U.N. Report

Scuffling over Sudan

The Human Rights Commission in Geneva ended its six-week session by agreeing to name a rapporteur for Sudan at a later date, but didn’t condemn suspected atrocities there amid resistance by Islamic and African members of the group.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Williamson voted against the resolution, which he criticized for failing to condemn racial and ethnic cleansing in the western Darfur region.

“We fear a terrible famine to come when tens of thousands may well perish,” he added. “The commission so far has failed to meet its responsibility today.”

European members of the committee, who initially had sought stronger language, joined in Friday’s majority. Australia and Ukraine abstained.

Negroponte to Iraq

U.N. Ambassador John D. Negroponte was nominated by the White House last week to be the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq, a delicate and dangerous job that will be similar to yet different from the endless rounds of meetings, speeches and receptions that make up U.N. diplomacy. He still will wear a suit and tie, of course, but also a Kevlar undershirt.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not set a date for Mr. Negroponte’s confirmation hearings, but diplomats say he will be spending most of his time in Washington preparing for the assignment. That will leave something of a vacuum at Turtle Bay.

Deputy U.N. Ambassador James Cunningham, who has served with an understated flair for four years, has been nominated to be Washington’s next ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. It, too, will be a multilateral posting, responsible for U.N. agencies that range from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the U.N. Postal Administration.

It is not clear when Mr. Cunningham will depart for Austria, but the State Department likes to churn its top slots in August, when things are supposed to be quiet.

The Bush administration already has nominated as his successor career State Department officer Anne W. Patterson, who most recently served as the deputy inspector general.

Mrs. Patterson served as ambassador to Colombia from 2000 to 2003 and El Salvador from 1997 to 2000. She also has experience in a variety of political and economic assignments.

All posts will require Senate confirmation hearings, although few expect the contentious hearings and secret blocking motions that plagued the Clinton years.

“Hopefully, it will all be on track,” a State Department official said last week. “We don’t really want to let the U.N. drift right now.” A Senate staffer said last week he was picking up the same vibes in Congress.

The big question now

It is not clear who will replace Ambassador John D. Negroponte, a low-key but steady presence on key issues in New York who also advocated for the United Nations in Washington.

One whispered contender is Richard Williamson, who briefly served as Mr. Negroponte’s first political-affairs adviser. A cheerfully combative Chicago lawyer, Mr. Williamson since early March has been seconded to the U.S. Mission in Geneva to head the U.S. delegation to the Human Rights Commission.

Listen closely, and you also will hear the hopeful whispers about Howard Baker, currently U.S. ambassador to Japan. But that also might be wishful thinking, according to some observers who say the 79-year-old former Republican senator might not want to start from scratch on such a complex new posting.

Another prospect is Robert Blackwill, a deputy at the National Security Agency who directs Iraq policy at the White House. A former ambassador to India, Mr. Blackwill also was seen as a front-runner for the Baghdad job.

• E-mail Betsy Pisik at UNear@aol.com.