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.
* * *
As
Iran
Bombing
Condemned
by UN Council, Jundollah Not Named
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
16,
updated -- The bombing in Iran claimed by Jundollah, like
that in Uganda claimed by Al Shabab, will be condemned by the UN
Security Council on Friday afternoon.
Hillary
Clinton,
the
Secretary
of State of the U.S. which Iran has accused of supporting Jundollah
was quick to condemn the bombing, and to name Jundollah.
Now
the
Security Council will echo
Hillary, using the same boiler
plate statement it applied to the
carnage in Kampala -- not naming the perpetrator, even after credit
has been claimed.
The
Council's
Uganda statement on Monday did not blame Al Shabab by name. Inner City
Press was told that the statement was circulated to
Council members before Al Shabab had taken credit. In this case,
Jundollah took credit more quickly, and Hillary Clinton named the
group in her statement.
But the
decision is made, not to name the perpetrator. A Council diplomat
who confirmed the absence of Jundollah from the statement as of 3:30
p.m. shrugged when asked no blame was being cast.
Hillary Clinton in front of Security Council, Jundollah not shown
Friday,
the
Council
is
engaged in a day long debate on “conflict prevention.”
As such, the Iran bombing statement could more easily be amended to
include the name Jundollah and still be circulated and approved
before this month's Council President, Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, reads it
out loud at the stake out.
At
the stakeout,
even though it is now July 16, the placement of the flags has yet to
be changed. When May turned into June, with the Council in a marathon
meeting about the assault on the flotilla to Gaza, the flag and name
plates were changed at the stroke of midnight. This month, it has
taken sixteen days and counting.
Update
of
5:11
p.m.
-- with the “conflict prevention” debate over, there
is a lull. The Iran bombing press statement will not be read out
until 6:05 pm, Inner City Press is told, “to give time for members
if they want to object.” But no one will, we predict. The statement
is pure boiler plate and does not mention Jundollah. A pro-Iran
reporter mutters, why so late, I want to go home.
Update
of
6:18
p.m.
-- the Iran bombing statement has been read by Council
president Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, echoing the Uganda bombing statement
of four days ago. Inner City Press asked, since Jundollah has taken
credit, Iran has accepted the claim and blames two Permanent Council
members - the US and UK - for supporting Jundollah, why not name or
at least discuss it? She answered that due process and investigation
are necessary. Investigation by who? The Iranian authorities, she
says.
Nigeria
is
feting
its
foreign minister tonight, not at Nigeria House on 44th Street but
13 blocks north. We have to get out and about, they say...
* * *
, 
