By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/darfur4nigeria120109.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 1 -- That the UN is giving its top Darfur post to Nigerian Ibrahim Gambari was an open secret Tuesday night at the UN, although so far only Inner City Press has reported it, repeatedly, four times in the last 36 hours. A top UN peacekeeping official told Inner City Press that Nigeria made a strong play for the post, citing its high number of peacekeepers in Darfur.
An involved Ambassador told Inner City Press that the cynical explanation is that the United Kingdom wants someone more strident to be the envoy to Myanmar, Gambari's current job, and so agreed to move him to Darfur. But why did the U.S. go along?
Inner City Press approached Gambari himself, for the second time in 12 hours, at Thailand's national day reception on Tuesday night. "No comment," Gambari began, laughing. He said he had met in Washington with the the State Department's Kurt Campbell. As before, he argued that his strategy of engagement with the Than Shwe military government in Myanmar is now being adopted by the U.S. -- why not in Darfur? Scott Gration may be only the beginning.
An official of the UN's half moribund Office of the Special Advisor on Africa, a post Gambari used to fill, confirmed that Gambari is going to Darfur. A person already offered a job in Darfur by Gambari said the Nigeria's new president likes Gambari. As reported, even UN Peacekeeping acknowledges that Nigeria used its peacekeeping presence in Darfur to win the post.
During the reception, Lynn Pascoe he UN's head of Political Affairs, another job Gambari previously held, exchanged pleasantries with Gambari and then left. Then Gambari left. "Darfur here I come," someone said, still wondering why he took the job. But take it he did -- you heard it here first. Watch this site.
