Ban
Ki-moon
Confines
Apology on
Cholera, &
Rapes, to
Broken French
in Speech
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, September
20 -- Ban
Ki-moon's
finally
General Debate
speech was a
model of
hypocrisy.
He
confined his
too-late
apology on
Haiti cholera
to the portion
of his speech
in broken
French, along
with sexual
abuse. He
seemed to take
on the
Security
Council veto,
but then
focused on
smaller
countries
breaking
consensus.
Ban
did not
mention the UN
bribery
scandal during
his tenure,
much less his
promotion of
his own son in
law to the top
UN job in
Kenya without
recusing
himself, or
his and his
head of
Communications
Cristina
Gallach's
censorship of
the
investigative
Press which
has raised
these issues.
NYT
here, petition
here.
With
the UN primed
for Barack
Obama's final
General
Assembly
speech as US
President, the
UN's decay in
the last eight
(really, ten)
years comes to
the fore.
While
many will
focus on
inaction in
Syria, which
allows the UN
Secretariat to
blame “the
member
states,” what
about the UN
killing more
than 10,000
people with
cholera in
Haiti, then
citing
immunity?
What about the
increasing
bursts of rape
and sexual
abuse by
peacekeepers,
even as the US
Mission's
Ambassador for
“Reform”
Isobel Coleman
delivers
praise to Ban
Ki-moon's
supposed “zero
tolerance”
policy --
while Ban's
head of
peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
has publicly
linked the
rapes to
“R&R”? Video here.
How about
Ban's own
increasing
nepotism -- promoting
his own son in
law
Siddharth
Chatterjee to
the top UN job
in Kenya
without
recusal -- and
the Ng Lap
Seng / John
Ashe UN
bribery case?
What has the
Obama
administration
done or even
said about any
of these?
The US
continues to
support the
Saudi-led
Coalition's
airstrikes on
Yemen; Ban
took the
Saudi-led
Coalition off
the UN's
Children and
Armed Conflict
annex.
This
undermines
other UN human
rights lists
-- but Ban is
leaving the UN
(coyly running
for president
of South
Korea, and
using the UN
to do so), as
Obama leaves.
There
is lip service
to
multi-lateralism,
but while Ban
Ki-moon has
actively
harmed the UN,
the Obama
administration
has done
nothing. Who
will they
choose to come
after Ban?
Watch this
site.
, 
