Zimbabwe Is On but Not On UN Council Agenda, Ban Soldiers On, Kenya and Sergio in Background
By Matthew Russell Lee
June 23, 2008
The Inner City Press 
Original Source: http://www.innercitypress.com/un2zim062308.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- Peace and security in Africa is a code phrase the UN Security Council is using to consider conflicts on the Continent without fully putting them on the agenda. Post-election violence in Kenya was treated under this heading. Now on Zimbabwe, pre-election or pre-run-off violence appeared Monday under this name. The presidential statement was introduced hearkening back to the the Movement for Democratic Change's results in March's round of elections.  
  It was watered down before passage, and afterwards Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the UN said that the run-off will go forward on Friday, even though MDC has dropped out due to violence and threats. UK Ambassador John Sawers said this reflects an unpredictable regime pursuing its self-serving interests. Kenya, widely described as a triumph of diplomacy and mediation, resulted in power-sharing made possible by the creation of many new ministerial seats. While South Africa, for now, is pitching this model for Zimbabwe, it seems highly unlikely. Peace and security seem far away indeed.

   Ban Ki-moon took four questions on Zimbabwe, one of which went a bit further, noting that Ban also met with the leaders of Myanmar and the leaders of Sudan, and many would say there has been very little progress.  Ban replied that 
I have met, as you said, during the last one and a half years, many leaders who made commitments for peace and stability in the region. These commitments must be implemented. That is the ground rule, that whatever commitment has been made, those should be implemented. That is democratic rule. I have been frustrated by the lack of progress in many parts of the conflict areas, but I am committed to continuing my role as Secretary-General.
  Whether Ban will continue as Secretary-General has not been raised. Eliciting commitments and then saying they should be implemented is a strategy that Sergio Vieira de Mello, then rumored as a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan, deployed with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and with the Serbs in Bosnia, according to Samantha Power's Chasing the Flame (page 404). She goes on to described on Sergio's third night in Baghdad his dinner with John Sawers, the British diplomat who served as Bremer's deputy... Sawers suggested that the UN co-locate with the Americans and the British in the Green Zone.
  On Monday, Sergio having been killed with 17 others in Iraq, Sawers stood at the Council stakeout denouncing Robert Mugabe's regime, while Kofi Annan's successor Ban Ki-moon said he will continue to plug away at Mugabe. We'll see.