UN reduces support staff for Burma envoy: report

Thursday, 21 October 2010 15:47 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The UN Department of Political Affairs has transferred several staff members formally assigned to work under the UN’s “good offices mandate on Myanmar”, a New York news service that focuses on the UN reported on Monday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Burma envoy, officially now called the special adviser on Burma oversees the good offices mandate created as a result of repeated United Nations General Assembly resolutions concerning the political and human rights crisis in Burma.

His chief of staff, Vijay Nambair, took over as special adviser on a temporary basis following the departure of the Nigerian diplomat, Dr. Ibrahim Gambari. Inner City Press reported on its website on Monday, citing “well-placed sources”, that staff supposed to be working on Burma-related issues were now working for Eritrean Tamrat Samuel of the Department of Political Affairs (DPA).

Inner City Press also pointed out that the DPA was unauthorised to remove staff from the Burma office because control over its budget and resources were specifically approved by the General Assembly and therefore outside DPA jurisdiction.

The DPA’s move to reduce the number of the staff in the Burma office would also countermand the most recent General Assembly resolution on Burma, which specifically called on the secretary general “To continue to provide his good offices” for the Burma mandate and to “give all necessary assistance to enable the Special Adviser and the Special Rapporteur [on the situation of human rights in Burma] to discharge their mandates fully and effectively and in a co-ordinated manner.”

It remains to be seen how the secretary general expects to follow the will of the General Assembly regarding Burma by reducing the number of staff at the Burma office in New York just days before the country’s controversial national elections.

When Ban spokesman Farhan Haq was asked by accredited UN correspondent and analyst Matthew Russell Lee about the transfer of staff, Haq avoided answering the question directly, instead simply responding that the Burma office’s work was continuing. Mizzima was unable to reach Ban’s press office at time of publication.