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Ban Ki-moon announced on Monday that he will stand for a second five-year term as United Nation secretary general and diplomats said he could win a vote before the end of the month. With no declared rival for the post and none of the five permanent members of the Security Council opposing Ban, the 66-year-old former South Korean foreign minister is certain to get a new five-year term, envoys said. His current mandate ends on December 31 but the Security Council powers – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – want to see the selection process handled quickly, diplomats said. Approval by the 15-member Security Council and then a vote at the 192-country UN General Assembly should then be pushed through by the end of June, according to UN envoys. "It is 100 percent certain that he will get the post again," said one envoy from a Security Council member. Ban made a quiet start to his term as the successor to Kofi Annan in 2007. Some envoys say his awkward English has not helped his image. He championed the battle against global warming but the collapse of the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was a blow. He also insists that quiet diplomacy is sometimes necessary but has been criticized by rights groups for not speaking out more forcefully against rights abuses in major countries. However, he has been praised by WSestern nations for his strong stance on the Cote d'Ivoire crisis and defending protesters taking part in the uprisings that erupted this year across the Middle East and North Africa. He has repeatedly tangled by telephone in recent months with Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, chiding them as diplomatically as possible for not giving their people more freedom. The action annoyed China and Russia, which oppose what they consider unjustified interference in a country's domestic affairs. "But he is skilled at acting and speaking in a way so that none of the permanent five (Security Council powers) can really complain," said a UN diplomat. AFP |
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