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At UN, Musing of One-Term Ban by Obama and Russia, Ramos-Horta in the Wings

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- With Barack Obama opening a ten point lead over John McCain three weeks before the U.S. Presidential election, in the UN the question is being asked, what would an Obama administration mean for the UN?  Inner City Press' inquiries and interviews have gleaned a theory that runs like this: Obama would want to put his imprint on the UN. Ban Ki-moon is viewed as the choice of George W. Bush.

   For this reason, combined ironically with Russia's increasing dissatisfaction with Ban on issues ranging from Kosovo through the UN Development Program's funneling of Open Society Institute funding to Georgian President Saakashvili -- admittedly before Ban's time -- to Ban's agreement with NATO, a movement grows to limit Ban to one term.  An exit strategy is devised: Ban will run for highest office in his native South Korea, and the Asian Group will get to keep the Secretary-General post for another five to ten years, as the African Group did when Kofi Annan replace the one-term Boutros Boutros Ghali.

  But which Asian candidate emerges at the next Secretary-General? You'll read it here first: Jose Ramos-Horta, current president of Timor Leste, former Nobel Peace Prize winner. Ramos-Horta threw his hat in the ring to become UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, saying he was being considered even when sources say he wasn't. Among Obama's foreign policy advisers is Samantha Power, whose book Chasing the Flame deals at length with Timor Leste and Ramos-Horta.

  But here's an incongruity, into which Inner City Press inquired this week before writing this story: Ramos-Horta is asking the UN to stop investigating the killing of civilians in East Timor in 1999, saying "we want a good relationship with Indonesia." This, in UN and other circles, is known as impunity. Inner City Press has asked Ban's spokesperson about Ramos-Horta's request, and to comment on it, which has been resisted.

Ban and Horta at UN: the once and future S-Gs, some sources say

  On October 13, Inner City Press asked, "there are these reports that Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste has asked the UN to stop its inquiry into violence committed in the past in Timor-Leste.  The reports don’t say where the request was made.  Was it made to the Secretariat?"

  Spokesperson Michele Montas said, "As far as I know, there was no official request." On October 14, Inner City Press followed up

Inner City Press: yesterday I had asked you about Ramos-Horta and whether he’d asked for the UN to not investigate the events of 1999.  Now he’s being quoted in a pretty reputable paper as saying 'as Head of State, I did not authorize the UN to investigate the crime from 1999.'  Does that mean the UN is going to stop…?

Spokesperson:  As I said yesterday, there is no official request to stop the investigation.  We have not received one, we have not received any communications on the subject from the President.  Those are just media reports and statements reported by the media.  And at any rate, as you know, we do not comment on statements attributed to leaders unless we receive an official statement or letter on that subject.

Inner City Press: If you were to receive, if this call was put in writing to the UN, would that end all UN investigations of the violence in 1999?

Spokesperson:  Well, you know, there are two specific processes going on at the same time.  There is no linkage between the Commission for Truth and Friendship, which is a bilateral mechanism between Timor-Leste and Indonesia.  The UN has nothing to do with that one.  It was set up in 2005 to look into the events of 1999.  There is a second process, [a United Nations process], which is what they call the SCIT – which is a continuation of the serious crimes panels that were set up and working during 2002-2005.  Those serious crimes panels were closed in 2005.  All the case files were handed to the prosecutor in Timor-Leste.  So, that process was brought back when UNMIT was established and it was agreed to set up that serious crime panel again simply to continue to assist the Office of the Prosecutor-General.  So, this is our role, this is what we’re doing, and as I said, I will not comment on what was said.

  Spinning away this incongruity may be a job for Samantha Power.

(Click here for story of Samantha Powers' May 2008 appearance at the UN, "Chasing the Flame with Cheese Cubes, US Progressives at UN Launch Campaign Funded by eBay."

Friday footnote: Or, as one wag said in front of the General Assembly on Friday when Iceland complained of broken promises, of country which took funding commitments and promised to vote for Iceland for a Security Council seat, maybe Obama will face such broken promises, through the so-called (Tom) Bradley effect or otherwise. In which case, we'll analyze John McCain's views and prospective impacts on the UN.

Note: Catch this reporter on Icelandic television, www.ruv.is

Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on UN, bailout, MDGs.

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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

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