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| Tharoor among top UN officials Ban decides to replace | | |
UNITED NATIONS | FEB 10
UN Under Secretary General in the Department of Public information Shashi Tharoor, who unsucessfully contested against Ban Ki moon for the post of Secretary General, was among the four top officials whom Ban had decided to replace while retaining dozen others who were appointed by his predecesor Kofi Annan.
Tharoor will be replaced by Kiyotaka Akasaka of Japan, who is currently Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation an Development (OECD), Ban's Chef de Cabinet Vijay Nambiar announced yesterday.
In his reaction, Tharoor said he respected the right of the Secretary General to have his own team.
"I fully respect the prerogative of the Secretary-General to name his own team, and speaking personally, I look forward to new challenges in my professional life. To live is to embrace change," Tharoor said.
He is expected to stay on till the end of March to complete handover formalities.
Ban named a United States diplomat as chief political officer, a Chinese veteran of international organisations to head economic and social affairs, and an Egyptian diplomat to oversee General Assembly management.
There are first set of a series of appointments that Ban plans to announce in coming days and do not touch the Departments of Peacekeeping which he has planned to split. There are some appointments which require General Assembly's approval and Ban plans to engage the member States on that.
Announcing the new postings, Nambiar asserted that they redeemed Ban's pledge to achieve continuity with change and said the Secretary General's idea was that "normally" no senior official should occupy the same job for more than five years.
"In making these decisions, the Secretary-General has taken into account various factors, among others the need to apply change with continuity, ongoing discussions on restructuring plans and the need to promote mobility at all levels," Nambiar said.
Asked whether Ban was not interested in taking advantage of experience, Nambiar said the Secretary-General was conscious that he needs to take advantage of existing talent but was also "conscious" of the need to build new talent and experience.
Shortly after assuming office, Ban had asked all Under-Secretaries-General and Assistant-Secretaries-General to resign to give him a free had to select his new team.
The contracts of most the top officials also expire within one month.
In the other changes, United States Ambassador to Indonesia B Lynn Pascoe will take over the highly sensitive post of Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, succeeding Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria.
Pascoe had earlier served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
Ambassador Sha Zukang, currently China's Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva, was named Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs in succession to Jost Antonio Ocampo of Colombia.
Sha, who has wide experience on disarmament issues, was also well-versed in economic and social development, Nambiar said.
Muhammad Shaaban of Egypt, currently National Coordinator for Reform Initiatives in the Middle East, has been named Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, succeeding Jian Chen of China.
No stranger to the UN and multilateral diplomacy, Shaaban has served as Assistant Foreign Minister for European Affairs and was National Coordinator for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the Mediterranean Forum and the OSCE.
Among those who Ban retained from the former administration of Secretary-General Kofi Annan are Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie GuThenno, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel, Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security David Veness and Under-Secretary-General at the UN Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) Inga-Britt Ahlenius. |
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