By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, February 27, updated -- For weeks Inner City Press has reported that current UN Under Secretary General Angela Kane of Germany is up for transfer either to the top Disarmament post or to the UN Economic Commission for Europe.
Then fellow Germany Michael von der Schulenburg was removed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon from his post in Sierra Leone, reportedly at the request of the government there which wants a compliant UN envoy to assist in re-election.
In the calculus of Ban's UN, this leaves Germany "needing" another top post. What to do?
Monday well placed sources told Inner City Press that a solution being considered it to send to UNECE in Europe not Kane but rather fellow German Franz Baumann, often the subject of UN staff fight back, and then give Kane the Disarmament post. Another said UNECE, vacated by Jan Kubis, would go German, but to "a bigger German."
What of the other Disarmament contenders? On Friday Inner City Press confirmed that the Philippines' Permanent Representative, who worked himself hoarse chairing a previous disarmament related conference, is definitely interested in the job, as is his counterpart from Peru. (Neither country has ratified the treaty on cluster munitions, as we have noted.)
A well placed UN source, responding to Inner City Press' reporting on who's in line to replaced Vijay Nambiar as Ban's chief of staff, laughed and called it a "position without power, Kim Won-soo does all the work." The source continued that Ban will continue with Kim, with an eye to post-UN positions in South Korea.
Part of the problem here is communication. And the position as Ban's head of communications, held by Michael Myer, has been advertised for new applicants, as well as executive office power being left empty by the next UNAMA Deputy in Afghanistan. Can't tell the players with a scorecard - watch this site.