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Ban's
UN Descends
Into Musical
Chairs,
Gilmour &
G77, Ladsous
Shown the
Door?
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
24 -- Entering
the last six
months of Ban
Ki-moon's
second term as
UN Secretary
General, not
only Ban has
his eye on
future jobs
(South Korea
presidency)
and paydays.
On June 24
when Ban's
office
announced a
promotion for
Andrew Gilmour
of the United
Kingdom to
Assistant
Secretary-General
for Human
Rights and
Head of the
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights (OHCHR)
in New York,
there were
near-immediate
grumbling from
the developing
countries int
the Group of
77.
Several
who contacted
Inner City
Press asked,
Why was there
no open
recruitment
process? Why
did Ban,
having
“already
picked an
Australian in
Geneva [Kate
Gilmore] now
choose a Brit
in New York?”
Others said
there is an
attempt to
move people to
new jobs so
that when the
next Secretary
General comes
in, the
argument can
be made that
they haven't
enough time,
leave them in
place.
Countries,
too, have
their
strategy.
Several
sources tell
Inner City
Press that
Herve Ladsous
might have to
leave before
the end of
Ban's term --
good -- but
not as
accountability
for
peacekeeper
rapes and
justifying
them, nor more
recently for
the failures
at Malakal in
South Sudan.
No, the
idea is that
if France
wants to hold
on to the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations, it
will be better
with a
recently
appointed USG
in place than
Ladsous and
his stench.
There was talk
of the Obama
administration
wanting
Peacekeeping,
now the talk
has turned to
the Department
of Management.
We'll have
more on this.
As to Ban
himself, when
he wrapped up
his five day
campaign trip
in South Korea
with a
three-question
"press
conference" at
the UN's
DPI-NGO
conference, he
criticized
"coverage of
what was
supposed to be
off-the-record
meeting with
the Kwanhoon
Club" of
political
correspondents.
Even during
Ban's long
visit to South
Korea, Inner
City Press in
New York where
it has been
evicted from
its long time
shared UN
office and
confined to
minders, told
not to
question
diplomats
asked the UN
why no
transcript was
provided of
Ban's session
with the
Kwanhoon Club.
It asked again
on June 10,
the day after
Ban himself
called such
questions
"undue."
On June 16, as
Inner City
Press
continued to
ask Ban's
spokesman
Dujarric about
Ban's role in
retaliation -
and Dujarric
refused to
answer - it
was told by
other sources
that the South
Korean mission
has come out
defending its
role in
promoting
meetings for
Ban with South
Korea
political
figures,
defending its
travel with
Ban and
specifically
denying the
Mission wrote
speeches for
Ban.
* * *
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