Ban
Gives Syria
Post to
Mistura,
Mubarak
Ambassador as
Deputy
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 10 -- To
replace
Lakhdar
Brahimi as
envoy on
Syria,
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on
July 10 named
Staffan de
Mistura. Ban
said this was
his choice,
whereas he
took the
nomination of
the Arab
League for
Mistura's
deputy: Ramzy
Ezzeldine Ramzy,
a former
ambassador for
Mubarak.
After the announcement,
Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric chose
two questions,
both Gulf-related,
then let the
head of the UN
Correspondents
Association
Pamela Falk
from CBS get
in a third and
final
question,
whether Ban
will "travel
to the
region."
Ban was not
asked if he
had conferred
with Iran, for
example. After
the questions,
Dujarric's office
still did not
have a bio for
Ramzy. On July
9, even the
transcript put
out by
Dujarric's
office was
doctored, to
censor mention
of the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
see
story here,
video
here.
As to Mistura,
as others
don't report,
he has a
history with
the Ban
family.
As
Inner City
Press
reported,
triggering
much
push-back,
while envoy in
Iraq Mistura
hired Ban
Ki-moon's
son-in-law
Siddharth
Chatterjee.
After this,
Mistura was
named envoy to
Afghanistan.
Inner City
Press
asked
Mistura in
that capacity
repeatedly
about UN
inaction on
the
murder of UN
security
officer Louis
Maxwell by
Afghan
national
forces,
with no
result. The
questions, as
is
increasingly
the trend
under
Ban Ki-moon on
topics ranging
from Haiti
cholera to
Sri
Lanka
and flying
genocidaires,
was
stonewalled.
Chatterjee,
as
Inner City
Press also
reported, has
become UNFPA's
representative
in Kenya.
Now
Mistura, after
a stint in an
Italian
government,
one of many,
is also
set to return.
He's been said
interested in
replacing Ban,
as has
another
candidate,
Kevin Rudd.
Call it the
Syria
sweepstakes.
Earlier
in
the process to
replace
Brahimi, Inner
City Press reported
from
multiple
sources the
consideration
of Tunisia's
former (Ben
Ali and
nepotism-era)
foreign
minister
Morjane.
But even for
Ban Ki-moon,
the
contradiction
of such an
appointment
with the “Arab
Spring” was
too much.
Other types of
relationships
and echoes are
deemed more
acceptable.
Ban
met with
Syria's
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari at
10:55 am
on July 9.
Watch this
site.
, 
