For
UN Post,
Uganda Pushes
Kutesa Against
Monthe, Next
SG
Czech or
Slovak?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 19 –
The talk at
the UN on
Tuesday was of
top
posts: who
will be
President of
the General
Assembly in
2014, and
who'll succeed
Ban Ki-moon as
Secretary
General?
On
the first, as
Inner City
Press first
reported, Cameroon's
Permanent
Representative
Tommo Monthe
has been
viewed as a
frontrunner,
having
chaired the
Fifth (Budget)
Committee and
Third (Human
Rights)
Committee of
the General
Assembly.
He
knows how the
GA works, as
one
of his
supporters
told Inner
City Press on
Tuesday.
But
the East
African
Community over
the weekend
endorsed
Uganda's
foreign
minister Sam
Kutesa, days
after he went
public with
his candidacy.
(One Tommo
Monthe
supporter
lamented that
the Paul Biya
government in
Cameroon is
“too slow” in
such things.)
In the C-34
Committee on
Peacekeeping
Tuesday
afternoon,
several
African
diplomats told
Inner
City Press
that's it, a
foreign
minister
trumps a Perm
Rep, case
closed. Or is
it?
(The
East African
Community also
tapped Kenya
as its next
candidate for
a
two year
Security
Council term -
but that won't
be until late
2016,
running for a
2017-18 seat.)
Meanwhile
it
is the Eastern
European group
which lays
claim to the
Secretary
General post
after Asia's
man, Ban
Ki-moon. There
is more and
more
talk of
current
President of
the General
Assembly Vuk
Jeremic of
Serbia trying
to use his
term as PGA to
raise his
chances to be
SG.
But
others assume
that Western
countries
which have
recognized
Kosovo
would be
hard-pressed
to accept
Jeremic. And
so, after a
predicted
counter-block
of a Pole,
talk has
turned to
Slovak Foreign
Minister
Miroslav
Lajcak.
Others
mentioned are
Jan Kubis,
currently at
the UN
Mission in
Afghanistan,
Danilo Turk,
even former
PGA Srgjan
Kerim.
There are also
Latin(a)
dreamers, but
that would
involve
bypassing
Eastern
Europe. Watch
this site.
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