At
UN,
China Gets
DESA, Austria
DPI, Stonewall
on Feltman,
DGACM to
Choi?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 31 -- The
UN's game of
musical chairs
is nearly
over. On
Thursday three
more posts
were given
out, although
the UN still
refuses to
confirm Inner
City Press' March 28
scoop that US
official
Jeffrey
Feltman will
get the top
post at the
Department of
Political
Affairs.
But
on Thursday
China's Wu
Hongbo got the
top job in the
Department of
Social and
Economic
Affairs, with
Pakistan's
Shamshad
Akhtar as his
Assistant
Secretary
General.
This
leaves open
the post atop
the Department
of General
Assembly and
Conference
Management.
Since the
Continent of
Africa is
losing the
Deputy
Secretary
General spot
to Swedish Jan
Eliasson at
the end of
June,
many assume
and Inner City
Press has
reported that
DGACM will go
to a
sub-Saharan
African:
Senegal's Mr.
Dieng,
registrar at
the
International
Criminal
Tribunal for
Rwanda.
But
more recently
some amazed
(or disgusted)
sources have
told Inner
City Press
that
Ban's fellow
South Korean
had of
Information
Technology Mr.
Choi may
get DGACM, or
perhaps the
top envoy spot
in Timor
Leste.
On
May
1, Inner
City Press reported a
scenario in
which the top
of the
Department of
Public
Information
would go to an
Austrian.
And so it is:
Peter
Launsky-Tieffenthal.
A former Greek
foreign
minister was a
last
minute top
candidate --
"because
Greeks need
jobs," one wag
said -- but
Austria got it
in the end.
So
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's Deputy
Spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey to
responded to
what Syria's
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari told
it on
Wednesday:
that if Inner
City Press' March 28
scoop of
Feltman to DPA
is true,
it would be an
"escalation."
Del Buey
simply
refused to
comment. Watch
this site.
, 
