Latvia's Leader Poised to Head U.N., Kentuckians Support Her

WASHINGTON -- Louisville's Catherine Todd Bailey, the American ambassador to Latvia, says there's been a "whispering campaign" on behalf of that Baltic nation's president to make her the next head of the United Nations.

"I think she'd be terrific," said Bailey. "She's very commanding, has a real presence and has served her country extremely well."

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who addressed a Joint Session of Congress June 7, isn't quite campaigning, but it sounds like she isn't not campaigning, either.

Under the geographic rotation the United Nations has followed for selecting a Secretary General, Asia should be next. But in an interview with The Courier-Journal, Latvia's president said there should be other considerations.

"I think the most crying one is the need for a female candidate because in 60 years there hasn't been a single one, and half the population being female, I think there is a rotation that's long overdue," Vike-Freiberga said.

And, the president added, the Eastern European nations once part of the Soviet Union have not had a voice in picking U.N. leaders. Latvia regained its independence only in 1991.

"African and other nations have entered the United Nations and had their chance to be heard and to be represented," she said. "We have not."

Vike-Freiberga, 68, is mentioned in diplomatic circles among a number of possible successors to Kofi Annan, whose term is over at the end of the year. The list includes South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, the former secretary general of the Sri Lankan peace process, Jayantha Dhanapala, and Indian author and U.N. Undersecretary General for Communications Shashi Tharoor.

An international campaign has been launched to make the next U.N. chief a woman. Vike-Freiberga is among those being promoted by Equality Now, as is Mynamar's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest by the junta that rules that country. Vike-Freiberga has a foot in the door at the U.N. already. Last year, she was named special envoy to the secretary general on reform of the world body.

During her time in the presidency, Latvia and its 2.3 million people have joined both the European Union and NATO. Vike-Freiberga will host a NATO summit in November, when President Bush will make his second visit to Riga.

With a speaking style in a tone reminiscent of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vike-Freiberga has not been reluctant to take on Russia, which borders her nation on the east. She has called that nation "unpredictable" and has asked Russia for an apology for occupying Latvia. Meanwhile, about 30 percent of Latvia's population is Russian, which has created domestic and international tensions.

'Very strong' leader

Uldis Streips, a professor at the University of Louisville's School of Medicine and president of the Kentucky-Latvian Club, said Vike-Freiberga "is very strong" despite being in the middle of the issue of how to deal with the Russians within and beyond Latvia's borders.

"The ultra-patriots don't like her because she is able to compromise some, and the Communists don't like her because she's nationalistic," Streips said.

Asked in the Courier-Journal interview about relations between Riga and Moscow, Vike-Freiberga shot back, "Cool."

"We have not had high-level bilateral visits ever since our independence," she said.

The absence of political opposition in Russia is a "worrisome sign," as is the suppression of media, the president said. And she is concerned that the Russians have centralized decision-making without accountability to the public. Russia also is engaging in "offensive" propaganda about Latvia's independence being somehow related to a rebirth of fascism.

Latvia's armed forces total only 5,500, but the nation is contributing soldiers to peace-keeping efforts in places like Bosnia and Kosovo -- and to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Latvia's contributions

Bailey said the United States appreciates Latvia's contributions in Iraq and Vike-Freiberga's strong support.

"She has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States on Iraq," Bailey said. "The relationship is really, really good."

Interviewed just before the killing of al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Vike-Freiberga said she was optimistic that there will be success in that war-torn nation.

"There has to be," she said. "I don't see how it can remain a constant bleeding wound in the flesh of the Iraqi nation."

Iraqis are still struggling with the concept of democracy, a system of resolving conflict that has never been part of their history, the president said.

"So this is really nation-building we are talking about in Iraq that is at issue," Vike-Freiberga. "The terrorism in that context is preventing that nation-building process, which needs to be supported. And it's clear that the will for it ultimately will have to come from the people within the country. … I think all three parts of the country (Kurdish, Sunni and Shia) have to agree to some mechanism whereby each can be heard, each can be represented, where all can live together without killing each other."

She is quite positive about the future of a united Europe, as well, despite ongoing disputes over how much authority to give to the European Union, trade and foreign policy differences, and ethnic divisions.

What unites Europeans, Vike-Freiberga said, is "understanding that Europe can only be strong if it works together. It's too fragmented otherwise. It has a danger of scattering its efforts unless it works together."

"Europe is not yet ready for the United States of Europe," she added. "I suspect that it just may come in due time, but it will take a while for us to find a way where nations feel that their traditions and their identity and their culture will be preserved sufficiently in something resembling a United States of Europe."

Streips thinks Vike-Freiberga's multilingual skills and her stature as a leader of a former Soviet-dominated nation puts her in an ideal position to head the United Nations.

"I think she can certainly hold her own with anybody, any place," he said, adding that she is in the mold of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Praise from McConnell

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made the same comparison. Asked about Vike-Freiberga as secretary-general of the United Nations, McConnell said: "She'd make a good one."

"But frankly I am, at the moment, the president of a nation, and that is my job," Vike-Freiberga protested when pressed about the U.N. post. "I can't possibly be campaigning for anything else while I am doing my job as president of my country."

And if asked to seek the U.N. top post?

Latvia's president smiled and then laughed.

"Of course, my term is coming to an end, there is that. It ends in June of next year," Vike-Freiberga pointed out.

Source: Courier-Journal.com, Sunday, June 18, 2006