At the UN, Questions of Jobs Given Predetermined,
Nepotism Admitted in Schori's Parting Shot
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, February 9 -- Jobs were the focus at
UN Headquarters on Friday. At the two highest levels, there were comings and
going, a few unexpected. Lower down the food chain, a question arose about 12
particular jobs which Ban Ki-moon said were open for application -- called
"mobility" -- from anywhere within the UN system. More than five hundred have
applied for the 12 jobs, but a rumor in the hall is that the winner were already
selected, in some cases before the window to apply had even closed, on February
2.
Chief of staff Vijay Nambiar
took questions on Friday at noon. Inner City Press asked him a senior official
not mentioned -- Jan Beagle of the Office of Human Resource Management -- and
about the status of the 12 "mobility" jobs. From the
transcript:
Inner City
Press: You already had a question I think that deals with ASG Jan Beagle, of
whom the Staff Council passed a vote of no confidence, and I think was
communicated -- she wasn’t on the list of acceptances, nor on the list of that
you read out of approvals. So, one, if you could somehow say what your thinking
is on that, and two, on the mobility posts that were posted on I-seek back on
January 19th for people to apply. How many people applied, and we’ve heard --
there seems to be a sense among staff that some of those posts were already sort
of given out -- what’s the status of the people seeking mobility at the staff
level of the people who applied for those positions from D2 down to --
Chef de
Cabinet: I think there were in excess of 500 applicants, and I think they have
been short-listed, and we are in the process of selecting the people for the 12
positions in the Executive Office. And, I think this is unprecedented in many
ways, so we hope that -- the selection process is following the normal procedure
-- so I don’t think, we hope to be able to come to a kind of a closure in terms
of appointments soon.
The other one
that you said -- I wouldn’t want to deal with individual cases, but I would say
that there we have laid out certain policy guidelines, and we’ve been following
them as scrupulously as can be done in these circumstances.
Since Mr. Nambiar mentioned "short-lists"
for the 12 jobs at issue, Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson
for a copy of the short-lists. The response was laughter: if we don't give lists
out for Under Secretaries-General, we sure don't for these positions.
One of the position is that of
speechwriter. It is entirely understandable that a Secretary-General would want
to choose his own speechwriter without the formalities of the UN's job
recruitment rules. But to pretend one is following those rules to pick a
speechwriter casts doubts on the claim of fairness for the other eleven
positions.
Mr.
Nambiar
There is also the rumor of officials from
South Korea, still parked in neutral in DC-1 and DC-2, gunning for positions.
Most seem to feel that they will not land in this high-profile 12 jobs, but
rather elsewhere. We shall see.
Other questions arose about which of the
officials whose resignations were accepted will actually stay on at the UN. Mr.
Nambiar responded that Ban Ki-moon will certainly want to keep some experience.
But behind the question are the rules, that staff members can return to their
jobs after services as political appointees. Or, as is said of Carlos Lopes, can
seek jobs back in UNDP, playing the card of the former Administrator.
Among those whose resignations
were accepted were two of the putative bosses of scandal-plagued Guido Bertucci:
USG Jose Antonio Ocampo and ASG Patrizio Civili. Inner City Press interviewed
Mr. Ocampo in mid-December outside the South Korean mission -- click
here for
that story -- and Mr. Ocampo said he saw no substance to the charges against
Bertucci. Now it is rumored that Bertucci might get Civili's post. Along with
Beagle staying, that would set a certain tone.
Mervat Tallawy, who fought
tooth and nail to keep her post, including in conversation and lobbying of Inner
City Press, lost it. Click
here for
the story on Tallawy More damning information had come in, but now is rendered
moot, except as indication of how the UN works. But for that,
see Inner City Press' four part (so
far)
series
about the UN Pension Fund. Next week we are told that the Pension Board will
meet. The meeting should be public, as for example are the Executive Board
meeting of UNDP, UNDPA, UNOPS and UNICEF. Thirty-six billion dollars should not
be doled out in secret. We will be returning to that topic next week.
In a sparsely-attended press
conference on Friday, outgoing UN envoy to the Ivory Coast Pierre Schori went
off, denouncing the Gbagbo government and troublingly, some things more. Inner
City Press asked Schori to confirm that his predecessor, Albert Tevodedjre of
Benin, had shown nepotism in hiring, and tarnished the name of the UN and its
mission. Video
here.
Schori did not disagree, noting that when he started he received no transitions
memo, and noticed "many strange people" working in the mission, who took a long
time to get rid of. We aim to have more on this.
After Schori's briefing, four Ivorian
mission representatives made their case to Inner City Press that the next UN
envoy should be more attuned to Ivorian-ness. But how will that be accomplished?
Through the votes on the Council of the U.S. and of China. It is a process we
will cover, after the weekend is over.
In an end-of-week burst of unexplained
secrecy, a meeting on Children and Armed Conflict held at 3 p.m. on Friday in
basement Conference Room 5 was deemed closed. The sign outside did not say so,
and Inner City Press entered the room. Immediately the order to leave was
issued, and the sign was changed. Inside, French Ambassador de la Sabliere was
bragging about the achievements at the recent Paris conference. Why close this
to the press? And so it goes at the UN.
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, Haiti and Kosovo Predictions, Labor
Mobility and Offshore Banking
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, February 8 -- At the UN, even the
word "migration" has become controversial and is being worked around. Iran's
deputy Ambassador, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, responding Wednesday to Inner City Press'
question about migration for employment, said that the UN Commission on Social
Development, which Iran chairs, has decided to avoid the word "migration."
Instead they use the phrase, mobility for labor. But what's in a word?
Barbados Central Banker Marion
Williams said at the same event, in response to Inner City Press' questioning of
why in Barbados there are
six commercial banks,
and 57 offshore banks, gave a long explanation about the mobility of capital,
and the need to labor, and laborers, be more mobile. Migrate, do you mean? Video
here.
Wednesday Inner City Press
asked the Office of the Spokesperson about
reports that
the UN's Deputy SRSG Ivo Petrov was told that the Abkhaz side would not attend
upcoming talks in Geneva. Minutes later, a spokesman responded that there will
be Abkhaz representation at the talks.
This hearkens back to a threat never
followed through on, by Russia to file complaints about the U.S. blocking the
visa request of a Georgia-designated official for Abkhazia during last Fall's
General Assembly, based on extraneous concerns. At the time, Russian Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin said he would be filing a complaint. But this appears to never
had happened.
Martti
Ahtisaari
The Abkhazia issue also arose Thursday at
the UN, as Martti Ahtisaari briefed reporters on his draft status proposal for
Kosovo. Mr. Ahtisaari called Kosovo "sui generis" and distinct from Abkhazia,
South Ossentia, Transdniestria, and Nagorno-Karabakh where, he said, separatists
hardly need a Balkan precedent to do what they are going.
Inner City Press asked Mr.
Ahtisaari to explain a
quote of
his in The Guardian, that "Failure to act would lead to 'a weakening of the
security situation' and a possible withdrawal of Nato peacekeeping troops, he
said. 'If I was advising my government I would say to pull out.'" Mr. Ahtisaari
explained that in the course of a long interview, he was thinking not of a
possible veto -- if it comes, from Russia -- in the Spring of 2007, but of
longer-term delay. Video
here.
Meanwhile it is predicted to Inner City Press by informed sources that the
current Russian thinking is to abstain, and not veto. We'll see.
Connecting this items is a simple economic analysis: as other countries have
entered the European Union, those still outside find their ability to travel --
their labor mobility, so to speak -- increasingly curtailed. This harms their
economic prospects in ways that the World Bank and IMF, which Mr. Ahtisaari
stresses, are unlikely to make up for.
At Thursday's noon briefing, beyond a colloquy
with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed
Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, on which we are still working, Inner City
Press asked questions about Haiti and WFP. From the transcript:
Inner City Press: There’s a
report of
quote hundreds of protestors in front of the UN DPKO in Haiti. So, I’m
wondering, I don’t know, there have been reports of this and we haven’t seen any
statement by MINUSTAH. One, is that the case, and two, if so, the report quotes
a protestor saying the UN is part of the cause of the violence. So, obviously,
are you aware of that, and can you comment on it?
Spokesperson:
Yes, we are aware of it, but we cannot comment on it at this point. There have
been demonstrations over and over again for quite a few weeks now. It’s nothing
new, and nothing particularly that the Mission is reacting to.
Inner City
Press: You were here when Mr. Mulet said that everyone wants the UN in Haiti.
Obviously, it’s not everyone, but what percentage is it? Does the UN see the
protest as representing an important part of Haitian public opinion or not?
Spokesperson:
Well, we have no way to assess that. The Mission has not informed us of
percentages.
Inner City
Press: Well, I was wondering if you are willing to… what do you think?
Spokesperson:
I have absolutely no personal opinion… my personal opinion will stay with me, if
you don’t mind.
Inner City
Press: I guess, just to follow it up. If they do say something, maybe you could
give me what they said here, or highlight it in some way, if MINUSTAH has some
response to these protests?
Spokesperson:
Definitely, Matthew, I will. As soon as we get an answer from them, we’ll
inform you.
Inner City
Press: And, on the Secretary-General’s schedule, Josette Sheeran is becoming
head of WFP. Is she still in the building? Is there some way to get an
opportunity, either at the stakeout or some other way, to ask her some
questions?
Spokesperson:
We tried to have her, but, unfortunately, her schedule did not allow her to
come, so that’s why. We did try this morning.
Inner City Press: When was she, has there been a change in her start date at WFP?
Spokesperson:
No, nothing has been changed. Still the same.
We'll see. It's been noted to
Inner City Press that Ann Veneman, as she was entering
UNICEF,
did a stakeout interview. In the months since her controversial selection to
head WFP, Ms. Sheeran Shiner hasn't taken any question at all. What, as simply
one example, is her view on whether internal audits of WFP should be available
to member states, the Executive Board, the press and the public? We'll see --
WFP has of late been responding to questions with answers, watch this site.
Click
here for
Inner City Press' fourth story on the UN Pension Fund, whose CEO has refused to
act on an OIOS investigative report, triggered by the complaint of a
whistleblower who gave an exclusive interview on Thursday night, click
here to
view.
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
