UNITED NATIONS, August 26, updated -- France has four Under Secretary Generals in the UN Secretariat, while China has only one. Inner City Press asked about and reported this on August 24, after UN Spokesperson Michele Montas announced the hiring of outgoing French ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert as a USG special envoy to Pakistan. On August 26, Ms. Montas unilaterally updated her response, emphasizing that the United States has ten USGs and France has only four.
Inner City Press, which noted U.S. dominance in its August 24 story, nevertheless asked why if Ms. Montas included the heads of UNICEF and the World Food Program among the American USGs, she didn't include the French chiefs of the World Meteorological Organization and the International Monetary Fund:
Spokesperson: Montas:I was asked on Monday about the number of French Under-Secretaries-General (USGs). The United Nations system presently has four French Under-Secretaries-General. Two of them are $1-a-year appointees.
Question: How many American USGs (Under-Secretaries-General)?
Spokesperson: Yes, I have the number for that also: we presently have in the system 10 American USGs, and 4 of them are $1-a-year appointments. And this number includes the heads of WFP [World Food Program], of UNICEF and of UNRWA [UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East].
Inner City Press: And for France, why didn’t you include the World Meteorological Organization, World Trade Organization, not World Trade Organization -- there are a number of UN, there are other UN…
Spokesperson: I have a list of the 82 USGs, 82 of them; from France, I have what I gave you; I don’t have more. I don’t know what the nationality is of some other…
Inner City Press: Le Roy, Guehenno…
Spokesperson: Guehenno is one-dollar-a-year contract. Now, you have the recent appointment that we had of the Ambassador (Jean-Maurice Ripert of France as Special Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan). And, let me see whether I have more, a larger list on that. There are four French Under-Secretaries-General. Philippe Douste-Blazy, who is a dollar-a-year man, Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development; Jean-Marie Guéhenno, who is a dollar-a-year man, as a Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Regional Cooperation; and we have Alain Le Roy, who has a fixed term as Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.
Inner City Press: How about Dominique Strauss-Kahn of IMF [International Monetary Fund], Michele Jarraud of the WMO, if you’re counting….
Spokesperson: IMF is not counted as being part of the UN system. As you know, the Bretton Woods organizations have a different status
Inner City Press: How about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS; is that a UN Agency?
Spokesperson: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, yes.
Inner City Press: And, Michel Kazatchkine?
Spokesperson: Do we have to go through all this, Matthew? I told you who the people are who have French nationality, and that’s all I have.
Afterwards, Ms. Montas argued that WMO is not included because it has its own governing board. But so do UNICEF and WFP. To some it appeared that the list prepared for Ms. Montas, which she later provided as background, not to be put online, was skewed to understate French USGs.
The list also does not mention Jan Egeland as a Norwegian USG,* but shows that the UK's Ian Martin has a USG post with the Department of Political Affairs. Inner City Press asked if Joaquim Chissano, who has suspended his mandate to the Lord's Resistance Army impacted areas, is still a USG -- among other things, does he still have a UN laissez passer passport? That are more questions to be analyzed from the list -- watch this site.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/unusg2posts082609.html
