By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- In ongoing UN musical chairs, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday announced that the current chief of the Department of Field Support Susana Malcorra will become his chief of staff on April Fool's Day.
While Ban and his spokesman Martin Nesirky did not take any questions on this topic, over the weekend UN sources told Inner City Press that among those considered to replaced Malcorra at DFS are not only Atul Khare, whose "Change Management" post is being taken by Ban's most senior adviser Kim Won-soo, but also current Office of Human Resources Management chief Catherine Pollard.
But concurrently Ban's office has been dodging Press questions about how Pollard's OHRM has handled a sexual assault case. On September 22, 2011 a complaint was filed against an OHRM manager working at 380 Madison Avenue.
The complainaint says the New York Police Department was blocked from entering this UN-rented building to effectuate an arrest for sexual assault.
Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the top two spokesmen of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the incident, only to be told that the harassment claim is "sub judice" -- being investigated -- and can't be commented on.
As Inner City Press as asked about this, the UN spokesman have repeatedly blurred the barring of NYPD from entering to arrest a UN employee for harassment with a separate incident which Inner City Press witnessed last month after the UN allowed the Sri Lankan Mission to the UN to use UN Security to discourage press coverage of the presence at the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations of General Shavendra Silva, whose 58th Division is identified in Ban's own Panel of Experts report as engaged in war crimes.
Seeking the UN's response and explanation for banning the NYPD, Inner City Press has provided increasingly detailed information, including citing a January 12, 2012 letter from OHRM chief Catherine Pollard, which we have put online here.
In the letter, Pollard acknowledges the complaint was filed on September 22, 2011. There is the applicable UN rule:
5.17 The officials appointed to conduct the fact-finding investigation shall prepare a detailed report, giving a full account of the facts that they have ascertained in the process and attaching documentary evidence, such as written statements by witnesses or any other documents or records relevant to the alleged prohibited conduct. This report shall be submitted to the responsible official normally no later than three months from the date of submission of the formal complaint or report.
Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky has refused to answer questions about this, or even to take them on these aspects of Ban's "Change Management." Watch this site.
