Credit: wikipedia / US Department of State /  Ambassador James Swan

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS    –  New York –     UN Secretary-General António Guterres  Thursday announced the appointment of James Swan of the United States as his Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).  The move comes some five months after the previous UN envoy to Somalia,  Nicholas Haysom,  was expelled from the Horn of Africa nation after the government declared him ‘persona non grata’.   Ambassador Swan  will succeed Haysom of South Africa to whom the Secretary-General said is deeply grateful for his dedicated service in UNSOM and Somalia at a challenging time. Swan is an experienced diplomat with a long international career in the United States Government.  He spent most of his career in African countries facing complex political transitions.  He served as Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2013 to 2016, US Special Representative for Somalia from 2011 to 2013, and Ambassador to Djibouti from 2008 to 2011.  In his earlier career,  Swan served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2006 to 2008, and Director of African Analysis in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 2005 to 2006.  Prior to these, Mr. Swan held various assignments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Somalia, Cameroon, Nicaragua and Haiti.

Credit:  UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe / Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia briefs the Security Council meeting on the situation in Somalia, on 3 January 2019. 

The Somalian government was apparently upset that Haysom had raised concern about the killing of protesters allied with ex-militant Islamist Mukhtar Robow, the BBC reported.   Security forces were allegedly involved in the deaths of about 15 of the protesters and the detention of about 300 people, the UN says, BBC reported.       After the Somalian government expelled Haysom and labeled him ‘persona non grata’,  the UN made it clear that the Horn of Africa nation could not designate Haysom as such because the the UN is not a State. The government of Somalia  kicked Haysom out of the country just four months after taking up  his  post  for “violating protocols” and “deliberately interfering” in the internal affairs of the nation  However, Guterres said in a statement at the time that the declaration is meaningless in the context of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations:

“The doctrine of persona non grata does not apply to, or in respect of, United Nations personnel.  As described in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the doctrine applies to diplomatic agents who are accredited by one State to another in the context of their bilateral relations. The United Nations is not a State and its personnel are not accredited to the States where they are deployed, but work under the sole responsibility of the Secretary-General.” 

Swan is to be deployed to his posting in Somalia as soon as possible, according to a spokesperson for the Secretary-General, who also addressed the ‘persona non grata’ declaration of Swan’s predecessor, and the selection process.

“Well, we’ve made clear our views on the question of whether Mr. Haysom could be granted the status of persona non grata, and we’ve made clear our stance against that.  At the same time, of course, we needed someone who would be on the ground and able to do the job, and we’re very grateful to have Mr. Swan.  We’ll try to bring him into the field of operations as soon as possible.  And as for the selection process, the process was simply designed to determine who was the best possible candidate.”

-Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.