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Bland and lacking charisma: Norway's verdict on UN chief

By Doug Mellgren in Oslo

Norway's ambassador to the United Nations has accused its secretary general Ban Ki-moon of weak leadership, making angry outbursts and lacking charisma, according to a confidential letter leaked to the press.

Aftenposten newspaper yesterday published what it said was correspondence from Mona Juul, based at the UN headquarters in New York, to Norway's foreign ministry. "At a time when the UN and multi-lateral solutions to global crises are more needed than ever, Ban and the UN are notable by their absence," the letter read.

Ms Juul, whose husband Terje Roed-Larsen is one of Mr Ban's special envoys, described the UN leader as "a bland secretary general who is lacking in charisma" and had shown "weak handling" of international challenges.

She said that he was a "passive observer" to Burma's arrest of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and criticised his slow reaction to the civil war in Sri Lanka. "In other crisis areas, such as Darfur, Somalia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and not in the least the Congo, the secretary general seems irresolute," she said.

The letter, written in Norwegian and stamped "highly confidential" by the foreign ministry, was published midway through Mr Ban's term as secretary general and ahead of an official visit to Norway later this month.

"Ban routinely has angry outbursts that even level-headed and experienced co-workers have trouble dealing with," Ms Juul added, claiming that the mood among Mr Ban's staff was "very tense".

South-Korean Mr Ban became the UN leader in January 2007.

A Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman refused to comment on the authenticity of the letter. She referred reporters to foreign minister Jonas Gahr Stoere's comment that he had noted the matter, and that he saw Mr Ban as "hard working" and a "good listener".

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ban ki
[info]baron777 wrote:
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 at 11:53 pm (UTC)
BAN KI had no other choice other than to do what he did.US and UK were ready to send in the NATO but couldnt get the green light from the security council becouse of russia and china.tigers still hope UK and US will finish their battle.the problum is US used the same sattalite they used to detect wepens of mass distrution in iraq to gether evidence against SL which is not so reliable.after seaing whats happening in iraq it seems you need a strong leader to keep the barbaric terrorist under contro for the sake of innocent civiliansl.
Ban Ki-moon
[info]candidlee wrote:
Thursday, 20 August 2009 at 01:22 am (UTC)
The UN secretary general has the difficult job of trying to balance the views ALL the UN's members. Some Western diplomats resent this because they think his job should be to try to impose Western interests on the rest of the world. Much of Western diplomacy is concerned with verbal posturing; "condemning" this and "welcoming" that whilst being oblivious to the practical realities of the world. Mr Ban seems to be a realist and appears to be doing quite a good in reflecting the views of all the UN member states, not just the Western ones.
Old Age vs. New Age U.N.
[info]reg373 wrote:
Thursday, 20 August 2009 at 10:50 pm (UTC)
The secretary general has typically been such a figure as Ban Ki-moon, deferring to a U.S. lead and the power players on the Security Council. Mona Juul is right that the world needs an effective U.N. now more than ever. There is a chance now with the defeat of the George Bush Regime and election of Barack Obama, to work in more cooperative, intelligent ways - and leverage the fledgling democracy movements of the world for greater global stability and prosperity.

Just as there is room for a Bill Clinton now on the world stage, so too could a charismatic secretary general set up a more prominent U.N. advocacy for those goals. The job could be one of true global leadership with the right figure in it -- found a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth

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