UN's Man in Somalia Says To Embrace and Not Question
the Baidoa Government
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- Jump in and take a side.
That was the message of Eric Laroche, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia,
speaking to reporters on March 1. Mr. Laroche chided most "international NGOs"
for not being where the humanitarian problems are. He urged the media to stop
referring to the Transitional Federal Institutions, restored to power by the
Ethiopian Army, as a weak government. "Call it the to-be-strong government," he
said, adding that "today there is no other alternative to chaos than to support
the Institutions."
Inner City Press asked about a
letter from French NGO Action Contre La Faim which decried the UN's blurring of
humanitarian needs and "other political agendas." Video
here,
from Minute 52:24 to 55:20.
"Are you the one who asked the
Secretary-General?" Yes. "I am happy to answer to you." Mr. Laroche said that
humanitarianism and politics are very difficult to separate.
"If I want to have more
victims today, I just drop the [Transitional Federal] Institutions and we go
back to chaos," he said. He added that even the 8,000 peacekeepers called for in
the Security Council resolution would be barely enough. The four thousand
actually slated to deploy will not be enough, he said. "Forget about it. It is
not enough." Video
here, at
Minute 52.
Copter:
food or gunship?
Mr. Laroche told the media to "stop
saying that the government is weak, because I don't think that it helps."
Several reporters pointed out that they aim, or should aim, to report how things
are, not how they might be in the future. Mr. Laroche countered that "as weak at
the Institutions may appear to the Somali people or to you, there is no other
way today."
He acknowledged that this government
remains based in Baidoa, and that Somalis are fleeing Mogadishu as it has
re-descended into chaos. He spoke of a TFI-sponsored conference in April and
said that elements of the Islamic Courts Union might or might not attend. Mr.
Laroche appeared to take no position on whether the ICU should be included. One
wondered, if the UN so unequivocally embraces the Transitional Federal
Government, why should it speak to its perceived enemies?
Even Francois Lonseny Fall, the UN's other
man in, or about, Somalia, says that there should be a process included the
moderate elements of the Islamic Courts. Ban Ki-moon has given the same answer.
And so while freelancing Indiana Joneses are always appreciated, this may be a
sidebar version of Jan Egeland meeting with the Lord's Resistance Army.
To some, Mr. Laroche appears to have
conflated a location -- Mogadishu -- with a casting of political lots with a
Transitional Federal Government which has still not reached out to important
segments of Somali society, and which still has to gain trust and credibility,
given that it is only in Mogadishu due to the Ethiopian Army. It is one thing
for Mr. Laroche to urge international NGOs to come back to Mogadishu. But why
should they accept his admonition to not speak ill of the government?
Developing...
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
Rift Over UN's Call to Train Police for Somali
Government Is Downplayed by UN Headquarters
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- Should the UN in
Somalia now help train the police force of a government carried from Baidoa to
Mogadishu behind a phalanx of Ethiopian troops?
The question is raised by a recent exchange of
letters between the UN's Eric Laroche and the Paris-based NGO Action Contre la
Faim, ACF, obtained Wednesday by Inner City Press. ACF states that it currently
has "a team of 90 Somali employees and five to seven expatriates
permanently based in the field... implementing humanitarian projects in Wajid
supporting more than 20,000 people [and] 2000 other Somali employees running
health and nutrition activities in Mogadishu for more than 5,000 people per
month, with the support of expatriates who visit them as regularly as possible."
The
trigger for ACF's January 21 letter was Laroche's exhortation, as now
stated on the Internet, that "there is now a window of opportunity in
Somalia to establish some degree of governance, law and order."
As ACF's
Xavier Dubos put it in the letter,
"the press release states a range of
various activities prioritized by the UN which mix for example the 'training of
police', 'the demobilization and reintegration of militias' and the 'provision
of urgently needed basic social services.' ACF is fully aware of a general trend
by governments and the United Nations to develop integrated, coherent policy
approaches to international conflict and instability, combining political (and
sometimes military) and aid instruments. But we wish to alert OCHA about the
real risks created in the field by mixing the need for humanitarian aid and
other political priorities. Besides inherent challenges, in this complex
context, quick intervention in inadequate conditions or misperception by local
actors of the impartiality and political independence of humanitarian workers
may simply put the latter in danger and hamper humanitarian access and
assistance to the populations in the short term and in a durable manner.
These precautions are even more
relevant given the current tense security context in Mogadishu. Humanitarian aid
must be solely based on the needs of the population and strictly guided by
humanitarian principles, especially impartiality and independence. One could
expect that, given its specific mandate, OCHA and the Humanitarian Coordinator
could strengthen the necessary distinction between humanitarian activities and
any political agenda."
On
February 5, having heard about this letter but not yet having a copy of it,
Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, as
transcribed
by the UN:
Inner City Press: Thanks, and also,
referring to a letter by the NGO "Action Contre la Faim" to Eric Laroche, the
Somali representative of the UN, basically criticizing Mr. Laroche for siding
too clearly with the Ethiopian incursion and sort of taking almost a US side. I
want to know if there’s any response to that analysis and if it can be confirmed
that the letter was received, and what response is being sent?
Spokesperson: I cannot confirm this at
this point. I don’t have any information on that.
Inner City Press: Can you get
confirmation on that?
Spokesperson: Sure.
Humanitarian(s)
The following morning, the Spokesman's
Office told Inner City Press that
"Yes, there was
a letter from Action Contre la Faim to the Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia
(Eric Laroche). ACF was discussing its views on priorities for humanitarian
action in Somalia and their take on the current security situation. There was
nothing in the letter that remotely suggested Eric was 'siding with the
Ethiopians.' Eric has now responded, reaffirming the UN position that there now
exists a window of opportunity to reengage in Somalia on a humanitarian level."
The UN did not provide a copy of Mr.
Laroche's letter, much less of ACF's. But on February 7, Inner City Press
obtained both. The ACF letter does, at least "remotely," suggest that by
"training the police" in Somalia -- which has in the past two months faced an
incursion by Ethiopian troops with American support, and American gunship
attacks on southern Somalia -- the UN is "mixing the need for
humanitarian aid and other political priorities" raising questions about
"impartiality and political independence." The ACF letter cannot legitimately be
characterized as a discussion of "priorities for humanitarian action," because
it characterizes some of the UN's stated priorities as not only not a
priority, but as inconsistent with humanitarian action. It's a debate that needs
to be had, but one that the UN appears to want to prevent or to sweep under the
rug.
Mr.
Laroche's response does not fully address the issue. Laroche argues that
training the forces of the Transitional Federal Government might increase
security and humanitarian access. Time alone will tell if this argument is true.
But it is an argument, being made by the UN in the field. After Wednesday's
noon briefing, Inner City Press sought an answer to these questions from the
Office of the Spokesman staff who had written that
"there was nothing in the [ACF] letter that remotely suggested Eric was 'siding
with the Ethiopians.'" This staffer said, "I can't give you the letters," and
then seeing that Inner City Press had them, added "I've said all that I can
about them."
While it may not be necessary to say, this spokesman is otherwise helpful and
civil and more, even on Wednesday, for example, on a question about Abkazhia.
Mr. Laroche's previous work, in Congo-Brazzaville and elsewhere, has been widely
praised. But why would UN
headquarters want to muffle its field workers' arguments and the debates with
civil society of which they are a part? Developing.
On Somalia, Ban Ki-moon and US Urge Inclusion of
Moderate Islamists, While Words and Mortars Fly
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, February 6 -- As the
mortars fly in Mogadishu once
again, at the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday said he is encouraged by
the intention of Abdullahi Yusuf, president of the Transitional Federal
Government, to "convene a reconciliation congress." Video
here,
from Minute 3:12.
Inner City Press asked both
Mr. Ban and U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff if they believe the TFG "is reaching
out sufficiently to the remainder of the Islamic Courts" Union. Amb. Wolff also
tipped his figurative hat to the need for an "inclusive political process
including moderate elements of the Islamic Courts movement." Video
here,
from Minute 2:52.
But speaking to the Yemeni press from
Baidoa, Abdullahi Yusuf called the Islamic Courts "nothing but criminals" with
whom he would not negotiate. Observers say this is one of the problems with the
U.S.-based strategy of having Ethiopia restore the TFG to Mogadishu, with no
commitments to openness. Now that the TFG feels it is in control, it has no
incentive to negotiate with anyone.
Toyota technical
Meanwhile, the UN's humanitarian
coordinator Eric Laroche, previously criticized by several NGOs for pulling out
of Mogadishu when it was held by the Islamic Courts (see, e.g., "UN
defends move to pull out staff from Somalia,"
Oct. 26, 2006), put out of a press release urging NGOs to seize
the "window of opportunity" presented by Ethiopia's march to Mogadishu.
Reportedly, several NGOs are unhappy with Mr. Laroche's statements, including as
read-out at the UN, that "the international aid community must take immediate
advantage of the window of opportunity that now exists in Somalia by
substantially re- engaging in Mogadishu." One observer mused to Inner City
Press, "When will Mr. Laroche be returning to Mogadishu from his base in
Nairobi? Who is it, that he is urging back through the window?"
Mr. Laroche has worked in the Congo and
in Afghanistan. He is a respected UN figure. But as some note, the UN Security
Council did nothing while the Somalia arms embargo was violated, as Ethiopia
invaded, as the U.S. bombed south Somalia. Whether these policies will lead to
peace is still very much in question.
So too these same parties embrace of
Laurent Gbagbo's initiative in Ivory Coast to negotiated directly with the Soro-led
Forces Nouvelles. Tuesday Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Wolff if these
new direct talks complied with Council Resolution 1721, and if elections will
still be held in October. Video here, from Minute 8:08.
Amb. Wolff replied that "there are other
elements in the equation in Ivory Coast, not just limited to Gbagbo and Mr. Soro."
Another diplomat of a veto-wielding, Permanent-Five member of the Council later
told Inner City Press this was a reference to discussion in the Council of
rebels beyond the Forces Nouvelles. Selective inclusiveness, and an on-again,
off-again commitment to elections, appear to be the theme at the UN, as regards
Africa.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries
Organization Goes Unexplained
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are
Ignored
At the UN,
Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban
Disappears on Final Day
UNDP Not Covered
By Weak UN Post-Employment Restrictions, Dervis and Mizsei and Aid to
the Scapegoated
UN
Post-Employment Restriction Are Watered Down for Senior Officials,
Comparison to June Draft Reveals
At the UN, Curt
Eulogies for Dictator, Revolving Door and Budget Left for the Last Day
UNDP's Dervis
Backtracks on Transparency, Promises Accounting of Funds, Denies Role in
Uganda Abuse
At the UN,
Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still
Laudable Goals for 2025
Burundi Spin
at the UN, Amid Coup Trial and Ceasefire Not Implemented, Great Lakes
Commission Moves In
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on
Hmung
At the UN,
Annan's Long Goodbye, With Oil for Food in the Air and Hothouse Musical
Chairs
At Kofi Annan's
Farewell, UNDP Transparency is Raised, and Brian Gleeson Steps Up
At UN
in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and
Tax-Evasion, the Burden of
Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below
UNDP Will Be
Called to Greater Transparency, Says President of Spain, on UNDP's
Board, and Flaws of UNOPS
UNDP's Ad
Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in
Russia, Dodges Uganda
In Eastern
Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now
Guehenno Might Stay
At the UN,
Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci
Charges, Dueling Parties
In UNDP's Book,
Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the
Korean Mission
At UNDP, Flighty
Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither
ECOSOC
At the UN,
Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo
to a Genocidaire
Countering UN's
Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar
Bakhet
At the UN,
Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe
Belatedly Smoked
At the UN,
Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich
German Ships
UNDP Is
Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
As UN
Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia
and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Waste, Fraud and
Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship
At the UN,
Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown
on Dissent
In UNDP,
Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits
Withheld and Sachs Expenses
From Baidoa
to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is
Passed
Retaliation
Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take
Questions
Annan's
Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud
Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
At the UN,
Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back,
Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja
UNDP Spent
$567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's
Core Budget and Prime Postings
As UNDP Questions
Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in
Vanity Press
In UNDP Series,
Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
From Sleaze in
Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top
On Somalia,
Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts
In UNDP, Drunken
Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
From Violent
Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
UNDP Sources Say
Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs
On Somalia, Fiji
and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
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
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
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 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
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
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
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
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'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?
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
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
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
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
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
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
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 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
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540
