At the
UN, Talk but Little Action and Few Answers, Thailand, Congo, Nepal and Fiji,
Vienna Cafe Follies Update
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 8 -- Speaking on peace and security, Ban Ki-moon on Monday mentioned
only seven countries. Somalia, a country with a hot war underway, was not among
them. They were, in the order they appeared in Ban's remarks to the Security
Council, Sudan, DR Congo, Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. So it
was five countries and two territories. Let us example the first and last of
these in turn.
Sudan has
asked the UN for information about its peacekeepers' sexual abuse in the south.
Monday at the UN's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the spokeswoman for a
copy of the UN's response. "The memo was sent," she responded, and they'll try
to make a copy available to the press. At 5 p.m. deadline, the memo was not
provided.
On the DR
Congo, Inner City Press on Monday morning asked whether the UN's mission, with
its 20,000 soldiers, had played any role in responding to the collapses of a
diamond mine in Kasai. Inner City Press asked for an update on displacement of
and service to civilians around Bunia, where warlord Peter Karim, once offered a
colonel's position in the Congolese Army with the UN mission's consent, is once
again shooting up the place. "I can check," the spokeswoman said. Five hours
later, at deadline, the following arrived:
Subject: Your question at noon today
From: [ at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 5:25 PM
UN personnel were not anywhere near the
site of the mine explosion. As to the general situation in the east of the DRC,
the mission says it is now relatively calm with negotiations ongoing between the
DRC Army and renegade soldiers and militia groups for a definitive ceasefire. As
to the toll of recent fighting in and around Fataki, the mission says it claimed
the lives of 20 government troops and 90 militia fighters and a total of 20
seriously wounded militia fighters.
We hope
to have a humanitarian update soon. On Kosovo, Mr. Ban said "we must keep
working for a conclusion to the uncertainty that still hangs over the status of
Kosovo, and which, if unresolved, threatens to case a shadow over regional
stability in southeastern Europe." As has become clear, however, Serbia and
probably Russia behind it are resistant to any "conclusion" under which Kosovo
breaks away from Serbia. Wiser minds wonder why the EU doesn't treat Kosovo like
for example Ireland -- solve problems by means of investment and economic
development. The wisdom of the lack of investment will be on view in coming
months.
On Friday
Mr. Ban called for restoration of democracy in Fiji. Monday Inner City Press
asked if the new Secretary-General has taken any action on his predecessor's
threat to exclude Fijian troops from UN peacekeeping in light of the ongoing
coup d'etat. "What was previously said, stands," the spokeswoman answered. Video
here,
from Minute 11:28. But what action has been taken?
Peacekeeping in Lebanon was raised, with a figure of 1700 naval personnel in
UNIFIL cited. But just how much is it that Germany is charging the UN and its
member states for use of its ships off the coast?
Outside
the Security Council, Slovakian Ambassador Burian took questions about
sanctions, saying that the language on luxury goods is under the silence
procedure, and that he can't say more, as his chairmanship of the committee is
under review. Next month, Slovakia will hold the Council presidency. Inner City
Press asked what pet issues or thematics Slovakia will be pushing. Security
sector reform, he answered, and the role of regional organizations in
implementing Resolution 1540. Dry but factual. Diplomatic, too: Amb. Burian
effusively praised the new Deputy Secretary General, despite Tanzanian
press accounts that
Ban chose her after a single meeting, on a reception line at a state dinner in
South Korea, and that he called her on Friday asking for an immediate yes or no,
since he "had" to make an announcement. What was the rush?
Now the
strong rumor is the American Lynn Pascoe will head the Department of Political
Affairs. He's nothing if not diplomatic - click
here for
his kind words on the then- (and still?) father of all Turkmen,
here for
an interview in Uzbekistan.
Refugee
camp in Thailand
Two other unanswered questions, by UN
agencies based in Rome and Geneva, are these:
Back in
December, UNHCR told Inner City Press that most of those who flee North Korea
and arrive in Thailand are serviced by South Korean church groups, and that
Inner City Press should proceed only with caution in reporting on North Koreans
caught in a Catch-22 with UNHCR in Bangkok. But since then, protests have been
lodged with Thai embassies about the worsening treatment of North Koreans, click
here for
an article which Inner City Press has send for comment to UNHCR in Bangkok.
Inner City Press has also sent the
transcript of an Australian news show,
in which a Mr. Park is described as told by UNHCR that he can only get refugee
status if he finds a country of final destination, then is told by the U.S. that
he must first have refugee status. "That is not our policy," the UNHCR
spokeswoman said. But what they is the response to the
transcript?
Inner
City Press has also asked UNHCR about the protests against it for
cutting aid to refugees in urban areas in
Nepal.
Speaking
of Nepal, the World Food Program did provide an update, after Friday's deadline:
Subject: Nepal
From: luescher
[at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 5 Jan 2007
Dear Matthew,
here is more information on Nepal that came in overnight from our people on the
ground.
"The Government of Nepal has officially requested WFP for support to the 7 main
cantonment areas, as well as the 21 satellite sites, spread throughout Nepal. As
a result of this request, we've had several meetings with the Maoist leadership
(Prachandra, Dr. Baburam Bhattari and Krishna Mahara) to discuss the
acceptability of such assistance. At present, the Maoist leadership feel that
support to the cantonment areas should be carried out solely by the Nepal
Government as stated in the recently signed Comprehensive Peace Accord. Until
both the Nepal Government and Maoist leadership can agree that this is an
appropriate role for the UN, WFP is not in a position to consider providing
support to the cantonment sites."
Inner
City Press responded with questions about the Congo -- why did
UNICEF and not WFP delivery high-protein
biscuits in Ituri? -- and about
the still-missing Josette Sheeran Shiner. On that, Inner City Press has been
told of a role of Ban Ki-moon, but despite requests from 7 a.m. onwards on
Monday, by 5 p.m. the simple information requested had not yet been received.
Watch this site.
Vienna Cafe Update: Despite Previous
Denial, All Ducts Will Be Destroyed
Further
inquiry into the construction in the UN's basement to install ventilation for
smokers at the Vienna Cafe has confirmed that all of the duct work being
installed will be ripped out and destroyed in less than two years in the Capital
Master Plan renovation. This despite the earlier assurances made that all of the
work would be saved. (Click
here
for Inner City Press' previous story.) Inner City Press is informed, in the
nature of justification, that the planning for this project began in early 2006,
before it was certain that the General Assembly would approve and fund the
Capital Master Plan. But then the work was delayed due to a spending cap, then
delayed again so that the asbestos removal would be done between Christmas and
New Years. The result? Before any work was done, the passage of the Capital
Master Plan made it clear that all of the installed duct work would be ripped
out and destroyed: wasted. The next move by Facilities Management was to simply
claim that all of the work would be saved.
Subject: Re: Follow-up questions on Vienna
Cafe work
From: mcdonald [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 3:56 PM
Matthew
Apologies for the delay in response as you
are aware I was out last week...
Q: what consideration was given, and by
whom, to the relation between the cost and the amount of time the ventilation
would be in use, before being destroyed in the upcoming gut-rehab of the space
under the Capital Master Plan?
[A:] This work will not be destroyed by
the CMP. FYI the review process of this project was like all other
projects through the Chief of FMS and in this particular case I was consulted
and I agreed that the project should go ahead. The work is completed. The
clean up of the area, including furniture and shampooing the carpet will happen
today and tomorrow and the cafe will be back first thing Thursday morning.
First, the
ducts will be destroyed by the Capital Master Plan. Second, the work wasn't
finished on the day of the message above, and is not finished now: just holes in
the ceiling, still covered with sheet plastic. So it goes at the UN -- although
there are now others inquiring into this one. Watch this site.
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, Ban Ki-moon Demands Resignations, Then Won't Release the List
Byline;
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 5 -- Ban Ki-moon has asked some fifty-eight senior UN officials to
tender their resignations, which he may or may not accept. The hit-list is
described as consisting of all officials at the Assistant Secretary General
level and above who are exclusively under the Secretary-General's control. Inner
City Press asked the Spokesperson's Office for a list of those who received the
request to resign, but was told the list is private. Later another rationale
surfaced, that not all of them may have physically received the request yet, and
so shouldn't learn of it from the press.
Around
the edges, there's a lack of clarity. For example, an official embroiled in a
procurement fraud investigation, Andrew
Toh, is
still technically an Assistant Secretary General. Did he get the request to
resign? The Spokesperson's Office has said there are 48 Under Secretaries
General and 51 Assistant Secretaries General who have not (yet) been asked to
resign.
Among the
political-appointees who've been asked to resign, there are some with a UN
system trump card: lower level jobs to which they can return. Shashi Tharoor,
for example, while widely expected to leave the UN, could return to the track he
was on, and wait five more years for retirement. Others who might return to
lower, steadier tracts include:
Jan Beagle of Human Resources, who
recently declined to comment, even through her assistant (see below), on
detailed allegations concerning
human resources
practices at the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Beirut;
Comptroller Warren Sach, who
declined to respond to a detailed request for comment on the
use of at least $130,000 to build a
ventilation system for smokers in the Vienna Cafe which will be ripped out in
less than two years;
and, alphabetically
by last name, Civili, Kane, Lopes, Mayanja, Mengesha and others (from
this interim list, we note a rumor that Carlos Lopes may be in line for Civili's
spot at DESA). The names above, it has been confirmed to Inner City Press, have
all been asked to submit their resignations. Also confirmed is that "Dollar a
Year" senior officials have not been asked to resign (although one, Iqbal Riza,
left at the end of the year). At press time, there was no answer as to the
suspended
Andrew Toh.
Why the
full list of those receiving the request to resign, and those with underlying
permanent contracts with the UN, has not been released is not entirely clear or
convincing. On the other hand, Ban Ki-moon on Friday committed to publicly
releasing his financial disclosure form, unlike Kofi Annan. Inner City Press
asked the spokeswoman if Ban Ki-moon will be encouraging or requiring those he
appoints to senior positions to similarly release their financial disclosure
forms. The spokeswoman emphasized that is it voluntary. Yes, but it would be
easy enough to require.
Roundtable:
on resignations but not disclosure
One
theory or defense of Ban Ki-moon's appointments to date is that they are
designed to please the G-77, to gain the G-77's support for changes Ban Ki-moon
wants to make. These changes reportedly include some bifurcation in the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and increasing the power of the
Department of Political Affairs. This may explain not having made new
appointments at these two Departments.
[Speaking of politics, at Friday's noon briefing Inner City Press asked the
Spokeswoman for any Secretariat response to Serbia's president's
new call to delay the UN's status proposal on Kosovo not only until after
the Serbian election on January 21, but also after the formalization of the
government elected on that date. Nothing has changed, the Spokeswoman said, from
the UN's position of November. Video
here.]
Friday's
naming of the new Deputy Secretary General led to a media reaction including
repeated questions of "what are her qualifications?" to frenzied research, akin
to when environmental or "genius" awards are announced to far-flung
practitioners. In fact, Asha-Rose Migiro has given speeches at the UN, has been
interviewed by the current spokeswoman when she was at UN Radio, and has for
example spoken in favor of Iran having nuclear power -- click
here for
that. Perhaps this explains Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin's effusive
praise of the appointment, Friday in a Security Council
stakeout interview in
which Amb. Churkin refused to comment on Russia's demand that Serge Brammertz
release the list of names of countries not cooperating with his investigation of
the Hariri murder in Lebanon.
It is
said that the U.S. is not thrilling to Ban Ki-moon's appointments to date. And
having renounced the Department of Management slot, the U.S. is left to wait for
something still undefined involving Peacekeeping or Political Affairs. Well
played? Hardly. China, meanwhile, is said to have already selected the next head
of Conference Services, as if the position belongs to China (in effect, it
does). China will also get DESA. And so it goes...
At press
time, the Spokesperson's office confirmed that some at the UN Development
Program have received the request to submit resignations, including UNDP's
Number Two, Ad Melkert. The less visible and less active Number One, Kemal
Dervis, escapes the request because his position involves "other
inter-governmental bodies" (this also explains the 48 Under Secretaries General
and 51 Assistant Secretaries who have not been asked to resign). Kemal Dervis
and Jeffrey Sachs both appeared on the schedule of new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
on Friday. Inner City Press asked the Spokesperson's Office for a readout on the
Dervis meeting and was told that "During the meeting, Mr. Dervis discussed with
the Secretary-General a number of important matters, particularly the upcoming
UNDP Executive Board session which will take place on 19-26 January." More on
that in due course. Inner City Press has also been told that this was the third
Dervis / Ban Ki-moon meeting. Why then did Dervis twice mis-spell Ban Ki-moon's
name in the holiday message he sent all UNDP employees? Click
here for
that story, and for the
UNDP holiday message.
And here is
the above-referenced response from the office of ASG Beagle:
In a message dated
12/20/2006 1:57:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, bradley [at] un.org writes:
Dear Mr. Lee,
I refer to your email of 17 December 2006 to Ms. Beagle.
You have asked a number of questions relating to the employment of staff by WIPO
and FAO. These are specialized agencies and the UN Secretariat has no
information on their staffing arrangements.
Other questions relate to personnel matters concerning individual staff members,
which the Organization treats as confidential.
Still others relate to cases which are either under litigation or have been
settled. We would not therefore be in a position to comment on these cases.
James Bradley
Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General
Office of Human Resources Management
United Nations, New York 10017
That is to
say, there are not answers at all. Transparency? Click
here for the story
on which Inner City Press was seeking ASG Beagle's comment.
At the
UN, Ban Ki-moon Visits Press, and Is Pointed to Waste at the Vienna Cafe, Sudan
and Kosovo
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 4 -- Of Ban Ki-moon it can be said, he gets around. On his third working
day at the UN, the new Secretary-General came through the press area, stopping
to shake hands with reporters. As part of his tour, Inner City Press urged him
to go check out the
holes in the ceilings over the Vienna Cafe in the UN's basement. Earlier on
Thursday, Inner City Press had asked his spokeswoman about this move to provide
ventilation for smoking. "Just to provide ventilation," she answered. "It didn't
say for people to smoke in the area." Video
here,
from Minute 15:50 to 17:31.
Asked at
the noon briefing for Ban Ki-moon's position on this use of UN and member state
money on smoking ventilation that will be ripped out in less than two years, the
spokeswoman said, "People need to breathe within the next two years," then
promised to check into it, by asking "the people in charge." But those might not
be the only people that should be asked. And now Ban Ki-moon has been asked
directly, to go take a look with his own eyes. We'll see.
Ban Ki-moon looks closely -- into waste, fraud
and abuse?
From the
death penalty to the abuse of minors in Sudan, from waste of UN funds to no-show
high officials, the questions just keep coming for incoming Ban Ki-moon.
Thursday's revelation of 13 additional investigations in Sudan by the Office of
Internal Oversight Services makes one suddenly remember the
standoff a
year ago between OIOS and then-Special Envoy Jan Pronk, who directed his staff
not to cooperate with
OIOS.
That fight, and Pronk's blog, take on a different hue now. How transparent was
the blog, if like the UN it did not reveal investigations of child sexual abuse
ongoing since at least 2005? We hope to see this address in the future blogging
of Jan Pronk. And on Thursday Inner City Press reiterated its earlier request
that OIOS come and answer questions, as it was said would be done once OIOS
finished its process in front of the General Assembly, which ended in December.
Now what's the delay?
Inner
City Press at Thursday's UN noon briefing asked for Ban Ki-moon's position on
two other matters: the
Serbian prime minister's letter about
Kosovo, and Pakistan's planned
use of land mines on
its border with Afghanistan. The answers, as of press time, were not entirely
clear. On the Pakistan land mine controversy, Inner City Press was referred to a
statement by UN field staff back in December -- when Kofi Annan was
Secretary-General. On Kosovo, it was confirmed to Inner City Press that the
Serbian prime minister's letter was
received. The position on Kosovo, the spokesperson said, remains the same. Video
here,
from Minute 14:55. Click
here
for yesterday's Kosovo (and Russia) story.
The
spokeswoman's
mantra of Wednesday -- "just wait until
later in the week!" -- has now
been amended. The announcement of the next Deputy Secretary General will not
take place on Friday, she says, but rather earlier next week. A growing critique
of the appointments to date is not only "same old, same old," but that even new
people, like Sir John Holmes, are put into the wrong jobs. The UK put forward
Holmes to head Political Affairs. Ban Ki-moon has other plans for that post, and
so put Holmes in charge of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, in which
Holmes has no track record. One wag said it's like the Bush-crony "ol'
Brownie," Michael Brown, heading up FEMA when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
Here's hoping it's not. Watch this site, for more on Ban Ki-moon.
To
Accommodate Smoking, UN Spends $130,000 on Ducts Faced with Demolition Within
Two Years
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
January 2 -- Practicality, it seems clear, is the better part of diplomacy. How
else to explain the UN spending $130,000 to install for two years a ventilation
duct system for an indoor cafe in which no one is supposed to be smoking?
On the
Saturday before Christmas, while
covering a rare
weekend Security Council meeting at which sanctions on Iran were adopted, Inner
City Press noticed in the UN basement that the Austria / Vienna Cafe had been
walled off. Informal inquiries found that the plan was to ventilate the space
to remove cigarette smoke. This cafe is often smoke-filled, despite a 2003
Secretary-General's Bulletin purporting to ban smoking in the UN, as it is
banned in all public indoor areas in New York City.
Inner
City Press sent written questions about the work to UN officials and
spokespeople, before and after New Years. On Tuesday in two separate written
response, Inner City Press was told that the contract was subject to competitive
bidding and that cost of the work was $130,000. To Inner City Press' follow-up
question of whether the work would be destroyed when the now-adopted $1.88
billion Capital Master Plan (CMP) results in the gut rehabilitation of the UN,
the official in charge, Ms. Joan McDonald, replied that "this
work will not be destroyed by the CMP... CMP have confirmed."
But when
Inner City Press subsequently telephoned the CMP's Administration and
Communication Chief Ms. Vivian Van de Perre, she stated that all of the work
being done in the Vienna Cafe will be ripped out. Then why are they paying
$130,000 for the work? "That's a good question," she said, adding that she'd had
the same doubt and then asking, "Have you spoken with Joan McDonald?" Well, yes,
this very afternoon:
Subject: Re: Follow-up questions on Vienna
Cafe work
From: mcdonald [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 3:56 PM
Matthew
Apologies for the delay in response as you
are aware I was out last week...
Q: what consideration was given, and by
whom, to the relation between the cost and the amount of time the ventilation
would be in use, before being destroyed in the upcoming gut-rehab of the space
under the Capital Master Plan?
[A:] This work will not be destroyed by
the CMP. This CMP have confirmed. During the life of the CMP there will be
projects carried out by FMS which are not covered by CMP... We coordinate all
FMS projects with CMP. FYI the review process of this project was like all other
projects through the Chief of FMS and in this particular case I was consulted
and I agreed that the project should go ahead. The work is completed. The
clean up of the area, including furniture and shampooing the carpet will happen
today and tomorrow and the cafe will be back first thing Thursday morning.
A visit
to the area on Tuesday morning by Inner City Press found holes in the ceiling
now covered with sheet plastic. A workman on the scene with a tape measure, when
asked about the work, said that only the asbestos abatement had been completed,
and that the duct work, by
Alex Wolf & Son,
has yet to be done and can only be performed from six p.m. to six a.m., since
the cafe will re-open later this week.
In Ms.
McDonald's above-quoted message, FMS stands for "Facilities Management
Services." In the most recent UN phone book, the director of FMS is Martin
Bender. But Mr. Bender has not been coming in to work, due to an investigation
into his alleged collusion with a UN contractor. (Mr. Bender's replacement,
Andrew Nye, did not respond to telephone and email requests for comment on this
story.) The Procurement Fraud Task Force is interviewing others in Facilities
Management Services. Whether related or not, FMS clearly does *not* coordinate
with the Capital Master Plan, whose spokesperson told Inner City Press on
Tuesday that all of this work will be ripped out.
Smoking:
outdoors in Cambodia, free. Indoors at the UN? $130,000 for two years
In 2003
Mayor Bloomberg prohibited smoking in public indoor areas in New York City.
(More recently, the UN's WHO is a
beneficiary
of Bloomberg's $125 anti-smoking grant.) Kofi Annan followed suit with a
Bulletin, 2003/9, stating that "No smoking shall be permitted in any of the UN
premises at Headquarters." Nevertheless smoking continued, defended in a pinch
by Ambassadors citing diplomatic immunity. Russia's then-Ambassador Sergey
Lavrov was
quoted that
Annan "doesn't own this building," while heading off to smoke in the Delegate's
Lounge.
More
recently, the front line of the smoking battle has been in the area outside the
Security Council chamber. Diplomats and staffers often smoke there. Petitions
have gone up on the wall, with dozens of signatures, alongside lists of the
impacts of smoking. A copy of Kofi Annan's Bulletin that "No smoking shall be
permitted in any of the UN premises at Headquarters" was even posted.
In the
basement, someone gave up the fight. The extent of smoking at what's also call
the Viennese Cafe has been noted online by
NGOs and bloggers of the right
and
left,
and even from
the youth.
It has been pointed out that many more staffers than diplomats frequent the
Vienna Cafe, presumably making the three-year old no smoking policy easier to
enforce. But enforcement, one wag noted, has never been the UN's strength. And
so the contact for the ducts, to suck smoke from the cafe. But when the whole
area is going to be gut-rehabilitated in two years or less, why pay $130,000 to
accommodate smoking, which is already prohibited?
A half-dozen workmen were onsite at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Several acknowledged
the absurdity of the work. A man in with an "FMS" badge sewn on his shirt,
unnamed to avoid retaliation, pointed at the holes in the ceiling and said, "For
this, they should have taken the whole ceiling down. Because when they fix this
area, all of the ceiling that's been left will have to do -- it's asbestos. And
they aren't even ventilating the seating area by the back conference rooms,
where people smoke all the time. Why not send them all up to the Ex-Press Bar
and open a window? Or just tell them they can't smoke, like the rest of us?"
To recap,
a UN official who signed off on this work has told us that the work will not be
ripped up by the Capital Master Plan gut-rehabilitation, while a spokeswoman
for the Capital Master Plan has told us unequivocally that the work *will* be
ripped out, "all of it." Even putting aside the issues raised by accommodating
an already prohibited activity, and beyond the she said - she said, one
wonders how a $1.88 billion rehabilitation would not involve the full rebuilding
of this space.
New
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday told reporters that the UN is
"sometimes unfairly criticized" so he is encouraging staff "to have continuous
dialogue with the press." So maybe these questions will be answered.
Watch this site.
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
