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POLITICS: U.S. Tries to Foil Asia’s Claim for Top U.N. Job

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 2006 (IPS) - The United States is calculatedly trying to undermine Asia’s claims for the job of U.N. secretary-general by promoting an Eastern European candidate for the post, which falls vacant by the end of this year.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has publicly hinted the job should perhaps go to an Eastern European, although “Eastern Europe” has virtually ceased to exist as a geographical entity in the post-Cold War era.

“If there’s really a principle of geographic rotation, fairness indicates that Eastern Europe get one,” he told a U.S. news magazine last month.

“Asia has already had a secretary-general. When does Eastern Europe get its turn?” he asked in another newspaper interview.

Under the United Nations Charter, the secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council.

One possible candidate being put forth is the former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, described as “a White House favourite” for supporting the Iraq invasion with a contingent of about 1,450 Polish troops.


The troops, who are part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, are expected to continue deployment through 2006 and beyond.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has publicly expressed its gratitude to Kwasniewski for the “valued” Polish contribution.

“It’s payoff time,” retorts an Asian diplomat who is promoting his own region’s candidacy.

As a geographical group, Eastern Europe exists only at the United Nations, he said, adding that, “They are probably interested in surviving as a single entity until they get the job of secretary-general.”

Traditionally, there have been five regional groups at the United Nations: the Asian Group, the African Group, the Eastern European Group, the Latin American and Caribbean Group and the Western European and Other States, (the latter includes the United States, Australia and New Zealand).

The 20 members of the Eastern European Group include: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine.

Of the 20, seven joined the European Union (EU) in 2004: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Bulgaria and Romania are expected to join the EU in January 2007 and Croatia in 2010, as the Eastern European group continues to dwindle.

“Bolton’s sudden solicitude for Eastern Europe is totally ad hominem, based on his support for the Pole. He is likely to lose on both counts,” predicts Ian Williams, a sharp-eyed U.N. correspondent who writes for the Nation magazine.

“The East European bloc is a total Cold War anomaly, and with most of its members in the European Union, or trying to get in, it should be folded into the U.N.’s Western European Group immediately,” Williams told IPS.

More to the point, said Williams, is that the Chinese will almost certainly veto anyone who is not an Asian, while the Russians would veto any Pole who has been so resolutely anti-Russian as Bolton’s candidate.

“In fact, one cannot help but suspect that Bolton’s endorsement would be the kiss of death for any candidate, Polish or Asian, or at least that it would lead to, shall we say, strictly diminished enthusiasm from most other states,” Williams added.

Last month, the 53-member African Group joined the 50-member Asian Group in re-affirming Asia’s claim for the job of chief administrative officer of the world body. The two groups comprise more than half the total of 191 member states at the United Nations.

So far, the three officially declared Asian candidates are Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former U.N. under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs; Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai; and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon.

Since the inception of the United Nations nearly 60 years ago, the post of secretary-general has been held by three Europeans, one Asian, one Latin American and two from the African continent – primarily on the basis of geographical rotation.

The line-up is as follows: Trygve Lie of Norway (1946-1953); Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden (1953-1961); U. Thant of Burma (1961-1971); Kurt Waldheim of Austria (1972-1981); Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru (1982-1991); and Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt (1992-1996). Kofi Annan, who is from Ghana, has been serving as U.N. chief since Jan. 1997 and will end his two term 10-year tenure in December.

Salim Lone, a former senior U.N. official of the Department of Public Information, told IPS: “There was a time that you could argue that Eastern Europe was a political region separate from the rest of Europe and therefore deserved to be part of the rotation exercise that underlies the selection of a new secretary-general.”

Not any more, he said. “No one is louder in proclaiming that Eastern Europe is fully part of Europe than Eastern Europe itself,” he pointed out.

Lone also said that in the words of U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, “Eastern Europe is the New Europe!” – and Eastern Europe is joining the EU in great numbers as well.

“When Eastern Europe was a distinct political region in the Cold War days, the Americans would have fought tooth and nail against the Eastern Europeans demanding their turn to head the United Nations,” Lone pointed out.

“It makes absolutely no sense now to separate Eastern Europe from the rest of Europe, except of course for the fact that the Bush administration wants as secretary-general a particular Eastern European,” he added.

Lone said that the Arabs are also a distinctive regional group but within Asia and Africa, like the Eastern Europeans are within Europe, only much more so.

And yet no one has asked that an Arab be considered for the secretary-generalship separately. In fact, Boutros-Ghali (of Egypt) was elected as a candidate from the African Group. “And that is how an East European should be elected, as part of Europe,” he noted.

Samir Sanbar, a former assistant secretary-general and a longtime U.N. staffer who served under four secretaries-general, told IPS: “The Eastern European group at the United Nations is really a relic of the Cold War period, mainly a political gathering of Soviet Union allies rather than a real geographical group.”

In fact, Eastern Europe proper, he joked, has already had a secretary-general for two terms: Kurt Waldheim of Austria.

 
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