UN News

Laura Rozen has the goods.

An invite from Sen. John Kerry initially spurred his trip down - sort of a second "introduction to Washington" type of trip for the UN chief who was pushed for the job by the Bush administration.

Ban Ki-moon pushed hard subsequently for a personal meeting with Obama, which was granted. He's also meeting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Senate Foreign Relations Committee members also have a private, members-only coffee scheduled with the UN chief. Issues on the agenda are expected to include Iran, climate change, Sudan/Bashir/ICC peacekeeping and human rights council/Durban Review.

UN News Center has more.

Last month John Solecki, an American employee of the United Nations Refugee Agency, was kidnapped on his way to work in Quetta, Pakistan. Something called the "Baluchistan Liberation United Front" abducted Sokecki and shot to death his driver, a local UN employee named Syed Hashim. Four days ago the group threatened to kill Solecki in four days should their list of demands, including the release of over a 1,000 prisoners in Pakistan, not be met. This is obviously a tense situation. The Pakistani Senate has called for his release. The United Nations says it cannot respond to Solecki's kidnappers. Meanwhile, the fate of Solecki and thousands of refugees in western Pakistan -- who depend on UNHCR being able to go about its daily business without this kind of threat -- hang in the balance. Our thoughts and prayers are with Solecki and his family.

The head of the United Nations Refugee agency's Baluchistan office, John Solecki, an American, was kidnapped on his way to work. His Pakistani driver was killed. There are some 400,000 Afghan refugees living in Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan. UNHCR is about the only global institution on the ground delivering humanitarian aid and advocating on behalf of these refugees. Kidnapping Sokecki was a pretty detestable act. The AP has more:

It was not immediately clear what impact the abduction would have on U.N. work in Pakistan, if any. The bombing of Islamabad's Marriott hotel in September prompted new U.N. rules prohibiting expatriate staff in Pakistan from living with their children in parts of the country, including Quetta. General crime has been on the rise in many parts of the country, including kidnappings for ransom. An Iranian diplomat was abducted in the northwestern city of Peshawar last year, and other foreigners and Afghans have also been taken. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has worked for years in Baluchistan helping Afghans who have fled violence in their homeland.

Rice is officially, official. And in her first interview with reporters as UN Ambassador, she suggests that reviving the "P-5 plus one" diplomacy on Iran (short hand for the Security Council plus Germany) is a top priority. Meanwhile, the official Chinese news service Xinhua seems to forget that civil rights icon and longtime Atlanta mayor Andrew Young served as President Carter's UN Ambassador.

Susan Rice, the new U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, Monday presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon here.

Rice is the first African American to assume the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as the new U.S. administration and the United Nations both vowed to work closely with each other to address major global problems, such as the Middle East peace process and the climate change.

UPDATE: Read below the fold for a transcript of Amb. Rice's first press availability at the UN.

I'm having a tough time shaking the image of Ban Ki Moon standing in front of the still smoldering headquarters of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). This is an agency that is responsible for feeding, schooling, and providing health care for several hundred thousand Palestinian refugees. Luckily, no one died when Israeli mortars hit the UNRWA warehouse, but a number of UN vehicles and relief items were destroyed. This is opposed to the shelling of a UN school that served as an emergency shelter which was struck by an Israeli bomb, killing 40 people. Even more troubling are reports that the rockets which struck the school included White Phosphorous mortars, which is a substance banned under international law from being used in populated areas. Israel has stated that it purposefully targeted these UN buildings because Hamas militants were nearby. As I've said before, risking the lives of human shields just to get at the Hamas terrorists who are holding them hostage does not quite cut it. (Specifically, it seems to fall far short of satisfying the just war principal of double-effect.) True, Israel has "expressed regret" for the pain it has inflicted in Gazan civilians -- and this, to be sure, separates them from the terrorists they are seeking to defeat). Still, the the United Nations is not a legitimate military target. Period. I just hope that Israel, with its functioning and capable judiciary, heeds the Secretary General's advice to "make those responsible people accountable."

And he is angry. I've actually never seen him quite like this. And yes, in his official statement he did condemn both sides. He also visited the town of Sderot, which routinely comes under rocket fire from Hamas militants in Gaza.

Reuters:

The United Nations Security Council will hold a special meeting on Saturday on the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians, the U.N. press office said. The meeting was set for 7 p.m. EST (2400 GMT). Israel launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, sending tanks and infantry into battle with Hamas fighters who have defied eight days of deadly air strikes with salvos of rocket fire into Israeli towns.

UPDATE: More from the Associated Press:

[Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon] said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned over the serious further escalation" of violence in Gaza. The statement said Ban had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "and conveyed his extreme concern and disappointment" at the invasion. ... Ban continued to urge key world leaders to intensify efforts to achieve an immediate Israeli-Hamas cease-fire that includes international monitors to enforce a truce and possibly to protect Palestinian civilians.

On a personal note: I grew up in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. My mother is Jewish American, my father was Christian Lebanese. I lived through the kind of terrible strife that is all too common in the Mideast and I recognize the intricacy (and intractability) of the situation there. The wide disparity of views in the blogosphere demonstrates how difficult it is to find moral clarity when bombs start falling. But one thing is indisputable: civilians on all sides always bear the brunt of these flare-ups. After witnessing so many of these bloody paroxysms I hope and pray that I live to see an end to the seemingly endless cycle of Mideast violence.

Not withstanding news out of Illinois, in which Governor Rod Blagojevic was arrested this morning on "pay to play" charges, today is International anti-Corruption Day. He's a video from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.