UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came out all diplomatic and political guns blazing to defend protesters in the Arab world and civilians in Ivory Coast, but on a new wave of arrests in China there was silence.
The former South Korean foreign minister has, through his first term as the UN chief, stressed the role of “quiet diplomacy” for some prickly cases, but the disappearance of dozens of artists, intellectuals and dissidents in China in recent weeks comes as Ban prepares to announce whether he will seek another five years.
Even if there is no clear rival for the post, Ban knows that he must have the support of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia the UK and the US.
The UN leader took a tough line on Ivory Coast, where former president Laurent Gbagbo was captured on April 11, and in Libya, where he says that the UN resolution allowing military action extended the frontier of humanitarian law to help civilians, but questioned twice at briefings in recent days about Ban’s position on the arrest of artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) and dozens of other opposing voices in China, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said: “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
Rights groups previously criticized Ban for failing to raise the case of jailed Nobel Peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) when he met Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in November. Ban insisted that he raised the case with “other” Chinese leaders.
The same rights groups say China’s fears that the popular uprisings in the Arab world could spread are behind its move to detain or put under house arrest at least 54 dissident voices.
The EU and the US have expressed concern about the detention of Ai, an acclaimed artist and critic of the communist government.
However, most international leaders have remained silent on the China arrests, fearing Beijing’s wrath. The main UN comment has come from the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and a working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances which last week called the Chinese arrests “the continuation of a disturbing trend in the suppression of dissidents.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded that Ban speak out, even if he is “under pressure” from a key Security Council member.
“If the secretary-general’s new assertiveness on human rights is to be meaningful, it has to extend to the appalling spike in repression in China,” said Philippe Bolopion, HRW’s UN specialist. “The very right to peaceful dissent the secretary-general has been championing in the Middle East and North Africa is under attack for many Chinese. Quiet diplomacy having failed with Beijing, it’s time for the secretary-general to speak out on this issue.”
Christopher Walker, director of studies at the Freedom House think tank, said: “The absence of a consistent and vocal response to this repression in China is troubling” and could be taken by China as acceptance of what it does.
A diplomat from a Security Council nation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “The secretary-general has been clear about the importance of protecting civilians. You cannot minimize the question of human rights in China, however, and it is true he could have expressed a view.”
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