AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS WITH CHILEAN PR MUNOZ

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000520 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/19/2019 TAGS: PGOV UNGA EFIN CI SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RICE MEETS WITH CHILEAN PR MUNOZ Classified By: ECOSOC M/C Robert Hagen for reasons 1.5(b) and (d) 1.(C) SUMMARY: On May 12, Chilean PR Hector Munoz briefed Ambassador Rice on his plans for the UN Peacebuilding Commission. Ambassador Munoz listed his priorities for his year as Chair of the PBC's Organizational Committee as: 1) beginning consensus-building prior to the PBC's 2010 mandate review; 2) raising the PBC's visibility through creation of a "Group of Friends of the PBC" and recruiting celebrity goodwill ambassadors; and 3) tasking the PBC Organizational Committee with facilitating UN coordination and disseminating lessons learned and best practices. Ambassador Munoz also commented on the high number of votes received by the United States in the election for Human Rights Council members, noting the accomplishment of receiving more votes than CUBA and the same number of votes as China. Munoz also stressed the need for UN member states to push back against the President of the General Assembly's proposed outcome document for the June General Assembly High Level Event on the Global Financial Crisis, warning that if the document is not closely coordinated with G-20 recommendations, Chile, like many other countries, would not send high level representation. He asked for US support in the UN's investigation of the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) On May 12, Ambassador Rice met with Chilean Permanent Representative Hector Munoz. Munoz began his one-year term as Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission in December. Munoz listed his priorities for the PBC, commencing with the need to build a consensus on the role of the PBC, particularly its Organizational Committee, prior to the 2010 PBC mandate review. Munoz commented that the PBC is still not seen as a major player in the countries on the PBC's agenda, and accordingly, needed to do more to facilitate coordination, both among UN funds and programs in-country, but also for coordination of external assistance in general. The PBC also needed to strengthen its role in resource mobilization. Munoz stated that while the PBC was working well with the World Bank, its contact with regional financial institutions, as well as regional entities like ECOWAS, still lagged (the African Union was an exception). ¶3. (C) Munoz noted that ECOWAS had sent a letter to the PBC asking that Guinea be placed on the PBC's agenda. Munoz had responded by asking Guinea to directly request PBC consideration (COMMENT: Normally the Security Council would refer a country to the PBC, but the PBC terms of reference also allow for countries not on the Security Council agenda, like Guinea, to request consideration. END COMMENT). He had also spoken with Haitian contacts. According to Munoz, Haiti, like Timor-Leste, was reluctant to apply for PBC consideration out of concern that going on the PBC's agenda could hasten UN peacekeeping drawdown. Haiti also was concerned that donors might use the excuse of Haiti receiving Peacebuilding Fund monies as justification for reducing their bilateral developmental assistance. Munoz commented on Chile's experience conducting civil affairs in Haiti as part of its peacekeeping in noting that peacekeeping and peacebuilding are not sequential. Accordingly, Munoz saw a role for the PBC in providing advice to the Security Council on the peacebuilding aspects of peacekeeping operations. He also felt that the PBC should look at "tiered" levels of engagement that would allow countries to seek more focused PBC advice, for instance, on security sector reform. Munoz felt the PBC needed to develop benchmarks as part of an "exit strategy" from the countries on its agenda. Munoz stressed the need for member states to press the Secretary-General on swiftly appointing a new Assistant Secretary-General for peacebuilding, commenting that the Peacebuilding Support Office needed to focus on its primary mission of supporting the PBC. He commented that in recent meetings with EU, he had been asked why the United States was not showing more support for the Peacebuilding Commission. ¶4. (C) Ambassador Munoz congratulated Ambassador Rice on the 167 votes received by the United States in its election to the Human Rights Council. He commented that the United States received more votes than CUBA and as many votes as China despite their strength within the UN in gaining votes through their bilateral assistance and calls for "solidarity." He said that HRC members would now have to find ways to make the HRC more meaningful, beginning with doing away with "nonproductive" peer reviews in which countries ran out the clock on inconsequential issues. ¶5. (SBU) Ambassador Munoz agreed with Ambassador Rice that the draft outcome document submitted by the President of the General Assembly (PGA) in conjunction with an upcoming UN General Assembly conference on the global financial and economic crisis was unacceptable both in terms of process and content. He stated that the Caribbean countries were angry that the PGA had ignored a draft with widespread support that had been submitted to the PGA by General Assembly-appointed co-facilitators (the Dutch and St. Vincent Permanent Representatives). In his view, the outcome document should be consistent with the G-20 process, building on G-20 recommendations and elaborating a role for the UN in ensuring that the financial crisis did not affect developmental assistance to the least developed countries. Ambassador Rice noted that the USG had identified many redline issues in the PGA's draft and sought to work with moderate G77 members on using the co-facilitator's text as the base for negotiations over the next thre e weeks. Munoz warned that if the PGA insisted that negotiations should continue based on his text, Chile would downgrade its participation in the June conference from Head of State to junior minister level. ¶6. (C) Finally, Ambassador Munoz stated that he would soon be traveling to Pakistan in conjunction with the UN-led investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He asked Ambassador Rice for an exchange of information, saying that the investigators had taken testimony from Bhutto's former Chief of Staff and head of security and was now in the process of hiring forensics specialists. Munoz commented that he was growing more worried as he learned more about the intricacies of the factors behind the assassination. He stated that he had been invited by UK PR Sawers to meet with Scotland Yard and that the investigation panel would shortly bring onboard a third member, possibly a female judge from Norway. Wolff