Despair at UN over selection of 'faceless' general secretary

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,,1889800,00.html

Despair at UN over selection of 'faceless' Ban Ki-moon as general secretary

· Officials 'glum' over choice to succeed Kofi Annan
· Staff believe US pushed for weakest candidate

Ewen MacAskill and Ed Pilkington in New York, and Jon Watts in Beijing

Saturday October 7, 2006
The Guardian

Senior officials at the United Nations expressed despair yesterday at the prospect of Kofi Annan being succeeded as secretary general by Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean foreign minister.
"The mood among staff is glum," one of the officials said. "We are not very excited about the outcome." With morale low at the UN after five years dominated by divisions, deadlock and corruption, they are sceptical about Mr Ban's ability to turn the organisation round or provide the strong, inspirational leadership they had been hoping for.

Another official, who has met Mr Ban several times, said: "He is pretty faceless and does not have much charisma. Kofi, for all his problems, is a man of considerable dignity, political insight and wide international experience."
Officials, who requested anonymity on the grounds that they would be working for Mr Ban, portray him as more secretary than general, happier with the minutiae of administrative detail than broad strategy, and a man given to platitudes.

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