Fight
to Chair UN
Budget Panel
Has UK
Lobbying "For
Spy," GRULAC
Tricks?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 19, updated
-- In the UN's
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions,
a new
chairperson is
set to
be elected on
November 21,
to replace
Collen
Kelapile of
Botswana,
who ran
earlier this
month to stay
on ACABQ but
lost, to the
Budget
Committee
delegate of
Eritrea and a
candidate from
Senegal after
Benin dropped
out.
Inner
City Press, which
covered those
elections,
has been
barraged since
with competing
theories of
why Kelapile
lost.
The most
devious theory
is that the
Secretariat,
represented by
chef
de cabinet Susana
Malcorra
of Argentina,
reached out to
Kelapile to
see if he
would use
his position
to support
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
"mobility"
proposal.
Once
rebuffed, the
theory goes,
Malcorra "got
GRULAC," the
Group
of Latin
American and
Caribbean
States, to
support
Kelapile's
ouster,
assuming that
the vice
chair, Carlos
Ruiz Massieu
of Mexico, an
expert on
issues ranging
from Darfur to
the Capital
Master Plan,
would
assume the top
stop and be
more amenable.
(This theory
has been
denied, we
note, but
persists.)
But
the United
Kingdom is
also pushing
and lobbying
in the ACABQ
race,
pushing for UK
citizen
Richard Moon,
already a
member, to
become the
chair.
Multiple
sources have
exclusively
detailed to
Inner City
Press
how UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant is
calling his
counterparts
of the native
countries of
other ACABQ
members,
lobbying
for this Moon,
has been on
ACABQ since
January 2011.
Before that,
the UK notes,
Moon wa on
the "GA's
Fifth
Committee from
1999 to 2003;
and then moved
to the ACABQ,
leaving at the
end of 2004.
He has been a
member of the
Committee on
Contributions
since 2005."
Opponents
of
Richard Moon
becoming chair
- and they do
exist -- have
made much
of a
website
listing the
UK's overseas
spies
which lists a
"Richard
John Moon: dob
1959; 85
Jakarta, 93
Rome, 99 New"
York. These do
line up with Moon's
c.v. on
the UK
Mission web
site.
In fairness
even if true
there is a lot
of back and
forth between
diplomatic and
intelligence
service:
witness not
only Sir John
Sawers but
many other
switches, in
both
directions, in
the Permanent
Five members
of the
Security
Council and
beyond.
Update:
And we note,
in terms of
the "spy"
list's
credibility or
lack thereof,
the UK Mission
spokesperson
until November
2010 is
listed: "2004
Kabul, 2007
Ankara. 5.
Cross,
Harriett
Victoria
Saltonstall."
Regardless,
some
have told
Inner City
Press they
find the UK's
lobbying
inappropriate,
either because
ACABQ members
are supposed
to serve in
their personal
capacities
only -- yeah,
right -- or
because a
Permanent Five
member
of the
Security
Council should
also chair the
ACABQ.
Of
course, the
American Susan
McLurg
previously
chaired the
ACABQ. But
perhaps
pushback at
the P5 is only
growing, as
reflected by
the recent
passage of the
resolution
requiring Ban
Ki-moon to be
more
transparent on
how the P5's
Special
Political
Missions are
decided on
and funded.
There
is a question
of principle
here: if it is
argued that
ACABQ members
and
chairpersons
do not
represent
their
countries, how
much lobbying
by their
country to get
the position
is
appropriate?
Watch this
site.
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