Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments, While UK
"Doesn't Do It Any More"
BYLINE:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
August 31 -- "Give me a break." That was the response of the permanent
representative of Ghana Nana Effah-Apenteng to the
UN Secretariat's argument
that free housing provided by a government to a UN employee is not remuneration
or a gift and is therefore allowed.
"That's
problematic," Ambassador Effah-Apenteng told Inner City Press on the last day of
his month as president of the Security Council. "You're supposed to be an
international civil servant, you're supposed to have neutrality and loyalty to
the organization. I don't think it's good."
The Security
Council president's statement came less than a day after Kofi Annan's spokesman
conceded, "I'm not saying there are not people that do get some benefits and
have declared them, because there are... These are issues that are being
discussed."
Thursday Inner
City Press asked officials at the United Kingdom mission to disclose as quickly
as possible whether the UK pays or has paid housing subsidies, including but not
limited to the just-previous Under Secretary General for Political Affairs
Kieran Prendergast, about whom Inner City Press specifically inquired by name.
At 4:58
p.m. Thursday, two minutes before 5 p.m. deadline, Inner City Press received a
phone message from the UK Mission's Second Secretary Michael Hoare:
"Getting back to you
on the housing question. You asked two questions. First, does the UK do it? The
answer is, not anymore. The second was what do we think of it. On that,
Stephane [Dujarric]'s views will be crucial. It's a question for the
Secretariat, really."
Inner
City Press immediately telephoned the number left by Mr. Hoare, but got only a
voice mail box. Inner City Press left a message requesting clarification and
amplification and response to the questions asked, as quickly as possible.
Amb.
Nana Effah-Apenteng on August 31, 2006
Thursday
Inner City Press was told by a U.S. diplomat, who for now asked to be identified
as such, that in response to his mission's June 27 letter, "someone in the
Secretariat created a draft response and sent it around. Some didn't like it
didn't like it, this is not acceptable. So it's gone through another draft and
we're still waiting for that response. There is a debate within the secretariat
right now as to how forceful do they need to be. There are now a lot of people
watching this story."
Kofi
Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric was asked, at his noon briefing on Thursday,
whether and when the Secretariat will publicly disclose the names of UN
officials accepting free or cut-rate housing from their governments. Mr.
Dujarric did not answer the question directly, saying rather that
"This issue is being looked at through the
financial disclosure form and those are being reviewed by the Ethics Office.
I'll see if I can get you anything more."
Follow-up: Since the financial
disclosure form is only for employees at level D1 and above, and since yesterday
you told me that housing subsidies from governments to UN employees are fine as
long as they are disclosed, where to employees below the D1 level disclose to?
Mr. Dujarric: They
are meant to disclose to the office of human resources.
Video
here
at
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/pressbriefing/brief060831.rm,
from Minute 12:25.
Another
question that needs to be asked and answered: You
said yesterday that the UN does not consider a housing subsidy is a "gift, favor
or remuneration." By that logic, would it be OK for a staff member to receive
subsidized housing from a vendor? Staff Regulation 1.2(L) prohibits acceptance
of any "favour, gift or remuneration from any non-governmental source." It
would appear that the Secretariat is saying that since a housing subsidy is not
a "favor, gift or remuneration," it would not be covered by Staff Regulation
1.2(L). Please clarify, and square with statement on procurement reform.
More
fundamentally, while Kofi Annan's spokesman said Thursday that the issue of
governmental housing subsidies to UN employee, which he acknowledges is taking
place is being looked at through the financial disclosure form," the UN's
Financial Disclosure Form states that
"Acceptance of residential housing provided directly
to a staff member by any Government or related institution, either free of
charge or at rates substantially lower than the market rents used in calculating
the post-adjustment index for the duty station, is prohibited except as may be
expressly authorized by the Secretary-General."
Given
the Secretary-General's spokesman's admission to Inner City Press that
"I'm not saying there are not people that do get some benefits and have declared
them, because there are," it would appear that the Secretary-General has
"expressly authorized" housing subsidies by governmental to UN employees, a
practice that is not only counter to the UN Charter's Article 100.1 but which
the president of the UN's Security Council has denounced as a conflict of
interest, "problematic" and plain "bad."
A U.S.
official told Inner City Press Thursday, about
Wednesday's report
on the Secretariat's position on the issue, "They just don't get it. If
governments are allowed to buy loyalty, is that individual loyal to the
government or the United Nations? It's not just a matter of deducting or
disclosing." And the so-called disclosures, whether to Human Resources or the
financial disclosure and declaration of interest forms, are to date not made
public. When the U.S. mission receives the re-drafted response, will it move to
release the information? Developing.
* * *
At the
Security Council stakeout on Thursday, the Darfur resolution votes were
discussed and spun by the U.S. and UK. While China abstained, along with
Russia and Qatar, Ambassador Wang did not come to the mike. His spokesman Yan
Jarong was back from vacation, and took the time to praise Inner City Press.
Asked if her mission has a list serv, she said no, they have only two people.
These are the big leagues, she was reminding, and China's a big country.
Inner City Press asked UK Deputy
Ambassador Karen Pierce about
the UK's position on amnesty for the Lord's Resistance Army's officials
including Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti. "We are strong supports of the ICC," she
said. Asked about Amb. Jones Parry's statement Tuesday that the UK is working on
a resolution concerning developments in Somalia, the Dep Amb said very little.
Video
here.
Subsequently a staffer of her mission provided somewhat more information, while
using the word "background." Given previous lack of clarity from this mission
concerning how the information it provides can be used, reporting will have to
wait. As will analysis of the short IAEA report and another Secretariat
statement at Thursday's noon briefing, including in light of a UN Headquarters
evacuation at or expediting deadline.
After deadline
an end-of-month reception was held on the fourth floor. Canapes floated through,
among Ambassadors from Churkin to Bolton to Mayoral and more. There was
discussion of Don King, there was salmon on potato cakes. The prediction for
Friday was primarily silence, with no Council meeting. Across the world wars
simmer, and in New York it grows colder by the day. Outside the East River
flows, or rather moves back and forth. And so it is within.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
At
the UN, Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
BYLINE:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED
NATIONS, August 30 -- When UN officials receive free or cut-rate housing from
their countries of nationality, the UN does not consider it a gift or favor, or
even remuneration. Wednesday as
Inner City Press' inquiry continued,
it emerged that the issue is far from abstract.
In response to follow-up
questions, Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, "I'm not saying there
are not people that do get some benefits and have declared them, because there
are, and that's being looked at." When asked if the list of recipient will be
made public, Mr. Dujarric said, "These are issues that are being discussed... we
may very well move to some form of public disclosure."
At the
spokesman's noon media briefing on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked about
whether such housing subsidies violate UN Staff Regulation 1.2(j), which states
plainly that
"No staff member may accept any honour,
decoration, favour, gift, or remuneration from any Government."
As
transcribed,
Inner City Press requested that the spokesman "at tomorrow’s briefing publicly
say if those subsidies are illegal under the rules or not." Mr. Dujarric
responded, "They need to be declared and then they are deducted from the
allowances received. But I will take a look at the staff rules in details and
try to square that circle."
Paul
Volcker and Stephane Dujarric's
predecessor Fred
Eckhard in May 2004 per UN:
Two years later, public disclosure is still "tricky"
UN
insiders interviewed by Inner City Press have characterized member-states' provision of
free or cut-rate housing to their national who serve as UN officials as both an
open secret and as a scandal. In most legal systems a judge would be prohibited
from presiding or ruling in a case in which he or she was receiving free housing from one
of the litigants. By contrast at the UN as disclosed Wednesday senior officials
in such departments as peacekeeping and political affairs can make decisions
impacting their countries while at the same time receiving free housing from
these
countries.
What of
this apparent conflict of interest? Asked about this Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Dujarric said
among other things, "You have to have an honor system." He used as an example
that the head of the UN Department of Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari,
formerly foreign minister of Nigeria, might recuse himself from sensitive
matters concerning Nigeria -- but not because of any housing subsidy. Mr.
Dujarric added that he was neither saying nor not saying if Mr. Gambari receives
any housing subsidy. (UN insiders note that the housing subsidy question should
be addressed by Mr. Gambari's predecessor at DPA.) Mr. Dujarric also pointedly
denied that any housing subsidies were provided to Jean-Marie Guehenno or Louise Frechette. The Canadian mission's press officer Michael Kovrig, in response to a
follow-up question from Inner City Press, wrote: "I can now confirm that Foreign Affairs
and International Trade Canada did not provide any housing subsidy to Deputy
Secretary-General Frechette."
So it is
a practice without practitioners? Wednesday Mr. Dujarric acknowledged that there
are senior UN officials who "get some benefits and have declared them." But will
that be disclosed?
Kofi
Annan's office and others provide various explanations or contexts for the
practice. They note that unless the organization recruits only from within, many of the top
jobs at the UN are filled by former diplomats who may already have been
receiving housing subsidies from their governments. (Notably, the interpretation
proffered Wednesday is not limited to such circumstances.)
Mr.
Dujarric offered, using Belgium only as a example presumably hypothetical, that
"Belgium has an Under-Secretary General, that's important to them, so they say,
fine, we'll provide you with the apartment. But that's not remuneration...
Remuneration is a salary, rather than a housing subsidy, which is usually more
in-kind." Asked about UN Charter Article 100.1, which requires UN
personnel to "refrain from any action
which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible
only to the Organization" of the UN, Mr. Dujarric added, "We're saying you're
not to accept orders or instruction from member states, nor are member states to
give orders or instructions. There are two sides to this, obviously."
Another
explanation offered for the lack of public disclosure of UN officials' receipt
of free or cut-rate housing from member-states is that some UN officials are no
longer on good terms with those in power in their counties of nationality.
Public disclosure, it was argued Wednesday, might put these UN officials at risk.
The other side, whether the one referred to by Kofi Annan's spokesman or not, is
the need at least for disclosure of what nearly any legal or administrative
system would deem a possible conflict of interest: the provision and acceptance
of free housing from a nation or party the recipient may impact.
To the
argument that if senior UN officials claim they cannot live on their UN
compensation packages and need benefits from their nations, the UN should
increase their compensation rather than accept conflicting payments from member
states, a defender of the
current policy quipped that while a certain U.S. Senator from Minnesota might want
transparency at the UN, will he also not complain about the cost?
Wednesday
Inner City Press
asked that
Kofi Annan's spokesman at Thursday's "briefing publicly say if those subsidies
are illegal under the rules or not." Mr. Dujarric answered, "They need to be
declared and then they are deducted from the allowances received. But I will
take a look at the staff rules in details and try to square that circle."
This
still-rolling circle began, as much as anywhere,
when high-placed sources within UN Headquarters showed Inner City Press a
copy of a letter from U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, dated June 27, 2006, to
Secretary-General. Kofi Annan. The letter asked Mr. Annan for information about
UN officials who receive housing subsidies from their countries of nationality
in contravention of their duties, under Article 100.1 of the UN Charter, to
"refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international
officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.
Why the U.S. Mission, which is so often quick to comment, made no public
statement about the June 27 letter is not known.
Two weeks
ago, Inner City Press asked the deputy spokesman of the U.S. Mission, Benjamin
Chang, if any response to the letter, whose existence had yet to be publicly
disclosed, had been received. A week later, the lead spokesman of the U.S.
Mission Richard A. Grenell called Inner City Press offering to fax a copy of
John Bolton's letter. In response to Inner City
Press' questions to Kofi Annan's office about the letter, it emerged that
despite the passage of two months, the letter had not been responded to.
On the
August 29 noon briefing, Inner City Press again
asked Kofi
Annan's spokesman about housing subsidies:
Inner City
Press Question: Yesterday, you promised an answer right after the briefing on
the staff rules and housing subsidies.
Spokesman: I
do have an answer, which is, first of all, we are in the process of replying to
Ambassador Bolton’s letter. The rules pertaining to rental subsidies and
deductions are regulated through administrative instructions issued by the
Secretary-General, which we can give you copies of since they are public
documents. They provide that staff members who receive housing assistance,
including housing provided by the Organization, a Government or a related
institution, either free of charge or substantially lower rates, shall
subsequently be subjected to payroll deductions from their salaries. We are in
the process of checking data to determine if those staff members who are in
receipt of that assistance are subject to payroll deductions. These are things
that are asked in the financial disclosure forms. Those forms are currently
being examined by the Ethics Office. Obviously, anything that needs to be
flagged will be flagged.
Inner City
Press Question: On the second manner that arose yesterday, on the Compass
Group…
Spokesman: I
have nothing new to add to that.
[Ed.'s note: The
Times of London of Aug 30 has added to that, click
here
to view.]
Just as
there appears to be no legal mechanism to require those at the very top of the
UN to comply with stated ruled, such as filing the financial disclosure forms,
so too there appears to be no outside non-Secretariat body to apply the rules,
as written, to the fact of housing subsidies from governments. While it has now
been admitted that such subsidies are paid, UN Staff Regulation 1.2(j) states
that "No staff member may accept any honour,
decoration, favour, gift, or remuneration from any Government." Staff Regulation
1.2(l) says that "no staff member shall accept any honour, decoration, favour,
gift or remuneration from any non-governmental source without first obtaining
the approval of the Secretary-General." This Regulation allows the
Secretary-General to make exception only for NON-governmental sources: the
prohibit on government sources is absolute, unless the regulation is read to
exclude everything except salary payments.
Wednesday
Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Inner City Press that the UN "in
the last three years partly as a result of Oil-for Food and [the] Volcker
[Committee], is really trying to bring itself up to standards it was never made
to meet by the public or by the member states. I think we've done a tremendous
amount in that regard. The issue of public disclosure is more tricky."
Mr.
Dujarric himself disclosed, "I get a base salary, I hardly get any housing
subsidy since I own my apartment, but I get school subsidies. If I had been a
member of the French civil service, which I'm not, and they provided me with
some help for my kids, then I would have to declare it and it would be deducted from
what the UN gives me." Ah, sunshine. If only those above will follow suit.
On the
lighter side, Wednesday Don King strutted out of the Security Council with a
freakingly tall Russian boxer promoting a fight. How these connections are made
is not known. Across the hall from the spokesman's office, a journalist
reported seeing a mouse.
Thursday
at the UN, the IAEA report on Iran is slated to be released at midday. The U.S.
and UK resolution on Sudan has been "put in blue," portending a vote on Thursday, the
last day of Ghana's interesting Council presidency. China, it is said, may abstain but not
veto. We'll see.
Inquiry Into Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks,
As Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
Click
here
for
August 28
follow-up story by Inner City
Press.
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
August 24 (updated Aug. 28, 1 pm) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has let eight weeks pass without
responding to a request for information about senior UN officials receiving
housing subsidies from their country of nationality, it emerged on Thursday.
Former Deputy Secretary Louise Frechette was asked if she received such
subsidies and said no, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Despite a
specific request from Inner City Press at 5 p.m. Thursday for a similar response
from Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of UN peacekeeping, five hours later by 10
p.m. deadline no response was received. Deputy UN peacekeeping spokesman Hernan
Vales said that since Mr. Guehenno is out of the country, no response will be
possible until next week.
High-placed sources within UN Headquarters showed Inner City Press a copy of a
letter from U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, dated June 27, 2006, to
Secretary-General. Kofi Annan. The letter asked Mr. Annan for information about
UN officials who receive housing subsidies from their countries of nationality
in contravention of their duties, under Article 100.1 of the UN Charter, to
"refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international
officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.
One week
ago, Inner City Press asked the deputy spokesman of the U.S. Mission, Benjamin
Chang, if any response to the letter, whose existence had yet to be publicly
disclosed, had been received. Inner City Press also asked if the U.S. Mission
was aware if the Secretary-General has filed his required financial disclosure.
While the latter question has yet to be answered, Mr. Chang stated that while he
was unaware of Ambassador Bolton's letter he would check.
Late on
the afternoon of August 24, the lead spokesman of the U.S. Mission Richard A.
Grenell called Inner City Press offering to fax a copy of John Bolton's letter.
His office told Inner City Press that no response has been received, eight weeks
after the letter was sent to Kofi Annan.
Inner
City Press then immediately provided a copy of the letter to UN spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, and asked if and why not response had been provided, and for
responses specifically on Louise Frechette and Jean-Marie Guehenno. These two
individuals were named to Inner City Press by the sources who first showed
glimpses of the letter.
Mr.
Dujarric responded, as to Canadian Ms. Frechette, that "I asked her and she said
no." As to Jean-Marie Guehenno, Annan's spokesman's office did not provide a
denial, nor any other response for the following five hours.
Guehenno,
back in Haiti
On August
22, at the UN's formal noon press conference, Inner City Press had inquired into
the location and activities of Mr. Guehenno, whose deputy Hedi Annabi had been
conducting the UN peacekeeping work of meeting with potential troop contributors
to the UN's Lebanon force. The spokesman
said that Mr. "Guehenno is in France on personal business." Video
here,
from Minute 42:23.
In the
spirit of disclosure, Inner City Press has previously interviewed Jean-Marie
Guehenno concerning this year's
loss of focus, at least in Africa,on
peacekeeping and concerning the
offer of a colonel's position in the
Congolese Army to Peter Karim,
whose militia took hostage seven UN peacekeepers earlier until early last month.
Mr. Guehenno, who had previously told Inner City Press that Peter Karim "is on
drugs," more recently explained the negotiations as solved because the hostage
takers "just wanted jobs." Mr. Guehenno also responded to questions about the
UN's Congo Mission's self-exoneration regarding reported abuse at Kazana in
Eastern Congo by saying the report was still being considered, a statement yet
to be followed up. Video
here,
Minutes 23:50 to 30:30.
Thursday
afternoon, less than an hour after the U.S. Mission provided a copy of John
Bolton's letter, Inner City Press sought out lead UN Peacekeeping spokesman Nick
Birnback but was told that he is out until August 29. Deputy spokesman for
peacekeeping Hernan Vales said that "all of these issues are personal and
confidential" and are "not really work related."
As Inner
City Press, and the letter, pointed out to Mr. Vales, the UN's bulletin on
financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements, Document ST/SGB/2006/6,
requires the disclosure of "any form of supplement, direct or indirect, to the
United Nations emoluments, including provisions of housing or subsidized housing
or any... benefit, remuneration or in kind contribution from any government,
governmental agency or other non United Nations source aggregating $250 or
more...". Article 100.1 of the UN Charter requires that Secretariat staff
"refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international
officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.
Asked to
respond to this logic, that senior UN official need to have their allegiance be,
and to seen to be, only to the UN, and not their country of nationality, Mr.
Vales asked Inner City Press to hold off publishing this story. When Mr. Vales
then said that no response would be possible until next week, Inner City Press
decided to wait four more hours for any written responses, and then publish.
Update of
August 25, 5 p.m. -- Just prior to the UN noon press briefing on Friday,
Kofi Annan's spokesman called Inner City Press aside and said, "I have answers
for you, if you'll wait until after the briefing."
"What are the
answers?"
"We're aware
of the letter and we're responding to it. These are obviously issues we are
looking at through the financial disclosures."
The spokesman
issued an off-the-record, then subsequently on-the-record, denial as to
Jean-Marie Guehenno. On other issues he has promised to respond.
Update of August 28,
1 p.m. -- At Monday's noon briefing, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric answered
questions about the housing subsidies by saying it is still being looked into.
Also Monday
Inner City Press asked Ambassador Bolton three questions: his view on the
Secretariat's non-response for two months, what the letter was getting at, and
whether he is aware if the Secretary-General has filed in required financial
disclosure form. Video
here, from Minute 8:20.
Amb. Bolton
answered that the housing subsidies to which the letter referred appear to
violate UN regulations, that he wanted an answer, and that he is not aware if
Mr. Annan has filed his financial disclosure form. This last, Inner City Press
asked in connection with its inquiry into
the
purchase of part of Compass / ESS,
embroiled in a United Nations scandal, by Sweden's Wallenberg family, of which
the UN's Secretary General's wife is a member, click
here for that August
28 story by Inner City Press.
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
Congo Shootout
Triggers Kofi Annan Call, While Agent Orange Protest Yields Email from
Old London
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
UN Bets the
House on Lebanon, While Willfully Blind in Somalia and Pinned Down in
Kinshasa
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
Sudan Cites
Hezbollah, While UN Dances Around Issues of Consent and Sex Abuse in the
Congo, Passing the UNIFIL Hat
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
At the UN,
Lebanon Resolution Passes with Loophole, Amb. Gillerman Says It Has All
Been Defensive
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Silence on
Congo Election and Uranium, Until It's To Iran or After a Ceasefire, and
Council Rift on Kony
At the UN Some
Middle Eastern Answers, Updates on Congo and Nepal While Silence on
Somalia
On Lebanon,
Franco-American Resolution Reviewed at UN in Weekend Security Council
Meeting
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
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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