Ban's
5 Year Rules
Violated in
Bangkok,
Ladsous Wants
to Push
Haq There
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 7 --
There should
be no more
than five
years at any
one UN
position,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
announced.
But
Inner City
Press notes,
for example,
that the head
of the
Bangkok-based
Economic and
Social
Commission for
Asia and the
Pacific
(ESCAP),
Noeleen Heyzer
of Singapore,
has been in
place more
than SIX
years now. She
was put into
the position
in August 2007,
and it is
now October
2013.
But
there's more
to this than
just another
example of the
UN not living
up to its
stated
principles, as
with its Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy
with continued
aid to the two
Congolese Army
units
implicated
in the 135
rapes in
Minova in
November 2012.
Inner
City Press is
not the only
one who
noticed that
Heyzer's Under
Secretary
General
position at
ESCAP could be
freed up.
Well placed
sources
exclusively
tell Inner
City Press
that the head
of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
THAT position,
wants to push
out his
co-equal Under
Secretary
General
for the
Department of
Field Support,
Ameerah Haq.
While
an earlier Ban
Ki-moon reform
involved
splitting
Peacekeeping
into
two separate
components,
DPKO and DFS,
now Ladsous
wants to
dominate
both of them,
by pushing Haq
out of DFS and
installing a
person of
his own
choosing.
(More on that
in a future
story.)
Singapore
is
a serious UN
country, so
another USG
post would
have to be
identified and
given to
Heyzer or
another
Singaporean.
But Ladsous,
or better said
France, has
this kind of
control in the
UN system.
Beyond
this abuse of
Ban's supposed
five year
rule, it
brings up the
need
for a more
meaningful
reform: no
COUNTRY should
be able to
control a
UN department
for more than
five years.
France has
held onto
Peacekeeping,
even since
demanding it
in exchange
for not
vetoing
Kofi Annan
becoming
Secretary
General. Here
they are:
Secrétaires
généraux
adjoints des
Nations Unis
aux Opérations
de Maintien de
la Paix :
Kofi
Annan : de
mars 1993 ŕ
décembre 1996
Bernard
Miyet
: de janvier
1997 ŕ octobre
2000
Jean-Marie
Guéhenno
: d'octobre
2000 ŕ juillet
2008
Alain
Le Roy : du 30
juin 2008 au 2
septembre 2011
Hervé
Ladsous : ŕ
compter du 2
septembre 2011
This
is
UNacceptable:
over 16 years,
9 months. It
should end.
At
the other end
of the UN
spectrum, it's
every UN
department for
itself. The
Publishing
Unit faces a
zeroing out of
jobs, from 150
position not
long ago. To
save some
posts, in
order to scan
old
documents in
the basement
of the UN
library,
sources
exclusively
tell
Inner City
Press that the
UN is turning
to its new
Daddy
Warbucks:
Qatar.
Warbucks
because
while the UN
pleads for
Qatar's money,
that country's
royal
family funds
war in Syria.
But the UN
says nothing.
At least,
then,
the UN should
create a
bidding war to
save more
staffers'
jobs. We
are against
lay-offs, but
also against
the UN
becoming
beholden to
particular
states,
creating under
Ban Ki-moon a
UN "a
la carte," to
use
another French
phrase like faux
(but
not Pho).
Meanwhile
in
the Department
of Safety and
Security, more
security has
been
gained,
commitments
from acting
Under
Secretary
General Kevin
Kennedy. This
emerged at the
best "End of
General
Debate"
party of the
season, under
the (broken)
satellite dish
over the East
River Friday
night.
Compared to
the faux
ceremony
of
the UN
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee,
which after
spying
for the UN
through its
first vice
president
had to beg
interns
to come via a
rare flyer,
DSS had steak
and an open
bar and plenty
of
good vibes.
UNCA
is given its
clubhouse, in
which it held
a
faux
UN
briefing
by
Gulf-supported
Syria rebel
boos Jarba
(a/k/a
Jarbucks),
by the UN
Department of
Public
Information,
regarding
which we have
received a
detailed
recruitment
complaint,
regarding
which we have
publicly
requested an
explanation.
The new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
holds, if the
explanation
makes sense,
it's fine. But
to not
respond, or to
only
selectively
respond, is
not.
More on this
to follow.
Watch this
site.
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