UN MANAGEMENT REFORM: DELEGATIONS STILL DEADLOCKED

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000600 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC KUNR UNGA SUBJECT: UN MANAGEMENT REFORM: DELEGATIONS STILL DEADLOCKED OVER PROCEDURAL ISSUE ¶1. At a small meeting of key delegations on March 23, 2006, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson sought to find a way to break the deadlock over how the General Assembly would consider the Secretary-General's report, "Investing in the United Nations: for a stronger Organization worldwide" (A/60/692). Deputy Permanent Representative Wolff argued that the General Assembly itself was assigned chief responsibility for the report and needed to control the process, allocating selected parts of the report to the Fifth Committee and perhaps others. Ambassador Rock of Canada and Ambassador Ozawa of Japan supported this position. South African Ambassador Kumalo, representing the Group of 77 and China, continued to assert that the report must be introduced in, and considered totally by, the Fifth Committee. Rather than use precedent or procedure to justify his position, Kumalo said only that "the Fifth Committee must be trusted" with the administrative items. The representatives of the Russian Federation and Mexico proposed hybrid arrangements involving either an "expanded Fifth Committee" or a "high level segment" of the Fifth Committee. The Austrian Ambassador said that the GA Plenary should maintain control but pledged support for a formula that would "satisfy all." (Privately, the Austrian DPR said the EU's position "was to avoid conflict.") ¶2. There was no agreement on a way forward, although Ambassador Akram of Pakistan suggested a process similar to the one used last year for the ethics office proposal, in which the General Assembly transmitted the report (A/60/568) to the Fifth Committee for formal introduction, review, and comments. All in attendance agreed that the issuance of the report of the ACABQ--expected on Monday, March 27--was critical to further discussions. President Eliasson asked his chef de cabinet, Ambassador Wide, to convene the group again that Monday afternoon to consider the issue further. BOLTON