By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 28 -- How quiet can Ban Ki-moon's diplomacy get, and still be called diplomacy? On June 28 Inner City Press asked Ban's associate spokesperson about the military dominated government of Myanmar having deported Michelle Yeoh, who plays pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming film.
Inner City Press asked, is Ban's envoy Vijay Nambiar aware, and does he have anything to say on it, or on the casualties from the government's Kachin assault?
Nambiar is aware of the deportation, the spokesperson said. But she had no comment, just as acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said that Nambiar has not comment on the Kachin fighting.
So Inner City Press asked, in light of an earlier back and forth about Ban's “quiet diplomacy,” if this might not constitute VERY quiet diplomacy. Or TOO quiet diplomacy. Or no diplomacy at all.
The associate spokesperson also declined to provide any readout of Ban's senior adviser Kim Won-soo's meeting on June 27 about North Korea, or Ban's meeting with a Congolese political figure. Of the latter, she said that Haq had already answered (by not answering). Nambiar, Inner City Press is told (not by the Secretariat but a country's delegation) has said he was not at the Congo meeting.
Here were three questions Inner City Press posed to Haq on June 27, none of which were answered, on how Ban will monitor human rights in Abyei, Sudan, as requested in the day's Security Council resolution, on Ban's “opaque hiring practices” and withholding of documents from the UN's own Joint Inspection Unit, and finally on Myanmar:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you on this resolution that was passed on Abyei this morning. There is no human rights monitoring component in the peacekeeping mission, so the UK Deputy Permanent Representative said that it will be up to the Secretary-General to report on human rights and to somehow make sure that he can report on it. So, I wanted to know what steps is the Secretariat going to take to ensure that it will in this six-month period be able to report on human rights in Abyei?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, regarding that, if you look at the resolution itself, this resolution that was just passed over the last hour, says — and this is an operative paragraph — it “requests the Secretary-General to ensure that effective human rights monitoring is carried out and the results included in his report to the Council”. So we will follow up on that, and we will report on how effective human rights monitoring is to be carried out in the reports to the Council in accordance with this resolution.
Inner City Press: Will that be the existing UNMIS [United Nations Mission in Sudan] human rights monitoring? How will it actually be done?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Like I said, the way in which the human rights monitoring will be done will be reported to the Security Council; we’ll let you know at that point....
Inner City Press: there is this Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) report has come out about the hiring practices under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying that it is opaque, saying that the Secretariat refused to provide documents to JIU to conduct its work; urging Member States to actually get these documents, and I wonder, I am sure you have seen the report — what is the Secretariat’s response, particularly to the idea that it wouldn’t provide information to the Joint Inspection Unit?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, first of all, yes, we are aware of the Joint Inspection Unit report. I believe there is work being done on a reply. Once we have a reply for the report of the Joint Inspection Unit, we will let you know what that information contains....
Inner City Press: I had asked Martin [Nesirky] about this fighting between the Government of Myanmar and the Kachin rebels. It’s continued and various Governments have now spoken out and called for forbearance by the Government. I just wonder, has there been on that or the more recent bombings in Myanmar, has there been any response by the Special Envoy and Good Offices of Mr. Vijay Nambiar to these events in Myanmar?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Yeah, we are aware of the reports and we are studying them. Certainly, when we have a response to these latest reports we will put that out. We don’t have it at present.
Again, when does diplomacy become so quiet that it is no longer diplomacy? Watch this site.
