By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 15 – Cyprus was the topic of the UN Security Council on Monday morning; afterward the head of the UN Mission there said support was expressed for more dinners of the kind hosted after some controversy by envoy Alexander Downer on May 30 between presidents Anastasiades and Eroglu.
Call it dinner diplomacy, then. But what about conflicts of interest? When July's Council president Rosemary DiCarlo of the US came out, Inner City Press asked her if it is acceptable for Downer to continue as UN envoy while running for the presidency of the South Australian Liberal Party.
At Monday's noon briefing, Inner City Press had planned to ask the same question to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky – but Nesirky abruptly ended the briefing after a Press question about the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Geneva Conventions, declaring it the “last question.”
Ambassador DiCarlo said to ask Downer about his plans, she hadn't heard of them, which is fair – the Secretariat should be policing this. Downer has been quoted, “"Steven Marshall approached me . . . and I told him I'd be happy to do it.”
Ban's Secretariat has allowed its envoy on the SahelRomano Prodi to run for office in Italy while remaining a UN official; Resolution 1540 envoy Terje Roed-Larsen also runs the International Peace Institute, which opened an office in Manama with money from the government (that is, Royal family) of Bahrain.
As Inner City Press exclusively probed and reported on, Downer was allowed to work in an advisory firm, Bespoke Approach, while serving as UN Cyprus envoy.
But to be the president of a political party while representing the UN on Cyprus? Watch this site.
