In
UN
Security Council Affairs Back to the Future, Norma Chan Returns As
Heitmann Shifts from Boys' Club to Middle East Post
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 17 -- As the UN Security Council began Tuesday
morning its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East, lead UN
staffer Horst Heitmann was gone, replaced by his former deputy Norma
Chan, who has returned from retirement for the assignment.
When
Ms. Chan
retired in late September 2009, she was offered praise by member after
member in an open
meeting, and received awards from several members. See UN photo and
caption here.
Now since the
Department of Political Affairs decided to remove Heitmann from the
job and slide him laterally into the Middle East and Western Asian
post without having a replacement ready, she has been called back
into service. Click here
from Inner City Press' exclusive story from July 20, 2010.
Within
DPA there is
grumbling about bad planning, and also about the personal high-jinx
which led to l'affaire
Heitmann. Two of his associates were accused
of having affairs which threatened chaos and violence in DPA from the
spurned husband, also working for the UN.
The point
here is not to get into personal lives -- this is why we are not naming
names -- but as more than one DPA staffer puts it to Inner City Press,
the personal should remain personal and not impinge on Council duties
like protection of civilians. And the UN's Department of Political
Affairs ought to be able to handle itself with more diplomacy, better
planning, more discretion.
In the other
case, there were absurdly long lunches, walks in the snow in the
highest of heels, a Robert Altman comedy intertwined with international
peace and security. Security Council Affairs indeed.
Ostensibly
to
clean up the “boy's club,” DPA chief Lynn Pascoe tried to assign
a female staffer Michelle Griffin into the Security Council Affairs
unit. Heitmann
said no, and Pascoe wrote a disciplinary note to his file and that of
Aleksandar Martinovic. Click here
from Inner City Press' exclusive story at the time, here for Pascoe's
displinary memo. Later came the
lateral move of Heitmann.
Also
within DPA
some have noticed that the Middle East position is not put out for
bid, with an open competition in which speaking Arabic, for example,
would be a required qualification. Rather, DPA uses the lateral move
without competition.
Norma Chan, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice,
Heitmann's "boys' club" not shown
Here is how
it was explained to Inner City
Press:
Subject:
Your
question on Horst Heitmann
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not
Reply <unspokesperson-donotreply [at] un.org>
To: Matthew
Lee [at] innercitypress.com
This
is
to inform you that Under-Secretary-General Pascoe informed staff
that, with the appointment of Ms. Lisa Buttenheim as the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, he has decided to
laterally move Mr. Horst Heitmann to the post of Director for the
Middle East and West Asia Division (MEWAD) effective 16 August 2010.
His post at Security Council Affairs will be circulated shortly.
We'll
see. Watch
this site.
* * *
Top
UN
Security
Council
Staffer
Removed Without Notice, Diplomatic
Fiasco by Ban Ki-moon Team, Members Say
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
20,
updated -- In a
sudden shake up of the UN Secretariat's
interface with the Security Council which has left several Council
member states baffled, the head of the UN's Security Council Affairs
unit, Horst Heitmann, has during his vacation been transferred from
the post.
Heitmann's
position,
Director
of the UN Security Council Affairs
Division, is not an unimportant post, providing advice to each month's
Security Council president and
in some months essentially running the Council.
Heitmann
had
previously
dueled
with
his boss, Under Secretary General for
Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, about insubordination in hiring for
the Council's sanctions committees, as Inner City Press exclusively
reported. Click here for Pascoe's
“memo to file” against
Heitmann, and here
for further background.
Because
no
one
is
ever
fired from the UN, a Permanent Five member of the
Council
tells Inner City Press Heitmann may be parked in another UN Political
Affairs job, in the Middle East and West Asia Division, previously
held by Lisa Buttenheim. UN staffers told Inner City Press that the
change was “like a decapitation” and hurt morale.
They
said
the
news
of
Heitmann's ouster was e-mailed to them on Friday, July 16 at 5:40
p.m.. The first time they could meet and ask questions, in the
Council chamber, was the Tuesday, July 20 meeting. Several staff
members expressed shock. Later on Tuesday, Lynn Pascoe convoked
Heitmann's interim replacement to meet with him. A “Temporary
Vacancy Announcement” will be published on Friday.
Ambassadors
from
several
Security
Council
member states asked Inner City Press,
regarding the sudden move on Heitmann, “what is going on?” Combined
with the Council's move this year to exclude the Office of
the Spokesperson for the Secretary General from attendance at
consultation meetings, the failure to explain the move to the Council
member states represents another managerial and diplomatic screw up
by the Ban Ki-moon administration, they say.
Heitmann claps, Norma Chan and Loraine Sievers
behind, in better times
Will
Loraine
Sievers,
Heittman's
deputy,
be promoted to replace him? Probably not,
sources say, since she only recently was promoted from the P-5 level
to D-1. Another name, perhaps more realistic, being circulated as
Heitmann's replacement is Pascoe's current Special Assistance Karin
Ann / Karina Gerlach of Venezuela. She is currently at the UN's D-1
level, but
seeks a promotion to D-2, which she would get if she takes Heitmann's
post.
Another
answer
was
surprising:
a
rumor that long serving Norma Chan, who retired
amid a slew of congratulations and awards from P-5 members, may
return to Heitmann's place. But, the Council source asked, wouldn't
the awards be a conflict of interest? We hope to hear from the
retired Ms. Chan on these topics, and will report what we hear.
Inner City Press waited outside Pascoe's office before
publication of this story; his spokesman has rarely answered questions,
for example about corruption at the top of DPA's Affair II division,
and Center in Turkmenistan. Whatever we hear from Mr. Pascoe we will
also report. Watch
this site.
Update of 6:38 p.m.
-- Lynn Pascoe emerged from his wing of the North Lawn building and
issued a no comment, an affable no comment but a no comment
nonetheless. Perhaps Security Council members states will belatedly be
told more information? Watch this site.
Update -- the UN has
since provided this:
This
is
to
inform you that Under-Secretary-General Pascoe informed staff
that, with the appointment of Ms. Lisa Buttenheim as the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, he has decided to
laterally move Mr. Horst Heitmann to the post of Director for the
Middle East and West Asia Division (MEWAD) effective 16 August 2010.
His post at Security Council Affairs will be circulated shortly.
, 
