At
UN,
Gunning for
WFP & DPA
Jobs, Haysom
Over Moratinos
for Lebanon
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 10,
updated -- As
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
administration
faces a
shakeup,
there's much
speculation
about who will
replaced
Department of
Political
Affairs chief
Lynn Pascoe in
February or
April --
another
American, it's
said -- and
who may or may
not replace World Food
Program
director
Josette
Sheeran.
But
down a rung or
two the
changes have
already begun,
in the name of
mobility or at
least changing
UN jobs every
five years.
After Michael
Williams
announced he
would leave
his Lebanon
envoy post
under Security
Council
Resolution
1701, a
competition
began between
current Afghanistan
envoy
De Mistura
(who would
prefer to go
to Rome),
former Spanish
foreign
minister
Moratinos
(viewed by
some as too
close with
Syria) and the
candidate
declared the
winner by well
informed UN
correspondent
Ali Barada of
An-Nahar:
Nicholas
Haysom.
Haysom
has been a
high point in
Ban's first
term inner
circle, but
applied not
long ago to
"ship out" to
the new UN
Mission in
South Sudan,
reportedly in
the name of
Ban's only
partially
implemented
policy of
mobility.
Senior
advisers Vijay
Nambiar and
Kim Won-soo,
for example,
appear exempt
from the
policy.
For Haysom,
Beirut seems
to be a better
fit, and
Barada reports
it will happen
mid-December,
pending some
last minute
questions in
the North Lawn
building's
third floor.
To
replace
Pascoe, Inner
City Press is
told that the
US has already
provide names.
To replace
Sheeran, while
the Obama
administration
has put
forward
another name
alongside
Cousin,
Sheeran is
said to be
fighting back
using
Republicans in
the US
Congress,
threatening to
cut funding to
WFP if Sheeran
is replaced.
Cutting
against
Sheeran is her
still
inexplicable
placement of
Ramiro Lopes
da Silva to
head WFP
Operations
including
security after
he was barred
from any UN
system
security role
after the
deadly Canal
Hotel bombing
in Iraq, where
he was in
charge. (We
say barred
and not
Banned,
because Ban
Ki-moon has so
far had
nothing to say
about the
failure to
follow through
on the
post-Canal
Hotel
safeguard
announced
under his
predecessor.)
(c) UN Photo
Ban with
Nambiar - what
5 year limit?
- &
Hayson: Beirut
bound?
Inner
City Press put
this question
not only to
Sheeran's
spokespeople
including Greg
Barrow, but to
Sheeran
herself when
she attended
Ban's Chief
Executive
Board meeting,
without any
substantive
answer.
Not
mentioned yet
in coverage of
whose who've
been in place
five years or
more is
"global goods"
adviser Robert
Orr, who is
also among the
officials who
didn't respond
to Ban's call
for public
financial
disclosure. (But
see UN's Nov
17 response to
Nov 8
question,
published Nov
20, here.)
More on this
one soon.
Watch this
site.
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