Djinnit --
but Blaise
Campoare of
Burkina
Faso. Would he
have been
invited to the
G8? Watch this
site.
, 
