At the UN, Jay-Z Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka Kilcher in the Basement

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- Kofi Annan and two UN agencies appeared Wednesday with rapper Jay-Z to talk about access to water. The news, such as it was, is that water is good. Inner City Press asked Shawn Jay-Z Carter two questions, about water privatization and about the Associated Press charges, unrebutted in the public record, that his clothing line Rocawear used sweatshop Southwest Textiles S.A. in Cholula, Honduras. Video here, at Minute 20:30 through 23:19.

     On the water privatization question, Jay-Z said, "that's just bureaucracy, I don't have any expertise in that," adding that he's about raising awareness. Later he praised Coca-Cola for giving money for play pumps; Coke is under fire for overuse of water in India as well as in Colombia.

Privatization? Never heard of it.

            On the request that he address Rocawear's reported use of sweatshops, and whether the company still uses Southwest Textiles, S.A., Jay-Z said, "Still? That means that they were." Video here, from Minute 21:28.

            Since the charges were on AP and in USA Today, click here to view, and have not been rebutted in the public record, Inner City Press asked for a response. But none was given. And so it goes at the United Nations. There is an unself-conscious partnering not only with pop culture figures, click here and see below, for one with more substance, but also with corporations, from Dow Chemicals to Societe General to Microsoft, and so on without end, for now. Meanwhile the bombs in Lebanon continue.

            At the noon briefing that followed, Inner City Press asked if the UN's refugee agency UNHCR has anything to say about Uzbekistan's bragging that 14 dissidents are about to be returned from Russia. The spokesman responded that UNHCR speaks with the countries at issue. Does that include Uzbekistan and the Karimov regime, which having already thrown UNHCR out of the country is moving to similar oust Mercy Corps, allegedly for espionage? We'll see.

            Inner City Press also asked about the DR Congo election, and the EU observer mission's recent statement that that the vote counting "process is lacking checks and balances of transparency" and that announcing incomplete results could stir up tensions." After the briefing, Kofi Annan's spokesman's office provided this statement:

"SRSG Swing reminded Congolese yesterday that it is vital to maintain the same discipline and orderliness that they showed on 30th July. He said that, at this stage, it is premature to give results, since only 5% of ballot papers have been counted."

            More informative was a briefing by the head of Kofi Annan's assessment mission to Nepal, Staffan de Mistura. While since he was in Nepal the process nearly fell apart, Monday the scheduled joint-but-separate letters were delivered to the UN, click here to view. Inner City Press inquired into the allegations that U.S. Ambassador to Nepal James Francis Moriarty tried at the last minute to scuttle the process, click here for allegation. Mr. de Mistura responded diplomatically, that all on the P5 are now on board. In response to the second question of Inner City Press, about South Lebanon where he was previously an envoy, Mr. de Mistura was more poetic, noting that "the best medicine is preventative." Meanwhile Lebanon continues not only to fester but also be bombed.

   Finally, the  International Day of the World's Indigenous People was celebrated six days late in the Dag Hammerskjold auditorium, where Q'Orianka Kilcher presented, alongside Wilton Littlechild, whom Inner City Press quoted back in May:

"Asked about the issues of missionaries, conversions and adoptions, under the rubric of loss of culture, Forum member Wilton Littlechild said the matter is not only in the draft, but also before the Commission on the Rights of the Child.  In a separate interview in the basement outside Conference Room 2, Mr. Littlechild described several class actions in Canada on these issues, alleging cultural genocide. Since the treatment by courts of claims of cultural genocide is an open question, one wonders if the Declaration -- in one its 19 perambulatory paragraphs or 45 articles -- shouldn't address the need in nations' laws for just such a cause of action."

            That didn't happen, but action is expected in and around the General Assembly in September. We'll see. Wednesday Inner City Press asked Mr. Littlechild for an update on the opposition of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to the Declaration. Mr. Littlechild said he anticipates that opposition continuing, but that Canada's may be changing.

  Inner City Press asked Q'Orianka Kilcher for her position on the pending U.S. Peru Free Trade Agreement, and on indigenous people's participation in the Peruvian economy. After some whispering on the panel, the first answer came from Romy Tincopa from the Peruvian mission, who said of probably with the Free Trade Agreement, "the government is taking care of that." 

   Q'Orianka Kilcher responded by describing her visit to oil areas of Peru, "polluted by Oxy... without reinjection pipes," and about meeting a boy with chemical burns on 70% of his body. Oxy is formally Occidental; the naming of names is important.

  In the basement, Q'Orianka Kilcher spoke passionately against human rights being violated for economic gain, particularly by multinational oil companies in the Amazon. Upstairs at noon, at the event Kofi Annan attended, these issues were dodged. And so it goes.

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In the UN Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a Shebaa Farms Solution?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 8, 4:22 p.m. -- For a ceasefire in Lebanon to be enacted by the UN Security Council in 24 or even 48 hours appears less and less likely.

Update of 11:59 p.m., last of day -- Despite and responding to CNN's below-quoted report quoting U.S. Amb. Bolton's spokesman of France breaking from the U.S., the French mission's spokesman emailed the UN press corps Tuesday night, "We totally deny that report, negotiations between France and the U.S. are going on." So disagreeing with CNN or the U.S. mission? Earlier Tuesday, the French spokesman and the U.S. deputy spokesman laughed together, when the latter provided correction of who was in the room, the P5 and "the Arab four." How fast they fall out, or CNN's wrong. We'll see.

Update of 7:45 p.m. -- After multiple stakeout interviews, including French Ambassador de La Sabliere choosing to do it in the dark, not before the UN TV cameras, and John Bolton bolting, the mood on the second floor was dark. On the television over the coffee machine, blaring CNN, Lou Dobbs turned from immigrants to pass on word from Bolton's spokesman that France is breaking from the U.S., and joining Lebanon in demanding that Israel withdraw. Washington was floating a counterproposal, that Lebanon's 15,000 troops be supplement with an international force of roughly similar size. No Israeli pull-out, under this trial lead balloon, but an eventual pull-out more credible.

            "These people couldn't stop a pillow fight," one journalist, visual, said. "They should turn this place into a water park."

            "You sound like Bolton," a fact collector for a television network said.

            "Whatever."

            In the cafeteria, Inner City Press ran into Doctor David Nabarro, the UN's point man on avian influenza.

            "How goes it on bird flu?"

            "Bird flu goes on," Dr. Nabarro said. "It's not big news these days. That's the nature of news -- there's a finite amount." He added that there are in fact worries of bird flu in Lebanon, and that's he'd like to come back to brief about it, once the news is not so... you know. We know...

Update of 5:40 p.m. -- Dozens of reporters press together to hear staffers who refused to be named explain that in the room it's not "P5 plus one" -- and that would be Qatar -- but rather "P5 plus four," including the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile Inner City Press can report that a bomb-sniffing dog, a 3-year old male Labrador who declined to be named, sniffed the coffee cups heading in to the room. So when they drink it...

As Kofi Annan and the afternoon's three speakers, from Qatar, Israel and Lebanon, swept into the Council chambers past 3:30 p.m., staffers of the Permanent Five missions told reporters not to expect immanent action. On the sidelines, Ambassador Mayoral of Argentina was asked to show his identification card to the guard outside the chamber. Photographers rushed up the staircase; Mark Malloch-Brown sat in his sunglasses next to head peacekeeper Jean-Marie Guehenno.

   Meanwhile the air is sucked out of most other issues and regions. A purportedly small but telling detail: the press corps was informed that Edmond Mulet, Kofi Annan's envoy to Haiti, from which Mr. Annan only days ago returned, was to take questions at 4 p.m.. There are questions to be asked, about a slate of kidnappings and murders, and Mr. Mulet's proposal to boost the UN force with a SWAT team of 100.

Haiti, not the Middle East

Meanwhile Carlo Lochard of the Police National d'Haiti is accused of funding his own murderous gang.  But at 4 p.m., with all reporters staring at the television showing Israel's Dan Gillerman's speech before the Council, Mr. Mulet's briefing was unceremoniously cancelled. It was cancelled in the second floor hallway, and not rescheduled. A cameraman told Inner City Press that a sanctions meeting he was slated to be at was cancelled. How long can this go on?

   Long, possibly. Wise minds at the stakeout predict the solution, if there is one, is shifting the word-games toward the Shebaa Farms, so that each side can claim victory how ever Pyrrhic... To be continued.

UN Silence on Congo Election and Uranium, Until It's To Iran or After a Ceasefire, and Council Rift on Kony

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

   UNITED NATIONS, August 8 -- The Congolese uranium mentioned a month ago in a UN report is now suddenly more prominent, due to reports it was destined for Iran. Tuesday, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman about the report, the uranium shipment, and the strange silence of the UN's Congo mission, MONUC.  The spokesman had also been silent on reports of irregularities in ballot counting in the Congo. It's said the UN has spend over $450 million on the election, yet reporters observe ballots held down with pieces of crumbling walls, while counting stations burn.

Congo ballots, all stacked up

            UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, returning from vacation into a blizzard of questions about the Middle East, fielded both Congo questions in a general way. On vote counting he urged patience and calm, calling the election a "humongous challenge." On the export of the Congo's natural resources he was more expansive, calling it a "great problem" but insisting that the UN's MONUC "cannot and does not monitor the export of resources from the DRC." Video here, from Minute 22 to 24:33.

            The UN report, S/2006/525 dated July 18, states of a uranium "shipment from October 2005, the Tanzanian Government left no doubt that the uranium was transported from Lubumbashi by road through Zambia to the United Republic of Tanzania."  Less than a month later in Kinshasa, MONUC spokesman Jean-Tobias Okala said he could not confirm the uranium shipment. Developing.

            In similar silence on Somalia, the UN spokesman has committed to provide details on the UN's humanitarian assessment mission to Mogadishu, which ended last Tuesday with nothing being said of it. Why not go to Baidoa, to see if Ethiopian troops are there or not? Mr. Dujarric said he would ask, but that "I doubt I will have any more to say that what has been said here from this podium" -- that is, that the UN is "not in the position to confirm" the invasion of one country by another, at least not when the invasion is ostensibly in support of the party the UN has sided with. Inner City Press also asked about reports of an " Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, with the Kazakh flag painted on its tail, landed in the capital, Mogadishu, on July 26 and 28," presumably with arms for the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts. Another largely ignored UN report, S/2006/ 229 dated May 4, named six nations violating the Somalia arms embargo -- Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Italy, and other "clandestine" violator, widely assumed to by the United States. And now the Khazaks join the list? Video here, from Minute 34:14 to 35:15.We'll see.

            One line of questioning begun Monday by Inner City Press was on Tuesday moved forward, if only slightly. Responding further to Inner City Press' question about the use of depleted uranium (DU) in weapons in Lebanon, the spokesman said while the UN's Department of Disarmament Affairs has "no clear position" on the use of DU weapons, there is a "need to investigate" the use of DU in "post-conflict situations like Kosovo and Bosnia." Video here, from Minutes 32:32 to 33:08. So apparently the UN would wait at least until after a ceasefire, or cessation of hostilities, in the current draft resolution puts it, before using Geiger counters.

            On yet another too-ignored problem on the Continent, Inner City Press on Tuesday conducted walking interviews with both the Ghanaian president of the Security Council, Nana Effah-Apenteng, and with UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, on reports that the Council is preparing a Chapter VII resolution to disarm the Lord's Resistance Army. Ghana's Ambassador said, "We have to wait for the outcome of the Juba talks." Somewhat differently, Amb. Jones Parry confirmed that the UK is drafting and pushing a Chapter VII resolution. In the Juba talks, Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti and three others indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court are being offered amnesty by Uganda's Museveni government. The Ghanaian Ambassador's position seems to not take this into account. The UK position, while always pro-Museveni, is contradicted by the UK's reported refusal to encourage Uganda to stop ignoring the DR Congo sanctions.  Developing...

At the UN Some Middle Eastern Answers, Updates on Congo and Nepal While Silence on Somalia

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- With the Franco-American draft resolution on Lebanon stalled in the Security Council, questions have arisen about continued violence and abductions in Gaza. UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi answered Inner City Press' questions by stating that from August 1 through August 6, 17 Palestinians including five children have been killed. While he had no prepared statement on what Inner City Press termed the arrest of Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Mr. Fawzi said, "It's the sort of thing that does not help the eventual two state solution, abductions and targeted extra-judicial killings, and will only lead to a further escalation of current tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians." Video here, Minutes 25 through 27.

            Inner City Press asked how the UN system would monitor for or be aware of any use of depleted uranium in the conflict zone. Mr. Fawzi asked for copies of the reports of the transmission of depleted uranium-tipped GB 28 "bunker busters" to Israel, and said he would have to "consult before reacting." Video here, from Minute 27 onward. The articles have been provided and response will be reported in this space.

Smoke over Beirut c UNHCR

            In other increasingly ignored global news, the Security Council met for eight minutes Monday about Cote D'Ivoire, where already on-overtime president Gbagbo has announced his intention to remain in power whether the delayed elections are held on October 31 or not. At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked why there had been no update on the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on which the UN states that it has spent $450 million. Inner City Press asked for a response to the South African ambassador's characterization of the atmosphere in Kinshasa as "poisoned," and on reports of the burning of ballots. The response, which was in writing at the podium but only delivered once the question was asked, as that the UN's MONUC "remains satisfied" and states that the burned ballots were, due to a "pre-existing technical arrangement," able to be "recovered electronically." Video here, from Minutes 6:10 to 7:50.

            In other happy UN news that goes without update unless requested, Inner City Press asked about reports of the breakdown of negotiations in Nepal, mere days after Kofi Annan's envoy Staffan de Mistura expressed "optimism."  The response was that Mr. de Mistura is meeting with Kofi Annan on Monday afternoon. The meeting was and is not on the Secretary-General's formal schedule, and while it has now been requested that Mr. de Mistura take questions from reporters, it is not clear when that will happen.

            On Somalia, the spokesman quoted SRSG Francois Lonseny Fall as welcoming Ethiopia's mediation within the Transitional Federal Government. Inner City Press asked if Mr. Fall UN has asked the Ethiopian officials with whom he speaks if Ethiopia has troops in Somalia. The response was that the UN is not in a position to confirm the presence of Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia. No response was given to the ongoing question of whether Mr. Fall or anyone else in the UN has even posed the question to Ethiopia. The one-line response to Inner City Press' question about the previously-reported UN assessment mission to Mogadishu is that "the most recent UN humanitarian assessment mission to Somalia was completed last week Tuesday." But what is the read-out? What was found, and what will be done? Developing.

On Lebanon, Franco-American Resolution Reviewed at UN in Weekend Security Council Meeting

  UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- In a rare Saturday afternoon session, the UN Security Council is meeting on a draft resolution on the conflict in Lebanon. The draft resolution was circulated at the UN at 1 pm Saturday.  Now updates, in reverse chronological order:

Update of 7:30 pm -- After interviewing a variety of sources in the half-light outside the Security Council, it appears clear that the resolution will not pass, or even be voted on, on Sunday. It's passage is predicted Monday, without Condi Rice, or Tuesday, if a ministerial meeting can be organized. The opposition of Lebanon and Qatar makes such a meeting less likely. And who will do what, in the hours to come, to change the facts on the ground? Developing...

Update of 5:45 pm -- There will be no vote today. An expert briefing began at 5 pm; there will be another one at 10 am on Sunday. Russian Ambassador Churkin emerged and spoke of Lebanon's objections, as did the Ambassador of Qatar. On the sidelines, Inner City Press asked Palestine's permanent observer what would or could be done for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza. "I wish," he said. And then another cameraman, rushing by for an interview of the hall, hit him in the eye with his camera.

            Secretary General Kofi Annan swept in at 4:35 pm, with no words for the press. Photographers joked of his Miami Vice look, fresh in from Santo Domingo. When he swept out, he urged the questioning press to "listen to the Ambassador," in this case from Qatar. The head of UN peacekeeping stood by the elevator whispering to a TV network's operative. Then he too was done, the back-down to Congolese warlord and peacekeeper-kidnapper Peter Karim not addressed, the Lebanese crisis left unresolved yet again, and Gaza not even touched, except by bombs...

Previously, at 4:22 p.m. -- in the media-frenzied space outside the Council chamber, the grumbling about the text began at 3 pm. A U.S. embassy staffer directed the press to Russia as the source of forthcoming delay. Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin came out, but spoke only to "the Russian press," which consisted of three reporters. Amb. Churkin's staffer tried to prohibit the non-Russian media from recording her boss' sotto voce spinnings.

  The ambassador from Qatar asked for a thirty minute delay and got it. The Lebanese envoy was interpreted as against the resolution, though he declined to stop and speak with reporters. The Syrian ambassador strode in, also without stopping. Palestine's permanant observer, ever polite, stopped and took Inner City Press' question; his answer, however, was "Ask Russia," which as described above has yet to be possible.

  French Ambassador de La Sabliere has offered expert briefings to the Council, later Saturday or Sunday. Russia, it's said, has said no. A wise colleague advises that Russia was in the loop, but hearing of Lebanese opposition, decided to join in. Kofi Annan waits in the wings, but there's much reading of the tea leaves as things slide toward five o'clock. Developing.

   In further terms of timing, it appears that not only the television images of dead civilians, broadcast worldwide, but also communications such as that to George Bush by the Egyptian president, of Monday as the absolute deadline before regionalization of the conflict, played a role in the U.S. - French agreement announced to reporters Saturday mid-morning. Inner City Press will be reporting in real time from the Security Council for the rest of Saturday; watch this space.

Amb. de La Sabliere (w. SRSG "Congo-king" Swing, see below)

UN Knew of Child Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN Facilitated

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 4 -- As in the Congo vote counting continues, now with reports of the burning of ballots both used and unused, further information has emerged about the UN system's knowledge of the use of child soldiers by at least two militia leaders offered positions in the Congolese army. Earlier in the week, Kofi Annan's envoy to the Congo, William Lacy Swing, disclaimed his previously UN-reported "welcoming" of the entry into the army of Mathieu Ngudjolo of the Congolese Revolutionary or MRC.

            The UN's own June 13 report on children and armed conflict in the DR Congo alludes to the recruitment of child soldiers by the MRC. In an interview Friday, a well-placed UN official told Inner City Press that Mathieu Ngudjolo will be identified by name as a child soldier user in the follow up to the June 13 report, as will Peter Karim, who after holding seven UN peacekeepers hostage for over 40 days has been offered a colonel's position in the Congolese army. The follow up report name these two individuals will, Inner City Press has been told, be confidential, adding to the scope of impunity.

Ballots and Congolese police

            Last week UN peacekeeping's Dmitry Titov answered Inner City Press' questions about Karim by saying that "justice will come, eventually." The official interviewed Friday similarly implied that as with Thomas Lubanga and Jean Pierre Biyoyo, respectively charged by the International Criminal Court and convicted by a Congolese military court in Bukavu, Ngudjolo and Karim might one day face justice. It is hard to believe that neither warlord brought up issues of amnesty during negotiations. No one yet has wanted to detail the specifics of the negotiations, particularly the degree of UN involvement. Developing.

Zimbabwe Fog, Laws of War Clarified, Tips in the Half-Light (on Lebanon)

            While Kofi Annan is on the island of Hispanola, at his spokesman's noon briefing Inner City Press again asked for the UN's and Mr. Annan's response to the hundreds of Zimbabwean protesters demanding UN action on the UN's report on Operation Murambatsvina or "Clean Out the Trash," in which the Mugabe government evicted at least 700,000 perceived political opponents. Rather than yesterday's cursory reference to Zimbabwe's sovereignty, on Friday UN spokesman Farhan Haq stated that Ben Mkapa, Mugabe's selected envoy, particularly to the UK, will be in charge of addressing and asking on Operation Murambatsvina as detailed in the UN report.  We'll see.

            Also at the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked if the UN agrees with Israel that placing telephone calls to civilians before bombing the neighborhoods they live in brings the bombing in compliance with the laws of war.  After the briefing, the spokesman referred the press corps to a statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour that "while effective advance warning of attacks which may affect the civilian population must be given, this legal obligation does not absolve the parties to the conflict of their other obligations under international law regarding the protection of civilians" and "that international humanitarian law requires all parties to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas."

            In the half-light of the Security Council stakeout at 2:50 p.m., the Palestinian Permanent Observer to the UN called over Inner City Press. "Do you want a tip?" he said. Of course. He detailed a group of ambassadors, including from Sudan, Syria, Azerbaijan and Malaysia, slated now to meet with the Council president then with Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch-Brown at 5 p.m.. The spokesman's office, asked by Inner City Press, confirmed the meeting, which ambassadors say will concern more bombing of civilians, although reference to Azerbaijan's representative, for OIC, was not included. As another reporter noted, "the real action is at the U.S. mission."

            At 4 p.m., the president of the Security Council emerged. He apologized for not summarizing the meeting, saying he feels a need to tell the other Council members before telling the press. He mentioned he lived in Westchester and Inner City Press asked, where? New Rochelle. Do you go to New Roc City? With a look of surprise he said yes, "I am a New York boy." More substantively, and full circle for this report, he answered Inner City Press' question about the burning of ballots in Congo by saying he hope for another briefing next week. We'll see.

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

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