UN's turbulent priest refuses to go quietly
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By Harvey Morris
7 June, 2009 
The Financial Times
Original Source: 
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b7ab638c-5397-11de-be08-00144feabdc0.html
Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly – in office for a year – have little time to make themselves at home. 
But Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann has done his best, decorating his office overlooking New York's East River with portraits of his revolutionary heroes, among them Augusto Sandino and Daniel Ortega of his native Nicaragua, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro (a signed photograph).
But for the UN's big powers the end of Father Miguel's tenure in September cannot come soon enough. Western diplomats accuse him of abusing his position to pursue his own radical agenda and of bringing the UN into disrepute.
The latest bone of contention is his plan for a summit of world leaders later this month to discuss the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries. The event was mandated by member states in Doha last year, but critics reject his ambitions to use it to try to redesign the international financial architecture. 
They argue that reforming such bodies as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is best left to the Group of Eight and Group of 20, and is outside the remit of the General Assembly – the so-called G192 of all UN member states.
The former Nicaraguan foreign minister – he once corrected a questioner who said he was a Sandinista by insisting he is a Sandinista – is unrepentant. 
The 76-year-old Roman Catholic priest told the FT: You can't have a few calling the shots and others suffering the consequences of their decisions. If they were more frank, they should say might is right.
Father Miguel's main offence appears to be having broken the convention whereby the general assembly president serves as an anonymous chairman of the board. 
Having warned in advance that his would be a proactive presidency, he has intervened to denounce, among other things, Israel's actions in the occupied Palestinian territories and the US's past record of propping up dictators and its acts of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He has thus stepped on the jealously guarded turf of the Security Council. It's a joke and it's not good for the UN, said one ambassador of the Security Council's permanent five, referring to the president's latest initiative.
Father Miguel accuses some industrialised states of attempting to sabotage this month's summit and accuses the British Foreign Office, in particular, of trying to drive a wedge between him and his advisers, who include Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist.
It is still unclear how many heads of state will come to New York for the June 24-26 conference. Father Miguel hopes for 60 to 70. However, they are unlikely to include those of the industrialised states. 
With only three months to go until the big powers rid themselves of their rebellious priest, another photograph in Father Miguel's office might give them pause for thought. It shows him arm-in-arm with his likely successor – Ali Abdessalam Triki, former foreign minister of Libya.