Early accolades for UN's new chief – with caveats

Ban Ki Moon sets a tone of openness, but some of his appointments create concern.

from the January 31, 2007 edition

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Yet other appointments could suggest a worrying turn to UN insiders and inexperienced officials, some say. "On the negative side, I think we're seeing some very questionable appointments," says Mr. Gardiner. "Ban has to be very firm on reform, and while the quick action on the UNDP is a good sign, some of his appointments look less promising."

Some critics are questioning Ban's naming of a Mexican environmentalist and bureaucrat long involved in Latin America development issues to be in charge of reform, or of Tanzania's foreign minister, Asha-Rose Migiro, as his deputy.

This week, Ban has attended the African Union summit in Ethiopia, and he'll be in Washington on Friday for a meeting on the Middle East with other international officials.

A public official with more than three decades of experience maneuvering the tricky diplomatic straits of the Korean peninsula, Ban demonstrated his political acumen by moving fast on the questions about international aid to North Korea: Not only was he recognizing the damage another festering scandal could do to the UN, experts say, but he was also highlighting that this was a problem he inherited, not one of his administration's doing.

"What I sense is a leader very determined to protect his reputation and that of the UN," says Lee Feinstein, an expert in international organizations at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

As important as that may be, it will matter to the world most if Ban uses the strengths flowing from a refurbished UN image to pursue some daunting long-term goals, Mr. Feinstein says. Those goals, he says, include enhanced peacekeeping capacity and the means to head off future repeats of global humanitarian crises – such as what occurred in Rwanda in the mid-1990s and what many consider genocide that is now transpiring in Sudan's Darfur region.

"Can he put some meat on the bones of the concept the [UN] General Assembly endorsed of a 'responsibility to protect' when member states don't protect their own citizens?" Feinstein queries.

Aside from such lofty notions, Ban is also demonstrating what some consider freshness – or what others call unwise unguardedness. An unscripted Ban told reporters in response to questions about the execution of Saddam Hussein that the death penalty is a matter for individual countries to decide. That touched off an uproar among human rights activists who said the UN was on record in opposition to the death penalty – and it caused Ban to quip that he had been given the shortest honeymoon of any UN secretary-general.

A lighter side

He has also offered peeks at what those who know him say is a keen sense of humor. For example, he lavished praise on journalist Sam Donaldson at a Washington news conference, then deadpanned that it was a "great pleasure" to take a question from him. He also used a familiar Christmas tune (Guess which one?) to "warn" UN correspondents at a year-end dinner:

I'm making a list,
I'm checking it twice
I'm going to find out who's naughty or nice
Ban Ki Moon is coming to town.

He's also quickly showing aides carried over from the last UN administration how he is different from Annan. For example, whereas Annan was happy to have a synopsis of the news faxed to his Astor Place home to peruse over breakfast, Ban wants his personal morning-news briefing early and in the office.

"I told my wife that hours may have been long under Annan," one assistant in the secretary-general's operations says, "but that she should plan on them being even longer under Ban Ki Moon."

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