UN
Budget Chair
Met With
German Staff,
Dubious on
Ban's
Mobility,
Torsella;
Baumann on
Rights?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, March
8 -- The
chairperson of
the UN's Fifth
(Budget)
Committee,
Miguel Berger
the Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of
Germany, held
a meeting with
some 50 German
UN staff a
month ago
about topics
on the Fifth
Committee's
agenda.
Some
have raised
concerns to
Inner City
Press about
this meeting,
which
dealt among
other things
with Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
“mobility”
proposal.
Inner City
Press obtained
a three and a
half
page summary
of the
meeting,
eleven
questions and
ten answers,
and is
exclusively
putting
it online here.
The summary
has Berger
dubious of
mobility
and the UN's
Information
Technology
plans.
First,
however, Inner
City Press
sought out
Ambassador
Berger to get
and
include his
perspective.
At
the end of a
Friday morning
session about,
among other
things, the
report of the
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations
which
included
controversial
Sri Lankan
military
commander
Shavendra
Silva,
Berger spoke
exclusively
with Inner
City Press.
Things
began
on the light
side: Inner
City Press has
been told that
even
Berger was
concerned by
US Ambassador
Joe Torsella's
comments
calling
for an
“inebriation-free
zone” in the
Fifth
Committee.
This
comment was
amplified by media
which don't
actually cover
the budget
committee
(or, really,
issues like rape
in the Congo)
but follow
each other
like lemmings.
Many
delegates have
approached
Inner City
Press with
criticism of
both these
media and
Torsella,
using words
like
scapegoating,
copycatting
and hypocrisy.
Berger noted
that only
Ecuador, and
even then only
indirectly,
publicly
touched on
Torsella's
comments.
Then
Inner City
Press asked
Berger about
the meeting at
German House,
about the
summary and
criticism by
some staff.
Berger
said he found
it interesting
to hear from
the staff how
they see the
discussion and
their personal
experience.
“What doesn't
come out of
this unhelpful
kind of resume
is you can see
that the
younger staff
have organized
for themselves
mobility,” he
said. “They
change
between the
Secretariat
and funds and
programs.”
He
acknowledged
there are
family issues,
issues about
hardship
posts.
But as
reflected in
the attached
summary,
neither Berger
or his
co-moderator
from the ICSC
answered the
question about
Ban Ki-moon's
$100 million
in cuts being
70% “posts” or
salary. Watch
this
site.
Footnote:
Sources
also tell
Inner City
Press that
despite
controversy,
Franz
Baumann of
Germany may be
going to
Geneva as
Deputy High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights. We'll
have more on
this. They
also say Yukio
Takasu of
Japan has been
given a one
year extension
atop
the Department
of Management.
What about Herve Ladsous? Watch this site.
, 
