When
Ban
Golfs With
Western
Allies,
Shouldn't
Issues
Discussed
Be Disclosed?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 1,
updated -- The
UN's
impartiality
is much
discussed
these
days, not
least by the
UN itself. So
there were
bound to be
Press
questions when
today's New
York Times
quoted
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon:
"I
try
to play golf.
I do not have
a membership,
so I’m invited
by
some friends.
The Korean
ambassador has
a membership.
The ambassador
of San Marino,
[Alexander]
Bodini, plays
at Deepdale in
Long Island.
That’s a very
good place.
Another is
Manhattan
Woods, with
the
Korean
ambassador."
Because
of
the UN's Syria
chemical
weapons
investigation,
there was a
press
briefing on
Sunday
morning. Inner
City Press
asked if the
UN had
accepted a
free plane
from Germany
to fly its
team and
samples from
Damascus to
The Hague
(yes) then
asked about
Ban's golfing.
Video
here, from
Minute 26:35.
Specifically,
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
how he'd
respond to the
argument this
undermines the
UN's or at
least Ban's
perceived
impartiality.
Nesirky said
Ban also golfs
with others;
he
gave the
example of UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant
(whose
support of a
particularly tough soccer team West Ham Inner
City Press has previously
reported.)
That's
still three
Western or
pro-Western
golf partners.
Inner City
Press
asked, what
about North
Korea? Syria?
Iran? Eritrea.
There was
laughter. Not
that it is
without humor,
but why?
Because the
named
countries or
ambassadors
don't play
golf? (Inner
City Press
been
jokingly asked
if it thinks
Syria's
Ja'afari even
knows how to
play
golf. But
would Ban
ask?) Because
of course Ban
wouldn't golf
with
them?
How
are decisions
made? Why
aren't more
disclosures
made? This is
a
question that
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access @FUNCA_info has
asked and
will keep
asking, as it
will for the
disclosure of
the telephone
calls Ban
makes, and the
schedule of
his Political
and Peacekeeping
chiefs,
Jeffrey Feltman
of the US and
Herve
Ladsous of
France.
For
US President
Barack Obama,
for example,
the White
House sends
out
reports that
list, at least
by visual
observation,
his golf
partners.
As
to the UN,
Inner City
Press has
asked UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant
by Twitter,
a medium in
which he has
responded to
previous Inner
City
Press
questions, if
any issues
were discussed
on the links.
Update
of 6:30 pm -
Class act that
he is,
Ambassador
Lyall Grant did reply:
"What happens
on the golf
course stays
on the golf
course. Isn't
that the rule?
Or is that
Vegas?"
That IS the
phrase. But
the point for
now of asking
was, if substantive
talk does occur
during Ban's
golf outing,
it is at least
relevant to
know if Ban
golfs or try
to golf with
both sides of
conflicts. Not
only on the
Korean
peninsula but
also, say, on
the Malvinas /
Falkland
Islands. We
appreciate the
answer, but
Inner City
Press (or more
likely as a
matter of
policy the Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info)
will have more
on this.
, 
