U.N. Chief's 'Quiet' Outreach To Autocrats Causing Discord - washingtonpost.com

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By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 1, 2009

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has a message for despots and dictators: We can talk.

The world's top diplomat has had more face time with autocratic leaders than any of his recent predecessors, jetting off for tete-a-tetes with Burma's senior general, Than Shwe, and pulling aside Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at summits for discreet chats.

Ban has said he is confident that his trademark "quiet diplomacy" can help nudge the most recalcitrant leaders to mend their ways. He says he has pried open the door for aid workers in cyclone-ravaged Burma, gotten thousands of international peacekeepers into Darfur and helped raise the international profile of climate change.

"It is human relationships which can make a difference," Ban said in a recent interview, adding that he doesn't find it productive to scold foreign leaders in public but won't shrink from delivering tough messages in private. "Some might think I have been quite soft, but I have been quite straight, very strong in a sense."

The approach, however, has recently exposed the U.N. chief to criticism that he too often remains silent in the face of atrocities by the very leaders he seeks to cultivate, and that he has exaggerated his accomplishments. His frequent contacts with unsavory leaders have contributed to the United Nations' reputation as a forum for grubby compromises, detractors say.

"The main image people have of him is sitting down with the bad guys and getting nothing," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said of Ban.

As the Obama administration explores the merits of engagement with its adversaries, including Iran, North Korea and Syria, Ban's diplomatic strategy offers insights into some of the political risks of haggling with the world's most difficult political leaders. Halfway through his first term, Ban is facing a leadership crisis as U.N. civil servants and diplomats here increasingly portray him as an ineffective administrator whose reluctance to hold outlaw leaders to account for bad behavior has undercut the United Nations' moral authority.

For Ban, perhaps the greatest test of engagement as a policy came earlier this year.

In Sri Lanka, where the government was pushing to crush the ruthless Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the secretary general reached out to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to persuade him to show restraint to protect the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians forced to serve as the Tigers' human shields.

In an effort to maintain a cordial working relationship with Rajapaksa, Ban and his top advisers withheld criticism of the government, advising U.N. human rights officials not to publish U.N. estimates of the civilian death toll in the conflict, arguing that they were not convinced of their credibility, according to officials familiar with the discussions. In the end, Ban's diplomatic intervention achieved a brief weekend pause in the fighting but did little to stem to slaughter, which cost the lives of 7,800 to 20,000 civilians.

Ban says he won commitments from Sri Lankan leaders to improve conditions for displaced people and to pursue reconciliation, but his handling of such crises has raised questions among some U.N. diplomats about his viability for a second term.

Norway's U.N. ambassador, Mona Juul, wrote that Ban is a "spineless and charmless" leader who has failed to convey the U.N.'s "moral voice and authority," according to a confidential memo to Norway's foreign minister. Juul, whose husband, Terje Roed-Larsen, serves as one of Ban's Middle East envoys, sharply criticized Ban's handling of the crises in Sri Lanka and Burma in the memo, which was first published in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.

"The Secretary-General was a powerless observer to thousands of civilians losing their lives and becoming displaced from their homes," Juul wrote of Ban's role in Sri Lanka. "The moral voice and authority of the Secretary-General has been missing."

Ban has been stung by the criticism and said he is striving to improve his performance. But he suggested that the criticism stemmed from a misunderstanding in the West of his Asian diplomatic approach. "We need to be able to respect the culture, tradition and leadership style of each and every leader," Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, told reporters in a visit to Oslo on Monday. "I have my own charisma, I have my own leadership style."

Mission to Burma

Despite the criticism, Ban still enjoys the support of the United Nations' most powerful countries, including the United States, China and Britain, and of the U.S. Congress, which has recently voted to pay off American debt to the United Nations.

Ban's advisers say the criticism is patently unfair and does not take into account his willingness to speak out against abuses. Ban infuriated China by criticizing its treatment of ethnic Uighurs in western China, he has spoken out against Iranian President Mamhoud Ahmedinijad's nuclear ambitions and his frequent anti-Israeli remarks, and he has publicly scolded the powerful Group of Eight industrial powers for not committing to steeper emissions cuts.

Still, U.N. officials and diplomats are concerned that the criticism of Ban's political mediation is overshadowing what they believe is his most important accomplishment: rallying international support for a treaty that would reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The Obama administration has publicly praised Ban's performance. But before joining the administration, Samantha Power, the White House's top U.N. specialist, was a sharp critic of Ban's diplomatic style, characterizing his handling of the Darfur crisis as "extremely disappointing."

"Can we afford to do without a global figure, a global leader?" she told the New Statesman, a British magazine, last year.

U.S. officials say that Power's comments do not reflect the views of the administration and that they were made before she had an opportunity to work closely with Ban.

"Secretary General Ban has one of the most difficult jobs in the world," Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement. "I believe he is principled, hard-working, cares deeply and is willing to take risks to carry out his mission." Rice also credited Ban with increasing the number of women in senior posts and "bringing countries together to tackle challenges such as climate change and global health."

But Rice has differed with Ban over his engagement strategy, and she cautioned him against traveling to Burma in July. Rice argued that a high-profile meeting with the Burmese military ruler would make him look weak unless he extracted a clear commitment to democratic reform, according to U.N. officials.

During his visit, Than Shwe bluntly rejected Ban's appeal to release opposition leader Aung San Su Kyi; Ban's request to meet with her also was denied. Five weeks later, a Burmese court sentenced Suu Kyi to 18 additional months under house arrest, ensuring that she will not participate in the country's national elections next year.

But Burma's ruler subsequently allowed another visitor, Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), to meet with Suu Kyi and to take home a U.S. citizen, John Yettaw, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for paying an unauthorized visit to her villa.

Ban bridles at the suggestion that his trip was a failure, saying he has established a vital personal channel to the Burmese leader. Ban said he also prevailed upon Than Shwe to allow him to address a gathering of Burmese officials, academics and relief groups, where he sharply criticized Burma's human rights record and publicly chided Than Shwe for rebuffing his request to see Suu Kyi. "That was unprecedented," Ban said.

Burmese opposition leaders say that while they appreciate Ban's efforts, they do not think he has moved the country toward democracy. "I don't want to say it was totally nothing," Burma's exiled prime minister, Sein Win, said during a recent visit to U.N. headquarters. "When you look at the immediate impact, of course, we could not see anything."

'Spotlight' on Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, Ban and his advisers sought to perform a delicate balancing act. They pressed the country's leader in private to halt the shelling of civilian zones, while avoiding an open confrontation with cautiously worded public statements about the violence.

Human rights advocates faulted Ban for not pressing hard enough to hold Sri Lanka accountable for its actions. Days after the war ended, the secretary general signed a joint agreement with Rajapaksa committing Sri Lanka to pursue political reconciliation with ethnic Tamils and to release hundreds of thousands of displaced ethnic Tamils in government-controlled camps.

In exchange, Ban dropped a U.N. push for an independent investigation into war crimes, leaving it to Sri Lanka to determine whether its military was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the final offensive. Two days later, Sri Lankan diplomats, citing the agreement, quashed a proposal by the top U.N. human rights official to create an independent commission of inquiry to probe war crimes in the country.

Some diplomats have defended Ban's handling of the crisis, saying he pushed far more aggressively to protect Sri Lankan civilians than did any government, including the United States, India, China, Russia and key European powers.

"He put a spotlight on what was happening in Sri Lanka," said John Sawers, Britain's U.N. ambassador. "So it's not perfect in Sri Lanka; far too many civilians got killed and there is still an outstanding problem with the civilians in the [Internally Displaced Persons] camps. But I believe Ban's engagement made the situation less bad than it would otherwise have been."

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi Is Detained 18 More Months

By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter

Pro-democracy dissident Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to spend 18 more months under house arrest after a Myanmar court found her guilty of violating the terms of her detention in May.

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Take a look at major events in the life of famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.

Tuesday's verdict means Myanmar's military junta will be able to keep the 64-year-old Nobel laureate -- who has already spent 14 of the past 20 years as a prisoner -- out of sight until after it wraps up a controversial election planned for next year.

It also complicates decisions for foreign governments, including the U.S., that have been trying to bring about change in Myanmar for years and that until recently were weighing options to soften their approach toward the country's harsh military regime.

Condemnation of the verdict came swiftly, with some foreign leaders and dissidents calling for a new round of punitive measures, including steps by the United Nations Security Council to publicly sanction Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "strongly deplores" Myanmar's action and urged the ruling generals "to immediately and unconditionally release" Ms. Suu Kyi, the Associated Press quoted his office as saying. It also said he was "deeply disappointed by the verdict." The AP said the Security Council, at France's request, planned to meet Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at a news conference in Congo, said of Ms. Suu Kyi: "She should not have been tried. She should not have been convicted. We continue to call for her release."

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Ms. Suu Kyi's trial has been condemned around the world.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Myanmar's leaders are "determined to act with total disregard" for international law, while the European Union promised to reinforce its sanctions against Myanmar.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, called the verdict "a reprehensible abuse of power." The U.S. Campaign for Burma, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group, urged a global arms embargo against Myanmar and an investigation into crimes against humanity in the country.

The verdict "should really make it clear that it's game over. ... [The junta leaders] have no intention of bringing changes about in their country," said Jeremy Woodrum, a spokesman for the group.

A group of 14 Nobel laureates wrote to the U.N. Security Council, saying that body must hold Myanmar's leadership "accountable for its crimes" and investigate "the full extent of its brutality."

The Yangon court sentenced Ms. Suu Kyi to three years in prison for allowing an American well-wisher to visit her home in May without notifying state authorities. But in a move apparently intended to appease the country's many international critics, Senior General Than Shwe ordered the court to cut the sentence in half and allow her to serve it at home.

Gen. Than Shwe said in a statement that he made the decision to "maintain peace and tranquility"' and because Ms. Suu Kyi was the daughter of Aung San, a national hero who helped win the country's independence from Britain, the Associated Press reported.

Singapore, a fellow member with Myanmar in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said it was "disappointed" with the conviction and sentence, but added, "We are, however, happy that the Myanmar government has exercised its sovereign prerogative to grant amnesty for half her sentence and that she will be placed under house arrest rather than imprisoned."

The Yangon court also convicted John Yettaw, the 53-year-old Missouri resident who triggered the case after he swam across a Yangon lake to reach Ms. Suu Kyi's residence, uninvited, on May 4. He later told officials he had had a dream she might be assassinated and wanted to warn her.

Mr. Yettaw was declared guilty of breaching conditions of Ms. Suu Kyi's house arrest as well as immigration rules. The court sentenced him to up to seven years imprisonment, including four with hard labor, though some analysts said they believe the government might soon deport the American.

The regime also convicted two aides that live with Ms. Suu Kyi, sentencing each for 18 months.

There were no immediate reports of serious unrest in Yangon, the country's commercial capital, which is tightly monitored by military authorities. Still, dissatisfaction with the decision was widespread, including among some elites who ordinarily would be expected to side with the junta.

Residents said that security measures had been stepped up across the city, with police trucks patrolling the streets, and plainclothes officers believed to be monitoring Internet cafes where young dissidents often gather.

"The court proceedings were just a sham," said a 42-year-old lawyer who works in Yangon. "From the beginning, she was predestined" to lose.

A retired army major sitting in a teahouse said, "I had already expected this kind of ruling. Justice has been raped by the generals."

The need to bring about some kind of regime change in Myanmar -- or at least reach some kind of diplomatic breakthrough with the junta -- is growing, dissidents say. Economic and social conditions have deteriorated significantly in the country in recent years, despite the fact that the government's financial strength has increased, largely due to surging trade in natural gas and other resources with China, Thailand and other Asian neighbors.

There is also growing concern that Myanmar's junta may be developing more-advanced weapons systems, possibly with help from North Korea, with a goal of gaining more control over its population and increasing its leverage in discussions with the West.

Several Myanmar citizens, some of them expatriates, have claimed direct knowledge of a nuclear-weapons program involving a reactor under construction in a remote part of the country. However, the area is off-limits to outsiders without government permission and the reports haven't been independently confirmed.

Myanmar officials rarely speak directly to the foreign media or to senior Western diplomats, and representatives at the government's Ministry of Information and in embassies overseas haven't responded to questions from The Wall Street Journal about the country's alleged weapons plans. North Korea has denied assisting with nuclear equipment.

Foreign governments were watching the Suu Kyi trial to see if Myanmar was willing to signal a desire for more engagement with the West. The junta has mostly declined to bow to foreign pressure, arguing it had to hold Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest for much of the past decades for her own safety and to maintain political order, given her history of organizing residents opposed to a military regime that has ruled Myanmar since 1962.

Ms. Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy, won a resounding victory in the last Myanmar elections held in 1990. But the regime ignored the results and subsequently tightened its grip, imprisoning several hundred opposition figures. It has also cracked down hard whenever residents expressed serious discontent, including killing 30 or more people in street protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007.

Foreign governments, including the U.S., responded to the government's tactics with repeated calls for Ms. Suu Kyi's release and with increasingly stiff economic sanctions, including rules that have prevented all but a few Western companies from doing business there. More recently, a growing number of policy makers and dissidents had been arguing that the outside world needs to soften its approach and pursue more discussions with the regime, because sanctions and other punitive measures had failed to generate meaningful change.

The Obama administration earlier this year signaled it was reviewing policies toward Myanmar, and last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if the regime freed Ms. Suu Kyi, it could open the way for the U.S. to allow more investments in the country. Charitable groups have called for a big rise in humanitarian aid to increase interaction between local citizens and the outside world. Leading members of the exile community -- including the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which describes itself as Myanmar's government-in-exile -- have discussed a new reconciliation program that would involve more dialogue with the junta.

However, the conviction of Ms. Suu Kyi complicates those efforts. Although the regime is planning an election next year, presumably to boost its legitimacy to the outside world, many opposition members have said they won't participate if Ms. Suu Kyi isn't allowed a voice. That increases the odds that foreign governments and dissidents will reject the outcome of the vote.

Former UN Human Rights Rapporteur Offers 7 Points of Action on Iran to the UN Secretary General

NEW YORK, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented meeting at the UN, Professor Manouchehr Ganji, a former UN special Rapporteur on Human Rights and currently an opposition leader and human rights protagonist for Iran, met with senior ranking UN Officials regarding the gross & systematic violations of human rights by the regime in Iran.

"I conveyed my message of gratitude to the Secretary General for his June 22 statement of urgent concern over the Iranian Regime's disregard and gross neglect of human rights in Iran, especially the post election use of vicious and lethal force against defenseless civilians," said Dr. Ganji. "The Secretary-General's urging of Iranian authorities to immediately stop the arrest, threat and use of force against Iranian citizens, was timely and quite thoughtful, although ineffective as the regime continues its 'violence,'" he added.

Having served as the UN's 1st Special Rapporteur on apartheid & on economic, social and cultural rights, Dr. Ganji recommended the following seven points of action on Iran as the minimum demands of Iranians today, adding "the Iranian people are rightfully looking to the UN to exercise its moral and legal authority in defense of their basic fundamental rights."

1-Declaration by the Secretary General that the regime in Iran is a gross violator of the UN charter obligations, particularly in regards to gender, ethnic, linguistic and religious discriminations.

2-The urgent need for permanent presence in Iran of an UNHCHR representative to monitor observance of human rights.

3-The need for permanent presence of International Committee of Red Cross in Iran as once existed during the former regime, for surveillance of prison conditions throughout Iran.

4-The urgent need for full disclosure of all detention centers, large and small, throughout Iran.

5-The need for immediate abrogation of "law of vengeance".

6-The need for regular admittance and facilitation of tasks, by Iran, of the six most important UN Special Rapporteurs on: torture; right to freedom of opinion, expression and press; arbitrary arrest and detentions; status of women; and independence of judges and lawyers.

7-The need for appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Iran.

Formerly Dean faculty of Law, Tehran University, Professor Ganji was Minister of Education, and served in multiple capacities at the UN & as member of various Committees on Human Rights.

U.N. Chief Meets With Myanmar Junta

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, asked this country’s ruling generals on Friday to free its many political prisoners, including the democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but there was no sign yet of movement on the issue from the junta.

Mr. Ban also asked to visit Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, but said the military leaders reminded him that she was on trial. Early Saturday, Mr. Ban said that his request to see her before he left the country Saturday night had been rejected.

Mr. Ban is hoping to win the release of political prisoners — estimated at 2,100 by international humanitarian organizations — ahead of elections scheduled for 2010.

Mr. Ban’s rare meeting with Senior Gen. Than Shwe and the other four generals who constitute the ruling State Peace and Development Council came as the government declared a one-week pause in Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial.

Mr. Ban called his exchange with the generals “frank,” and a senior United Nations official described the discussion as “forceful” on both sides.

Mr. Ban said he told the generals it would be important to release Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and the other political prisoners to ensure the broadest possible participation in the election.

“This election should be a credible, fair, inclusive and legitimate one where all the Myanmar people can express their will in a free way,” Mr. Ban said after meeting with the generals. “I was assured that Myanmar’s authorities will make sure that this election will be held in fair and free and transparent manner.”

At the same time, Mr. Ban asked for a series of steps toward that goal, though it was unclear whether the military government would endorse such a development, senior United Nations official said. The steps include revamping the election laws publicly and establishing an electoral commission. Not even the aborted election of 1990, which Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won, truly covered the whole nation, so another step would be allowing the party, the National League for Democracy, to open offices across the country and to permit her to campaign.

Mr. Ban said he also urged the generals to resume their dialogue with the opposition in a substantive and meaningful way, including with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr. Ban is expected to have an additional, unscheduled meeting with General Than Shwe on Saturday, and is due to make a speech about the country’s future to a group of nongovernmental organizations involved in relief efforts for the past 14 months. He also plans to tour the Irrawaddy Delta, where Cyclone Nargis struck a devastating blow in May 2008, killing 138,000 people. His visit at that time opened the door for international aid organizations to play a greater role in relief efforts.

But Bishow Parajuli, the humanitarian coordinator for the country, said there was currently a backlog of about 219 international aid workers seeking visas to work in the country. The visa process has slowed since March, he said, another issue Mr. Ban took up with General Than Shwe.

International human rights groups have urged Mr. Ban to take a tough line on the junta. He tried, however, to play down expectations, saying that it would be a difficult trip, but that it was important to engage the ruling generals.

“I am very pleased to continue our discussion,” Mr. Ban said in his opening remarks to General Than Shwe. “I appreciate your commitment to move your country forward.”

The meeting was held in a soaring reception room painted with a mural of Buddhist temples set in the jungle, the landscape around Naypyidaw (pronounced nay-pee-DAW), the sprawling, isolated capital the generals constructed out of the rice fields and jungle about 200 miles north of Yangon. Yangon, formerly Rangoon, is the country’s main city.

The official reception building here is called Bayinnaung Hall, named after a 16th-century warrior king who united much of what is today Myanmar, as well as parts of India, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The monarch is the favorite historical figure of the authoritarian government.

Shortly after Mr. Ban arrived in the country, the authorities said that the current trial of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, would be adjourned for one week until July 10. The trial was delayed because of what was described as an administrative error, according to Kyi Win, a lawyer representing her.

“When the judges came onto the bench they announced that the files from the higher court had not been returned,” Mr. Kyi Win said.

“There must be other reasons,” he said in an interview. “But we hate to speculate.”

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has not been told whether she will be meeting Mr. Ban, the lawyer said. She is on trial on charges of violating the terms of her current house arrest after an American man swam uninvited across a lake to her home.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has denied the charge, but could be sentenced to five years imprisonment if found guilty. She is being held at the infamous Insein Prison. John Yettaw, the 53-year-old American intruder, was charged with trespassing and is also detained there.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris.