UN Security Council begins straw poll for Secretary General

New York, (Yonhap)

The process of selecting a successor to Kofi Annan as the next U.N. secretary-general will officially start next week, as the Security Council is scheduled to cast a straw poll for several Asians vying for the job, U.N. officials said.

The council’s 15 members will give their first impressions of the four Asians who have formally declared their candidacy.

They are Sri Lanka’s Jayantha Dhanapala, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, India’s Shashi Tharoor and Thailand’s Surakiart Sathirathai.

The contest intensified this month with several Asians vying for the job.

The U.N. Security Council will use the last 10 days of July for its first informal straw poll on the likely successor, reports the Financial Times. Mr. Annan’s term ends in December this year.

In the past, the job has been held largely by candidates from smaller countries.

The five permanent members of the Security Council — the US, Russia, China, Britain and France — cannot seek the job. (DM)

Ranil spells out his position on ethnic conflict

India yesterday ruled out military support to Sri Lanka and insisted that it will only support the country’s peace effort. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this after meeting Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday adding there is no solution other than a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict.

Mr. Wickremesinghe is on a five day official visit to India. The Indian Premier said it was important for mediocre political parties to get together rather than the extremist parties. He also expressed concern about the lack of dialogue between the two main political parties over the ethnic issue.

Mr. Wickremesinghe explained that the government so far has failed to put forward its solution to the ethnic conflict and he was ready to support President Mahinda Rajapaksa to go towards a federal solution based on the Tokyo Declaration.

Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Nirupama Rao and Sri Lankan High Commissioner in India Romesh Jayasinghe too participated in the meeting. -Daily Mirror By Dinit Chinthaka Karunaratne