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Ban takes over UN reigns
01/01/2007 22:19 - (SA)
New York - South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon takes the reigns of the United Nations on New Year's Day as the world body's eighth secretary-general with a tough array of global issues to confront - from escalating violence in Darfur and rising Mideast tensions to combating Aids and poverty.
The 62-year-old career diplomat, who grew up during a war that left his country divided, has promised to make peace with North Korea a top priority. He said he will travel there when necessary and cautioned that the reclusive communist nation must be talked to - and not just punished with sanctions for conducting a nuclear test.
The United States is certain to press Ban to undertake more widespread management reforms at the United Nations, which outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan began.
The 192-member general assembly, which controls the UN budget and oversees its management, has been reluctant to institute changes that Annan and many experts say are essential to modernise the 61-year-old world body because the majority of UN member states fear losing the only real power the assembly has.
Oil-for-food scandal
In a speech after taking the oath of office as secretary-general on December 14, Ban said he will also work to strengthen the three pillars of the United Nations - security, development and human rights - to build "a more peaceful, more prosperous and more just world for succeeding generations."
In pursuing that goal, he said, "my first priority will be to restore trust" in the United Nations, whose reputation has been battered by the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, corruption in the UN's purchasing operations, and sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers.
"I will seek to act as a harmoniser and bridge-builder," said Ban. "And I hope to become known ... as a secretary-general who is accessible, hard-working, and prepared to listen attentively."
Ban will officially become secretary-general as hundreds of thousands of revellers in New York's Times Square greet the new year, but there is no official ceremony at the UN.
10-year tenure
"At midnight, he'll probably be back at his temporary residence" in a hotel after a dinner with his transition team, his transition spokeswoman, said Choi Soung-Ah.
Ban will not get to move into his official residence - an 85-year-old neo-Georgian townhouse on fashionable Sutton Place overlooking the East River - because it is getting a much-needed facelift, the first since 1950.
The general assembly recently approved $4.9m to modernise its heating, air conditioning, plumbing, kitchen and security, which is expected to take about nine months.
Outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose 10-year tenure ended at midnight Sunday, was also coy about his New Year's Eve plans. "I'll be somewhere in Manhattan at midnight on December31," he told reporters last week.
Ban defeated six other candidates vying to be the UN chief and won final approval from the general assembly in October. Since then, he has been meeting with a wide range of people inside and outside the UN to prepare for the job.
On Sunday, Ban was already taking charge.
He announced his first two appointments - veteran Indian diplomat Vijay Nambiar, who has been a special adviser to Annan, as his chief of staff, and award-winning Haitian journalist Michelle Montas, the head of the French unit of UN Radio, as his spokesperson.
Ban said in a statement on Sunday that he will be making more appointments in the coming days.
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