No, I am not making this up.  The biggest lobbying bloc at the United Nations, the G-77, has just welcomed as its new head for 2009 the nation that at UN headquarters in New York will now be entrusted to pilot and promote the collective interests of the developing world. And the winner is… Sudan.

Yes, the same Sudan (as in genocide) that has been under UN sanctions since 2005. Yes, the same Sudan whose president, Omar al-Bashir, was indicted last year for crimes against humanity by the UN-engendered International Criminal Court.

That didn’t stop Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon from sending congratulations to Sudan this past Thursday, delivered on his behalf by his deputy, Asha-Rose Migiro, who offered the Sudanese ambassador Ban’s “compliments and best wishes.”

Nor did it stop the UN eminences from chowing down at Sudan’s celebratory party Friday night in the UN Delegates’ Dining Room, decorated for the occasion with ice sculptures of fish and the Sudanese flag. According to Matthew Russell Lee of the Inner-City Press, the menu was the priciest available from the UN headquarter’s catering contractor, including lobster, shrimp on ice and chocolate-covered strawberries. For an illuminating account of the entire affair, here’s a link to Matthew’s story. ”

One might start to wonder if being under UN sanctions actually serves at the UN these days as a credential for leadership. Sudan’s elevation by the G-77 comes on the heels of UN-sanctioned Iran taking over the executive-board chairmanship for 2009 of the UN’s flagship agency, the UN Development Program (where the same Iran-chaired board has just voted unanimously to re-open the UNDP’s North Korea office – shut down in 2007 during the Cash-for-Kim scandal).

Of course, Sudan has already had some practice presiding at G-77 meetings outside New York — the G-77 being an outfit rife with opportunities for its more ambitious members. The G-77, or Group of 77, is named for the number of founding states who came together in 1964 to form a lobbying bloc of developing countries (to “enhance their joint negotiating capacity“). Today, the G-77 is much bigger than that, listing 130 members (out of the UN’s 192 member states, the G-77 counts under its umbrella 129 states, plus the Palestinians).

The G-77 has chapters at a number of major UN office sites around the world, in Geneva, Nairobi, Paris and Rome. In 2007, Sudan chaired the G-77 chapter in Vienna. And, lest anyone think that Sudan has all the fun, last year the chair of the G-77 chapter in Geneva was — why, naturally — Zimbabwe.

President Obama’s newly confirmed ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, is expected to present her credentials to Ban Ki-Moon on Monday. As Powerline observed last year, Rice is a big backer of “engagement.” Get ready for a lot more parties, UN-style.