By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 6, updated -- UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the Press on Monday that the UK has raised that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should consider moving to name a new, full time envoy to Myanmar, rather than having his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar continue part time in the position.
When Lyall Grant emerged from the second of Monday's two UN meetings on Myanmar, he told the media that the UK found the elections flawed, and that all political prisoners should be released. Inner City Press asked, does the UK think Ban should name a new, full time envoy?
Lyall Grant said the UK raised that in both the morning meeting of the Group of Friends of the S-G on Myanmar and in the Security Council's informal consultations. He said that Nambiar said “that is being considered.”
Nambiar was criticized even by some of the parties he met with in Myanmar.
As Inner City Press reported last week, Nambiar's internal reporting to UN officials was critical of Aung San Suu Kyi, characterizing her as out of touch and somehow too hard line, UN sources say. Nambiar prefers those more amenable to authoritarian government.
On December 3, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that Myanmar had given Nambiar a visa for a mere two days. On camera, Nesirky said he'd look into it, but that the Secretariat might to decide not to say one way or the other. That now appears to be the case -- from a UN Administration which says it is transparent.
Inner City Press asked if Nambiar would talk to the media. Nesirky said that Nambiar would be asked. We are waiting.
Update of 4:44 pm -- as the Council members came out, Inner City Press asked Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller if Mexico believes Ban Ki-moon should name a full time envoy. "Yes," he said. Other Council sources confirmed that the UK's call for a full time envoy -- that is, not Nambiar -- was "widely echoed."
