WikiLeaks: Ban ki-Moon Worked with Israel to Undermine UN Report
UNITED NATIONS, 11 Aug 2014
TeleSur – TRANSCEND Media Service
UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon (Photo: Reuters)
9 Aug 2014 – The General Secretary of United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-Moon collaborated in secret with Israel and the United States to weaken the effects of a Board of Inquiry’s report accusing Israel of human rights violations in Gaza in Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009.
WikiLeaks released documents on Friday [8 Aug 2014] that revealed that Ban wrote a letter to the UN Security Council asking its members not to take recommendations by the UN Board of Inquiry about Israeli bombings in Gaza into account.
The report demonstrated that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) had a direct role in seven of the nine attacks against buildings of the UN in Gaza strip, and accused Israel of having breached the inviolability and immunity of UN premises.
According to WikiLeaks, Susan Rice, White House National Security Advisor, spoke at least four times with Ban Ki Moon “to discuss concerns over the Board of Inquiry’s report on incidents at UN sites in December 2008 and January 2009″.
The report’s recommendations included the need for a deeper and impartial investigation into the recent “incidents”, and into the bombings of UN facilities.
According to WikiLeaks, Rice first asked Ban not to include the recommendations in the final report’s summary, supposed to be transmitted to the UN Security Council on May 5.
Ban responded that “he was constrained in what he could do since the Board of Inquiry is independent; it was their report and recommendations and he could not alter them”.
In the second conversation, “Rice urged the Secretary-General to make clear in his cover letter when he transmits the summary to the Security Council that those recommendations exceeded the scope of the terms of reference and no further action is needed.”
Ban then replied that “his staff was working with an Israeli delegation on the text of the cover letter”.
He confirmed in the last phone call that “a satisfactory cover letter” had been completed. In the letter,
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Article 100 of the UN Charter stipulates as follows:
1. In the performance of their duties the Secretary-General and the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the Organization. They shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization.
2. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and the staff and not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities.
The Secretary-General (hereafter written “SG”) and his UN staff members performed the oath of office at the time of the inauguration of their task in accordance with Article 100.
Some people may ridicule Article 100 and the oath of office. They say that the UN organizations are nests of spies and that the oath of office is nothing but a ceremony. Nonetheless, however, the reality is that many UN staff members, not necessarily every one of them, are seriously performing their duties in accordance with Article 100 and with their oath of office.
If the report of the above article is true, it is outrageous. It is, first of all, SG’s betrayal of his staff members who are seriously performing their duties as mentioned above.
SG is easily targeted especially by powerful countries (and sometimes by the country of his citizenship). If SG resists the request or the political influence from powerful countries, it is highly likely that he will not be re-elected in the next term (or something serious might happen to him). For example, Dag Hammarskjöld resisted the request from the Soviet Union when he was in his second term. The Soviet Union, then, demanded his resignation. Hammarskjöld died of a mysterious airplane accident. Boutros Boutros-Ghali resisted the request from the United States when he was in the first term. He failed to obtain the second term because the United State was against him. Kofi Annan resisted the request from the United States when he was in his second term. He was fully aware of what he was doing then. Almost countless numbers of similar examples can be found in the cases of heads of relevant UN agencies.
How about Ban Ki Moon? He is in his second term now. Does he want the third term? Let him prove what kind of SG he really is. His performance as SG will make a record of the UN history. The judgment by history is much severer than that by powerful countries; the former lasts forever while the latter lasts only for five years.