From Sleaze in Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN - 3d in a series followed by fourth

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 1, lightly edited Dec. 7 -- In UNDP's far-flung empire, the strings are pulled for giving jobs by a very few hands in New York. This week the director of UNDP's Office of Human Resources Brian Gleeson was "re-designated" without notice to a quickly created Special Advisor post. Since Inner City Press' Wednesday night report on this, mail has flooded in. Below is a sample message regarding Vietnam, the author of which requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation by UNDP.

            Where UNDP employees' communications allow for direct follow-up, Inner City Press has been calling UNDP. Friday Inner City Press telephoned the head of UNDP's Poverty Project Nora Lustig. UNDP sources have told Inner City Press that Ms. Lustig was brought in to UNDP in April 2006, outside of the normal channels, and that she has since then similarly brought on a crew of her own. Click here for Ms. Lustig on film.

    Friday Ms. Lustig's secretary told Inner City Press that she was in a meeting, but wrote down a question and request for comment on a detailed account Inner City Press has heard from multiple sources of a incident in which, allegedly, Ms. Lustig was abusive to a UK staffer, in front of a representative from the UK Home Office, who complained of Ms. Lustig's behavior. The story goes on from there, and may soon be told at greater length in this space. In fairness get Ms. Lustig's comment, Inner City Press left a detailed question with her secretary, in the building known as DC-1 otherwise known as a maze. Ms. Lustig's secretary called back to say that Ms. Lustig was referring Inner City Press to Kemal Dervis' personal spokeswoman, who in turn stated that the deputy communications official of UNDP would call with answers, which never happened, as of 9:55 p.m. deadline.

            Because of the involvement of UK officials and personnel, Inner City Press on Friday asked UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry about the incident, and whether he thought it appropriate, as a matter of UN reform and transparency, that the head of UNDP has not held a press conference in 14 months. Amb. Jones Parry said he would not be aware of the former, and had no comment on the latter, other than pro forma praise for UNDP. Further inquiries have been made with the UK mission.

Kofi Annan with UNDP at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, May 2006

            At UNDP, a pattern of favoritism in hiring is emerging. Regarding Vietnam the following arrived:

Subject: Update on Brian Gleeson Story, for Mr. Matthew Russell Lee

From: [Name withheld upon request]

To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Sent: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 3:44 AM

  Dear Mr. Matthew Russell Lee,

 I write as Vietnamese staff member at UNDP Viet Nam. I wish remain anonymous to protect my job, but I feel is my duty to write you about other linkages with Mr. Brian Gleeson and high salary appointments by Senior Management in our Country Office.

 The story on Mr. Brian Gleason is quite demoralizing for many UNDP staff who carry out their duties with honesty, integrity and fairness.

 But no organization is 100% clean. Senior Management of UNDP Viet Nam often advise our Party and Government on transparency and stamping out corruption, even while some of us know that some elements inside our office are not always clean.

 But it seems that lower paid national staff are held at much higher standard than senior international staff who run our office. One female national staff member was made to suffer greatly for two years following minor infraction and then forced out of the organization.

 Meanwhile not long after, our senior management approved a number of high paying international appointments without following required procedures and regulations of UNDP.

 Many of us national staff know that former Resident Representative at UNDP Viet Nam Mr. Jordan Ryan (a close friend of Mr. Mark Malloch Brown) and the Deputy Resident Representative of Operations Mr. Neil Reece-Evans (a close friend of Mr. Brian Gleeson) collaborated to recruit through the "back door" an American friend from the past Mr. Jonathan Pincus at very high paying job in our office.

 Mr. Brian Gleeson was informed but he choose to ignore. Mr. Jonathan Pincus then use similar procedure to hire his friends in the office and on projects.

  Everything was made correct on paper according to procedure, but recruitment decisions were made prior to "official advertisements" and a recruitment process that was superficial and not clean.

 Meanwhile there are many national economists in Viet Nam who can do the job at much lower cost or even other foreign economists living in Hanoi who require much less pay and can save transportation costs. 

 Some of these appointments should now be reviewed and cancelled and a proper recruitment process undertaken with open, fair and transparent competition for Vietnamese economists in our country. Mr. Kemal Dervis will visit our country next week, but we dare not speak.

I wish to remain anonymous. This seems only way to clean our organization.

            This desire to clean up UNDP is widespread at the non-top levels of UNDP. And the account of bogus competitive evaluations for job which have already in reality been doled out to favored insiders is echoed from elsewhere in the system.

[For the record: On Dec. 4, three days after this story was published, UNDP wrote that "Hiring at the Vietnam country office takes place according to standard UNDP procedures. Jonathan Pincus, a tenured professor at the University of London, was recruited in 2004 as Senior Country Economist in a transparent and competitive process. He was not previously known to any senior staff at the UNDP Vietnam Country Office. Dr. Pincus is a widely recognized expert in his area and has made substantial contributions to UNDP and the wider UN system’s work in Vietnam. With respect to the staff letter posted on your website, UNDP has been a leader in establishing channels through which staff can air their grievances or report misconduct without fear of retaliation.  Among other measures, UNDP has put in place an anonymous fraud hotline and a mechanism to file complaints on sexual harassment and abuse of authority." And see Inner City Press's December 7 article, the eighth installment in this UNDP Series, also on Vietnam - click here to view.]

            On Friday morning, Inner City Press put to Kemal Dervis and three members of his communications staff a set of six questions, one of which concerns hiring practices at UNDP Vietnam. As of six o'clock, there had been no response from UNDP. Therefore Inner City Press made two telephone calls to UNDP. Kemal Dervis' personal spokeswoman told Inner City Press that the agency's deputy spokesperson would be calling with answers. But as of 9:30 p.m. deadline, no information was forthcoming.

            Now, after Inner City Press on Friday asked one and then another of the Permanent Five Security Council members' UN Ambassadors countries for their views on Kemal Dervis not having held a press conference in 14 months, Inner City Press is informed that Mr. Dervis will deign to take questions, it is believed on December 14. We'll see.

            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 second installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag but keep the information coming -- "to clean [the] organization" of UNDP, as said above by the economist in Vietnam.

Feedback: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

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In UNDP, Drunken Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman Mizsei

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN, 2d in a Series

UNITED NATIONS, November 30 -- Drunk on a plane to Turkey, making racialist comments in a taxi in Johannesburg, engaging in sexual harassment and the awarding of jobs in expectation of sexual favors at the UN's Headquarters in New York. These are snapshots of the director for Europe and the CIS Countries for the UN Development Program, Kalman Mizsei, before he was finally asked and allowed to resign in September of this year.

            A number of UNDP sources, including in Central Europe, have described for Inner City Press the tenure of Kalman Mizsei (pronounced, Mee-Jay) which included overseeing serious corruption at UNDP's Moscow office, in which funds from the European Union for rehabilitating the Moscow planetarium went missing, and UNDP served as a veneer for sole source contracts in exchange for 10% of the money passing through. Kalman Mizsei, a neo-conservative economist, was a proponent of these financial schemes, in which UNDP made money (built up "local resources," in the agency's parlance) for serving as a conduit on projects including by the World Bank for such things as irrigation and sewage projects.

            Since UNDP had no technical expertise in these areas, it was easy for money to be stolen. But since so few journalists, at least at and around UN Headquarters, cover UNDP, and since UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis makes himself unavailable to the media, not having held a press conference in 14 months, the well-meaning agency continues to be run into the ground. This is part two in Inner City Press' periodic series, Profiles in Kemal Dervis' UNDP.

Kalman Mizcei, before the Fall, takes questions

            First, the current set up. On November 27, Inner City Press sought to question Kemal Dervis in the entrance of UN Headquarters. "I don't take questions like this," Mr. Dervis answered. On November 29, Inner City Press sent questions by email to Mr. Dervis and his communications staff, including

Question: Was Kalman Mitzei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP?  If so, on what grounds?

            On November 30, the following was sent from UNDP:

Subject: RE: Press questions, on deadline, re UNDP [and] Kalman Mitzei, etc.

From: [at] undp.org

To: Inner City Press

Sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:28 AM

Matthew, Below are the responses to your questions: [Question: Was Kalman Mitzei fired or otherwise relieved or removed from his position with UNDP?  If so, on what grounds?]

Response: No. As stated previously, at UNDP -- like at other organizations -- with time colleagues retire, move on or are reassigned. After serving six distinguished years at UNDP, Mr. Miszei is now Professor at Central European University’s Department of Public Policy in Budapest.

            The six distinguished years included an incident on a plane to Turkey, in which a drunken Kalman Mizsei assaulted a stewardess and the police were called, until the UN system helped extricate Mizsei from the problem. Inebriated or not, there were racist comments by Mizsei in a taxicab in Johannesburg, in earshot of a(nother) close associate of Mark Malloch Brown, then-head of UNDP and now Deputy Secretary-General.  Sources indicate to Inner City Press that Kalman Mizsei's antics, including sexual harassment and violation of hiring rules in search of sexual favors, were "legend" within UNDP. That nothing was done for so long, and that UNDP continues to this day in response to direct questions about why Mizsei left to cover it up, is indicative of more serious problems.

            In his capacity as Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, Mizsei presided over mismanagement by UNDP Russian of a World Bank-funded sewer project. (The direct mis-manager, it is reported, is still working at the UN Office of Project Services, UNOPS, more regarding which later in this series.) The next UNDP Russia manager, Fred Lyons, made the mistake of firing a local-hire Russian employee. After that, Mizsei sent a fixer, a 33-year old Bulgarian who moved Fred Lyon out of the way (to Afghanistan) and took his job -- and then went on the lam himself, embroiled in a smaller, only $1 million UNDP Russia scandal with one Tatiana Gorlov.

            Beyond these so-called smaller scandals, UNDP's business model in the Mark Malloch Brown era grew to include using UNDP's "excess administrative capacity" to become a middleman for project funded by others, about which UNDP knew little. Fees of up to 10% were paid to UNDP, for holding money for as little as one day. UNDP would provide the veneer of a legitimate bid-out and tender process, but in many cases the winner was pre-selected, and money even wired to them, before the supposed competition was held. This was and is called "mobilizing local resources," and was praised from the highest levels of UNDP.

            One aside and interim update about Brian Gleeson, who yesterday was "redesignated" from heading up UNDP's Office of Human Resources to a Senior Advisor to Surge position: some Gleeson supporters, while not disputing that Kemal Dervis attempted to fire Gleeson as, in September, Kalman Mizsei was fired, say that along with the other issues, Gleeson refused to quash one or more investigations that Dervis wanted stopped. Brian Gleeson's office was called to discuss just this type of nuance. Watch this space.

            But back to Kalman Mizsei. After a series of complaints, finally in September 2006, sources say, Mizsei was advised to resign or fire himself. Since returning to Hungary, he has bragged about, among other things, being a personal adviser to George Soros, even a nephew. Despite a number of UNDP sources placed at different levels of the agency saying that Mizsei was a disgrace and even a laughing-stock, an email query to Kemal Dervis and his communications staff this week resulted in the claim that Mizsei's service was distinguished and his departure entirely voluntary. If these are UNDP's and Dervis' standards, it is a sad day for the world's poor.

            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 second installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game shows, keep those cards and letters (and now, emails) coming.

UNDP Sources Say Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs

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

UNITED NATIONS, November 29 -- Kemal Dervis, the administrator of the UN Development Programme, sent out an email mid-afternoon on November 29 stating that the Director of UNDP's Office of Human Resources, Brian Gleeson, was taking a lower-level job as a Senior Advisor. UNDP sources tell Inner City Press that the Special Advisor position was quickly created after two events. In the first, UNDP moved to fire Brian Gleeson for having funneled high-paying jobs, outside of normal channels, to associates of UN Deputy Secretary-General, and former UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown.  According to these UNDP sources, alternative grounds for firing or requesting resignation involved [ ] harassment or the outright sale of jobs for cash, or first month's salary. Then, between 11 a.m. and Mr. Dervis' 2:20 p.m. email, something changed. Some say Mark Malloch Brown intervened. [For the record, Mr. Malloch Brown's spokesman Stephane Dujarric denied this on November 30, the day after this story was published, stating according to the transcript that "Mr. Mark Malloch Brown played no role in Mr. Gleason’s transfer from one job to another." There.] Other say Mr. Gleeson went to the office of Kemal Dervis and showed evidence of other improprieties at UNDP which he would release if the firing proceeded. Suddenly the Senior Advisor position was offered, effective immediately.

    This is also a story about an agency and its personnel being unable or unwilling to answer simple factual questions on a timely basis.  By telephone and email, and in person in the case of Kemal Dervis, Inner City Press sought comment on these UNDP issues. The agency's head of Communications William Orme was told that these were questions on deadline, but made no response. Brian Gleeson was called and a detailed message was left with his secretary. Given the lack of subsequent response, only this film, click here, can be offered, expressing dissatisfaction at "certain political leaders" and at reporters for not telling the UN's story. You have to return calls, some reporters say.

  In the UN Headquarters building, the UN spokesman was asked to seek comment, including from Mark Malloch Brown. Was Malloch Brown consulted prior to Mr. Gleeson's redesignation? Did Malloch Brown play any role in this process? These are yes or no questions.

            It was at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday that Mr. Dervis wrote to "colleagues" that "this is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of Human Resources (OHR), Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve as Senior Advisor for the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery... on Thursday, 30 November, 2006." Mr. Dervis' email also thanked Brian Gleeson for having "done a difficult job well." If the swirl of Gleeson issues remains, this written praise by the head of UNDP seems more like cover-up than diplomacy.

            The demotion announced Wednesday is the most recent of moves by Mr. Dervis against officials previously installed by Mark Malloch Brown. In UNDP's Office of Finance, covering all European and CIS countries, the Hungarian Kalman Mitzei was fired, Inner City Press is told by UNDP sources, for sexual harassment and favoritism [for more, click here] and was replaced by Ms. Kori Udovicki, formerly of the World Bank, and before that from Belgrade. Observers question the wisdom of this selection, for Balkan(ized) geo-political reason and otherwise.

            It's worth noting that both Mark Malloch Brown and Kemal Dervis formerly worked at the World Bank. Those who know him say Mr. Dervis envied Malloch Brown's ascent to the top of UNDP. Now that he rules UNDP, with surprisingly little oversight, Mr. Dervis is putting his own hand-picked associates in place.

Kemal Dervis, speechifying, refusing questions, then emailing:

From: Kemal Dervis [mailto:kemal.dervis@undp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:20 PM
Subject: Appointment of Brian Gleeson as Senior Advisor for BCPR Surge Project

Dear Colleagues,

This is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of Human Resources (OHR), Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve as Senior Advisor for the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR). On behalf of the organization, I would like to thank Brian for doing a difficult job well for more than two and a half years and to wish him success in his new assignment While the selection process for the appointment of a new OHR Director is underway, I have asked Romesh Muttukumaru, Acting Deputy Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships (BRSP), to serve as Officer-in-Charge of OHR. These transition arrangements will come into effect on Thursday, 30 November, 2006. I urge all staff to please cooperate during this transition period.
With best regards, Kemal

            Mark Malloch Brown, of course, is still asserting himself. His close ally Bruce Jenks remains in place at UNDP's Bureau of Resources and Partnerships (Mr. Jenks was traveling on Wednesday and would not be able to comment, Inner City Press was told, until next week at the earliest) and his Cape Verdean associate Carlos Lopez has been selected to give briefings to incoming Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

   Some call it Shakespearean, this hard-ball dueling between ex-World Bankers Kemal Dervis and Mark Malloch Brown. But how is it, these people ask, that high-paying UNDP jobs are given outside of official channels, in some cases, such as that of one Nancy Barnes, without even showing up in databases of employees? In UNDP's European Union  and CIS shop, corruption is said to be endemic. The European Union in Brussels funnels funding through UNDP, a funding stream never reviewed even by UNDP's Executive Board. Nor is oversight being given by UNDP auditor Jessie Mabutas, whose role in jobs-for-pay may be more participatory than investigative. More on this next week.

            For now we note: on November 27, Inner City Press attempted to ask Kemal Dervis questions in the General Assembly hall, after a meeting about the Millennium Development Goals. As Inner City Press recounted at that day's UN noon briefing, Mr. Dervis said, "I don't answer questions this way, walking out of meetings." Inner City Press reiterated its request, made for more than five months now, that Mr. Dervis come to a press conference and answer questions, which he hasn't done since a single press conference when he got the UNDP job, 14 months ago. Mr. Dervis indicated that it would take a "special event" to get him to a press conference. Might these events be considered special? We'll see.

            Inner City Press sought to reach Brian Gleeson on Wednesday afternoon. His office expressed surprise that word of his (down) shift to Special Advisor had "spread to the UN." Some thought that UNDP was part of the United Nations. UNDP is the UN's main representative to most countries. But UNDP these days is apparently run as a fiefdom unto itself. In seeking UNDP's explanation for Mr. Gleeson's abrupt downshift, and UNDP's response to this story, messages to the UNDP Communications Office went unanswered, as has become a pattern. An attempt to reach Kalman Mitzei yielded that he has returned by Hungary. A 6:45 p.m. call to Romesh Muttukumaru, Brian Gleeson's interim replacement at the helm of UNDP Human Resources, yielded an outgoing message that Romesh Muttukumaru was busy on the phone; a message seeking comment, or UNDP's official explanation of the change at the top of its Office of Human Resources, was not returned.

       Given what UNDP sources say of Mr. Gleeson, now downshifted to advisory status with "the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery," it's worth noting that a recent UNDP job ad for a position with this Surge Project in the BCPR lists, among required "corporate competencies," that the employee (and presumably advisor) "Treats all people fairly without favoritism" and "Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN values and ethical standards."

[Dec. 7 note - In the above, certain details have been removed so that there is less distraction from the subject of this series: the UN Development Program. According to the Secretariat's spokesman's December 7 lecture, these were the details which led to the December 4 comments of the Deputy Secretary-General, ex-Administrator of UNDP. Back to the substance - click here for a list of the most recent articles.]

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

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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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