Inner City Press

Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

Google
  Search innercitypress.com Search WWW (censored?)

In Other Media-eg Nigeria, Zim, Georgia, Nepal, Somalia, Azerbaijan, Gambia Click here to contact us     .

,



Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

Follow us on TWITTER

CONTRIBUTE

Subscribe to RSS feed

BloggingHeads.tv

March 1, 2011: Libya

Video (new)

Reuters AlertNet 8/17/07

Reuters AlertNet 7/14/07

Support this work by buying this book

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



At UN, Talk of Dutch Replacing Choi, Carpetbagger Aims for Iraq, Musical Chairs

By Matthew Russell Lee, News analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 -- With Abidjan buzz with reports that Dutch politician Bert Koenders is set to replace UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's ally Choi Young-jin atop the UN Mission there, in New York it fits into a puzzle of Ban's doling out of UN posts by country.

  Currently the Netherlands “has” the UN top spot in Iraq's UNAMI mission, in the person of Ad Melkert. But Melkert is coming up on two years in the job, and is said to be on his way out.

  Sources tell Inner City Press that already Michael von der Schulenburg, the UN official chopping at the bit to get out of Sierra Leone, is vying to replace Melkert in Iraq. These well placed sources say that von der Schulenburg previously while serving the UN in Iran ran a business exporting carpets and other antiquities. What better new posting, then, than Iraq?

  While the UN this week confirmed to Inner City Press that Ban has tapped Norway's Hilde Johnson, in advance, to replace Haile Menkerios in South Sudan, at Friday's noon briefing there was said to be no announcement ready about Choi. On June 22 Inner City Press asked about a set of Assistant Secretaries General whose contracts have expired:

Inner City Press: it appears that some of the ASGs [Assistant Secretaries-General] in DESA [Department of Economic and Social Affairs], Thomas Stelzer or Ms. [Rachel] Mayanja, that their contracts have expired, that according to Secretariat data, in the one case, expired in December; in one case, expired in March; the idea being that maybe they are not going to be renewed, that they are supposed to find other posts as part of mobility. Can you confirm that, and what is the, what are the legalities, what are the specifics of working at the UN without a contract? It said that Mr. Stelzer is being paid as, almost as a consultant, although he is an ASG, at least on paper.


Ban &
Schulenburg, note the empty chairs, magic carpet not shown

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, I don’t think right here and now I would want to get into individual personnel cases. I don’t think that is appropriate. If that picture changes, I will let you know.

Inner City Press: can you say as a general matter that this idea that five years in a post may be enough and that people should look, not to leave the system, but look for other posts in the system. Is that something that the Secretariat is putting out?

Spokesperson Nesirky: As you well know, that is something that has been discussed at some length amongst Member States, and there are differing views on that amongst Member States. And as a general rule, as a general practice, it is not appropriate to comment on individuals’ contracts or employment status with the Organization. Other questions? Yes, Mr. Abbadi?

Ah, UN transparency. There are a number of UN officials who are coming up on five years in the same job: let the musical chairs begin! Watch this site.

* * *

Amid UN Council Card Games, Turnover Continues, Olek Matsuka's Rise

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 -- The UN Security Council late on June 23 resembled a casino or series of card games. In the consultations room there were consultation on sanctions in Liberia. Elsewhere, the new draft resolution to send Ethiopian troops to Abyei was being discussed.

  As experts on the Golan Heights mission UNDOF returned from meeting in the UN's North Lawn building, it emerged that Russia had “put into blue” its draft resolution on the topic, not containing the condemnation of violence sought by Western members including the United States.

  (Being put in blue ink connotes that a resolution can be voted on within 24 hours. Click here for Inner City Press' previous article about the departure of the Council's long-time and much missed “Mister Blue,” Troy Setiawan.)

  Speaking to Council diplomats as they went in and out of the casino, Inner City Press learned that Russia had just circulated a draft resolution seeking to establish a new UN Special Representative on the allegations of organ trafficking in and by leaders of Kosovo.

  “It's tied to something else,” one diplomat whispered to Inner City Press. It always is.

  If the Council is a casino, its work is held together by a staff of croupiers or card dealers. This staff, called the Security Council Affairs Division, has seen rapid turnover of late.

  As Inner City Press exclusively reported, the chief of the UN Department of Political Affairs which oversees SCA Lynn Pascoe, after issuing a disciplinary note to file moved Horst Heitmann from the top job in Security Council Affairs over to DPA's Middle East division.

  Norma Chan returned from retirement to fill in at the top, and Loraine Sievers continued in what's called the second spot. After a longer interim period than projected, Movses Abelian came south from being omnipresent secretary of the Fifth (Budget) Committee in the North Lawn to SCA's top spot.

  (That the Fifth Committee under Abelian's successor Sharon van Buerle has still not, as of June 24, finished what's called its "May" session is referred to by some, only half in jest,  as a tribute to Abelian.)

  Now, with Loraine Sievers retiring at the end of this month, a recruitment was held to replace her. Source told Inner City Press that Abelian wisely played no part in the panel, since he would have to keep working with whomever came in second to be second. (Abelian explains this as that the process began before he took up his position.)

  The finalists were Oseloka Obaze, who rose to prominence in DPA when former Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari had what's now Pascoe's job, and Oleksandr Matsuka, who despite the Japanese sounding name is listed by the UN as UKR: Ukrainian.

  During the selection process, staff were told to send all notices for July 2011 to Matsuka, called Olek. Some thought this indicated in advance who would win. They were not surprised, then, when a belated e-mail went out declaring Matsuka the winner.

  There was dark talk that Obaze, who has more seniority, was passed over due to his connections with Gambari, said to not be a selling point with Pascoe's chief of staff Karin Ann Gerlach. Others note that both are qualified, and will be working together in the number two spot to some degree.


Before the shifts: Heitmann claps for Urbina, Chan & Sievers behind

  After Inner City Press mentioned the transition, presaged by the direction to send July e-mails to Matsuka, in a piece this week about another Security Council member transition, UK Political Coordinator David Quarrey's return to London to a national security job, it was quickly explained to Inner City Press first that both Matsuka and Obaze were getting the e-mails about July.

  Then this was modified: Matsuka was receiving July, and Obaze August. While promotions to posts at the UN's D-1 level like this are usually not announced, it was done in this case.

  Sievers, after her long service in the Council, will become the co-author of the fourth edition of the standard treatise on the procedures of the Security Council. We wish her well, as the games go on.

  We'll aim to have a book review, as well as an update on an overarching question here: what happens with Lynn Pascoe, and with the top spot at the UN Department of Political Affairs? Watch this site.

* * *

At UN, Amid Libya & Sudan Fights, Farewell to UK's Quarrey, France Now Dean of UNSC Coordinators

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 21 -- How the UN Security Council functions, and doesn't, was on display Tuesday, amid a farewell to the UK's political coordinator David Quarrey as well as news of who will replace Loraine Sievers in Security Council Affairs.

  It was only in mid-May that Russia's political coordinator Vladimir Safronkov passed on to Quarrey the silver cup meant for the dean of Security Council political coordinators. Click here for Inner City Press' exclusive report.

  Now it will go to France, whose Permanent Representative was in attendance as well, as well as his counterpart from Lebanon. Russia's political coordinator, who just began, joked that he may never get it.

  Without breaching any, or many, diplomatic secrets, we can report that UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant is a lifelong fan of the West Ham football club -- or at least since the 1970s, where they were “the most violent club” according to one reception attendee.

  Closer to the work of the Council, an attendee at both consultations Tuesday afternoon told Inner City Press that “even the US” knows that recognition of the Libyan rebels in Benghazi will not be in any Council presidential statement, and was “engaging.”

  So too on the Sudan PRST, on which Sudan's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press earlier on Tuesday that “two paragraphs have to go, or the relations between Sudan and the UN will be changed.”

   As a warm roast to Quarrey, it was recalled that his first intervention in the Council was to ask when a certain UN Mission would be discussed. When asked what the mission *was,* Quarrey answered honestly that he didn't not know, his expert had asked him to raise it.

  Norma Chan said she respected that. Her successor, present Tuesday night, said he earlier that day sent out notice of Loraine's replacement, and disagreed with Inner City Press that her successor has being sent notices about July's work before today's announcement. We stand to be corrected -- or not.

   Quarrey is getting promoted to the UK's new version of the US national security apparatus. In light of Tuesday's quote by David Cameron that he wished the generals would fight and he speak, Quarrey and the agency's role seems to be to convey the speeches to the fighters. We wish him luck.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Google
  Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

            Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -