At the
UN, Climate Change Chief Describes Growing Deserts and Rising Tides, Bhutanese
Happiness
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 16 -- In Bangladesh, there are people who have been forced five times to
move, due to floods, silt, sediment and melting glaciers. In Uganda, as Lake
Victoria becomes more shallow, 30 million people face less fishing, less
farming, less cattle ranching, less future. Proposed regimes under which the
victims of global warming would get compensated founder on the inability to
prove precisely whose carbon emissions caused whose harm.
Tuesday
at the United Nations, the head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat Yvo de Boer
told reporters that up to 40% of the efforts being made to meet the Millennium
Development Goals may be undone by global warming. He mused that North Africans
climbing fences into the enclaves of Spain are environmental as well as economic
refugees, fleeing the desertification of their homelands.
Inner
City Press began the question session of the press conference by asking what
possible solutions there may be for Bangladesh and the Maldives, where the water
is already rising. In response, Mr. de Boer described sea levels rising, salt
water intrusions, less snow, less rain in spring, and fewer crops. Among the
possible solutions he pointed to were reducing the use of firewood, which
accounts for over 15% of climate change, and improving the efficiency of power
plants in China. The difficulty with the latter, he said, is that the demand for
electricity in China is so great than no one dares shut down the power plants to
retrofit them. He spoke of a proposal by the World Bank to use generators in
China to temporarily substitute for the power plants.
"We must
create incentives," said Mr. de Boer, "for carbon capture and storage, even
pumping it back underground."
Discussing
climate change in Nairobi -- better hurry up
Mr. de
Boer held a smaller session for three reporters later on Tuesday, after he had
lunched with the Permanent Representatives of Germany, Japan (Kenzo Oshima) and
the UK (Emyr Jones Parry), to discuss climate change. Here, Mr. de Boer mused
that Africa would have been better off if European had never gone there. He
said, "I'm always fascinated by this border between Kenya and Tanzania. My
understanding is that the German Kaiser was about to have his birthday, and
Queen Victoria felt bad that he didn't have a snow-capped mountain. So the
border was redrawn so that Mt. Kilimanjaro was on the Tanzanian side."
Inner
City Press asked Mr. de Boer for his reaction to a recent UN DESA study which
reported that the fastest growing economies in Africa are those of Equatorial
Guinea and Chad, both based on oil, and that the fastest in the world is
Azerbaijan, due to the BTC pipeline. "That study is based on Gross Domestic
Product," said Mr. de Boer. "I prefer the Bhutanese approach, based on Gross
Domestic Happiness." What do you know: a hippie-at-heart at the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
in Bonn...
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
At the
UN, Central African Rebels Redux, Slow Donors and Shadow of Tanzanian Anti-Media
Law
By
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 16 -- After days of
armed conflict in the town of Paoua in
the northwest part of the Central African Republic, the UN still says it cannot
confirm who is responsible nor how many people have been killed. The UN's Toby
Lanzer on Tuesday described a situation in which there are no paved roads, and
the UN team sent to Paoua cannot arrive or work after dark.
The UN
Security Council on Tuesday adopted a Presidential Statement that mentioned the
CAR -- but only the northeast, near Darfur, and not the northwest, where rebels
have been shooting up towns since last year. In fact, Paoua itself was
attacked in November 2006,
by the same group, the Armee Populaire pour la Restauration de la Republique
et de la democratie and its leader, ex-Lt. Bedaya N'Djadder Mounoumbaye. The
stance by Mr. Lanzer and the UN's top envoy to the CAR, ex-general Lamine Cisse,
is that no one knows who these rebels are nor what they want. Therefore, in the
words of Mr. Lanzer, there is a "dialogue about what a dialogue would look
like." They better hurry up.
In
November 2006, the UN launched a "consolidated appeal" for funds for the crises
in the Central African Republic, aiming to raised $50 million. Click
here
to view the appeal, which states among other things that life expectancy in the
CAR is now 41 years, down from 48 in 1988. At $50 million, CAR's is the
second-smallest of the UN's country appeals. Nevertheless, to date only $184,000
have been raised, and this from the UN's own CERF.
Central
African Republic: Life expectancy = 41 years
According to Mr.
Lanzer, a group of potential donor countries who do not have embassies in Banguy
visited just before Christmas. Still, none has yet given any funding. Inner City
Press asked Mr. Lanzer which countries visited. Germany, Netherlands, Japan and
Italy, Mr. Lanzer replied, singling out an NGO based in Italy,
Cooperaziane Internazionale, COOPI,
as a leader in service-provision in the CAR. Even COOPI temporarily stopped its
service to Paoua in November 2006. There are, in total, only five NGOs serving
the country. The Central African Republic is forgotten.
This was
exemplified later on Tuesday, as Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin took
questions from reporters. Inner City Press asked what the Security Council is
going to do about the strife and suffering in northwest CAR. "It's in the PRST,"
Amb. Churkin replied, using the acronym for Presidential Statement.
"Does it
cover northwest CAR, as well as the part next to Darfur?" Inner City Press
asked.
Amb.
Churkin indicated that it did. Video
here.
But upon reading the Presidential Statement, it refers only to "north-eastern
Central African Republic." The northwest, not bordering Darfur, is left out. A
Security Council diplomat later acknowledged to Inner City Press that greater
coordination is needed between units of the UN directed at the western as well
as the eastern part of the CAR. It may be that there is just not enough focus,
by anyone, on northwest CAR.
The focus
at the UN's noon briefing was the
indictment of Benon Sevan
in connection with the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal. Of Sevan, the Volcker
Report said, "Mr. Sevan's failures are all the more troubling when considered
against his corrupt receipt of oil allocations from the Iraqi regime from which
he profited." I:41. Reporters asked, will the UN urge Sevan's extradition from
Cyprus? The spokesman declined to comment until he had seen the indictment.
Likewise,
the UN through its spokesman declined to comment on
reports --
and quotes from Mugabe-regime officials -- that Zimbabwe is moving toward a
second round of mass evictions. Those are just reports for now, the spokesman
said, while hearkening back to the UN's criticism of Mugabe's Operation
Murambatsvina / "Take Out the Trash" which rendered 700,000 people homeless. But
why would the UN wait to weigh in until it has happened again?
Inner
City Press asked the spokesperson's office to seek comment from the incoming
Deputy Secretary General on a proposed media law in Tanzania which nearly all
press outlets are protesting. The law would requiring licensing of journalists,
would allow the government to determine what is "legitimate" news, and would
otherwise undermine press freedom and
attempts to root out corruption.
Inner City Press asked, what is Ms. Migiro's position on this law? The spokesman
said he could seek a comment. We'll see.
At the
UN, As Vetoes Are Cast on Myanmar, Switzerland Muses on Council Reform and
Alliance of Civilizations
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 12 -- At the UN Security Council on Friday, China and Russia vetoed a
U.S.-sponsored resolution on the situation in Myanmar. The full
vote
was nine in favor, three against (South Africa also voted no), and three
abstentions: Indonesia, Qatar and Congo-Brazzaville. By the same token, the U.S.
in last year deployed its veto power during Israel's operation in South Lebanon.
Of the 192 UN-member states, only fifteen are on the Security Council, and five
have veto rights. Is this any way to run a global body?
Wednesday
night Switzerland's permanent representative to the UN, Peter Maurer, described
for reporters a series of reforms he thinks are needed. He took for granted that
the Permanent Five would use their vetoes to ensure their power is not diluted.
Still Amb. Maurer proposed that some countries be allowed more than a two year
stint every couple of decades, and instead be granted what he called "a more
sustained presence on the Council." He suggested a five year term for some, and
also improvements in "working methods." If countries not on the Security Council
were consulted more frequently, perhaps enlarging the Council or lengthening
some countries' terms would not be as important. He pointed to Germany's
participation in debates about Iran as an example, and suggested that other
countries have similar expertise and interests. The Internet, he said, could be
used to allow those who are most interested to participate more fully.
Ambassador Maurer said he would discourage Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from
getting involved in or even taking a position on Security Council reform. "He
can only lose," Amb. Maurer said.
See below for
Inner City Press on the
new Deputy S-G as blogger
Inner
City Press asked Ambassador Maurer if Switzerland had been told if their
national, Nicolas Michel, might continue to serve as Under-Secretary General for
Legal Affairs. "He would like to," Amb. Maurer said, adding that Switzerland
would like to keep the position as well.
Inner
City Press asked for Switzerland's view on the UN's Alliance of Civilizations
project. In a burst of candor that is rare at the UN, Amb. Maurer said he would
prefer not to be profiled as part of Western civilization, and that a neighbor
of his, from Yemen, likewise did not want to be seen as part of Islamic
civilization. Amb. Maurer suggested that the project might make divisions more
stark rather than less. He said that what he saw as this flaw in the project,
however, might spark a productive debate. Asked about the U.S. bombings in south
Somalia, Amb. Maurer noted that that too might be categorized as a clash of
civilizations.
Inner
City Press earlier this week asked Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman if Izbal Riza, Kofi
Annan's chief of staff until the Oil for Food scandal, and later a $1 a year
staffer for the Alliance of Civilizations, is still involved on the 38th floor
of UN Headquarters. We can find out, the spokeswoman said. We're still waiting
for a response.
As to
whether Switzerland might being contributing troops to UN peacekeeping missions,
Amb. Maurer explained that the issue is controversial within Switzerland, and
that resolution would have to await the next national election. For now,
Switzerland will develop an online "peacekeeping portal." Ah, the virtual
world...
Pronk Redux? DSG as Blogger
Speaking
of which, we end the week by noting that incoming Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose
Migiro may be, like previous UN Sudan envoy Jan Pronk, a blogger. Replete with
views of UN headquarters and feeds of UN news, she has a website, click
here to view. Some have
wondered how long it has been up, and about permitted uses of UN visuals. But
Inner City Press' question is whether, like Jan Pronk, she will keep on posting
as her work at UN Headquarters begins. The site's banner says "Unofficial site."
Update of Jan. 15,
from spokeswoman Soung-ah Choi: the
www.asharosemigiro.com web site is
not official, the UN called Asha-Rose Migiro and confirmed this and is now
trying to get the sites taken down. Under U.S. law, at least, that would be Asha-Rose
Migiro's call, and her case. We'll see.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Mysterious Deletion from Iran Sanctions List of Aerospace Industries
Organization Goes Unexplained
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Passes 15-0 Amid Media Frenzy While Somalia and UN Reform Are
Ignored
At the UN,
Security Council and GA Games and Holiday Spirit As Revolving Door Ban
Disappears on Final Day
UNDP Not Covered
By Weak UN Post-Employment Restrictions, Dervis and Mizsei and Aid to
the Scapegoated
UN
Post-Employment Restriction Are Watered Down for Senior Officials,
Comparison to June Draft Reveals
At the UN, Curt
Eulogies for Dictator, Revolving Door and Budget Left for the Last Day
UNDP's Dervis
Backtracks on Transparency, Promises Accounting of Funds, Denies Role in
Uganda Abuse
At the UN,
Jeffrey Sachs Answers the $75,000 Question But Not on UNDP, Still
Laudable Goals for 2025
Burundi Spin
at the UN, Amid Coup Trial and Ceasefire Not Implemented, Great Lakes
Commission Moves In
At the UN, Iran
Resolution Goes Blue as Ivory Coast is Traded Away With No Follow-up on
Hmung
At the UN,
Annan's Long Goodbye, With Oil for Food in the Air and Hothouse Musical
Chairs
At Kofi Annan's
Farewell, UNDP Transparency is Raised, and Brian Gleeson Steps Up
At UN
in Beirut, Dueling Charges of Job-Trading and
Tax-Evasion, the Burden of
Mervat Tallawy, Retaliation from Below
UNDP Will Be
Called to Greater Transparency, Says President of Spain, on UNDP's
Board, and Flaws of UNOPS
UNDP's Ad
Melkert Says He Will Finally Increase Transparency, Describes Fraud in
Russia, Dodges Uganda
In Eastern
Congo, Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made a Colonel, Clooney And Now
Guehenno Might Stay
At the UN,
Ocampo 1 Says Kony To Jail and Ocampo 2 Sees No Serious Bertucci
Charges, Dueling Parties
In UNDP's Book,
Strong's Scandals Are Missing, While Workers Complain, MMB Schmoozes the
Korean Mission
At UNDP, Flighty
Rhetoric Founders in Mismanagement, MMB's Net, a Genocidaire and Whither
ECOSOC
At the UN,
Disabled Are Freed from a Footnote, Murky Answers from Gbagbo to Kosovo
to a Genocidaire
Countering UN's
Vanity Press, UNDP Histories from Below, Brussels and Two Views of Omar
Bakhet
At the UN,
Indigenous Indignation, Revolving Door Mysteries and Peace Pipe
Belatedly Smoked
At the UN,
Questions of Congo Mass Graves and Kazana, Mugabe and Forests and Rich
German Ships
UNDP Is
Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be Made Transparent
As UN
Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being Withheld, While War in Somalia
and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Waste, Fraud and
Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship
At the UN,
Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo Body Count, Despots' Crackdown
on Dissent
In UNDP,
Questions of Money Wasted, Neutrality Trampled, Russian Office Audits
Withheld and Sachs Expenses
From Baidoa
to the UN, Denials on Ethiopian Troops Being in Somalia, Resolution Is
Passed
Retaliation
Found at UNDP, While Dervis Is Focused on Turkey, In Two Weeks Will Take
Questions
Annan's
Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in Somalia - But in Loud
Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
At the UN,
Interlopers into Somalia Are Discussed, With Chadian Pull-Back,
Peacekeepers and Uganda's Karamoja
UNDP Spent
$567,000 on Book to Praise Itself, While the Well-Placed Feed Off UNDP's
Core Budget and Prime Postings
As UNDP Questions
Mount, Mark Malloch Brown Calls Them Irresponsible, Answers Only in
Vanity Press
In UNDP Series,
Questions of Jeffrey Sachs and Associates Payments, From $1 to $75,000
From Sleaze in
Vietnam to Fights in DC-1, UNDP Appears Out of Control at the Top
On Somalia,
Past Arms Embargo Violations Forgiven in Zeal to Contain Islamic Courts
In UNDP, Drunken
Mis-Managers on the Make Praised and Protected, Meet UNDP's Kalman
Mizsei
From Violent
Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
UNDP Sources Say
Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up Jobs
On Somalia, Fiji
and Oil-for-Food, UN Ambiguity Leads to Hypocrisy and Corruption
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540
