SYG BAN ON BURMA AND ZIMBABWE

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000802 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/27/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM UNSC BM ZI SUBJECT: SYG BAN ON BURMA AND ZIMBABWE (U) Classified by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Permanent Representative, for Reasons 1.4 (b and d). ¶1. (SBU) Ambassador Khalilzad met with Secretary General Ban briefly on September 27. Topics included Burma, Zimbabwe and the prospects for a U.S. candidate for controller of the UN (septel). BURMA -------------- ¶2. (C) Secretary General Ban told Ambassador Khalilzad on September 27 that Special Advisor for Burma Ibrahim Gambari will/will receive a visa to enter Burma. The SYG said he practically threatened the Burmese Foreign Minister that if Rangoon did not cooperate, the international community would unite and come down very hard. The SYG said he would be seeing the FM again at 12:30 today to press again about the escalating violence. The SYG also reportedly instructed Gambari to return to New York immediately after his visit to Burma to report to the Security Council. ZIMBABWE -------------- ¶3. (C) The SYG reported to Ambassador Khalilzad that UK Minister Mark Malloch Brown had proposed the idea of a humanitarian envoy for Zimbabwe. The SYG raised it with Mugabe, whose reaction was "hostile, even impudent." Mugabe charged that there were no problems in Zimbabwe, that there was no hunger, and that the SYG should not fall prey to "the colonialists" who were behind this move. The SYG persisted and raised the idea with the presidents of South Africa and Ghana. Both advised B that this was the wrong time. They recommended waiting until after the March elections in Zimbabwe as their expectation was that Mugabe would not run or would be defeated. KHALILZAD