On Somalia, Security Council Denies African Union Position, Calling It a Mere Point of View, Disagreements on Darfur

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

UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- When is a communique not a communique?

   Tuesday in the UN Security Council, meeting about the crisis in Somalia, a number of council members said they would follow the position of the African Union, IGAG and the Arab League, which were slated to meet overnight. For example, Ghana's Ambassador Nanna said, "I am an African, I will follow what the African Union does." The Council  meeting broke up Tuesday night without taking any action, leading some to question whether the Council, or the most powerful members on it, were just dallying so that Ethiopia could "finish the job" on the Islamic Courts, as both outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff were asked.  Here's video of Annan; Video of Wolff.

            Overnight, as reported by BBC, the AU, IGAD and Arab League issued a communique calling for the removal of Ethiopian troops. But after the Council again took no action on Somalia on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Ghana's Nanna what happened, what about the AU communiqué?

            "Which communique?" Amb. Nanna asked.

            The one calling on Ethiopia to withdraw its troops from Somalia.

            "Oh really. We saw that communiqué, but some of us had questions about it."

            Back at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked the representative of Qatar if any of the other Council members had questioned the authenticity of the joint communiqué.

            "I wouldn't not like to comment on that," Qatar's representative said.  Similarly, the Ambassador of Sudan, major AU member, said he would not take any questions about Somalia.

      The BBC's story about the communique quotes African Union chairman Alpha Oumar Konare.  The BBC has not run any retraction. Finally Inner City Press asked the charge d'affaires of the Baidoa-based Transitional Federal Government of Somalia if it was his position that the AU / IGAD / Arab League communiqué was somehow illegitimate. The response began with obligatory praise for the leaders of each group, including Mr. Konare, as well as of the OIC.  Then this statement: "I have seen that communique. It is the point of voice of the three organizations. It is not the point of view of the member states."

AU's Konare: Council does not believe him? Bodes badly for Darfur

            And so, again: when is a communique not a communique? What powers are delegated to the leadership of inter-governmental organizations like the AU, IGAD and Arab League to take positions during a fast-breaking emergency? Or could it be, in fact, that the Tuesday statements about following whatever position the AU and Arab League would take were just a fig leaf, only true if they adopted a "don't-name-Ethiopia" position?

   Inner City Press asked U.S. Amb. Wolff about the AU communique, and about President Bush' reported call to Uganda's Museveni. Amb. Wolff said he had not information to divulge on the latter, and did not answer the former. Video here.

            On the sidelines of the Council stakeout, a US official portrayed Qatar as alone in demanding language about all foreign forces leaving Somalia. Another Deputy Ambassador of a Permanent Five country, asked if the split was 14-1, made reference to "a sizeable majority of the Council." Qatar's representative, on camera, said it had not been 14 to 1. He was seen in heated discussions with the Ambassador of Republic of Congo, just outside the Council chamber. Argentina's Ambassador Cesar Mayoral said he hoped this would be the last Council meeting of the year. But what about Somali civilians?

            On Sudan, Kofi Annan came to the Security Council at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and stayed in the Council for more than two hours. The topic was the December 23 letter than Sudan's president Al-Bashir had sent to him. Hedi Annabi went in, Ibrahim Gambari came out. Finally Mr. Annan came out and declared the letter an accomplishment. After Annan left, Sudan's Ambassador denied virtually everything in the letter.  Combined with the Council's open diss of the AU's chairman Konare, thinks do not look good for Darfurians.

            In the same spot, Annan had taken a few questions, all about diplomacy and where he'll be for New Year's Eve. He had mentioned Afghanistan as a "victory" of the Council and UN, but declined to take a shouted question about Pakistan's just announced policy of planting land mines on its border with Afghanistan, as a flesh-tearing argument that it is cracking down on insurgents. The Annan administration's top duo's last minute deletion from their post-employment restrictions policy, now no longer prohibiting senior ex-officials from lobbying the UN, again went unexplained. No questions were asked about the just-filed Oil for Food class action lawsuit by citizens of Iraq against BNP Paribas and the Australian Wheat Board. UNDP has been asked about its Somali operations, without response as yet. It would be bad form, apparently, to ask any questions about how the UN is run. To the next Secretary-General, then. Here's to 2007.

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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...

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...

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

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

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