UN Gives Mugabe Time with His
Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July 3 -- As thousands of Zimbabweans
seeking asylum are forcibly returned, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said
he will give "time and space" to Robert Mugabe's handpicked mediator. Speaking
to the press about Zimbabwe on July 2 following the meetings of the African
Union, the UN Secretary General announced that "the former Tanzanian President,
Ben Mkapa, had been appointed as a mediator. I told President Mugabe that I was
committed to helping Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe... and we both agreed
that the new mediator, former Tanzanian President Mkapa, should be given the
time and space to work."
At the noon briefing at UN
Headquarters on Monday, Inner City Press began questioning by asked if this
means that the Secretary-General will not visit Zimbabwe to see the mass
evictions, and that the treatment of those being forcibly returned to Zimbabwe
by South Africa, profiled in the current
Frontline World,
will continue unchecked by the UN. (Video
here; questions start at Minute
12.) The spokeswoman responded that the Secretary General would not throw his
weigh behind a process he didn't believe it, but that she would check into Mr.
Mkapa's mandate and get back to reporters.
The questions only grow. Rudimentary
research shows that after the 2002 elections in Zimbabwe, Mkapa wrote to Mugabe
that "your firmness was good for all Africa." (AP of March 13, 2002.)
Then-Foreign Secretary of Security Council member Britain, Jack Straw, said this
"firmness" included having "prevented voters from registering, instructed the
police to break up rallies, had the leader of the opposition arrested and
reduced the number of polling stations in opposition strongholds." Observers
have noted that Mr. Mtapa was appointed by Mugabe himself, less as a mediator
than as an ambassador. Where goes this leave the people in Zimbabwe,
particularly those who fleeing or seeking to flee the country, now said to
number close to three million?
Seeking
asylum
Before the noon briefing, Inner City
Press asked the UN's refugee agency UNHCR to explain its position "on which of
those leaving Zimbabwe are refugees and the propriety of forced return to
Zimbabwe?" Within hours, this response was received:
From: REDDEN
[at] unhcr.org
To: Matthew.Lee
[at] InnerCityPress.com [and 2 at UNHCR]
Sent: Mon, 3
Jul 2006 11:50:23 +0200
Subject: Re: Two UNHCR press questions:
forcible return to China of Huseyincan
Celil, and UNHCR actions /
position
Dear Matthew
There are
indeed many Zimbabweans deported from South Africa. However, we have not found
them to be refugees or asylum seekers in the process of requesting refugee
status. South Africa has strong legal structures in place for refugees to
prevent refoulement -- the forcible return of refugees to the country they have
fled -- and we believe that is the practice. We monitor the process to the
extent that our resources permit, including visiting the detention centre where
most of those deported are held. An area of concern for UNHCR has been the slow
processing of asylum requests -- which affects those from many countries
incluidng Zimbabwe -- but the government has now launched a "backlog project"
that aims to clear some 100,000 pending applications over the next year.
Instead of
being refugees and asylum seekers, the deportations of Zimbabweans have involved
migrants. While the story you noted mentions some two million Zimbabweans in
South Africa, we do not have an authoritative figure. That figure could well be
correct since the lowest estimates are still hundreds of thousands, which may be
rising with the economic deterioration in Zimbabwe. I was there a few weeks ago
and life is clearly difficult. However, relatively few Zimbabweans have
requested refugee status in South Africa. The queue of asylum applications
(submitted by July 2005) facing the backlog project in early April of this year
numbered more than 103,000. Of those, about 10 percent were Zimbabweans. The
largest number of applicants were from Democratic Republic of Congo. Most
Zimbabweans here have not requested asylum and those are the people who are
being deported. This is a situation that UNHCR will continue to watch closely to
ensure those with the right to refugee status receive it, but the problem you
are enquiring about is mainly the bigger, more complex question of migration.
Migration is moving up the list of international concerns and will be discussed
this coming autumn at the United Nations.
Best regards,
Jack Redden, Senior Regional Global Public Information Officer, Pretoria
This is certainly a faster and
more comprehensive response than from, from example, the UN Development
Programme (see
last week's Inner City Press UN Reports,
and see below). But not only does it not address the
headlined case of refoulement from
Uzbekistan to China -- UNHCR
does not explain why people who flee saying that in Zimbabwe they face torture,
rape in prison or even, in the continuum, the destruction of their homes in
Operation Murambatsvina -- "Drive out Filth" -- are not refugees. In fact, Mr.
Redden was quoted last month that "
The number of Zimbabweans
applying for asylum in South Africa rose sharply in the first three months of
this year to 7,211. Zimbabweans account for 38 percent of the total 18,800
requests." And yet by November 2005, only 86 Zimbabweans had been approved for
refuge status.
Some question whether the approach of UN
and UNHCR to South Africa's and others' treatment of those fleeing Zimbabwe is
less a matter of following international law and more a matter of history and
politics. The same may be asked of the fast announcement and seeming deference
to a purported mediator who had already made his position known, and who was
unilaterally appointed by Mugabe himself. We'll see.
Inner City Press also asked if the
Secretary General's discussions in Banjul included the situations in Uganda,
including the negotiations with the Lord's Resistance Army, whose leaders are
under indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. The
spokeswoman said she was not aware of any discussions on the topic, but would
check. The UN Development Program over the weekend, simultaneously with UNHCR,
was asked in writing:
"that if and when UNDP restarts
disarmament programs or assistance to disarmament programs in eastern Uganda /
Karamoja, an announcement be made. The decision to halt is still not on UNDP
Uganda's web site (or UNDP's web site); this request is that confirmation and
any restart be announced, as was the halt, and last week's Fenway Park award
ceremony, at the noon briefing of Office of the Spokesman for the
Secretary-General, hence the cc's [to Kofi Annan's Spokesman's Office].
Also, we'd like to request an interview
with either UNDP's Africa regional director Gilbert Houngbo and / or the
Administrator. You could tell Mr. Houngbo, to whom this is cc-ed, that the
interview will concern not only the Uganda issues, but also, inter alia,
UNDP's activities in Somalia and the DR Congo (the disarmament component of
which we would like information on, beyond that at
http://www.so.undp.org/Themes/ROLS/DDR.htm
and
http://www.cd.undp.org/docs/ituri_dcrp.pdf,
respectively). Also, Kenya.
For your information, I am pasting below
two articles from Uganda, in which the UPDF reiterates it will continue with
cordon and search disarmament,
and a particular incident in
Karamoja;
also, one re disarmament in Kenya. Please ensure confirm that notification will
be provided of any restart by UNDP disarmament programs or assistance to
disarmament programs in eastern Uganda / Karamoja. Thank you.
As of
mid-afternoon Monday, no response had been received. A next question will
concern UNDP's engagements with Zimbabwe.
And the beat goes on.
Postscript 8 p.m. July 3: Monday afternoon
lethargy was palpable at UN Headquarters. In the basement in Conference Room 4,
the Small Arms Conference plodded on. Three speeches in a row criticized the
lack of translation of documents. In any language, human rights were lacking. In
an otherwise nearly-full room, there were empty seats behind the name plate of
Uganda, as that nation continues forcible disarmament and abuse of civilians in
Karamoja. The UNDP seat was empty, then temporarily filled. There was a stack
of UNDP Statements by Ms. Kathleen Cravero, with no mention of UNDP halting, or
restarting, programs parallel to abuse by the Ugandan government.
At 6:15 in the Dag Hammarskjold auditorium
a dozen people gathered for a screening of a near-snuff movie of child soldiers
in Liberia, Les Petits Soldats. Young teens were repeatedly asked, "How
many people did you kill?" They answered in pidgin English. One's nom de guerre
was Notorious B.I.G.. Another told of his commander ZigZag Master cutting out
hearts to eat them. Afterwards there was no discussion. The audience trooped out
through the empty UN HQ. There was still no response from UNDP. Another request,
with an addition on Zimbabwe, has been sent. The host country and city prepared
for fireworks. Mesmerized by gunpowder...
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
USA (UNHQ-NYC)
Tel: 718-716-3540
At
the UN, Friday Night's Alright for Fighting, But Bolton Goes Missing
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, July
1 -- "If it's all night, it's all right." So said John Bolton at a
5 p.m. Security Council
stakeout.
But in the General Assembly from nine to eleven p.m. he was nowhere to be seen.
The major vote was left until last. Four member states disassociated themselves
from the raising of the UN budget cap: the U.S., Japan and Australia, and a
last-minute addition, Canada. Speaking to reporters just after the vote,
outgoing Canadian Ambassador Rock predicted slow progress on management reform
and mandate review. "Next week is only three days," he said. For John Bolton,
the weekend started early.
Bolton's foil
Mark Malloch Brown conferred with two advisors in the lobby outside the G.A..
Inner City Press approached and asked if Canada's vote had come as a surprise.
MMB, as they call him, stayed Sphinx-like. His colleague said Canada's eloquent speech spoke for
itself.
Among the U.N.
press corp, only Japanese media, AP and Inner City Press remained on the scene.
In garbage time the G.A. President was asked about the strange-shaped gavel he
uses. "It's a gift from Iceland," he answered. Thursday afternoon he'd said he'd
cancelled Friday plans. But in New York at 11, the night was still young.
In
under-the-radar diplomatic skirmish news, a vote on Lebanon turned on paragraphs
about Israel, debts from '96. The U.S. and Israel were joined by Palau in
opposition. The Marshall Islands were nowhere to be seen. The development
resolution passed, but with Qatar excluded from paragraph 62.
Earlier in the
afternoon, two lower profile Ambassador briefed on background about this
resolution on development, with its over sixty operational paragraphs, include
three which gentle chide the World Bank and IMF. They said optimistically that
it would be voted on at 4 p.m., it fact it got tied to the rest, and began at
nine p.m.. A speech by UAE began without translation. The gavel from
Iceland banged down again and again.
Before he left
the building, at the 5
p.m. stakeout John Bolton declined to call the kidnapping a month ago of UN
troops in Ituri an act of terror. He didn't criticize the UN's slow approach,
saying only that events are being closely followed.
On other
African topics, during the U.S. holiday there'll be news from the African Union
in Banjul. Before he left, Inner City Press shout-asked the Secretary General if
he'll be meeting with Robert Mugabe. After a pause, Mr. Annan answered "yes."
(Click here for the video; Mugabe's at Minute 6:15.) Annan's spokesman's office
followed this up with two earlier statements, and a no-comment as to any visit
to Zimbabwe.
Update: On July 1,
it's reported that the UN Secretary General met for 40 minutes with Robert
Mugabe. Also in the meeting held at the Sheraton Hotel were foreign affairs
minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, foreign
affairs secretary Joey Bimha and the UN Under-Secretary General for African
Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari (a/k/a specialist in the Kofi Annan legacy). Sudan and Somalia will also be discussed in Banjul - watch this
site.
Following
up on violence against civilians in disarmament in Eastern Uganda, Inner City
Press Friday at noon
asked the
director of the UN's Institute for Disarmament Research about UNDP's current
halt of programs, "pending clarification from the Government of Uganda on the
current disarmament approach in Karamoja." The director drew analogies to Mali
and Iraq, and suggested a talk with UNDP's Robert Scharf, who's in New York for
the small arms conference. Another person present at the
noon briefing said
she'd make Mr. Scharf available in the afternoon. As of 8 p.m., Inner City Press
had not heard from Mr. Scharf. In the UN basement a table sat unmanned, with a
sign saying "UNDP Promoting Security for Development."
Burning
in Uganda, Questions for UNDP
There is
a request that if and when UNDP resumes funding disarmament in eastern Uganda,
an announcement be made, in New York as well as Kampala. Kofi Annan's
spokesman's office
says it
is not an enforcement agent. But who then holds a UN agency to the statements it
provides, in this case about Ugandan government troops' abuses of civilians? And
as
reported on UN OCHA's IRIN,
UNDP played a role in celebrating the destruction of weapons collected,
presumably by voluntary and involuntary means. (Click
here
-- the article quotes UNDP's Bob Scharf.) In Kampala, the Minister of State for
Defense Ruth Nankabirwa "denied reports
that the UPDF has suspended the 'cordon and search' for guns." How much more
clear does UNDP want it? And where else is it funding such programs?
While the
General Assembly provided only anonymous background on its development
resolution, an on-the-record briefing was held on DESA's "Diverging Growth and
Development" report. This report, like the resolution, approaches the Bretton
Woods two with velvet bureaucratic gloves. A call is made for "gradual,
country-specific and home-made institutional reforms," and for using for
developing countries what shrinking space the WTO allows for protections. In
1950, Africa's income was 40% of the developed world's. The figure is now seven
percent. The rich are getting richer and vice versa for the poor, this UN report
concludes. Dog bites man, some say. From the World Bank / IMF to the Security
Council's P-5, power talks and the rest of the world just walks and walks and
walks. Or wait and votes 'til late on Friday night.
In
his last UN talk, outgoing German Ambassador Gunther Pleuger said the budget cap
games put pressure on the wrong target: the Secretariat. He said he had no
regrets about his G-4 gambit. Days earlier in the half-hit Council stakeout,
he'd opined that Japan walked behind the U.S., until the chips are down. He said
not to quote him until he leaves his post, which has just happened. Buena
suerte!
In lieu of fireworks,
and speaking of the need for reform and impunity's end, we offer this blind
item: Which outgoing SRSG was pushed rather than jumped due to an illicit taste
for the topic of his charge? Just throwing in the word conflict does not make it
go away...
UN
Acknowledges Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh
Questions
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, June
29 -- The rights of Ugandan civilians have been abused by government soldiers,
leading the UN Development Programme to halt its programs in eastern Uganda,
Kofi Annan's spokeswoman Marie Okabe
stated
on Thursday. (Video is here, answer is Minute 11 to 13:35.) While clearer than
before in acknowledging abuses by the Ugandan People's Defense Force, which
Inner City Press has reported on for the past eleven days, this statement does
not address what the Ugandan government's funders knew and when they knew it.
UNDP has repeatedly declined to answer this question, which has been put to it
in writing and orally, or has left its answers vague and not, it's said, to be
quoted. Here
however is AllAfrica.
A UNDP
statement issued in Kampala on Thursday, three paragraphs in length, waited
until its last terse sentence to disclose that "pending clarification from the
Government of Uganda on the current disarmament approach in Karamoja, UNDP
Uganda has suspended its support to activities related to the KIDDP."
This
last stands for the Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Plan, a copy
of which Inner City Press has obtained. The KIDDP lists a number of funding
partners, including the Danish International Development Agency, the European
Union, the World Bank, the government of Italy, Germany's GTZ, USAID,
Netherlands' SNV, Ireland's DCI, and the UN agencies World Food Programme and
UNDP. Since UNDP initially named Denmark as the funder of disarmament programs
in eastern Uganda, Inner City Press last week asked the Danish mission to the UN
for its comment on specific allegations of abuses in Karamoja. "It will take
time to look into," the mission's spokesman said. On Thursday Inner City Press
asked the Danish Ambassador to the UN, the outgoing Security Council president.
The World Food Programme was asked for comment a week ago but no response has
been received. The inquiries will continue.
With regard to
UNDP, the statement is undated, and cannot itself be the warning which UNDP
states it has given. Some surmise that the abuses were to meet the aggressive
gun-collection targets, even to provide a photo-op. As with photography,
transparency would have been better from the beginning, and is still being
called for.
Inner Asia
Also at
the UN on Thursday, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan spoke to the press about the
June 17 meeting in Almaty of the 18 member Conference on Interaction and
Confidence Building Measures in Asia, called CICA and pronounced seek-a.
Thailand is a member; the Ambassador said diplomatically that the Thai deputy
foreign minister is an attractive candidate to become UN Secretary General.
Kazakhstan has reportedly pledged its support to Bangkok, just as Uzbekistan has
opened traded its vote to South Korea in exchange for an ongoing energy sales
deal.
It was
about Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan's pattern of returning dissidents to that
country to face torture, that Inner City Press questioned Ambassador Yerzhan
Kazykhanov, specifically about the recent arrest of Gabdurafikh Temirbaev. The
Kazakh Ambassador's response, after saying that Kazakhstan gets along fine with
UNHCR, was that Kazakhstan wants and needs prosperous and stable neighbors. One
could infer that he meant that returning dissidents to Uzbekistan makes that
country and its Karimov regime more stable. Through the OSSG, Inner City Press
has asked what the UN and UNHCR are doing to stop the trend of refoulement
to Uzbekistan, which has already taken place from Ukraine and Kazakhstan, is
constantly threatened from Kyrgyzstan, and is now said to be happening in real
(media) time to a person, Gabdurafikh Temirbaev, who UNHCR reportedly on June 16
deemed to be a refugee? What guidance might the UN or UNHCR give to the
organizations and members in the CICA and of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization? Kofi Annan at his June 15 press conference answered that he is
aware of those facing refoulement from Kyrgyzstan, the transcript is
online
-- but what about Kazakhstan's refoulements of Uzbeks? We'll see.
This time the
stories connect, thusly: despite Uzbekistan's record, and UNHCR being tossed out
of the country by Karimov, UNDP has not retracted its praise of the regime. And
so it goes...
In
Uganda, UNDP's Belated Announcement of Program Halt Leaves Questions Unanswered
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee at the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, June
28 -- On June 29 in Uganda, ten days after Inner City Press'
questions about disarmament abuses began and two days after a more quiet
announcement, the United Nations Development Programme is slated to go public
with the news that it has suspended its programs in eastern Uganda. This follows
the newspaper The New Vision picking up on Inner City Press'
reports (click
here to view; the
AP
in New York has also followed up). In the field of public relations, the advice
is often to get out in front of events, rather than play catch-up. When that is
missed, it's spin, spin, spin.
In the
Kampala-based New Vision, Ugandan
People's Defense Force spokesman Felix Kulayigye is
quoted as disputing Inner
City Press' reports, stating that "statistics showed that the cordon-and-search
had been more successful than voluntary surrendering of guns" and that "this
month, the UPDF recovered over 1,100 guns compared to 636 guns recovered in two
years ending March 2006." It all depends on the tactics used...
The
AP
has UNDP's spokesman declaiming that "our operations in the region have halted
due to a continuing difficult security situation and concerns about Ugandan
military operations in the area." UNDP's letter goes further, referencing recent
reports of
"killings, beatings, arbitrary detention, intimidation and harassment."
Wednesday in New York, nine days after Inner City Press first raised these
questions, UNDP's spokesman came to speak to Inner City Press for
over an hour, describing the announcement to slated for Thursday in Kampala, saying it will
refer to "security" issues rather than human rights abuses, and arguing that UNDP was and is a "small player" in Uganda's Karamojo region. The spokesman
congratulated Inner City Press for raising the issues, and asked in essence what
more could the UN do at this time?
Plenty,
according to a source in the Prime Minister's Office (OPM) in Kampala. In a
second email to Inner City Press, the source paints a picture quite different
from that offered by UNDP's spokesman in New York, writing that
"OPM terminated the contract of the 4th
advisor, Techeste Ahderom, because of management and performance issues arising
out of this situation. We have brought these matters to UNDP attention but have
received no constructive feedback. As a result the program, support to
implementation of the IDP Policy, which Techeste was managing has suffered
serious setbacks. The human security / Karamoja program is having similar
problems and Robert Scharf has been warned on a number of occasions. One of
Robert's main responsibility was to support coordination of the implementation
of the KIDDP at the highest level including ministry of Defense and internal
affairs. For over six months now he has failed to convene a single meeting - OPM
role in the promotion of voluntary disarmament has been compromised... In the
Mine Action Programme a UK based NGO was recruited to conduct mine assessments
in northern Uganda - more than 90% of DFID money has gone to contracts of so
called experts. They have failed to produce a credible report and the financial
accountability is questionable but UNDP continues to disburse funds to this
NGO."
On the
question of UNDP's use of funds, the agency's spokesman did not bring any budget
documents during his visit Wednesday to Inner City Press. Asked to explain the
use of the $293,000 spent before the program was suspended, the spokesman
referred to start-up costs, including the need to "set up offices in huts." He
stated that now no UNDP program staff remain in the field. He congratulated
Inner City Press for raising the issues, which have now been picked up by
Ugandan press, click
here
for The New Vision, and
with more UNDP involvement, the
AP.
This
news travels
On
Wednesday in New York, UNDP's
spokesman urged Inner City Press to shift the focus of its two week old inquiry, to turn to wider programs and
other funders. The story and its implications are certainly wider than UNDP, and
will be followed where they lead. But here are a list of questions provided to
the UNDP spokesman prior to his hour-long presentation, and still not answered:
-On what date did
UNDP suspend its support of programs in Eastern Uganda?
-What if any are the
conditions of the suspension?
-What is the overall
spending figure for UNDP's programs throughout Uganda for 2006?
-Your 6/27 message
states that 'cordon and search' operations "undermine the possibility of
achieving lasting peace and development for the region" and that "UNDP has
joined with other development partners in Uganda to voice concern about this
exercise to Ugandan authorities." Who are the "other development partners in
Uganda" referenced in this statement?
-Your message states
that UNDP "is aware of the allegations of abuse by the Ugandan military...
including the ones you have raised" but further claims that UNDP "does not have
the mandate to independently investigate accusations of human rights abuses by a
national military against citizens of that country."
-If UNDP does not
"have the mandate to independently investigate accusations of human rights
abuses by a national military against citizens" of a country where UNDP
operates, who in UNDP's opinion does have such a mandate?
-UNDP's then-Country
Director, Cornelus Klein, made a speech on May 25, 2006 where he applauded
Ugandan Government efforts at disarmament and specifically singled out the work
of the UPDF with praise. He said "Uganda… is seizing the opportunity to address
small and light weapons concerns. While UNDP currently provides modest support
to the nation, it is Uganda that can support and lead other countries in doing
the same. Let me take this opportunity, therefore, to applaud the Government for
its strong leadership and commitment. I also wish to express our thanks to the
National Focal Point, the UPDF, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Safer Africa
whose excellent work we have all seen this morning, and all other partners that
have worked collectively towards this important achievement. I hope that the
well trained, hard working and dedicated people we have seen handling this
process will remain busy for a long time so that all illicit weapons in the
country are destroyed."
Six
days prior to Mr. Klein's speech, as recounted in my first message to you nine
days ago, the first reported attack by the UPDF in Kotido sub-county, where on
May 19th the UPDF encircled a village and attacked to force the residents to
turn over their weapons, resulting in four people being killed by the UPDF or
its local defense units, including a 15-year old girl. Over 100 homes were
burned and the village's protective fence was destroyed. Many residents were
taken and detained in the UPDF barracks in Kotido. On the same day, May 19th, in
Nadunget sub county, the UPDF reportedly encircled a village at 4 a.m.. People
were ordered out of their huts and beaten while the army searched the village.
Although reportedly the army found no weapons or ammunition, ten men from the
village were taken and detained at the Moroto army barracks.
Question:
When he gave his speech on 25 May 2006, was Mr. Klein aware of these separate
attacks by the UPDF some six days earlier?
--Reportedly, Mr.
Klein left Kampala "at the end of May, after eight months in Uganda." Where is
Mr. Klein now? Can he and his successor Theophane Nikyema be interviewed?
Beyond
these still unanswered questions, there were questions that were half-answered,
or answered through Internet research:
Does the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights have a presence in Uganda and a mandate
to review Ugandan Government military operations against Ugandan citizens?
The
answer is yes - click
here to
view, and to read on pages 61-63 that
"In the
sub-region of Karamoja, in northeastern Uganda, the traditional culture of
cattle rustling with its increasingly violent modern expressions, persistent
Government neglect, and an unsuccessful disarmament programme have led to
serious security concerns, human rights violations, violence, and a total lack
of protection for civilians. Administration of justice structures, law
enforcement institutions, and other central Government services are virtually
non-existent in the sub-region; as a result, a parallel system of traditional
justice, based on reprisals and revenge, has emerged instead... In recognition
of the need to consolidate peace with the need for justice, accountability, and
reconciliation, OHCHR will establish itself as the lead agency within the United
Nations Country Team, in cooperation with civil society actors and the Amnesty
Commission, to help to develop national reconciliation strategies, which could
include truth-telling, repentance, and compensation, to complement the ongoing
peace process. In the Karamoja sub-region, OHCHR will explore ways to enhance
the protection of civilians, combat impunity, help to restore security through
community-based mechanisms, and facilitate inter-ethnic dialogue on peace and
human rights education. These activities will be conducted in partnership with
the United Nations Country Team, which is deepening its engagement in Karamoja
in response to the Government's Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development
Programme (2006–2008)."
We will have more on this wider plan; for now we
note that the UNDP spokesman on Wednesday stated that while UNDP is usually
publicly quiet, it raises the human rights issues it sees to the head of the UN
Country Team, who in turn forwards the information to UN Headquarters. In this
case, UN Headquarters has yet to make a comment.
Question: When
UNDP becomes "aware of allegations of abuse" by the national military of a
country where it works, does it provide this information to any UN entity with a
mandate to independently investigate such things?
This
question, Inner City Press asked to two representatives in Kofi Annan's
spokesman's office, without on-the-record response. UNDP's spokesman described
to Inner City Press UNDP's desire to stay quiet in order to be able to continue
to work in countries, as it does in Myanmar on HIV/AIDS. Asked about the wisdom
of such silence, or even incongruous UNDP praise, for as for the Millennium
Development Goals progress of Uzbekistan, also known for torture, the spokesman
only answered, "good question." But what's the answer?
At the
noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman to comment on UNDP's suspension of
programs in eastern Uganda due to disarmament abuse by the government. The
spokesman said that UN agencies are expected to monitor and ensure that funds
are not misused; on UNDP's suspension of programs in eastern Uganda, he said
there'd be no statement "yet." Perhaps UNDP's press release slated for June 29
in Kampala will trigger some response by the Kofi Annan's spokesman, even during
the Secretary-General trip, which will include the African Union's weekend
meeting in Banjul, where Mr. Annan will,
he responded,
meet with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
UN in Denial on
Sudan, While Boldly Predicting the Future of Kosovo/a
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?
At the UN, a
Commando Unit to Quickly Stop Genocide is Proposed, by Diplomatic Sir
Brian Urquhart
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
At the UN,
Internal Justice Needs Reform, While in Timor Leste, Has Evidence Gone
Missing?
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
In Bolton's Wake,
Silence and Speech at the UN, Congo and Kony, Let the Games Begin
Pro-Poor Talk and
a Critique of the World Trade Organization from a WTO Founder: In UN
Lull, Ugandan Fog and Montenegrin Mufti
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
AIDS Ends at the
UN? Side Deals on Patents, Side Notes on Japanese Corporations,
Salvadoran and Violence in Burundi
On AIDS at the
UN, Who Speaks and Who Remains Unseen
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence (May 31, 2006)
Kinshasa Election
Nightmares, from Ituri to Kasai. Au Revoir Allan Rock; the UN's
Belly-Dancing
Working with
Warlords, Insulated by Latrines: Somalia and Pakistan Addressed at the
UN
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
In Liberia, From
Nightmare to Challenge; Lack of Generosity to Egeland's CERF, Which
China's Asked About
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
At the UN, Dues
Threats and Presidents-Elect, Unanswered Greek Mission Questions
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 Congolese
Chaos, Shots Fired at U.N. Helicopter Gunship
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
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
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