At
UN, EU Wants
DPI, Will
Rio+20 = DESA
& Man Get
Sexual
Violence Post?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 4 -- With
four
or really
three Under
Secretary
General
posts still in
play at the UN,
the Special
Representative
on Sexual
Violence in
Conflict post
now also needs
to be filled,
Inner City
Press has
learned.
When
Margot
Wallstrom of
Sweden took
the post and
was slow in
responding to
the
ongoing
scandal of the
mass rapes in
Waliwale in
the Eastern
Congo,
Inner City
Press
questioned
whether she
would ever
move to New
York and fully
engage
in her new
Office.
Now
Inner City
Press is told
that after she
did
some good
she is leaving
and that there
are two main
contenders to
replace her:
the deputy in
the MONUSCO
peacekeeping
mission in the
Congo and
Patrick
Cammaert, who
to his credit
once
criticized the
UN for doing
nothing about
indicted war
criminal Bosco
Ntaganda
having fancy
public dinners
in Goma.
Whether
a man can
get the Sexual
Violence in
Conflict post
is dubious.
The Sri Lanka
mission, to
which
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
closely
listens, also
has pitched
its own tales
of Cammaert.
But, it is
suggested, why
doesn't he go
for the job of
Radhika
Coomaraswamy,
who once sent
him
to her native
Sri Lanka in
her stead?
Coomaraswamy
spoke,
movingly,
at
German Mission
event on
Thursday
night, and
provided news
that will be
reported
shortly.
Also Thursday
night at a
press freedom
event at CNN
topping France's
sleaze fest
the talk
turned to Navi
Pillay's post
as High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights -- if
no second term
and no Western
replacement
then who? This
we will cover
soon.
Meanwhile
while
Inner City
Press has
it most
reliably that
China has put
in two
names,
Brazil is said
to also be
pushing for
the top post
in the
Department of
Economic and
Social
Affairs. If
Brazil uses
Rio + 20
to get it,
then China
would have to
get the
Department of
General
Assembly and
Conference
Management or
the Department
of Public
Affairs (DPI).
(A
disgusted UN
staff member
told Inner
City Press
that Ban's
chief
Information
Technology
officer, CITO
Choi, might be
considered to
head DGACM;
others say
he's bound for
Timor L'este
to replace
Amira Haq, who
reportedly
ended with
friction with
the Timorese.)
An
Ambassador who
asked Ban's
then chief of
staff Vijay
Nambiar to be
considered for
the DPI job
was told "the
Europeans want
it."
There's said
to be a
candidate from
Italy and one
from Greece,
reportedly the
Ambassador who
while on the
Security
Council helped
shepherd
through
Ban Ki-moon's
first term.
This is how it
works in Ban's
UN - watch
this site.
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