U.N.E.S.C.O. divided over M’Bow’s successor

Press, 9 October 1987, Page 6

U.N.E.S.C.O. divided over M’Bow’s successor

NZPA-Reuter Paris A first vote to decide who will be the next U.N.E.S.C.O. chief has left the cultural agency polarised between supporters and opponents of its controversial Senegalese director-general, Amadou Mahtar M’Bow. Mr M’Bow, bidding for a third term at the head of U.N.E.5.C.0., emerged the winner of the first inconclusive ballot with 18 votes against 16 for his western-backed rival, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Sahabzada Yaqub Khan. Mr M’Bow’s detractors hailed the result as a boost for their efforts to unseat the incumbent, whose stewardship saw the United States and Britain quit the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. “We’re relieved,” said a

Western delegate, . who asked not to be identified. Sources on U.N.E.S.C.O.’s 50-member executive board speculated that two Arab states had deserted M’Bow. He is officially backed by African and Arab states who have 20 votes on the board. Mr Yaqub Khan appeared to have emerged unscathed from controversy over his military past, which some States say should bar him from heading an organisation devoted to boosting peace and human rights. France’s U.N.E.S.C.O. delegate, Gisele Halimi, resigned on Tuesday rather than carry out Government orders to vote for Yaqub Khan, whom she dubbed a "torturer” for his service to Pakistan’s military-led Government. Up to five ballots are

allowed for the 50-mem-ber executive board of the agency to elect a candidate for the director-gen-eral’s post, one of the toughest in the United Nations system. The second ballot is to be held this morning. The successful candidate needs a majority, or 26 votes, to win the board’s endorsement If no one can command a majority during the first four votes, then the fifth will be a sudden-death run-off between the two leading contenders. U.N.E.S.C.O. was plunged into crisis in the final years of Mr M’Bow’s stewardship after the United States and-Britain left the organisation alleging waste and anti-West-ern bias. Revenues dropped by 30 per cent, causing 800 job losses and cuts in programmes.