UN chief's visit spotlights race in Asia for his seat

By Deutsche Presse-Agentur May 13, 2006, 16:13 GMT

Seoul - In theory, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's two-week trip to Asia this month is unrelated to the fight for his soon-to-be-vacated seat among three Asian candidates. In pactice, the trip will prove an opportunity for two of those candidates to bask in the UN spotlight, if only briefly.

When Annan visits Seoul on Sunday to Tuesday, he is expected to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between South Korea and the UN, the North Korean nuclear issue, UN reforms, development aid and other major international issues.

But the main focus of attention will be paid to his meeting with South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, one of three top Asian contestants for Annan's job when he retires later this year.

According to UN rotational etiquette the next secretary general should be an Asian. The last Asian to fill the post was Burmese national U Thant, UN secretary general between 1961 to 1971.

When the much-respected U Thant died in self-exile in 1975, his body was flown back to Rangoon (now Yangon), where he posthumously sparked a riot.

Students seized his corpse to prevent it from being buried, as the government wished, near the tomb of the deceased wife of Ne Win, Myanmar's (Burma's) despised military dictator between 1962 to 1988.

Such is the stature of a UN job in Asia, or used to be.

Ban, 61 a career diplomat, officially threw his hat into the ring to become the next UN secretary general in February.

'Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon brings to his candidacy nearly four decades of extensive experience and untarnished reputation as a diplomat and administrator, much of it directly relating to issues of peace and security, development, and human rights and democracy, the three pillars on which the United Nations stands,' said the Korean foreign ministry when it announced Ban's candidacy.

Foreign minister since 2004, Ban has also served as South Korea's ambassador to the United Nations and has been a key player in six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

Ban earned a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. One of Ban's key rivals, Thailand's Surakiart Sathirathai, also boasts a Harvard education.

Surakiart, 48, fluent in English and proficient in French, earned his Masters degree in Law at Harvard and another in Diplomacy at Tufts.

Surakiart, currently one of Thailand's caretaker deputy premiers, plans to make the most of Annan's visit between May 25 to 27, the highlight of which will be his audience with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej to bestow a UNDP award on the monarch for his lifetime of development work.

'He's on the committee organizing the programme for Kofi Annan, so at least he will be very much involved in the visit,' said Thai foreign ministry spokesman Sihasak Phungketkeow.

Although Surakiart got a head start in the race to replace Annan, having announced his candidacy three years ago, his campaign has arguably run out of steam.

After quickly securing the backing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Thai candidate has fallen victim of Thailand's much-diminished reputation abroad, especially in the field of human rights.

Thailand this week failed to win a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, a development some attributed to its dubious human rights record, especially in dealing with a Muslim separatist struggle in its three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,200 have died in clashes and revenge killings over the past two years.

Surakiart was foreign minister from 2001 and 2005, when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched his get-tough campaigns against the rebels that resulted in at least two mass slayings and the disappearance and suspected murder of one well-known Muslim lawyer.

'Surakiart's in a bad position because Thailand's human rights record is not great,' said outgoing Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, who headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 'He refused to make any comments when he was part of the administration.'

Asia's final candidate for the UN seat will not be visited by Annan this month, but he is not unknown to the current UN chief.

Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dhanapala, 67, was picked by Kofi Annan to take on the job of Under Secretary General to re-establish the Department of Disarmament after the UN reforms of 1997.

During his tenure (1998-2003)he piloted the UN role in arresting the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, anti-personnel landmines, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction while reinforcing existing norms and norm-building in other areas.

In Sri Lanka, Dhanapala most recently played a key role in 2004 in the peace process after a distinguished career as a national and international diplomat, peace-builder, disarmament expert and articulate champion of non-discriminatory global norms.

Dhanapala speaks fluent Sinhala and English, and is proficient in both French and Chinese.

'The challenge of any Secretary General to the United Nations is to find converging interests between the United States and the world community in general,' he told a gathering at the beginning of his campaign recently.