UN
Ban Doles
Ceremonial
Posts to
Gordo &
Migiro, Goes
Belgian in GA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 13 -- At
a Friday in
July briefing
where only
four
journalists
asked
questions, UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
announced
four personnel
appointments
by Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
The
first,
Ban has
already
announced in
the tent by
the East
River. His
former Deputy
Asha Rose
Migiro of
Tanzania,
replaced by
Jan Eliasson
of Sweden, is
being given a
part time
envoy
position, on
HIV / AIDS.
Inner
City
Press has
asked if she
will report to
Michel Sibide
or directly
to Ban, so far
without
answer. It is
also
understood
that she will
not be going
to the African
Union summit
in Addis
Ababa, where
for
example the
American chief
of Congo
mission
MONUSCO is
already on
this way.
Another
appointment
involves
replacing the
Egyptian chief
of the
Department
of General
Assembly and
Conference
Management
with a
Belgian,
Jean-Jacques
Graisse. This
DGACM post was
viewed as the
one Ban would
give to a sub
Saharan
African, to
make up for
the loss of
the DSG
post to
Sweden. But
now, at least
on an acting
basis, it goes
to a
Belgian.
In
a
South - South
switch as
Children and
Armed Conflict
envoy, Sri
Lanka's
Radhika
Coomaraswamy
is being
replaced by
Algeria's
Leila
Zerrougui, who
has been
serving as
Meece's deputy
in the Congo
at
MONUSCO.
Last week NGOs
complained to
Inner City
Press that
Canada
was pushing
hard for the
post to go to
Nigel Fisher,
who has
stonewalled on
the UN's role
in cholera in
Haiti. So,
this could
have
been worse.
The
fourth
and final of
Friday's
appointments
seems like
pure swag: Ban
named "former
British Prime
Minister
Gordon Brown
to the
position of
United Nations
Special Envoy
for Global
Education."
Already,
Tony Blair
is the
Quartet's
envoy, and
David Cameron
has been given
a
development
post. Cynics
might wonder
if the
relative
shut-out of
the
UK from the
Under
Secretary
General posts
of
Peacekeeping
(controlled
by France) and
Political
Affairs
(controlled by
the USA) leads
Ban to
give these
other posts to
the UK.
Meanwhile
arguably
Argentina has
more of an
"in" with Ban
Ki-moon,
between
chef de
cabinet Susana
Malcorra and
those who come
with her, and
Department of
Political
Affairs Middle
East chief
Oscar
Fernandez
Taranco. Is
Malvinas
winning out
over Falklands
in Ban's UN,
despite
Friday's Gordo
news?
While
this
is simply one
view, if the
UK Mission has
a response
we'd be
happy to
publish it.
Watch this
site.
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