Thursday, May 31, 2012

At UN, China Gets DESA, Austria DPI, Stonewall on Feltman, DGACM to Choi?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 -- The UN's game of musical chairs is nearly over. On Thursday three more posts were given out, although the UN still refuses to confirm Inner City Press' March 28 scoop that US official Jeffrey Feltman will get the top post at the Department of Political Affairs.

  But on Thursday China's Wu Hongbo got the top job in the Department of Social and Economic Affairs, with Pakistan's Shamshad Akhtar as his Assistant Secretary General. 
 
  This leaves open the post atop the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management. Since the Continent of Africa is losing the Deputy Secretary General spot to Swedish Jan Eliasson at the end of June, many assume and Inner City Press has reported that DGACM will go to a sub-Saharan African: Senegal's Mr. Dieng, registrar at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

  But more recently some amazed (or disgusted) sources have told Inner City Press that Ban's fellow South Korean had of Information Technology Mr. Choi may get DGACM, or perhaps the top envoy spot in Timor Leste.

  On May 1, Inner City Press reported a scenario in which the top of the Department of Public Information would go to an Austrian. And so it is: Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal. A former Greek foreign minister was a last minute top candidate -- "because Greeks need jobs," one wag said -- but Austria got it in the end.

  So Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesman Eduardo Del Buey to responded to what Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari told it on Wednesday: that if Inner City Press' March 28 scoop of Feltman to DPA is true, it would be an "escalation." Del Buey simply refused to comment. Watch this site.