As UN
Names
Bulgarian to
Replace
Promoted
Slokavia
Jenca, Next SG
to Another
Group?
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
17 -- A month
after Inner
City Press
exclusively
reported that
Slovakia's Jan
Kubis would
replace
Bulgaria's
Nicholay
Mladenov as UN
envoy Iraq
(and seven
weeks after
Inner City
Press was first
to report
that Mladenov
would replace
Robert Serry
as Middle East
Coordinator),
there are more
UN posts going
to Eastern
Europeans.
The
question is,
why?
The vacant
Assistant
Secretary General
for Political
Affairs post
which Inner
City Press
reported Ban
Ki-moon's
senior adviser
Kim Won-soo
vied for
before turning
to Disarmament
went to Miroslav
Jenca of Slovakia
(who, it's
said, used to
be Jan Kubis'
chief of
staff).
Today, the UN
announced "the
appointment of
Petko Draganov
of Bulgaria as
his Special
Representative
and Head of
the United
Nations
Regional
Centre for
Preventive
Diplomacy for
Central Asia
(UNRCCA) in
Ashgabat,
Turkmenistan.
Mr. Draganov
succeeds
Miroslav Jenca
of Slovakia
who was
recently
appointed
Assistant
Secretary-General
for Political
Affairs."
Sources opine
to Inner City
Press that so
many Eastern
Europeans are
being given UN
posts to make
it easier to
deny that Eastern
Europe
regional group
the right to
the next
Secretary
General, and
shift it to
another group.
And who, these
sources ask,
has a role in
these
appointments
and an
interest in
the post of
next Secretary
General?
Media in
Slovakia credited
Inner City
Press for
the Kubis
scoop, here,
with a
separate box
about Kubis'
SG chances.
Inner City
Press has been
reminded that
candidates are
to be
nominated by
their
governments -
a possible
problem - and
now, with more
posts going to
Eastern
Europe, the
dynamics may
be changing.
The move
positions
Kubis well, as
well as
possible given
his gender, in
the race to
replace Ban
Ki-moon as
Secretary
General.
(Inner City
Press story
here.) The
post is said
slated for the
Eastern
European
group. Kubis
was previously
foreign
minister of
his native
Slovakia.
Eighteen
months in
Baghdad, if
successful,
would be just
the argument
to win the
secret ballot
of the
Permanent Five
(P5) Security
Council
members that,
for now,
determines who
the SG will
be.
When he was
envoy to
Afghanistan,
Kubis deftly
handled the
P5. (Inner
City Press questioned
Kubis, for
example here).
He also served
Ban on issues
in Kyrgyzstan.
What will
other SG
candidates be
doing for the
next eighteen
months?
That the UN's
new Middle
East
coordinator
will be
Nickolay
Mladenov,
Inner City
Press was able to report exclusively on January 30,
with sourcing
from Permanent
Representatives
that the
letter, which
Inner City
Press saw, had
gone to the
Security
Council.
Of this
exclusive
report, at
least 11 hours
before any
other mention,
Inner City
Press on
February 2
directly asked
UN Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric,
including
though what
process and
timing
Mladenov is to
be replaced in
Iraq.
Dujarric
declined to
confirm,
despite the
Secretary
General's
letter. Video
here.
Earlier, Inner
City Press
reported that
Mladenov was
leaving his
post as UN
envoy to Iraq;
before that,
Inner City
Press asked
Robert Serry
how he was
remaining in
the Middle
East post past
Ban Ki-moon's
stated five
year rule, and
despite PNG
(persona non
grata) threats
from Israel.
Now, the
switch is
being made.
The
hint, as to
Iraq, was as
Inner City
Press
exclusively
reported, the
UK's attempt
to pick
Mladenov's
successor.
That was
opposed, and
rejected. Now,
after a “rude”
call from UK
Prime Minister
Cameron to Ban
Ki-moon,
sources say
rather than
Cameron's
first pick
Andrew
Lansley, UK
candidate
Caroline
Spelman is in
the lead.
Picking
Mladenov's
successor in
Iraq is in its
final stages,
and we will
have more on
that soon.
[See above.]
Watch this
site.
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