As Ethiopia Bombs Somalia, UN Security Council Gives Wink and Nod, Ready to Grin and Bear it on Darfur

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- A skeleton crew at the UN on Tuesday debated whether to speak the name of Ethiopia, as bombs fell on Mogadishu. A draft Presidential Statement (PRST) proposed by Qatar was skewered by the Permanent Five led by the United States. Outside the Council chamber, Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff to whom in the Islamic Courts Union the Council and the U.S. were speaking.

            "We hear from the Secretary-General's representative," Amb. Wolff answered placidly. Video here.

            But this envoy, Francois Lonseny Fall, has reportedly only been in Mogadishu once during the course of his mandate. Tuesday Inner City Press asked Mr. Fall if he had any information on the reported killing of 50 civilians in the town of Cadado by the Ethiopian air force. Video here, from Minute 1:52. Mr. Fall said, "I do not have any indication... I did not received any information about the killing of civilians." The Sudanese representative, likewise, denied harm to civilians, including Inner City Press' specific questions about the report of 50 killed in Cadado. We'll see.

Somali children: bombs from air accepted by Council?

            Meanwhile Argentine Ambassador Mayoral told reporters that the U.S.'s Amb. Wolff told the Council that he would have to check with Washington on any revisions to the PRST. From the State Department in Foggy Bottom, spokesman Gonzalo Gallego said he had "no information on whether the United States has been bolstering the Ethiopian military through delivery of supplies."

            Ghana's Ambassador Nanna was the most open, or at least the most present. He said he will follow the African Union's position (and, incidentally, that he would support Nigeria's ex-foreign minister as Ban Ki-moon's deputy secretary general).

            The debate of wording centered on the draft's Paragraph 2, to which the UK proposed adding a reference to "creating the conditions for the withdrawal of all unauthorized foreign forces from Somalia." France, represented by Amb. de la Sabliere himself, proposed adding a reference "to a possible meeting of the AU/IGAD/Arab League o[n] December 27." France also wanted to emphasize the need for humanitarian access, a veiled swipe at the Islamic Courts, whose territory has been labeled "Code 5," or most dangerous, by UN humanitarian agencies. Whether the UN Development Program considers all portions of Somalia Code 5 is response to a question long-pending with the agency.

            On Sudan, Kofi Annan is slated to attend Council consultations on Wednesday on Darfur, specifically on Sudanese president Al-Bashir's December 23 letter appearing to accept a hybrid force, but only "through the Tripartate Committee," on which Sudan essentially has a veto.

  Just after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the Council gave up for the day. Permanent Five spokespeople portrayed Qatar as standing alone in calling for all foreign forces to leave Somalia. They emphasized that the Courts should negotiated before any call for Ethiopia to pull back. And Qatar's presidency of the Council expires in two business days...

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At the UN, Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries Organization Goes Unexplained

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 23, 1:50 p.m. -- Minutes before the UN Security Council voted 15-0 to impose sanctions on Iran on nuclear issues, a spokesperson emerged from the Chamber and breathlessly told reporters of a particular company which got deleted from the sanctions list at the last moment. Aerospace Industries Organization, listed in previous drafts under "Entities involved in the ballistic missile program," was suddenly taken off the list. A Security Council source, representing a Permanent Five, veto-wielding member, confirmed to Inner City Press that Russia had demanded the deletion of this company.

            After the vote, Inner City Press asked the European Union Three ambassadors to explain the deletion. French Ambassador de la Sabliere said it came out as part of the negotiation, in order to get the resolution passed. UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry pointed out that three subsidiaries of AIO remain on the list. But why then remove the parent company? What do the other subsidiaries of AIO do?

EU3 leave AIO deletion unexplained

            Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff to explain the effect of deleting AIO from the list. Ask other members, Amb. Wolff suggested. Next up was Russian Ambassador Churkin. Inner City Press asked, specifically, what the other subsidiaries of AIO do. Amb. Churkin stated that "the sponsors" of the resolution took AIO's name off the list, and when press about what the other subsidiaries of AIO do, stated, "I am not an expert on these matters." But why then demand that the name come off the sanctions list?

            Since, as previously reported, the U.S. used online research to compose the sanctions list, here are two top online references to the "Aerospace Industries Organisation" --

From irandefence.net, as a "subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense" -- "The Aerospace Industries Organisation, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defence, claims to support the manufacturing process by engaging in 'Scud missile restoration'.

From warshipsifr.com, as the manufacturer of "an anti-ship missile named 'Kosar'" -- "recently Iran's Aerospace Industries Organisation revealed it had manufactured an anti-ship missile named 'Kosar.'"

            So why would it be so important to Russia to continue being able to do business with this conglomerate, other than three subsidiaries? The three "subordinate entities of AIO" which remained on the sanctions list as enacted are:

Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group -- reportedly has contracted in the past with Russian Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and Rosvoorouzhenie;

Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group -- reportedly has contracted with Russia's Baltic State Technical University and the China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO); and

Fajr Industrial Group, formerly Instrumentation Factory Plant -- which has been linked, interestingly, with KBR / Halliburton, click here for more.

To be continued.

            In other Saturday Security Council action, a resolution on the protection of journalists in armed conflicts was enacted, and then announced to reporters by the Ambassador of Greece. Inner City Press asked how armed conflict is defined -- specifically, if the definition would include situations like Chechnya, and murders of reporters like that of Anna Politkovskaya. The Greek Ambassador turned quickly away from the microphone. Like the question, repeatedly asked, about the double-standard of cracking down on some countries' nuclear programs and not others, some issues are just not discussed at the UN Security Council. But if an alleged nuclear proliferators is included on a sanctions list and then at the last moment is deleted, it should we think be explained.

At the UN, Iran Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are Ignored

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 23, 11 a.m. -- With the UN Security Council expected to meet at 11 a.m. to vote and approve a watered down resolution on Iran's nuclear programs, journalists began assembling outside the chamber just after 10 a.m.. Camera-people arrived first, to set up in the area raised above the stakeout. Photographers plugged in laptops to upload the many photos they would take. Print reporters arrived last, grabbing electrical outlets far from the stakeout, but near to the entrance to the Council chambers.

            A new draft, "in blue," was distributed by the UN Spokesman's office. The office had been cleaned from the previous night's party, at the tail end of which Kofi Annan's chef de cabinet Alicia Barcena chatted with reporters, who were nibbling addictively on cheese doodles and pretzels late-bought from a Duane Reade on Second Avenue.

            The draft, S/2006/1010, sponsored by France, Germany and the UK, has 24 operative paragraphs and an annex full of names. It's been reported that the name came straight from Google. Since their assets are to be frozen upon adoption of the resolution, one imagines the money has already been moved. News travels fast.

            Ambassador Mayoral of Argentina was the first to speak to the press, without much effect. UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, more formal, stood at the microphone and said a vote is expected by noon.  The Russian spokeswoman shooed reporters away, saying "You must wait for Ambassador Churkin." When he arrived, he stood smiling but silent down the catwalk to the chamber.

Churkin on a slow day

 "Behind the barricades!" a media accreditation official cried out. Photographers milled, as they did earlier this year during consideration of resolutions on Lebanon and North Korea. There is no such interest in Somalia, even as the country moved to a hot and regional war.

            In the morning's news was word of a class action lawsuit growing from the UN Oil for Food program, against BNP Paribas and the Australian Wheat Board. The UN would have been named, it seems clear, if not for the immunity argument. One hoped to ask Kofi Annan to comment on the suit, but his staffers said he will only come to the UN if a letter's received from Sudan. And if it permits a claim of progress, one assumes.

            Beyond Oil for Food, words spat by Mr. Annan repeatedly this week, other UN reform issues languished, not least the mounting irregularities identified in the UN Development Program by Inner City Press and now others. More on those next week.

            The Council chamber filled and the assembled media milled, as this first interim report went up, just after the going-into-session Council bell rang at 11:12 a.m.. Watch this space.

Update of 11:29 a.m. -- The stakeout buzzed that the Russian spokeswoman spun that, from Part B of the annex, entities involved in the ballistic missile program, one entity has managed to get itself removed: Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO). And inside the Chamber, the talking began...

Update of 11:48 a.m. -- After speeches by the Ambassadors of Russia, the United States and Qatar, the resolution was approved 15-0 as Resolution 1737. Then began statements following the vote, starting with UK Amb. Emyr Jones Parry...

Update of 12:05 p.m. -- The 15-0 came right at the cusp of deadlines for Japanese media. There was groaning as the pre-vote speeches went on. In post-vote speechifying, Chinese Amb. Wang, without his glasses on, explained his country's positive vote. The Iranian representative sat twisting his hands and smirking at the last seat at the Council's round table...

Update of 12:18 p.m. -- As the Iranian Ambassador began to speak, his staffer handed out copies of his remarks. This was seven and a half pages, single-spaced, and came replete with footnotes, unlikely to be read out in the Chamber. But it's sure to soon go online...

At the UN, Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban Disappears on Final Day

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 22 -- On the Friday before Christmas, when the General Assembly went deep into the night and the Security Council deferred for one more day a much watered-down resolution on Iran, Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric held what he's called his last press conference. Coincidentally, or not, the long awaited, much-hyped anti-revolving door policy was to be announced. The briefing was begun by Mark Malloch Brown, who praised Stephane Dujarric and then prepared to go. What -- no questions? Well, no. No questions taken at all.

            In his opening presentation, Mr. Dujarric mentioned the new post-employment restrictions. Inner City Press asked him to confirm that there had been a stronger draft, which would have precluded senior UN officials, not only those in procurement, from lobbying the UN for two years after leaving. Mr. Dujarric declined to comment on prior drafts, or who made the weakening change -- that individual had just left the room.

            The earlier draft, dated June 12, 2006, provided that

"Former staff members at the Assistant Secretary-General level or above are prohibited from making, with the intent to influence, a communication to or appearance before any staff member of the United Nations, regardless of level... This prohibition is effective for two years."

            This provision is entirely missing from the finalized policy, which is limited to "staff members participating in the procurement process." All of the Assistant Secretaries-General, and the Deputy Secretary General, were given a Christmas present three days early: the ability to lobby the UN during the next two years. The DSG will, at least initially, be based at Yale University. But the lobbying will have to be watched, particularly in light of the opaque process by which the initial prohibition was removed.

            Later on Friday, a UN official gave some rationale for dropping the prohibitions on senior officials, giving rise to a drier, stand-alone story, click here to view.

            The mood in the UN briefing room on Friday was like a professor's last day. The journalists, not dissimilar to a school class in a hothouse, thanked Stephane in turn. Reuters regretted being third to AP and Bloomberg -- "as per usual," Bloomberg jibed -- and a wise and wizened Anatolian reporter wished the half-French Steph "bonne chance." Inner City Press said, and meant, "It was a pleasure," a statement that was reciprocated. Then Inner City Press asked about human rights in Zimbabwe, a topic left unaddressed in Kofi Annan's ten years. What about Mugabe's refusal to honor the extradition request for Marian Mengistu?

            "The Secretary-General is against impunity," Stephane said, and meant it. But what does it mean? Peter Karim, who held UN peacekeepers hostage, was given a MONUC-brokered position in the Congolese Army. Joseph Kony of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, although indicted by the International Criminal Court, meets with Mr. Annan's humanitarian envoy and is not close to begin arrested. We are all against impunity. And yet it continues.

            Overnight full copies of Paul Volcker's report on UN Oil for Food appeared in the hall outside the UN Spokesman's office. Seven volumes, more fifteen pounds, fine reading for the holiday season.

            But the holiday has yet to being, at the UN. The Security Council scheduled Saturday meetings on Iran and journalists and armed conflict. The GA left until 10 then 11 p.m. it's rubber-stamp approval of committees' reports, including the Capital Master Plan. The funding of investigation of Qana caused much consternation, with the U.S., Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands voting negative. Where, one asked, was Ivory Coast? Doesn't Gbagbo want the U.S. vote in the Council?

GA on wide screen

  They droned on in the GA: the Fifth Committee adopted this resolution without a vote. May I take it the General Assembly wished to do the same? (A beat.) It is so decided. And then the swinging of the ceremonial gavel we saw given to Jan Eliason.

            From the Security Council itself, it can now be reported: China delayed the resolution continuing diamond sanction on Liberia because of a specific Taiwan issue. To whit, in Brussels a bureaucrat had floated the idea of upgrading Taiwan from observer status in the (blood diamond) Kimberly process. China was so opposed to this it said it would not vote to continue diamond sanctions on  Liberia unless the Brussels wonk recanted. And so it was done. In consultations, issues are traded away and it rarely gets reported. Other examples, to be more fully explored in 2007 are Ivory Coast and Abkhazia, and, we predict, Kosovo.

            Also noted in the week's vote counts is Ivory Coast joining the U.S. and Palau in opposing resolutions. Gbagbo knows which side his bread is buttered on. And he and his wife Simone prepare, it is reported, to throw UN envoy Pierre Schori out of the country.

            In this last week of Security Council action for 2006, several lesser-noticed resolutions are indicative of the Council's flaws. While the Council finally enacted a purported "de-listing" procedure whereby individuals and entities on which the Council has imposed sanctions can try to get off the list, the regime makes a mockery of due process. Instead of providing standards of proof and rules of procedure, it's again a popularity contest and political football. Without the support of (key) Council members, there'll be no de-listing. Pomp and circumstances, a kangaroo court on the west bank of New York's East River, at least as regards the claims of those put on sanctions lists.

            But it is not only a hall of mirrors, our Turtle Bay idyll. As night fell on the second shortest day, the Spokesman's office threw its end-of-year, end-of-term party. The food was chips, the drink red wine and scotch. But the stories were, as the credit card ad has it, priceless. Mojitos and cigars on beaches with ambassadors of Brazil, chefs de cabinet decamping to Mexico for a few days. Why, one asked, does Russia get so few top posts? The USSR used to pay eight percent of the budget, and now barely over one percent, comes the answer. And soon after the party, the GA was to meet, on the dry but crucial scale of assessments. We are family.

            Kofi Annan himself will be at an undisclosed location in New York for the rest of his term, "available if needed," he's said. There's continued suffering in Darfur, accelerating war in Somalia and, as decried in a little-noticed UN press release, increased abductions of school children in Haiti. We'll have more on and around this last in the near future.

At the UN, Iran Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on Hmong

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- The featured bout at the Security Council on Wednesday was all about Iran, a "text in blue" circulating after the sun went down to the ten elected members who were excluded from the draft's negotiation. This exclusion perhaps explains the reference to them as the "E-10." E not for elected but for excluded. Ambassador Peter Burian of Slovakia asked reporters questions if he had felt cut out with the two word, "I agree," adding that "we are not involved in the negotiations" but should have been, "at an earlier stage."

            When P-5 Ambassadors de la Sabliere of France and Emyr Jones Parry of the UK emerged, they said that they are open to feedback, if other members want "a conversation." But voting is slated for Friday.

            On Wednesday in Abidjan, Ivorian strongman Laurent Gbagbo in a speech said that the UN-established buffer-zone should be eliminated, and that the UN "should leave soon." In light of the recent UN Security Council resolution demanding that Gbagbo finally hold elections, this speech gave rise to questions later on Wednesday at UN Headquarters in New York. Kofi Annan's spokesman first spoke vaguely about "the process," then in response to Inner City Press' question, more specifically about the Gbagbo speech. Video here. From the transcript:

Inner City Press: On Ivory Coast, Gbagbo gave a speech in which he said the buffer zone should be eliminated, and essentially, many people say, he wants to attack the rebels again.  Is there something more, it’s not just that the process isn’t going forward.  It’s that he said that the UN process and the resolution are not, have accomplished nothing for Ivorian.  Are either the envoys there or the Secretary-General going to say something more than "it's going too slow?"

Spokesman: We're obviously very concerned that no unilateral moves that would take place outside of the agreed framework of the road map that’s been agreed by the Security Council, with the African Union and ECOWAS.  The UN has been in touch with all the political parties to move together along the lines of the road map.

              Later in the UN's second floor, Inner City Press asked French Ambassador de la Sabliere what the Security Council would do. Reference was made to issuing a Presidential Statement or PRST. But when Inner City Press asked the Council's president for December, Qatar's Ambassador, he said the Council is too busy working on Iran, he's aware of no PRST. Another Council diplomat said France is taking the lead, and that because of the Iran negotiations, some others in the Permanent Five are given France more leeway on Ivory Coast than has recently been the case, apparently a trade-off for a harsher stance on Iran.

            A respected UN source, to whom this scenario was described, said "Welcome to the UN" and asked how this is different than the horse-trading in the U.S. Congress or many other national legislatures. But are pork barrel project to fill potholes in Oklahoma City different than peacekeeping forces in Abidjan?

Happier days in Cote D'Ivoire

            At Wednesday's noon briefing by Kofi Annan's spokesman, there were substantially more questions than answers, on issues ranging from Nepal to the Hmong refugees threatened with refoulement from Thailand back to Laos.  From the transcript:

Inner City Press:  In Nepal, part of the peace agreement, there's been a threat by the Maoists to call a national strike.  Is the envoy there, or anyone, what is the UN's position on whether the Government should have appointed ambassadors before the Maoists?

Spokesman:  I don't have anything specific on that, I'm sorry.

Inner City Press:  There was a letter by Mrs. Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, stating that there is no question of her reappointment, her appointment runs through 2008.  So, I guess I'm wondering with all these [Special Representatives of the Secretary-General] SRSGs, what is the process, is there any process for review by the next Secretary-General or do those terms just run?

Spokesman:  The contracts of the [Under-Secretary-General] USG's end, if I'm not mistaken, early next year.  For the SRSGs, their contracts -- some of them run longer, they're all on different terms.  Obviously, it'll be up to the next administration to decide how to proceed with those appointments or the retention of those people.  But, I can't speak to the post-1 January world.

   This will be re-visited in the "post-January 1st world," from which responses are awaited. And now regarding the Hmong:

Inner City Press: These Hmong, people that have left Laos and are in Thailand, governments in both Laos and Thailand have said that they are going to be returned to Laos, they say that they're facing death and attacks by the Laotian military.  I'm wondering, [Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] UNHCR has said something.  Is there some way to find out thorough your office what is the status of that and what is actually?

Spokesman:  We can check with UNHCR. 

And finally, this question foreshadowing in the next day or two:

Inner City Press: On this anti-revolving door policy, is it going to be definitely announced before?

Spokesman:  I would very much like to be able to announce it before the end of this week.

Inner City Press:  Can you highlight to us, if there are any other policies that are going to be finalized before the end of the year or before your last briefing?  Is there anything else on your radar screen?

Spokesman:  Yes, the two issues I do expect to announce something on -- one is the revolving door policy and the other is the agreement having to do with the handling of the papers from the Volcker Committee.  We’d like to get those two things out and done with before 31 December.

            As previously reported, Inner City Press' sources, as confirmed by a P-5 diplomat, indicate that a draft anti-revolving door policy that would have prohibited lobbying for two years is being watered down, by one of the 38th floor's powers in his final days...

Other Inner City Press reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on www.InnerCityPress.com --

UNDP's Ad Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in Russia, Dodges Uganda

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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 --

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