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In Ban's UN, of Cancelled Meetings and Disgruntled Staff, Following the Rostrum

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

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- Secretary General BAN Ki-moon was lavishly praised on Tuesday afternoon by a blind man, Doctor Young Woo Kang, who told of Ban choosing to give baths to the disabled and, as a junior high school student, meeting U.S. President John F. Kennedy. These stories were delivered as part of an hour-long ceremony culminating in the awarding of a bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to New Zealand, for its commitment to disabled people. Ban Ki-moon stayed for the entire hour, ad-libbing during his brief remarks that he was National Security Advisor in South Korea when his country was given this same award in 1996.

            Upstairs trouble was brewing. Not only in Myanmar, where four days after the deadly cyclone UN aid workers still had not been granted visas, not only in Somalia, where the UN-supported Transitional Federal Government had shot and killed people protesting the rising price of food. Even on the fifth floor of Headquarters, in the offices of the UN Staff Union, dissatisfaction was growing. At 9:40 on Tuesday morning, Ban had been formally scheduled to meet with Ling Zhang, President of the World Peace Charity offering a $50,000 contribution to a Solidarity Fund that Ban had spoken of providing help to the families of UN staff killed in the line of duty.  But minutes before the meeting, the meeting with Ban was abruptly cancelled.

            Since the meeting was listed on the official "Appointments of the Secretary General" put out for the media, Inner City Press in fairness asked Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe why the meeting had been cancelled. She responded that "it was because of unexpected demand on the Secretary General's schedule, meeting and telephone calls, due to emergencies such as cyclone and food crisis. Instead, meeting was offered with Under Secretary-Generals of the Department of Management, or DPI or the Chief of Staff, but declined."

            Even as Mr. Ban remained for the full hour meeting featuring Doctor Young Woo Kang, the Staff Union told a different story, and called into question the above-quoted response. The replacement meeting, which would only have taken five minutes, was offered they said with the deputy chief of staff, Mr. Kim Won-soo. Ms. Ling Zhang had reportedly taken this as an insult and declined the meeting.

Mr. Ban and USG Barcena and the rostrum, meeting and SMCC pull-out not shown

            The Under Secretary General of the Department of Management, mentioned by Ms. Okabe, must also have been busy. Tuesday afternoon Inner City Press left a simple question with her receptionist, for comment on the Geneva staff union's joining its New York counter-part in pulling out of the Staff Management Coordination Committee, which she has said is the only body with which she can negotiated. Hours later, no response or comment was received.

            Ban Ki-moon's rostrum, however, made an appearance for his speech about disabilities, and this time other presenters were allowed to use it. Earlier this year, the rostrum was pulled mid-sentence from the hands of Serbia's foreign minister, who lodged a formal protest. Still the unexplained rule against photographing the rostrum appeared in place: Ban himself, and a New Zealand official, together moved the rostrum before posing for pictures with the FDR bust. Only at the UN.

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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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