As
UNGA Starts,
Ban's
Selective Talk
with Mali
& Bahrain,
Quiet Germany,
Corporate CGI
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 23
-- Before UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon headed
crosstown
Sunday to the
General
Assembly's
doppelganger,
the Clinton
Global
Initiative,
his office
issued five
read-outs of
five meetings
that morning.
Notably,
while
for four of
the meetings
the UN
purported to
summarize what
both sides
said, for the
meeting with
German foreign
minister Guido
Westerwelle,
there was only
a single
sentence, on
what Ban
raise: "The
Secretary-General
discussed the
situations in
Syria and
Lebanon, as
well as the
Middle East
peace
process."
No Africa; no
Iran. And no
Guido.
Each
of the other
four
read-outs,
including Mali
and Bahrain as
well as Kuwait
and Estonia,
summarized
that "they"
discussed. For
Mali, which
controls less
than half its
territory, the
UN summarized:
"The
Secretary-General
and the Prime
Minister
[Cheick Modibo
Diarra]
exchanged
views on the
situation in
northern
Mali...[Ban]
reassured him
of the United
Nations full
support to
Mali in its
efforts to
fully
re-establish
constitutional
order and its
territorial
integrity."
The
last phrase
seems to imply
that UN
automatically
supports
territorial
integrity. Of
course, it's
variance from
that principle
that the new
President of
the General
Assembly,
Serbia's Vuk
Jeremic, has
complained for
years. But
does Ban's
summary today
mean he will
say the same
to Georgia?
Will he raise
the prison
abuse scandal
there?
The
read-out for
Bahrain was
lengthy,
despite the
decidedly
different
response to
crackdown on
protesters and
bloggers in
Bahrain and
the rest of
the region and
world. The UN
said Ban
"welcomed
the
commitment
made by His
Majesty King
Hamad bin Issa
Al Khalifa, to
dialogue, good
governance and
genuine
democracy...
He also
emphasized
that a
genuine,
all-inclusive
dialogue that
addresses the
legitimate
aspirations of
all Bahraini
communities is
the best way
to promote
lasting peace,
stability,
justice and
economic
progress in
Bahrain."
The
read-outs for
Estonia and
Kuwait were
predictable:
International
Criminal Court
and Iraq,
respectively.
There will be
many such
read-outs this
month (click
here for
Inner City
Press coverage
and video of
Ban's meetings
with the
United Arab
Emirates and
Arab League
on September
21.) And a
pro-corporate
mood: over at
the Clinton
Global
Initiative,
Bill Clinton's
opening
statement
veered from
praising
Suntech and
Tom Golisano
to Proctor
& Gamble,
even the
Freeport
mining firm.
Ban Ki-moon,
who put the
chairman of Bank of
America tops
his
Sustainable
Energy for All
group, was
there, set to
rush back to
the real
(old?) UN to
speed-meet
with leaders
of the
Maldives,
Malawi,
Finland,
Bulgaria,
Ahmadinejad of
Iran, Luis
Federico
Franco
Gómez
(and not
Lugo) of
Paraguay
and Dimitris
L.
Avramopoulos,
FM of Greece.
We'll be there.
Watch this
site.
, 
