At the UN, Disinterest in Zimbabwe, Secrecy on Chechnya, Congo Polyanna and Ineptitude on Somalia

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 3 -- To what demands does the UN respond? Thursday in Zimbabwe, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the UN's building, demanding action on the UN's dormant report on the Mugabe government's mass eviction of 700,000 people in Operation Murambatsvina or "Clean Out the Trash."

   The UN's failure to act on the report, and on the evictions, take place in the context of the Secretary-General having opened deferred to Mr. Mugabe's chosen mediator, Ben Mkapa, and of the UN Development Program working on the Mugabe government's Human Rights Council despite criticism from non-governmental human rights groups in Zimbabwe. In order to get a response from the UN Secretariat, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman's office, along with a question about Darfur and another on Chechnya. With all due respect, the response was unsatisfactory, or telling.

            "We can't respond every time someone demonstrates," a UN spokesman told Inner City Press, adding that the UN can only mediate or act on the evictions report with the consent of the Mugabe government. That the Secretary-General in other circumstances, including last week and this, can when he chooses call on changes in behavior by member states was not addressed. Everything is a choice.  These choices have included devoting the vast majority of each day's noon briefing to events in Lebanon. Thursday's question about Darfur was responded to, outside of the briefing, dismissively. Yes, the Secretary-General is traveling, to Haiti and Santo Domingo.  But when the government of Sudan says openly that it will refuse any UN force in Darfur, and even claims that such a force would be illegal, some would expect a response from the Secretariat.

            Even on Lebanon, the fact are far too loose. Thursday at noon Inner City Press inquired into Tuesday's statement about three hospitals closed for lack of fuel in southern Lebanon. The spokesman's response acknowledged indirectly that fewer had been closed:

From: varmab@un.org

To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Sent: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 11:23 AM

Subject: your question on Lebanese hospitals

WHO says the health sector is suffering from lack of supplies and fuel. The fuel shortage has forced Mais Al-Jabal hospital to close down and Marjeion hospital is to close tonight. Ghandour hospital (also in south Lebanon) was bombed while Tyre public hospital is running out of supplies and could close down soon. 

 --Brenden Varma, Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

  Thursday Inner City Press asked again, calling the situation "more complex" but requesting an update. As of press time, none was forthcoming.

            On Chechnya, Inner City Press asked for confirmation that the UN has reduced its danger assessment from "security phase V" or "Evacuation" to "security phase IV," while raising its threat assessment in Kabardino-Balkaria. The official response is that the UN's threat levels are not public, despite the fact that they appear in online OCHA situation reports.  Click here for one such report.

Chechnya

A question concerning reports that Russia intends to deport Uzbek dissidents despite their designation as refugees by UNHCR also went unanswered. Yes there are vacations and sicknesses. But the world, even outside of the Mediterranean's eastern shore, goes on. Ethiopia has invaded Somalia, and the UN Secretariat has said nothing. Many observers conclude that the UN is so committed to the now-collapsing Transitional Government that it is choosing to stay silent as Ethiopia violates the UN Security Council's arms embargo, since the arms are going to the Transitional Federal Government, dozens of whose ministers have now resigned, many to join the Islamic Courts Union. The endgame, some predict, will be the same or worse than in 1993, when the UN openly targeted Aidid, and then had no contacts after that targeting, and the main targeter, ended in failure. If the Transitional Federal Government totally collapses, and the Islamic Courts Union replaces it even in Baidoa, what alliance would the ICU own to the UN? Distraction and corner-cutting leads to larger problems down the road.  The questions will continue.

            At the Security Council stakeout on Thursday, Inner City Press asked this month's Council president Nana Effah-Apenteng about the briefing on DR Congo elections. Did head UN peacekeeper Jean-Marie Guehenno -- who did not come to take questions himself after his briefing -- mention the finished-or-not-finished investigation of the UN's role in the attack on Kazana village in Ituri? And what of the low voter turn-out in Kasai? Amb. Effah-Apenteng  responded to candidate and current vice president Ruberwa's accusation of fraud; apparently, Mr. Guehenno did not mention Kazana, or presumably Peter Karim, the kidnapper of UN peacekeepers later offered a colonel's position in the Congolese army. Developing.

            In the UN's basement on Wednesday, a documentary was screened about a 90-year old survivor of the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who after the film took questions, remarkable lucidly and insightfully. Inner City Press asked about the North Korean missile tests and subsequent torturously negotiated Security Council resolution. Mr. Yamaguchi was aware of the missile that flew toward Japan and also Hawaii; he closed his eyes and said in both English and Japanese, "No more Hiroshimas!" And no Nagasakis either...

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Impunity's in the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for Kazana

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

  UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- As in the Congo both vote-counting and vote-spinning continue, UN envoy William Lacy Swing on Wednesday told reporters in New York all irregularities with the election "have been dealt with by the electoral commission."

   This Mr. Swing later modified, saying the irregularities "are being" dealt with. These were not the only word games deployed by Mr. Swing over the video connection. Inner City Press asked Swing to explain why he had applauded the offer of a position in the Congolese army to Mathieu Ngudjolo, a warlord with the Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolais (MRC) who has previously been quoted justifying the use of child soldiers.

          "I don't think you're quoting me on that," said Mr. Swing. "It's not my business to applaud."

            But a UN press release that was read out at the noon briefing in New York on July 27 states, "William Lacy Swing, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the DRC, welcomed the agreement, signed yesterday in Bunia by the Congolese Government and the MRC in the presence of UN officials, calling it a major step forward for the elections." Perhaps there is some semantic difference between applauding and welcoming. Less semantic is Mr. Swing's and the UN's decision to acquiesce to the offer of a colonel's position in the Congolese army to Peter Karim, who took hostage seven peacekeepers in the UN's MONUC mission "for forty one days," as Mr. Swing emphasized.

            "It was absolutely our top priority to get them released," said Mr. Swing. Last week, the UN's head of Africa peacekeeping Dmitry Titov acknowledged that the offer of a colonel's role to Peter Karim was "as part of the negotiation" to get the peacekeepers released.  Wednesday Mr. Swing reverted to the old, previously abandoned story, that the offer only came about after Peter Karim freed the peacekeepers.

            On the timing of MONUC's self-exoneration, see July 28 report below, Mr. Swing stated that MONUC had last week sent to New York its report, apparently the one page, typo-ridden document handed to Inner City Press Friday in the spokesman's office. Mr. Swing stated that he or his spokesman would provide the date of the report. As of 10 p.m. Wednesday in New York, the date had not been provided.

Counting  Messrs. Swing and de La Sabliere

            An update on other UN information not provided yesterday by deadline, but arriving today: at Tuesday's noon briefing, it was said from the podium that three hospitals in South Lebanon had been closed for lack of fuel for generators. Inner City Press asked for the names of the three hospitals, beyond Bint Jbeil.  Wednesday morning, the following arrived:

"WHO says the health sector is suffering from lack of supplies and fuel. The fuel shortage has forced Mais Al-Jabal hospital to close down and Marjeion hospital is to close tonight. Ghandour hospital (also in south Lebanon) was bombed while Tyre public hospital is running out of supplies and could close down soon."

   Without being needlessly contentious, that would be one hospital closed, and one to follow. Facts are facts, and many go unascertained. For example, the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. While the UN continues to say it is not positioned to confirm the invasion, BBC on Wednesday quoted diplomats that Ethiopian prime minister "Meles had privately acknowledged the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil."

          Wednesday Inner City Press asked Ghana's ambassador, and this month's Security Council president, Nana Effah-Apenteng if and when Somalia will appear on the Council's agenda. "When one member asks for it," he answered. Asked about Uganda's offer of amnesty to the Lord's Resistance Army's Joseph Kony despite his indictment for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, Amb. Nana Effah-Apenteng stated that during the Council's recent consideration of reports on Resolutions 1653 and 1663, the Council decided to "let the Juba process have a chance." He added that he was not ready to express Ghana's view on the offer of amnesty to Kony. Video is here.

   Impunity seems the order of the day.  One reporter, not this one, opined that this is the way of the world, to let bad actors into the army, to keep them from doing even more harm.  Another reporter, also not this one, pointed out that it was under William Lacy Swing that the scandal of UN peacekeepers trading eggs and peanut butter for underaged sex in East Congo took place, but that Mr. Swing was never held accountable, due to his nation's protection. Forgiveness is one thing, impunity's another.

            How does all this make the UN appear? Wednesday Inner City Press asked the panel assembled for the 60th anniversary of the World Federation of United Nations Associations whether they distinguish between the UN and Security Council, as it appears those who looted the UN's building in Beirut did not. "We are constructive critics, replied acting S-G Pera Wells.  Inner City Press asked if WFUNA has a position on such matters as expansion of the Security Council, and granting permanent seats to such nations as India and Brazil, and Japan and Germany. The matters will be discussed at an upcoming Argentine plenary. We'll see.

UN Still Silent on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

   UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- When troops of one country invade another, what does the UN do? It depends.

   In the face of widespread reporting of Ethiopian troops in Somalia, Inner City Press has for the last two days asked Kofi Annan's spokesman's office for confirmation and comment on this fact. Monday the response was that the UN "is not in the position" to ascertain whether there are Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia.

  Tuesday the spokeswoman quoted Kofi Annan's envoy to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall "at the IGAD meeting in Nairobi" on the importance of continuing the "dialogue between the Transitional Federal Government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts." Given that the TFG had in the past 24 hours postponed the dialogue in Khartoum for at least 15 days, Inner City Press asked what Mr. Fall was referring to, whether it took into account the postponement and the further defection of ministers from the TFG cabinet.  "He's aware of press reports," the spokesman answered.

            Among the members of the regional group IGAD are Ethiopia and Eritrea. So Inner City Press asked, did Francois Lonseny Fall at least at the meeting ask the Ethiopian representative if his country's troops have cross into Somalia?  "I have his statement," was the answer. And nothing more to say? Apparently not.

In the UN's blind spot

            The next part of the noon briefing, much longer -- one wag said "disproportionate" --  concerned events in Lebanon. It was said that three hospitals in south Lebanan have closed for lack of fuel. Inner City Press asked for the hospitals' names and locations, beyond Bint Jbeil, and asked for more information on the attack on the UN's building in Beirut. The spokesman emphasized that the Lebanese government and Hezbollah both appealed to the crowd to stop the attack. There were no injuries, he said. The staff had been evacuated. The scope and cost of material damage has yet to be assessed.

            And what of the less tangible damage to the United Nations' image? At UN Headquarters Tuesday, the mood was slow and languid. Drifting out from the Security Council were the U.S. Jackie Sanders and the income Council president, the Ambassador of Ghana. Maybe later this week, both in essence said. Maybe.

            What if the Council has a building in Beirut? The operational side of the UN is not paralyzed. The World Food Program is charged with getting fuel into Beirut. Twenty-five WFP staff were in fact in the building in Beirut was it was attacked. Monday's New York Times spoke of the U.S. teetering on the brink of a public relations disaster. But the U.S. has stronger building, further set back from the street. The UN Secretariat brings out the big guns on Lebanon, without as yet effect. On another invasion, and the crisis in Somalia, very little is said or done.

            Monday the spokesman's office referred Inner City Press, on the current question of the TFG's allegation that Egypt, Libya and Iran are supporting the Islamic Courts Union, to a months-old experts report on sanctions violators, S/2006/229. The report describes arms shipment to the warlords and TFG; only Eritrea is presenting at supporting what the report calls militant Islamic fundamentalists. According to the report, Ethiopia drove 10 trucks to Jowhar, including 2000 AK-47s and 100 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers. Yemen provided the TFG with 15 Toyota Land Cruiser pickup trucks, to be converted into technicals. The report refers to "clandestine third-party involvement in Somalia" in support of the "Alliance for Peace Restoration and Combat Against Terror," APRCT. The report states that the "Monitoring Group did not specify third-country involvement because at the time of the writing of the present report it had not completed its investigation." And now? Francois Lonseny Fall, where are you?

            Fewer questions exist about William Lacy Swing, at least tomorrow. At 2 p.m. Wednesday in New York, Mr. Swing will appear on a video screen on the 32nd floor of UN Headquarters. With new allegations of fraud in the elections, and outstanding questions about the incorporation of warlords into the Congolese army and the quickly-released and now-apparently-ongoing investigation into the events at the village of Kazana, here's hoping that the video hook-up stays strong.

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

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

At the UN, Speeches While Gaza Stays Lightless and Insurance Not Yet Paid

At the UN Poorest Nations Discussed, Disgust at DRC Short Shrift, Future UN Justice?

At the UN Wordsmiths Are At Work on Zimbabwe, Kony,  Ivory Coast and Iran

UN Silent As Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News Analysis

At the UN, New Phrase Passes Resolution called Gangster-Like by North Korea; UK Deputy on the Law(less)

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

At UN, North Korean Knot Attacked With Fifty Year Old Precedent, Game Continues Into Weekend

UN's Corporate Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and UNDP Continues

Gaza Resolution Vetoed by U.S., While North Korea Faces Veto and Chechnya Unread

BTC Briefing, Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations

Conflicts of Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts

At the UN, A Day of Resolutions on Gaza, North Korea and Iran, Georgia as Side Dish

UN Grapples with Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without Explanation

In North Korean War of Words, Abuses in Uganda and Impunity Go Largely Ignored

On North Korea, Blue Words Move to a Saturday Showdown, UNDP Uzbek Stonewall

As the World Turns in Uganda and Korea, the UN Speaks only on Gaza, from Geneva

North Korea in the UN: Large Arms Supplant the Small, and Confusion on Uganda

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 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

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

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