Jordan Times
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Jordan nominates Prince
Zeid for UN chief
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Raad announced his
candidacy on Tuesday to be the next UN secretary general, becoming the fifth
candidate and the first Muslim to enter the race to succeed Kofi Annan.
Jordan sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council formally
submitting the candidacy of Prince Zeid, a widely respected diplomat and former
UN peacekeeper who is a cousin of King Abdullah. Jordan also sent a letter to
General Assembly President Jan Eliasson asking that the other 191 UN member
states be informed of his candidacy. Jordan also asked the Arab League to
support its nomination of Prince Zeid
"We believe there is considerable scope to be given by the Security Council and
the General Assembly to a Muslim candidate who is familiar with the UN but not
of the UN," Prince Zeid told the Associated Press.
He said considering a Muslim candidate was especially important in light of
recent events, which include the Israeli-Hizbollah conflict, an upsurge in
Israeli-Palestinian fighting in Gaza, and Iran's refusal to suspend its uranium
enrichment programme.
Annan's second five-year term ends on December 31 and most diplomats generally
agree that the next secretary general should come from Asia, part of a tradition
to rotate between regions in awarding the job. Jordan is part of the Asian group
at the United Nations.
The four other candidates vying to succeed Annan are South Korean Foreign
Minister Ban Ki-moon, UN Undersecretary General for Public Affairs Shashi
Tharoor, who is from India, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai, and former UN disarmament chief Jayantha Dhanapala, a Sri Lankan.
The next secretary general must be approved by the General Assembly, based on a
recommendation from the 15-member Security Council, where the five permanent
members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — have veto
power.
Council members have been holding informal consulations for several months and
in late July they held their first informal poll. In that secret ballot, members
checked one of the three boxes for each candidate: "Encourage," "discourage,"
and "no opinion." South Korea's foreign minister did the best, with 12 council
nations encouraging him to run, one discouraging him and two giving no opinion.
India's Tharoor was next, with 10 votes of encouragement, two of discouragement
and three giving no opinion. Thailand's Surakiart, the first announced
candidate, got seven votes of encouragement and three against, and Dhanapala got
five votes of encouragement and six against.
The council put off another straw poll in August, and several members encouraged
new candidates to come forward.
In addition to Prince Zeid, others mentioned as possible candidates include
Kemal Dervis, the Turkish chief of the UN Development Programme, and Goh Chok
Tong, former prime minister of Singapore.
A new straw poll is likely to be held sometime in September. The choice of
Annan's successor is also expected to be a key behind-the-scenes topic at the
annual ministerial meeting of the General Assembly which begins on September 19.
Prince Zeid, 42, who was educated in the US and UK, has served as Jordan's UN
ambassador since 2000, and has taken on several challenging assignments.
An expert in the field of international justice, he played a central role in the
establishment of the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent
war crimes tribunal. In September 2002 he was elected the first president of its
governing body.
In 1997, as Jordan's deputy UN ambassador, Prince Zeid was the first diplomat to
publicly demand a UN report on the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in
Srebrenica.
His campaign culminated in the General Assembly's call for a definitive account,
which led to a report by Annan on the failures to protect the civilians.
The Prince's two-year stint as a political affairs officer in the UN
peacekeeping mission in former Yugoslavia from 1994-96 led to a decade of work
on UN peacekeeping issues. In mid-2004, following allegations of widespread
abuse by UN peacekeepers, Annan appointed him as adviser on sexual exploitation
and abuse.
In early 2005, Prince Zeid produced a report — subsequently endorsed by world
leaders at the September 2005 millennium summit — outlining a strategy to
eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations.
Prince Zeid said in a statement on his candidacy that the United Nations cannot
successfully mediate conflicts and coordinate massive relief operations "without
a genuine renewal to make it a 21st century agent for change and progress". A
revitalised United Nations must reflect the initiatives of a new generation of
leaders in promoting development, peace and human rights, he said. It must also
"serve as a bridge between cultures and faiths in search of peace and
development" and act "with vision and clarity" as a peacekeeper and mediator to
address today's threats.
The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and terrorist attacks starting with
September 11, 2001 "have made plain the urgent need to prevent extremism from
succeeding in creating further victims and divisions between peoples", Prince
Zeid said.
"A United Nations that understands the sources of these schisms, where they
occur, and can speak to all sides with experience and credibility, can play an
important role in resolving these dangerous conflicts," he said.