Newly-elected President of the General Assembly Amb. John Ashe
of Antigua and Barbuda (right) is congratulated by current President
Vuk Jeremic. UN Photo/Evan Schneider
“The United Nations General Assembly Friday June 14 elected by acclamation Ambassador John W. Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda as President of its upcoming 68th session.
Taking the floor immediately after his election, Mr. Ashe, who is Antigua and Barbuda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, said that in 18 months, the world body would launch an agenda for sustainable development for all, which ‘may very well be the boldest and most ambitious project that the United Nations has ever had to accomplish.’
‘In order to succeed, the General Assembly needs to be equally bold, ambitious and collaborative if we are to rise to the task we are about to undertake and ensure its completion,’ he said, adding ‘failure is not an option. Let us show the world…we can be bold and decisive in our actions.’ ”
I’ve had plenty to say on this blog and elsewhere about Vuk Jeremic and his Presidency at the UN General Assembly and am especially proud to have been one of the initiators in questioning his motives and intentions around the organising of April 10 UNGA Thematic debate on “Role of International Criminal Justice on Reconciliation”.
Indeed, the debate was a flop, with several leading countries boycotting it. While the Debate was supposed to address several international criminal tribunals such as for Lebanon, East Timor, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia…), Rwanda… it was obvious from the start that Jeremic was intending to make it all about Serbia and it’s disagreement with the Hague Tribunal’s acquittals of Croatian Generals of war crimes in November 2012. And this, of course is unacceptable because victims from all countries are equally important for UNGA and the UNGA President had a responsibility in ensuring that, rather than trying to bring Serbia’s issues and victims as the most important.
New York based Vecernji List journalist Jadranka Juresko-Kero reports on events at East River Friday 14 June and says that at the elections of the new UNGA President, Vuk Jeremic was convinced how his mandate will not be remembered as one of the successful ones and that a great majority of member states can’t wait for him to leave so that they may be able to forget as quickly as possible how the Serbian representative attempted to use that honourable position for the promotion of his own country’s interests, with such a forceful and diplomatically unbecoming manner.
“It’s customary for member states to applaud the work and efforts of an outgoing UNGA president at the election meeting for a new president”, writes Juresko – Kero. Not in this case. Juresko-Kero continues: “ How much regard member states hold for Vuk Jeremic is best reflected in that the Eastern Europe group of UN member states to which Croatia belongs did not, even as a matter of courtesy, thank Jeremic for his UN work on Friday. It’s the UN usual practice that at the elections of new GA president, the work of the exiting one is commended, and if he was truly successful all his efforts and contribution to the work of the UN are emphasized. In cases where member states are not satisfied with the candidate but believe that he did not have ill intentions they express gratitude as a matter of diplomatic courtesy, but that did not occur in Vuk Jeremic’s case. Vecernji List has found out via the representatives of US diplomacy that the Germans as representatives of the EU group also did not wish to acknowledge and convey positive messages for Jeremic’s work, but for protocol’s sake managed to coolly thank him for the ‘peculiar style’ he demonstrated in New York”.
“When we supported Vuk Jeremic’s election for the President of the General Assembly we believed that he, as a young and educated man, will be of wide views and cooperate with everyone and that Serbia, which has lost in every sense – war and territorial – will know how to value the diplomatic opportunity it received. We are deeply disappointed because Jeremic has turned his East River cabinet into a Serbian fortress, he exclusively deals with the problems of his country, ignores all others, manipulates the respect of this world organization and we all can hardly wait for his one year mandate to end this summer”, an EU diplomat reportedly said to Vecernji List journalist at East River on Friday.
To anyone – like Vuk Jeremic – who did not permit the victims of war crimes to be present at the April 10 UNGA Thematic Debate on the role of international criminal justice and reconciliation (a debate that touched them in every sense) I say: good riddance! I won’t even go into his awful antics whereby as UNGA President he organised celebrations of Serbian Orthdox New Year at East River, early in 2013, and had the Serb song “March on Drina” performed there, unbeknownst to the UN General Secretary and most member states’ representatives that this very song was hummed and sung by Serbian forces during their killing sprees in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990’s! Of course victims’ organisations were in shock and complained and were abhorred, after which Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General was placed in the humiliating position of having to apologise to victims of that war for that awful orchestration at the UN. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)
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Hello. Great post and pic.
See this too:http://limseeyee.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/%E2%99%A5inspiration-of-the-day%E2%99%A5-2/
Or following me…=)
Thanks!
Thank you Lim See Yee – following you too
Thanks!
I didn’t like the UN cause of it’s shameful role in the Balkans war,now after Jeremic’s mandate i hate it.
No – no use in hating, it eats one from inside. Fingers crossed, we hope for a better future. Thank you on your comment
Try visit my blog. Maybe u will like it. Don’t forget to follow. Haha 🙂
All cool, a pleasure. Thank you
Again, anti-Serb propaganda here. It never stops. Ina, you really hate Serbs. Shame on you.
Karl Haudbourg
Serbia’s Ambassador to the World
Karl Haudborg, it is a shame that even Serbia’s diplomacy, real or pretend, cannot recognise and accept people’s absolute democratic right to comment, to question and to criticise a person in public office, which is funded by taxpayers (people). Member states of UN pay a great deal of funds into UN coffers and those funds come from taxpayers. My article has nothing to do with hatred but fact and reality. When a person occupies a public service job then he/she must leave his/her ego outside the door. Vuk Jeremic regretfully had not done that and his actions speak of that. I have no shame in expressing that which is my right and based on fact, on his shameful behaviour. I do not hate Serbs, it’s actually you who hates Serbs because you continue to support a behaviour that is just not acceptable nor appropriate in this case, and makes other Serbs appear inconsiderate of everybody else.
hahaha Karl Haudbourg – you boast of being the Serbia’s Ambassador to the World. Ambassador Serbia website you promote begs the public for money donations because you have no government funding. Hahaha if you love Serbia so much do it for free, out of love like most other bloggers. And your website says you want to change the false/poor perception in the world about Serbs by putting out the truth – START with Vuk Jeremic! Don’t try and cover up his pathetic blunders as UNGA President but say: Oooops, we tried didn’t work, sorry, won’t do it again! There is NOTHING FALSE ABOUT THE PERCEPTION ABOUT VUK JEREMIC’S PERFORMANCE IN UNGA! So if the Serbs perceived him as great, your website should correct that perception and say: well not so great, perhaps he will learn. I hope you have a proper LICENSE to beg or ask for monetary donations of the public, or maybe such lawful and proper rules one finds in countries of rule of law don’t matter to you?
There is no hatred in showing truth no matter how horrible or hateful that truth is. The only hate is in trying to hide hateful truth. And that is what you are trying to do Karl Haudborg
I think that it’s not only Serbia’s diplomats who need a lot of learning still to do; probably all former communist Yugoslav diplomats still have the weird idea that they can transfer their hot-headed political elitism into the UN, onto the world scene and do as they please. Well no cannot do!
I have especially noticed modern day political tactics adopted by especially communists or former communists or left side politics where revelation of unpleasant truths is labelled as hatred speech! It’s actually quite unnerving but it’s spreading because politicians will say and do anything including that you spread hatred if you dare to tell the truth about them! Tough luck, you just plough on Ina, truth is truth and hatred is hatred and I certainly don’t see any of the latter in your articles, but some does come from commentators who interpret unpleasant truth as hatred.
Yep, if you can’t hack it, bon voyage!