On Lebanon, Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS, August 10, 8:20 p.m. -- The ranks of Russian chess masters must now be expanded beyond Karpov and Kasparov. After 5 p.m. on Thursday, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin emerged from 885 Second Avenue, which houses the French and UK missions, and spoke to a throng of reporters. He announced that Russia is putting forth its own resolution on Lebanon, one calling for a 72 hour cessation of hostilities. He said he intended to "put this resolution in blue," meaning file it with Security Council Affairs and then Documents Control, which will prepare the text in the UN's six official languages, allowing for a Friday vote. Amb. Churkin indicated that Russia would withdraw its resolution if the French and U.S., who were negotiating upstairs, came to agreement on changes to their resolution.

  The full text -- only 130 words -- of the Russian draft resolution is below.

            Soon thereafter, just as a thunderstorm began, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton emerged. He called the Russian resolution an unnecessary diversion, declaring that "we are not playing games." While heading out onto 47th Street, he said they would continue working all night. The rain grew harder and a dog began to howl. A side door opened and gallons of soapy water were swept out onto the pavilion full of wet journalists. The lion lay with the lamb: a famously Zionist reporter held the Al Arabia TV microphone as a favor. Upstairs, French Ambassador de La Sabliere apparently negotiated with himself. It was reported that Margaret Beckett would arrive from London, if they allowed her on the plane. There were rumors of Condoleeza Rice in the wings.  As one wag -- this one -- put it, success has many parents, but failure has only the P5 Ambassadors.

Ambassadors Churkin and Wang, right to left, in drier North Korean times

            Back at UN headquarters, soaking wet, informed sources indicated that to "go blue" the plumbing involves Security Council Affairs on the 32nd floor, and Document Control on the 15th. The ascent and descent of elevators was studied. There were sighting of elusive Documents Control staff. Television journalists headed for the exits. "If Churkin says it's going blue, that's good enough for us," one said.

            It was a dark and rainy night... Watching the lightening above Turtle Bay, a reporter turned to news analysis, remembering a side comment by Chinese Ambassador Wang, that there would be repercussions for the U.S.'s obstruction of even a Presidential Statement on the death by bomb of the four UNIFIL staffers. And where was Amb. Wang during Thursday's developments? Since a chess master does not move without thinking several steps ahead, who'd be Amb. Churkin's backers? Developing.

The Russian draft resolution, distributed to Council members:

Russian Federation: draft resolution

            The Security Council,

            Expressing its gravest concern over the increasing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and Israel since 12 July 2006,

            Appalled by large numbers of civilian casualties, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands internally displaced persons,

            Emphasizing the critical need for urgent humanitarian supplies and mindful of the looming threat of even greater humanitarian catastrophe,

            1.         Calls for an immediate and full cessation of hostilities for humanitarian purposes for a period of 72 hours;

            2.         Urges all parties concerned and the international community to provide urgently all required humanitarian assistance to civilian population in Lebanon;

            3.         Calls for extraordinary diplomatic efforts to arrive without further delay at a political solution to the crisis;

            4.         Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

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Africa Can Solve Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace Talks and Kofi Annan's Views

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

   UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- Africa is or should be able to solve its own problems, Ghana's Foreign Minister Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said Wednesday in New York. Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, currently in The Hague on charges of war crimes, should have been tried in Africa, according to Minister Nana, who noted that "it would be anomalous for Milosevic to have been tried in Freetown." He added that the indictments by the Hague-based International Criminal Court of the top five officials of the Lord's Resistance Army rebels from Uganda should be put on hold pending peace and amnesty talks being held in Juba in South Sudan between the LRA and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni government.

Ghana's Foreign Minister Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and S-G Kofi Annan

              Ghana, which holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month, had scheduled a full day open session on West Africa peace consolidation.   Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana began by noting that while "events in the Middle East are important, there are other important events in other parts of the world. I think it is just as well that a balance is established to show that the concerns of humanity are not just focused on one region but focused on all parts of the world that need consideration and discussion."

            In responding to seven questions from Inner City Press at the conclusion of the afternoon session, ranging from Ivory Coast through Liberia to Uganda and Zimbabwe, Minister Nana sketched out an Afro-centric vision of justice and "peace on the Continent."  He expressed hope that diplomatic relations between the world community, specifically the United Kingdom, and the Robert Mugabe government in Zimbabwe can be improved.

            Responding to concerns that Mr. Mugabe's appointed mediator and former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa is too close to Mugabe to be seen as independent, and that Kofi Annan erred in deferring to Mr. Mkapa, Minister Nana said, "I prefer to wait and see." He responded similarly when asked about the peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army. "Talks for peace? That has to be good, right? We must wait to see what happens."

            Thursday Kofi Annan's spokesman was asked by Inner City Press to respond to these "wait and see" views. At the televised noon briefing, the spokesman said that the indictments are for the ICC to comment on, but that "the Secretary-General and the UN system do not condone impunity." He stated that countries which are signatories to the ICC's Rome Statute, which included Uganda, must arrest and turn over indictees to the ICC in The Hague. More generally, he stated that "each post-war situation calls for a different solution, drawn up by governments themselves."  This appears to apply to the UN's silence on the offer of a colonel's position in the Congolese army to Peter Karim, who took seven UN peacekeepers hostage for over forty days. The spokesman closed with a reference to the UN's new Peacebuilding Commission, which is focused in part on Burundi.

            Turning to The Hague, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo has repeatedly reminded Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where LRA leaders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti are reportedly staying, of their duties to enforce the ICC's arrest warrants for both men and three other LRA leaders. From Wednesday's statements by Ghanaian minister Nana, it appears clear that Ghana, or its foreign minister at least, has doubts about the indictments. In the sphere of lobbying, some have begun to call for the ICC "to employ Article 53(4) of the Rome Statute, under which the Prosecutor can reconsider a decision at any time based on new facts or information.'"

            Of Charles Taylor, Minister Nana complained that too many "are talking as if he has already been convicted."

            In a separate interview Tuesday with the United Kingdom's permanent representative to the UN, Emyr Jones Parry, Inner City Press inquired into reports that the UK is promoting a draft security council resolution to allow the use of force and crossing of borders into the Congo to pursue the LRA and its leadership. Ambassador Jones Parry confirmed that the UK is drafting such a resolution.

            On another matter before the Security Council, the request to remove the sanction on the trade in Liberian diamonds, Minister Nana noted that ECOWAS has called for a lifting of all sanctions with economic impacts, by implication including the diamond sanctions. Mr. Nana said, " if as we see a responsible and accountable government is beginning to put its feet down in Monrovia, there's every reason to assist that process by enabling them to have access to more and more money to do the work they need to do to consolidate peace in their country."

            The Security Council is also actively seized of the situation in Ivory Coast in the run-up to the elections now scheduled for October 31. Inner City Press asked Minister Nana if he expects that deadline to be met. Mr. Nana responded that "increasingly most of us have recognized that may not be feasible," but that the need to maintain momentum should "guide all actors in the Ivorian drama." Asked to respond to Laurent Gbagbo's recent statement that he will remain in power even if elections are further delayed, Minister Nana said he is "not in a position to comment on the Constitutional propriety either way."

            During Wednesday's open Council session, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke of the competing needs for reconciliation and for strengthening the rule of law. Wednesday Inner City Press asked Mr. Annan's spokesman to prioritize these two. The spokesman's response noted that "the Secretary-General and the UN system do not condone impunity" and that "justice must be served without delay." In the tinted glass building on Manhattan's East River bank, the statements are straight-forward. Out in zones of conflict, particularly out of the media's spotlight like the deal in East Congo with Peter Karim, the messages get lost. Nor, some note, has peace as yet resulted.

At the UN, Jay-Z Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka Kilcher in the Basement

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- Kofi Annan and two UN agencies appeared Wednesday with rapper Jay-Z to talk about access to water. The news, such as it was, is that water is good. Inner City Press asked Shawn Jay-Z Carter two questions, about water privatization and about the Associated Press charges, unrebutted in the public record, that his clothing line Rocawear used sweatshop Southwest Textiles S.A. in Cholula, Honduras. Video here, at Minute 20:30 through 23:19.

     On the water privatization question, Jay-Z said, "that's just bureaucracy, I don't have any expertise in that," adding that he's about raising awareness. Later he praised Coca-Cola for giving money for play pumps; Coke is under fire for overuse of water in India as well as in Colombia.

Privatization? Never heard of it.

            On the request that he address Rocawear's reported use of sweatshops, and whether the company still uses Southwest Textiles, S.A., Jay-Z said, "Still? That means that they were." Video here, from Minute 21:28.

            Since the charges were on AP and in USA Today, click here to view, and have not been rebutted in the public record, Inner City Press asked for a response. But none was given. And so it goes at the United Nations. There is an unself-conscious partnering not only with pop culture figures, click here and see below, for one with more substance, but also with corporations, from Dow Chemicals to Societe General to Microsoft, and so on without end, for now. Meanwhile the bombs in Lebanon continue.

            At the noon briefing that followed, Inner City Press asked if the UN's refugee agency UNHCR has anything to say about Uzbekistan's bragging that 14 dissidents are about to be returned from Russia. The spokesman responded that UNHCR speaks with the countries at issue. Does that include Uzbekistan and the Karimov regime, which having already thrown UNHCR out of the country is moving to similar oust Mercy Corps, allegedly for espionage? We'll see.

            Inner City Press also asked about the DR Congo election, and the EU observer mission's recent statement that that the vote counting "process is lacking checks and balances of transparency" and that announcing incomplete results could stir up tensions." After the briefing, Kofi Annan's spokesman's office provided this statement:

"SRSG Swing reminded Congolese yesterday that it is vital to maintain the same discipline and orderliness that they showed on 30th July. He said that, at this stage, it is premature to give results, since only 5% of ballot papers have been counted."

            More informative was a briefing by the head of Kofi Annan's assessment mission to Nepal, Staffan de Mistura. While since he was in Nepal the process nearly fell apart, Monday the scheduled joint-but-separate letters were delivered to the UN, click here to view. Inner City Press inquired into the allegations that U.S. Ambassador to Nepal James Francis Moriarty tried at the last minute to scuttle the process, click here for allegation. Mr. de Mistura responded diplomatically, that all on the P5 are now on board. In response to the second question of Inner City Press, about South Lebanon where he was previously an envoy, Mr. de Mistura was more poetic, noting that "the best medicine is preventative." Meanwhile Lebanon continues not only to fester but also be bombed.

   Finally, the  International Day of the World's Indigenous People was celebrated six days late in the Dag Hammerskjold auditorium, where Q'Orianka Kilcher presented, alongside Wilton Littlechild, whom Inner City Press quoted back in May:

"Asked about the issues of missionaries, conversions and adoptions, under the rubric of loss of culture, Forum member Wilton Littlechild said the matter is not only in the draft, but also before the Commission on the Rights of the Child.  In a separate interview in the basement outside Conference Room 2, Mr. Littlechild described several class actions in Canada on these issues, alleging cultural genocide. Since the treatment by courts of claims of cultural genocide is an open question, one wonders if the Declaration -- in one its 19 perambulatory paragraphs or 45 articles -- shouldn't address the need in nations' laws for just such a cause of action."

            That didn't happen, but action is expected in and around the General Assembly in September. We'll see. Wednesday Inner City Press asked Mr. Littlechild for an update on the opposition of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to the Declaration. Mr. Littlechild said he anticipates that opposition continuing, but that Canada's may be changing.

  Inner City Press asked Q'Orianka Kilcher for her position on the pending U.S. Peru Free Trade Agreement, and on indigenous people's participation in the Peruvian economy. After some whispering on the panel, the first answer came from Romy Tincopa from the Peruvian mission, who said of probably with the Free Trade Agreement, "the government is taking care of that." 

   Q'Orianka Kilcher responded by describing her visit to oil areas of Peru, "polluted by Oxy... without reinjection pipes," and about meeting a boy with chemical burns on 70% of his body. Oxy is formally Occidental; the naming of names is important.

  In the basement, Q'Orianka Kilcher spoke passionately against human rights being violated for economic gain, particularly by multinational oil companies in the Amazon. Upstairs at noon, at the event Kofi Annan attended, these issues were dodged. And so it goes.

In the UN Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a Shebaa Farms Solution?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 8, 4:22 p.m. -- For a ceasefire in Lebanon to be enacted by the UN Security Council in 24 or even 48 hours appears less and less likely.

Update of 11:59 p.m., last of day -- Despite and responding to CNN's below-quoted report quoting U.S. Amb. Bolton's spokesman of France breaking from the U.S., the French mission's spokesman emailed the UN press corps Tuesday night, "We totally deny that report, negotiations between France and the U.S. are going on." So disagreeing with CNN or the U.S. mission? Earlier Tuesday, the French spokesman and the U.S. deputy spokesman laughed together, when the latter provided correction of who was in the room, the P5 and "the Arab four." How fast they fall out, or CNN's wrong. We'll see.

Update of 7:45 p.m. -- After multiple stakeout interviews, including French Ambassador de La Sabliere choosing to do it in the dark, not before the UN TV cameras, and John Bolton bolting, the mood on the second floor was dark. On the television over the coffee machine, blaring CNN, Lou Dobbs turned from immigrants to pass on word from Bolton's spokesman that France is breaking from the U.S., and joining Lebanon in demanding that Israel withdraw. Washington was floating a counterproposal, that Lebanon's 15,000 troops be supplement with an international force of roughly similar size. No Israeli pull-out, under this trial lead balloon, but an eventual pull-out more credible.

            "These people couldn't stop a pillow fight," one journalist, visual, said. "They should turn this place into a water park."

            "You sound like Bolton," a fact collector for a television network said.

            "Whatever."

            In the cafeteria, Inner City Press ran into Doctor David Nabarro, the UN's point man on avian influenza.

            "How goes it on bird flu?"

            "Bird flu goes on," Dr. Nabarro said. "It's not big news these days. That's the nature of news -- there's a finite amount." He added that there are in fact worries of bird flu in Lebanon, and that's he'd like to come back to brief about it, once the news is not so... you know. We know...

Update of 5:40 p.m. -- Dozens of reporters press together to hear staffers who refused to be named explain that in the room it's not "P5 plus one" -- and that would be Qatar -- but rather "P5 plus four," including the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile Inner City Press can report that a bomb-sniffing dog, a 3-year old male Labrador who declined to be named, sniffed the coffee cups heading in to the room. So when they drink it...

As Kofi Annan and the afternoon's three speakers, from Qatar, Israel and Lebanon, swept into the Council chambers past 3:30 p.m., staffers of the Permanent Five missions told reporters not to expect immanent action. On the sidelines, Ambassador Mayoral of Argentina was asked to show his identification card to the guard outside the chamber. Photographers rushed up the staircase; Mark Malloch-Brown sat in his sunglasses next to head peacekeeper Jean-Marie Guehenno.

   Meanwhile the air is sucked out of most other issues and regions. A purportedly small but telling detail: the press corps was informed that Edmond Mulet, Kofi Annan's envoy to Haiti, from which Mr. Annan only days ago returned, was to take questions at 4 p.m.. There are questions to be asked, about a slate of kidnappings and murders, and Mr. Mulet's proposal to boost the UN force with a SWAT team of 100.

Haiti, not the Middle East

Meanwhile Carlo Lochard of the Police National d'Haiti is accused of funding his own murderous gang.  But at 4 p.m., with all reporters staring at the television showing Israel's Dan Gillerman's speech before the Council, Mr. Mulet's briefing was unceremoniously cancelled. It was cancelled in the second floor hallway, and not rescheduled. A cameraman told Inner City Press that a sanctions meeting he was slated to be at was cancelled. How long can this go on?

   Long, possibly. Wise minds at the stakeout predict the solution, if there is one, is shifting the word-games toward the Shebaa Farms, so that each side can claim victory how ever Pyrrhic... To be continued.

UN Silence on Congo Election and Uranium, Until It's To Iran or After a Ceasefire, and Council Rift on Kony

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

   UNITED NATIONS, August 8 -- The Congolese uranium mentioned a month ago in a UN report is now suddenly more prominent, due to reports it was destined for Iran. Tuesday, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman about the report, the uranium shipment, and the strange silence of the UN's Congo mission, MONUC.  The spokesman had also been silent on reports of irregularities in ballot counting in the Congo. It's said the UN has spend over $450 million on the election, yet reporters observe ballots held down with pieces of crumbling walls, while counting stations burn.

Congo ballots, all stacked up

            UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, returning from vacation into a blizzard of questions about the Middle East, fielded both Congo questions in a general way. On vote counting he urged patience and calm, calling the election a "humongous challenge." On the export of the Congo's natural resources he was more expansive, calling it a "great problem" but insisting that the UN's MONUC "cannot and does not monitor the export of resources from the DRC." Video here, from Minute 22 to 24:33.

            The UN report, S/2006/525 dated July 18, states of a uranium "shipment from October 2005, the Tanzanian Government left no doubt that the uranium was transported from Lubumbashi by road through Zambia to the United Republic of Tanzania."  Less than a month later in Kinshasa, MONUC spokesman Jean-Tobias Okala said he could not confirm the uranium shipment. Developing.

            In similar silence on Somalia, the UN spokesman has committed to provide details on the UN's humanitarian assessment mission to Mogadishu, which ended last Tuesday with nothing being said of it. Why not go to Baidoa, to see if Ethiopian troops are there or not? Mr. Dujarric said he would ask, but that "I doubt I will have any more to say that what has been said here from this podium" -- that is, that the UN is "not in the position to confirm" the invasion of one country by another, at least not when the invasion is ostensibly in support of the party the UN has sided with. Inner City Press also asked about reports of an " Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, with the Kazakh flag painted on its tail, landed in the capital, Mogadishu, on July 26 and 28," presumably with arms for the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts. Another largely ignored UN report, S/2006/ 229 dated May 4, named six nations violating the Somalia arms embargo -- Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Italy, and other "clandestine" violator, widely assumed to by the United States. And now the Khazaks join the list? Video here, from Minute 34:14 to 35:15.We'll see.

            One line of questioning begun Monday by Inner City Press was on Tuesday moved forward, if only slightly. Responding further to Inner City Press' question about the use of depleted uranium (DU) in weapons in Lebanon, the spokesman said while the UN's Department of Disarmament Affairs has "no clear position" on the use of DU weapons, there is a "need to investigate" the use of DU in "post-conflict situations like Kosovo and Bosnia." Video here, from Minutes 32:32 to 33:08. So apparently the UN would wait at least until after a ceasefire, or cessation of hostilities, in the current draft resolution puts it, before using Geiger counters.

            On yet another too-ignored problem on the Continent, Inner City Press on Tuesday conducted walking interviews with both the Ghanaian president of the Security Council, Nana Effah-Apenteng, and with UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, on reports that the Council is preparing a Chapter VII resolution to disarm the Lord's Resistance Army. Ghana's Ambassador said, "We have to wait for the outcome of the Juba talks." Somewhat differently, Amb. Jones Parry confirmed that the UK is drafting and pushing a Chapter VII resolution. In the Juba talks, Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti and three others indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court are being offered amnesty by Uganda's Museveni government. The Ghanaian Ambassador's position seems to not take this into account. The UK position, while always pro-Museveni, is contradicted by the UK's reported refusal to encourage Uganda to stop ignoring the DR Congo sanctions.  Developing...

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

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 - 

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