UNDP's
North Korea Scandal, Just a Tip of the Iceberg, Opens Window on Larger Problems
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 19, 3:30 a.m. -- This morning one part of the UN Development Program's
lack of accountability is exposed in conservative media: the Wall Street Journal
at midnight, and Fox News online thereafter. The Journal's story is more
detailed, quoting a Kemal Dervis letter earlier this year that
"internal audit reports are important management
tools for Executive Heads and, therefore, confidential."
How
Mr. Dervis' ultimate boss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, will feel this looks
for his widely-stated new, more transparent and trustworthy UN, will soon be
seen. While 58 senior officials were asked to submit resignations by January 15,
Mr. Dervis was not among them.
Since the Journal's headline
is "United Nations Dictators Program," we note
earlier reports
by Inner City Press that for Uzbekistan's Karimov regime, UNDP helps collect
taxes and work with computer software. Karimov blocks Internet access to most
critical websites. In
Zimbabwe,
UNPD has sponsored and legitimated a Mugabe-dominated "Human Rights" Commission.
It's not only wrong when a UNDP-assisted dictator is seeking nuclear weapons.
Mugabe evicted 700,000 poor people and now threatens to do it again. The need
for scrutiny of UNDP goes well beyond North Korea.
UNDP's
man in Uzbekistan
The Journal's story also
quotes UNDP's rarely heard-from head of Communications David Morrison, that UNDP
is taking "all necessary measures to avoid misperceptions or unintended
consequences." Last we heard from Mr. Morrison, he was writing to all UNDP staff
on
December 8,
2006, denouncing Inner City Press for, among other things, daring to ask UNDP
and then UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric for copies of UNDP audits.
On December 7th at the UN's noon
briefing, Inner City Press asked for "an investigative audit of the Russian
Federation office of UNDP that has never been released." Mr. Dujarric, using
talking points provided by UNDP, responded that
"Mark Malloch
Brown did use that word [jerk].
It was in response to a specific question that Matthew had asked him in the hall
as the Deputy Secretary-General was going from one meeting to another. The
question was thrown at him... I think, Matthew, as I’ve said before, you’ve
asked numerous and numerous questions of UNDP, which I think is your right to
do. No one would ever challenge that right. More than 50 questions, including
16 additional overnight, which UNDP is working to address."
But more than 40 days later, still the
audit of UNDP Russia hasn't been released, nor requested audits of UNDP's
operations in Afghanistan, Honduras and elsewhere. UNDP's strident secrecy, and
over-reaction to all inquiries in the last two months, now appear in different
light. UNDP was aware of requests for the U.S. mission and then the Wall Street
Journal. Internally, UNDP's senior management and Communications staff comforted
themselves with the story that they are helping the poor, if only with or in
their minds, and that anyone who asks questions must be conservative. In fact,
UNDP is open to far more damning criticism from those who care about the poor.
Junkets to Goa, open-ended consultant contracts to insiders, $737,000 for "UNDP:
A Better Way?" -- these are all funds that could and should have been spent on
the poor.
In recent days, UNDP has bombarded Inner
City Press with requests for corrections of such things as photo captions and
any critical analysis. Both the Journal and Fox News pieces are more
opinionated. Will UNDP request, much less get, corrections or retractions from
either outlet? Or are UNDP's demands limited to smaller, more forward looking
media?
Inner City Press began in earnest its
UNDP series on November
29, 2006, when Brian Gleeson was without explanation removed from his post
as head of Human Resources of UNDP. Initially it appears that UNDP's fight-back
was to defend Mr. Gleeson. But having spoken with Mr. Gleeson, and considered
all the timing, it was the question of audits, and of Kemal Dervis' bending of
the rules, that presaged UNDP's outbursts. Now Mr. Dervis' position on
withholding audits even from UNDP's funders has been highlighted in a global
business newspaper. Mr. Dervis was conveniently out of town when the news broke,
but coming back, for the Executive Board's start.
Recent
weeks have included a number of "informal" Executive Board meetings. Observers
say these informals are used to co-opt supposed overseers. There are also other
consultations. Now a recent comment by a Swiss development staffer, than UNDP
accused Inner City Press of being a stalking horse for the U.S. mission, makes
more sense. UNDP knew these stories were coming, and in bad faith or by error
tried to link any and all of its critics to what it will portray as a
conservative, pro-U.S. attack in the Wall Street Journal and Fox.
What is lost in all this, as so often at
the top echelons of UNDP, is the poor. Developing.
Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the
poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to
conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the
stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we
apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the
information flowing.
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
UNDP
Administrator's Discretionary Spending Includes Mysterious Special Audit and
$592,000 for Book
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 17-18 -- The UN Development Program has finally provided "an accounting
of the spending of the Administrator's discretionary / contingency fund for the
years 2004 - 2006." A commitment to provide this information was made four week
ago by UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis. He began at UNDP in August 2005.
Therefore the first half of the triennium was under Mark Malloch Brown, and the
second half under Mr. Dervis.
The
"accounting" provided by UNDP is not entirely clear. For 2006, in which $931,000
was spent from Mr. Dervis' discretionary fund, $131,000 is purposed to "RBEC" --
the Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS States. This is the unit that was run
for six years by
Kalman Mizsei,
until September 2006. The comment provided is "Special Advisor on
Chernobyl."
Fully
$709,000 of the 2006 spending, and $698,000 of the 2005 spending, was for the
Millennium Project, the group led up by Jeffrey Sachs and his team including
Guido Schmidt-Traub, which was brought in-house at UNDP without, UNDP sources
say, following recruitment and hiring rules. That's $1,407,000 over the two
years, which still doesn't jibe with the elsewhere-listed Millennium Project
expense, from mid-2005 to the end of 2006, of $3,300,000. Where did the other
$1,893,000 come from? This will be inquired into.
UNDP
says it uses sports to fight drugs in Osh, Kyrgyzstan
In 2005,
fully $707,000 was devoted to the "Office of Sport for Development and Peace," a
unit which has brought to UN Headquarters such figures as Serena Williams and a
former Swiss president who is a mountain climber and gun enthusiast. This
Office of Sport was also given $246,000 in 2004 and $91,000 in 2006.
UNDP's
"work in partnership with the private sector" was designed by a "Private Sector
Commission... made up of 10-15 prominent individuals," toward which the UNDP
Administrator directed $497,000 in 2004, and $31,000 in 2005, including for
"cost of advisors."
In
2004-2005, $88,000 was devoted to Special Events, including a "Goodwill Advocacy
tour of Tajikistan" and "UN-hosted launches of books on development."
UNDP's
disclosure also states that "in additiona to the regular discretionary /
contingency fund, UNDP also established a one-time special fund through a
reprioritization of $2.5 million in unspent resources to administer in the years
2003-2006." Among the uses of these "reprioritized" funds were, for "UNDP
History Book," $121,000 in 2004, $271,000 in 2005, and $250,000 in 2006, for a
total of $592,000.
Since
UNDP has recently
revised its total expenditures on the book "UNDP: A Better Way?"
up to $737,000, the
question remains where the difference between the $737,000 in UNDP expenditures
and the $592,000 in "reprioritized" funds came from. Inquiry into this will be
made.
Also in
2006, from the "reprioritized" funds there was a $67,000 expenditure described
as "Funding for Special Audits," and described in full as "additional resources
were made available to fund an urgent, unscheduled audit to investigate concerns
that had arisen in one country office." Since the most recent
publicly-available audit of UNDP ends with December 2005, inquiry will be made
into this "urgent, unscheduled audit to investigate concerns that had arisen in
one country office" -- a country left unidentified.
While such an audit within the UN Secretariat would have to be disclosed to any
of the 192 member states upon their request, at UNDP things are quite different.
Only a summary would be provided, and only to the countries on UNDP's Executive
Board. While some have said this inconsistency, of UNDP lagging behind the UN
Secretariat in terms of transparency, will be fixed soon, Mr. Dervis on December
21 said this might not happen, due to some "privacy" concern that for some
inexplicable reason doesn't exist with regard to the UN Secretariat. Privacy for
urgent audits? We'll see.
At
UNDP, Former Staffers Get Consulting Contracts, Dalberg in Ethiopia Called
"Insiders' Game"
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 17 -- The UN Development Program contracts with a company, Dalberg
Global Development Advisors, whose founder Henrik Skovby worked for UNDP "both
at their headquarters and in the field,"
and is still listed as a UNDP employee. The lead person on Dalberg's advisory
board, Sam Nyambi, lists his experience as having supervised 110 staff at UNDP
and served as UNDP Resident Representative in Ethiopia. Dalberg has advised the
government of Ethiopia, "along
with a UN program to support private sector development activities."
Dalberg's
promotional materials state
that it is now "assisting UNDP in developing a toolkit to support its
interventions in Private Sector Development. The project involves developing a
diagnostic and analytical toolkit for supporting the design of programs in
Private Sector Development."
While
this work may be laudable, it raises questions, which Inner City Press posed on
Tuesday to UNDP's Communications Office:
"what are
UNDP's contracts with the company Dalberg, how much are they worth, how were
they awarded and what is UNDP's position on awarding contracts to companies on
whose advisory board long-time UNDP employees sit? Please disclose any other
UNDP contracts with companies on which ex-UNDP employees sit on the board or
executive board."
UNDP's
Communications Office responded at 5:52 p.m. on Tuesday that
"we’ll look into it and try to get you
something as soon as we can. If you need an initial comment for publication we
can send you that."
Since
Inner City Press' question was specifically "on deadline," at least some comment
would have been expected. But half an hour later, UNDP wrote that
"we'll need to
get in touch with colleagues in different offices in different places to address
them, so a more substantial response tonight is simply not possible."
One might
expect that UNDP had a computer system that could quickly confirm if a company
has UNDP contacts, and for how much. One contract of particular interest
involves Dalberg in Ethiopia in the summer of 2004. But even as of 5 p.m.
deadline on the second day, Wednesday, no information had been provided by
UNDP's Communications Office.
The
UN in Ethiopia (Dalberg not shown)
Online,
one still finds Mr. Henrik Skovby
with a UNDP email address,
and an office listed at the FF building on 45th Street, Room 604. A visit
there, to the Bureau of Development Policy, on Wednesday afternoon found a
different name in front of room 604: Salil Shetty. The staff list in the front
of the office lists "Private Public Partnerships," staffed by Arun Kashyap.
There are two consultants listed, Olga Ioffe and Lisa Burnett-Leacock. There
once was a non- (or pre-) consultant Lisa Burnett at UNDP's Bureau of
Management.
Other
informed sources, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation by UNDP, have
characterized Dalberg Global Development Advisors as "the Halliburton of the UN
system," explaining that Dalberg has been given contracts largely due to
political and regional connections. These sources say that Jan Mattsson
when he was head of UNDP's Bureau of Management was instrumental in Dalberg
being awarded open-ended Long Term Agreements, including compensation of $1000 a
day for experts. "It's an insiders' game," one source said, asking Inner City
Press to inquire more closely into this and a range of other UNDP practices the
source called "non-transparent." Other contacts to Dalberg were awarded by Tina
Hansen's Internal Consultants Group, based like UNOPS in Copenhagen. Jan
Mattsson is now in Copenhagen as head of UNOPS, on which we'll have more in the
near future.
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
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