At
UN,
Ban Eyes Kim
for
Disarmament,
Sources Tell
ICP, Would
Swirl Kane to
DPI, Gilmore
Rewarded
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 2 -- The
five
year
"mobility"
rule of UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
yet to be
applied,
although various
officials
from Ban's
first term
have been told
to prepare to
move on
before
mid-2012, and
some positions
have been
advertised in
The
Economist.
Ban's
main
adviser is Kim
Won-soo, who
has
technically
held the
position of
"Deputy Chef
de Cabinet"
behind Vijay
Nambiar.
Now sources
close to Ban
tell Inner
City Press
that Ban has
been urged to,
at
least on
paper, apply
his five year
rule to Kim --
"Mister Kim"
as he is known
-- and thereby
to "diversify"
his cabinet.
But
what
is Ban without
Kim?
Therefore, the
sources tell
Inner City
Press, a very
Ban-like (or
Kim-like)
sleight of
hand is being
envisioned.
With
the
UN's post
Disarmament
post being
vacated by the
Brazilian
Duarte,
and despite
competing
candidacy by,
among others,
the Permanent
Representatives
of the
Philippines
and Peru and
the need to
move the
German chief
of Management
Angela Kane
somewhere, now
the sources
say
Kim is being
eyed for
Disarmament.
This
way
Kim could
remain close
to Ban, with
some time on
his hands;
there
is even a
reference to
the DPRK North
Korea, a key
issue to both
Kim
and Ban, eying
South Korea in
five years the
sources say.
Under
this
scenario,
where would
Kane go, and
what would
Brazil get?
The
sources say,
with some
disbelief,
that Kane
could get the
Department
of Public
Information,
soon to be
vacated by
Japan's
Kiyotaka
Akasaka. Japan
could get
Kane's
Department of
Management
position,
perhaps with
the taciturn
Jun Yamazaki,
who serves
apparently
without
complaint on
the UN
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations
along with Sri
Lankan General
Shavendra
Silva,
whose Division
58 is
depicted in
Ban's Panel of
Experts report
as engaged in
war crimes.
(c) UN Photo
Kim,
behind Ban's
head, Nambiar
more publicly
points the way
Brazil
could
get DESA, the
key
development
post, while
China could
shift
(back) to the
Department of
General
Assembly and
Conference
Affairs,
a more visible
or at least
televised
post.
With
Egypt
losing DGACM,
sources have
told Inner
City Press
that Mubarak
era Egyptian
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
Maged
Abdelaziz, a
fixture in
Group of 77
and NAM
negotiations,
is pushing
hard for the
long vacant
Special
Adviser on
Africa post.
Inner City
Press asked
Maged to
confirm or
deny this, at
this week's Togolese
end of
Security
Council
presidency
bash in
the UN's
-- or
Aramark's --
new
party tent
by the river,
but he smiled
and declined
to comment.
Meanwhile
even those
jobs doled out
so far by Ban
Ki-moon are
not without
controversy.
The
deputy post in
UNFPA, the UN
Population
Fund, was
given on
February
22 to "Kate
Gilmore of
Australia."
The biography
the UN
circulated
listed her
time as Deputy
Secretary
General of
Amnesty
International
without
mentioning or
apparently
considering
the payola
controversy
when Ms.
Gilmore and
Irene Khan
left Amnesty
in
2009-2010.
Gilmore was
given 300,000
pounds, which
even
Amnesty's own
review
subsequently
called
"excessive."
Some in
Amnesty
and elsewhere
wonder if any
will be
returned now
that Gilmore's
been
given by Ban
Ki-moon this
UN system
sinecure.
Watch this
site.
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