At the
UN, China and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
November 27 -- "We do not impose political conditions." So said China's
representative Liu Zhenmin in critique of the Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative, which financier George Soros described at the UN Monday during a
daylong discussion of the Millennium Development Goals. Video
here
at Minute 1:44:00.
Mr. Soros
replied that the EITI contains no conditions about democracy, but focuses rather
on the use of revenue by governments. Video
here
at Minute 2:32:36.
"Transparency not conditionality," summarized the UN's Shashi Tharoor, who
moderated the session.
This same
critique of conditionality was launched by the operations director of the
Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Amadou Boubacar Cisse, former minister of Niger.
Inner City Press asked Dr. Cisse if the IDB, in making its general loans
including trade finance, considers such matters as workers' rights or
environmental protection, under the Equator Principles or otherwise. Video
here,
from Minute 35:54.
The IDB's
Dr. Cisse responded, "If you are asking if we impose conditionality such as the
World Bank, the answer is no. We are not interesting in doing that. Our member
countries are our partners." Video
here,
from Minute 37:07.
Fleeing
to Yemen: MDGs?
Dr. Cisse
had announced that a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed Monday at 3:30
with the UN Development program. UNDP apparently shares the opposition to
conditions. UNDP helps the Karimov government of Uzbekistan to collect taxes,
and helps Robert Mugabe set up a human right council which is being boycotted by
NGOs in Zimbabwe. (China's dealing with Zimbabwe have previously
been reported.)
When
UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis was approached with these and
other questions on
Monday after he gave a speech about the MDGs, he replied that he does not answer
questions upon leaving a meeting. He has not appeared to give a press conference
in over 14 months. UNDP does not appear to favor Transparency Initiative,
either. Reporters who asked were not allowed to attend Monday's MOU signing, and
no copy of the MOU, although requested, has been provided in the eight hours to
follow.
News analysis: noting
the consonance between the positions Monday of China and the Islamic Development
Bank, one wonders how the conditions of low-income manual workers, migrating for
example from Pakistan or East Asia to the Gulf, might be improved, if
anti-poverty funds are given without conditions or oversight. At least five of
the 50 least development nations are major oil producers, but this wealth has
not alleviated poverty. Take, for example, Equatorial Guinea, which after the
money laundering scandal at Riggs-now-PNC Bank pledged to join the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative. While still an LDC, the presidential heir in
Equatorial Guinea, Teodorin Nguema Obiang, recently bought a $35 million mansion
in California. Transparency, anyone?
Dr.
Jeffrey Sachs concluded the afternoon's debate by directing countries in the
audience to go to UNDP. For the Press, going to UNDP does not work; one wonders
if Dr. Sachs is aware of UNDP's lack of transparency. Dr. Sachs chided
countries for not setting high enough goals. As Inner City Press has previously
reported, doubling for example access to drinkable water in Chad, from the
current 19% to 42%, still leaves half the population with unhealthy water. Noted
in the GA hall on Monday was a water distilling contraption by a private firm
DekaResearch.com, whose representative
said it would cost only $1000. (Inner City Press asked the representative the
process by which hsi company had been selected and allowed to demonstrate its
product in the UN Headquarters; "my boss did it," was the the non-transparent
answer.) It still had to be plugged in, so count on greater costs for
solar or other power. Still, unlike some of the debate, the distilling machine
was concrete.
Following
the afternoon's debate there was a reception, sponsored as the debate was by
General Assembly President Haya Rashed Al Khalifa. It was held in the UN
Delegates' Dining Room, complete with roast beef and salmon, hummus and
champagne. One saw the Ambassador of North Korea pacing the room, and no one but
two reporters approaching him. One saw an ambassador who will remain unnamed
picking roast potatoes from the common bowl with his fingers. One heard much
talk of poverty reduction, but many questions remained unanswered, including by
the UN's own Development Program. They will continue to be asked.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
At
the UN, Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
November 27 -- With Ethiopian and Ugandan troops already inside Somalia, and the
U.S. reportedly preparing a Security Council resolution to grant them UN powers
to expanding fighting against the Council of Somali Islamic Courts, on Monday
both Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton dodged the issue.
As Kofi
Annan left the General Assembly's meeting on development, Inner City Press asked
Mr. Annan what the UN was doing about war in Somalia. As
transcribed by UN
staff:
Inner City
Press: On Somalia. The monitoring group’s report about ten countries violating
the arms embargo -- what do you think the UN can or should do to try to hold off
a war that seems to be brewing between the Islamic Courts and the Ethiopians and
others?
Secretary-General: I think we have encouraged both parties to resume their
talks in Khartoum. They’ve made various attempts to talk together and find a
way of working together. It is important that they do find a way of coming
together, not escalate the situation, which may draw neighboring countries into
the conflict in Somalia, and make matters much worse. So we will continue our
efforts. My own Special Representative on the ground is working quite actively
with both parties.
In real
time, Mr. Annan first called the work of SRSG Francois Lonseny Fall "fairly"
active. Video
here,
from Minute 2:40. In reality, the UN's Office on Somalia is not even based in
the country, but rather in Nairobi. And Mr. Annan's statement that event "may"
draw neighboring countries into the conflict in Somalia is months late.
Ethiopian troops are all around Baidoa, and now Uganda has
acknowledged having
sent troops.
Breakdown
in Chad
U.S.
Ambassador John Bolton, emerging for a Security Council meeting about Myanmar,
was asked by Inner City Press for the U.S. position on Somalia. Last week Amb.
Bolton told Inner City Press he had nothing to say on the topic, while at the
State Department's briefing in Washington it was said that the U.S. was working
hard at the UN on the issue. Monday Amb. Bolton repeated that he had nothing to
say, but added that he might have something to say in "a couple of days." Video
here,
from Minute 11:30.
Inner
City Press asked Amb. Bolton to respond to
Somali denials of
the authenticity of a letter from the Islamic Counts' Sheik Aweys, which was
reportedly the trigger for the U.S.'s recent terrorism alert in East Africa. "I
have nothing to add to that point," Amb. Bolton said.
On
Myanmar, Amb. Bolton unceremoniously dropped from his litany of Myanmar's sins
the allegation, which he previously made, that Myanmar is a threat to
international peace and security because it is engaged in money laundering.
Weeks ago at a stakeout outside the General Assembly, Inner City Press asked Amb.
Bolton to comment on the G-8's FATF having dropped Myanmar from its money
laundering blacklist. At the time, Amb. Bolton said he hadn't heard of it. Inner
City Press provided the information to Amb. Bolton's staff for a comment, which
never came. Now the issue is dropped -- although the spread of refugees and
"diseases such as HIV / AIDS" is cited by Amb. Bolton in support of a resolution
said to be coming in the next "days or weeks."
Inner
City Press asked the UN's head of political affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, if his
briefing to the Council had addressed money laundering or drug trafficking.
Video
here,
from Minute 4:10. Mr. Gambari mentioned "progress" on stopping drug trafficking,
and did not mention money laundering. As one of the top five issues he listed
humanitarian access. Earlier in the day, Myanmar's government
reportedly threw the Red Cross out of
the country.
Inner
City Press asked Council President Voto-Bernales if either money laundering or
drug trafficking was discussed in the Council meeting. There was "no general
discussion on the matter," Amb. Voto-Bernales said. Video
here,
from Minute 3:20. He added that Somalia will be on the Council's agenda for
Wednesday. Click
here
for further analysis.
Finally,
for this report, we are compelled to note that outside the very General Assembly
meeting following which Secretary-General Kofi Annan stopped and took questions
from reporters, both in the hall and before the stakeout camera (video here),
Inner City Press sought to ask UN Development Program Administrator Kemal Dervis
about
UNDP's role in funding and / or monitoring
involuntary disarmament in northeast Uganda.
Mr.
Dervis said, "I don't just answer questions like this, walking out of a room."
Inner
City Press suggested that Mr. Dervis come to a press conference in UN
Headquarters Room 226 to take questions.
Mr.
Dervis allowed, "Perhaps that can be arranged."
Inner
City Press pointed out that the request has been made, for months, to UNDP
Communications staff, and that Mr. Dervis has not held such a press conference
for 14 months.
"It would
have to be something special," Mr. Dervis said. Why not hold a press conference
to take questions, as do the heads of other UN agencies and even Kofi Annan,
who, it must be noted, did on Monday "answer questions like this, walking out of
a room."
Also Monday outside the (GA) room, Mr. Dervis rebuffed another reporter from his
home country. Earlier, his staff had declined to provide an advance copy of his
speech to the General Assembly, claiming that it would be extemporaneous. Why
play hide the ball about a public speech to be delivered? Lack of transparency
and lack of accountability apparently start at the top.
At
Monday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric
what are the minimum standards of accessibility and transparency for the heads
of UN agencies like Mr. Dervis.
"I am not
the boss of him," Mr. Dujarric answered, adding that that from emails he has
seen, UNDP is answering questions. We note that a question about Bangladesh
asked two weeks ago has still not been answered.
Inner
City Press was told, by a representative of the Islamic Development Bank, that a
Memorandum of Understanding would be signed at 3:30 Monday afternoon at UNDP
Headquarters. (This concerns an IDB initiative to fight poverty, one that will
not use the types of "conditionalities" employed by the World Bank, Inner City
Press was
told by the IDB's Dr. Amadou Boubacar Cisse, formerly a minister of Niger,
click here
for more). Inner City Press asked to attend but was told that it was an internal
UNDP event. Inner City Press has asked for a copy of the agreement. "There is
nothing sensitive in it," an IDB official replied. "But I don't know about
UNDP's information disclosure policies." Developing.
UNDP Dodges Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda
and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant, Dhaka Snafu
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- In eastern
Uganda, villages this month have been burned and residents shot and killed by
government soldiers. The Uganda military has been
asked by
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to halt a cordon-and-search
disarmament program which has
killed 55 civilians in
the Karamoja region. Uganda's deputy defense minister Ruth
Nankabirwa has said the program will continue,
telling reporters that
"It is true that some people were killed, but in an operation where both sides
are armed, you should expect such things to happen."
Missing from both stories, and
from Louise Arbour's
report,
is that the UN Development Programme funded and encouraged the wave of
cordon-and-search disarmament earlier this year, until UNDP begrudgingly
suspected its funding. Uganda's
New Vision newspaper of June 28, 2006,
under the headline " UNDP suspends Karamoja projects" recounted that
"Inner City
Press reported that the UPDF were committing abuses in the process of the cordon
and search exercise, including killing of people and burning of homes and
shelters. But both the UPDF spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye and the eastern and
northeastern spokesman, Capt. Paddy Ankunda, dismissed the reports yesterday.
'That is absolutely ridiculous,' Ankunda said."
Since then, UNDP dodged answering whether
it has resumed funding the program, and UNDP has most recently reverted to
claiming that it never funded or encouraged the program. A month ago, around
Karamojo, UNDP's spokesman wrote Inner City Press: "As we conveyed to the
Spokesman's office when you first raised this question there,
neither UNDP nor the UN is the appropriate source for comment on a
member-state government inquiry; we would suggest perhaps the UN mission from
Uganda may help."
UNDP has
not always been adverse to commenting on Uganda's disarmament programs.
UNDP's spokesman had previously
informed Inner City Press that
"In 2006 UNDP
began work on an independent community development and human security project in
the Karamoja region, one component of which was the encouragement of voluntary
disarmament. The project was budgeted initially for $1 million, to be financed
from UNDP's Uganda country office [Due to a misunderstanding on my part I
erroneously identified to you in our conversation Tuesday the government of
Denmark as a funder of this project.] Only $293,000 has been spent to date and
all UNDP activities in the region are now halted, given that they are unworkable
at this time, for the reasons noted."
On May 25, 2006, then
UNDP Country Director Cornelis Klein gave a speech praising Uganda's disarmament
programs -- during a time that, as
reported by Inner City Press,
Karamojong villages were being torched and civilians tortured and killed. Mr.
Klein's speech, still
online as
of this writing, said:
"Uganda -- and
the state institutions involved here today -- is fast becoming a leading light
in Africa and beyond in how it is seizing the opportunity to address small and
light weapons concerns. While UNDP currently provides modest support to the
nation, it is Uganda that can support and lead other countries in doing the
same. Let me take this opportunity, therefore, to applaud the Government for its
strong leadership and commitment."
The Ugandan government's in-house
investigation of that round of violent disarmament, for which the Kampala
newspaper the Daily Monitor credited Inner City Press, is still pending, even as
more burning and killing by government soldiers takes place. Most close
observers opine that at least the May phase of the cordon-and-search
operation was intended to meet UNDP's aggressive goals for disarmament, for a
photo-op for a UNDP country representative who has since dropped out of sight,
refusing to take questions.
UNDP's
Cornelis Klein amid smoldering Uganda
UNDP's lack of forthrightness and
follow-up about abuses in Eastern Uganda is echoed in more recent agency
responses regarding its administration of AIDS
programs in Togo, and non-responses regarding Bangladesh.
In Togo, grants of millions of dollars
were stopped earlier this year due, the donor said, to the UN Development
Programme filing incorrect data. While the health of thousands of HIV-positive
Togolese continues to decline, questions to UNDP result, days later, in
finger-pointing at the donor, and a full two-week delay in any UNDP response to
a critique by Bangladesh officials. A Ugandan cordon-and-search disarmament
program which UNDP previously acknowledges having supported has killed dozens of
civilians in the past months. Now UNDP denies ever having funded the program.
UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis has not made himself available for press
questions in the UN's Headquarters for more than 14 months. And so the questions
continue to back up.
On November 13, Inner City Press sent
UNDP's main Communications Office in New York a request for comment on UNDP
snafus in Togo and Bangladesh. Two days later, UNDP acknowledged receipt of the
request and promised response by November 15.
After deadline on November 15, one of
UNDP's spokespeople sent this:
Subject: RE:
UNDP questions, re Togo and Bangladesh
From: @undp.org
To: Inner City
Press
Sent: Fri, 17
Nov 2006 6:12 PM
Kindly find
below our response to your question on Togo. We will get back to you on your
Bangladesh query shortly.
Question:
Please explain UNDP's actions on HIV/AIDS in Togo, including addressing the
report (below) that funding has been lost. ("The Global Fund, the main donor of
antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in Togo, halted one of two three-year HIV grants
amounting to US$15.5 million in January 2006, citing "irregularities" in the
information provided by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on
managing the money.")
Answer: With
regards to the Global Fund, the Togolese HIV/AIDS grant proposal, developed by a
multidisciplinary coordination committee, was approved in 2003. In light of its
previous experience in neighboring countries, UNDP was appointed as the grant's
principal recipient....A June 2006 evaluation by Price Waterhouse of data
provided by UNDP and the concerned NGOs concluded that UNDP had not put in place
systems to ensure effective reporting from the field, making it difficult to
verify the actual number of people or communities serviced. As part of its
normal project operations, UNDP had advanced funds for selected activities.
Prior to reimbursing UNDP for these expenses, the Global Fund called for a
financial review. In response, UNDP launched a bidding process in the sub-region
and the firm CGIC won the bid and was contracted to carry out this independent
financial review. As CGIC has confirmed in a declaration to the media and in its
discussions with Togo's President, Prime Minister and Minister of Health, that
study, undertaken in September and October 2006, found that, while there may
have been errors in the data reported, there was no mismanagement or fraud...
The Country Coordination Mechanism -- a body consisting of national partners,
such as the concerned ministries, NGOs and the private sector, as well as
international partners, which manages Global Fund matters in Togo -- could make
a special request for the purchase of the ARVs in order to ensure that treatment
of the 3,000 patients continues."
But it is uncontested that due to the
improper data, no new patients have been accepted. On Saturday, November 18,
UNDP sent a further clarification:
In a message
dated 11/18/2006 12:02:17 PM, @undp.org writes:
I'd like to
clarify something regarding the Togo information I provided you yesterday
evening: In its financial review report, CGIC found that no fraud or
mismanagement existed. It was the Global Fund 's Manager for Togo, M. Mabingue
Ngom, who informed the country's President, Prime Minister and the Minister of
Health that there was no fraud or mismanagement."
Subsequently, Inner City Press
has asked for a copy of the CGIS audit. No response has been received. Nor has
any response been received regarding Bangladesh, despite the passage of 11 days.
It has been
reported from
Bangladesh that:
"The Ministry
of Commerce has rejected a Preparatory Assistance (PA) project proposal of the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as it finds the UN organization
jobs unplanned, lack of coordination and integrated mechanism. 'The UNDP only
suggest preparatory assistance projects rather to take further full projects to
address the identified problems," one of the commerce ministry officials' said."
How can it take 11 days to provide a
comment on this? The spin machine is at work.
It has been 14 months since UNDP
Administrator Kemal Dervis appeared to take questions in UN Headquarters. On
November 27, Mr. Dervis will be in UN Headquarters to attend a meeting on the
Millennium Development Goals. While two of the other participants will, that
afternoon, take questions at a UN press conference, Mr. Dervis is notably not
listed as available for questions. While, after repeated requests, Inner City
Press has been told he will take questions sometime in December, the need for
answers is now.
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
Congo Shootout
Triggers Kofi Annan Call, While Agent Orange Protest Yields Email from
Old London
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
UN Bets the
House on Lebanon, While Willfully Blind in Somalia and Pinned Down in
Kinshasa
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
Sudan Cites
Hezbollah, While UN Dances Around Issues of Consent and Sex Abuse in the
Congo, Passing the UNIFIL Hat
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
At the UN,
Lebanon Resolution Passes with Loophole, Amb. Gillerman Says It Has All
Been Defensive
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Silence on
Congo Election and Uranium, Until It's To Iran or After a Ceasefire, and
Council Rift on Kony
At the UN Some
Middle Eastern Answers, Updates on Congo and Nepal While Silence on
Somalia
On Lebanon,
Franco-American Resolution Reviewed at UN in Weekend Security Council
Meeting
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
At the UN,
Speeches While Gaza Stays Lightless and Insurance Not Yet Paid
At the UN
Poorest Nations Discussed, Disgust at DRC Short Shrift, Future UN
Justice?
At the UN
Wordsmiths Are At Work on Zimbabwe, Kony, Ivory Coast and Iran
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
At
the UN, New Phrase Passes Resolution called Gangster-Like by North Korea; UK
Deputy on the Law(less)
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
At UN, North
Korean Knot Attacked With Fifty Year Old Precedent, Game Continues Into
Weekend
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
Gaza Resolution
Vetoed by U.S., While North Korea Faces Veto and Chechnya Unread
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
At the UN, A Day
of Resolutions on Gaza, North Korea and Iran, Georgia as Side Dish
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
In North Korean
War of Words, Abuses in Uganda and Impunity Go Largely Ignored
On North Korea,
Blue Words Move to a Saturday Showdown, UNDP Uzbek Stonewall
As the World
Turns in Uganda and Korea, the UN Speaks only on Gaza, from Geneva
North Korea in
the UN: Large Arms Supplant the Small, and Confusion on Uganda
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN in Denial on
Sudan, While Boldly Predicting the Future of Kosovo/a
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
At the UN, a
Commando Unit to Quickly Stop Genocide is Proposed, by Diplomatic Sir
Brian Urquhart
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
At the UN,
Internal Justice Needs Reform, While in Timor Leste, Has Evidence Gone
Missing?
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
In Bolton's Wake,
Silence and Speech at the UN, Congo and Kony, Let the Games Begin
Pro-Poor Talk and
a Critique of the World Trade Organization from a WTO Founder: In UN
Lull, Ugandan Fog and Montenegrin Mufti
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
AIDS Ends at the
UN? Side Deals on Patents, Side Notes on Japanese Corporations,
Salvadoran and Violence in Burundi
On AIDS at the
UN, Who Speaks and Who Remains Unseen
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence (May 31, 2006)
Kinshasa Election
Nightmares, from Ituri to Kasai. Au Revoir Allan Rock; the UN's
Belly-Dancing
Working with
Warlords, Insulated by Latrines: Somalia and Pakistan Addressed at the
UN
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
In Liberia, From
Nightmare to Challenge; Lack of Generosity to Egeland's CERF, Which
China's Asked About
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
At the UN, Dues
Threats and Presidents-Elect, Unanswered Greek Mission Questions
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In Congolese
Chaos, Shots Fired at U.N. Helicopter Gunship
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
For reporting about banks, predatory
lending, consumer protection, money laundering, mergers or the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), click
here for Inner
City Press's
weekly CRA Report.
Inner City Press also reports weekly concerning the
Federal Reserve,
environmental justice,
global inner cities, and more recently
on the United
Nations, where Inner City Press
is accredited media. Follow those links
for more of Inner City Press's reporting, or, click
here
for five ways to
contact us,
with or for more information.
Copyright 2005-2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editors [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540
