Next UN secretary general?????

[Christoph]

Does anybody know anything? Who will it be?

Clark not taking UN job stories seriously

4.00pm Tuesday September 5, 2006

Prime Minister Helen Clark says she is not taking seriously Time magazine naming her as a possible contender for the role of United Nations secretary general.

UN secretary general Kofi Annan steps down at the end of this year and there has been speculation about who will replace him.

A UN Security Council straw poll in July produced candidates from India, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand, but none were seen as real contenders.

Another straw poll was due this month with Jordan's UN envoy Prince Zeid al-Hussein expected to declare.

[stoli_sambuca]

UN picks UN secretary general from different regions around the world. I think that this is a reasonable approach. UN also picks UN secretary general from developing countries. I also think that this is a reasonable approach. Next region is Asia, if UN continues to its tradition (which John Bolton complains about ... what a surprise ...). I personally think that the next UN secretary general should be from countries like Sri Lanka. I'm not against South Koreas personally, but South Korea is a very developed country now.

[Christoph]

Nope, don't think so.

Time magazine said the unwritten rules about who could be named a candidate included that no candidate could come from one of the five nations with a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.

This ruled out candidates from the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China, it said.

To win the post, a candidate must have the backing of all five.

An unofficial system of regional rotation meant the next leader should come from Asia but rivalries between Japan and China meant a Japanese candidate would be a long shot, it said.

I think he will come from Europe. Europe has become a neutral zone (excluding Britain, France and maybe Germany) see the whole Israel-Lebannon conflict.

[stoli_sambuca]

As I stated, I personally think that the next UN secretary general should be from one of developing countries, but ... as long as the next one is not American, it's an ok compromise.

... another secretary general from Africa wouldn't be too bad, but ... I guess it won't be happening.

[Hetric]

Laureate José Ramos-Horta Prime Minister of Timor-Leste and
Nobel Peace Prize

Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka.

Surakiart Sathirathai Thai Deputy Prime Minister, (China is already pushing the candidacy)

Ban Ki-moon South Korean Foreign Minister

Maleeha Lodhi High Commissioner to Britain, Pakistan

Shashi Tharoor of India undersecretary general for the department of public information

Gro Harlem Brundtland,former Prime Minister of Norway and former Director General of the WHO

Tarja Halonen, the current President of Finland

Vaira V??e-Freiberga, the current President of Latvia

Aleksander Kwa?niewski, the former President of Poland

António Guterres, the former Prime Minister of Portugal and current United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

[Christoph]

I don't know anyone of them bit I have myy doubts with Surakiart Sathirathai Thai Deputy Prime Minister. China is pushing him? Suspicious...

How about him?

http://www.v-generations.com/v/content/blogsection/12/30/

[Christoph]

Jordan submitted the formal nomination of Prince Zeid al Hussein to the President of the Security Council today, bringing the field of candidates to five. Zeid, a widely respected diplomat, Zeid has been a rumored candidate from the beginning. Steve Clemons suggested in February that Zeid is liked by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and that supporting Zeid, a moderate Muslim, could serve to improve relations between the United States and Muslim countries.

[Christoph]

S Korean Minister Annan's likely successor
South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon says he bears "a heavy sense of responsibility" after an informal ballot that virtually assured he would become the next United Nations secretary-general.

Mr Ban, 62, will probably be named formally on October 9 in an official vote by the 15-nation UN Security Council after winning four straw polls, including a crucial one on Monday.

After the council's recommendation, the 192-member UN General Assembly is expected to endorse Mr Ban as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations since 1946 to replace Kofi Annan of Ghana, who ends 10 years in office on December 31.

"It is quite clear from today's vote that Minister Ban Ki Moon is the candidate the Security Council will recommend" to the General Assembly, China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters.

In the Security Council straw poll, Mr Ban got 14 positive votes, including from all the council's five members with veto rights-- the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia.

One of the 10 non-permanent members abstained.

Although the vote was secret, the five permanent members had blue colored ballots while the other 10 had white ones.

Mr Ban is known as a seasoned diplomat, who so far issued general statements in his public comments about the new job, which will involve political divisions between developing and developed countries and a reorganization of the bureaucracy.

Mr Ban was appointed foreign minister in January 2004.

"He is the hardest-working person at the ministry," one South Korean diplomat said.

"If you don't count his personal aide who has to be at his residence at 5:30 in the morning."

The diplomats say he is very popular within his ministry which also handles the trade affairs of South Korea, a country that has depended heavily on exports to lift it from the ruins of war in the early 1950s to rank as Asia's third biggest economy.

- Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1754668.htm

[Christoph]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=1493562006

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will be formally nominated as U.N. secretary-general on Monday, ironically only hours after North Korea defied the world body by announcing a nuclear test.


The U.N. Security Council will cast its votes, effectively anointing Ban as the successor to Secretary-General Kofi Annan whose 10 years in office expire on December 31. Six other candidates withdrew, leaving members to vote for Ban only.

The 192-member U.N. General Assembly must give final approval to Ban's nomination, which usually follows within a week or two. The vote is expected to be positive.

Some diplomats, including Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, have speculated that North Korea's announcement on October 3 of plans to carry out the underground nuclear test was timed, in part, to coincide with Ban's selection in an effort to get world attention.

With Security Council members meeting anyway, Japan, the current council president, as well as the United States, made clear last week the 15-member council would hold immediate consultations if North Korea conducted its first test.