From
Violent Disarmament in Uganda to the National Bank of Serbia, UNDP Leaves Others
to Answer for It
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
November 30 -- As the UN's Jan Egeland launched the 2007 humanitarian appeal,
questions of UNDP's funding of disarmament in Karamoja in eastern Uganda arose,
in light of the UN's own recent reports of
55 civilians,
including
13 women and nine children,
killed in the course of disarmament.
Even since the
time period covered by those reports, Inner City Press' sources in Karamojo,
specifically in Kotido, tell of Uganda People's Defense Force helicopter gun
ships bombing villages and killing civilians as well as cattle. In response,
Karimojong have sought yet more weapons, including rocket propelled grenades
from the SLPA in Southern Sudan. These purchases, and some robberies committed
to raise the currency for the RPGs, will be used by the Museveni government's
UPDF to characterize the Karimojong as terrorists, and to open up Karamoja as a
new feeding ground for the UPDF, as once their treated the Eastern Congo and
then Northern Uganda until their fight with the Lord's Resistance Army slowed
down. The Karimojong will be portrayed as the new LRA, Inner City Press can
predict.
With this as
background, Inner City Press on Thursday asked Jan Egeland what the UN could do
to make sure that UNDP money is not used to harm or oppress
civilians.
Mr. Egeland said he is aware of events in Karamoja, "a lot of people killed, a
lot of tension, a very poor part of Uganda." Inner City Press asked if he had
raised the Karamoja issues to Ugandan president Museveni when they met about the
Lord's Resistance Army. (Inner City Press also asked if Karamoja was not being
overlooked or even traded away, video
here,
from Minute 1:03:40.)
Jan Egeland with the Princess of Jordan on
Nov. 30, 2006
Mr.
Egeland said he had raised Karamoja to Museveni, asking "Can we talk about best
practices?" This is certainly not the tone taken regarding Darfur, despite the
similarities with the UNDP's killing in Karamoja, including since
Egeland spoke with Museveni. The numbers may be different, but death by gunship
is death by gunship.
Speaking of
numbers, the UN's
Consolidated Appeal for Uganda includes
$15.6 million for UNDP.
Amazingly, even
after
UNICEF and
the UN's Louise Arbour have both issued
press releases and
reports condemning
the government's killing of civilians in Karamoja,
UNDP's Uganda web site make
nary a mention of the issue. On disarmament, UNDP's Uganda website still
trumpets the government's
round-up of guns in May 2006,
reciting that " Mr. Cornelis Klein, outgoing UNDP
Resident Representative, hailed the GoU for having taken a lead in the SALW
[Small Arms and Light Weapons] program by, among others, establishing the
Ugandan National Action Plan on SALW."
The
Ugandan government's Action on Small Arms and Light
Weapons has included killing civilians, click
here for
the November 2006 report of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, and
here
for some of Inner City Press' June 2006 reporting. While UNDP has yet to
sufficiently explain its role in the Ugandan army's disarmament push, the agency
did on Thursday deign to send a nine-day delayed answer on activities in
Uzbekistan and even boilerplate about Messrs. Gleeson and Mitzei, and Mitzei's
replacement as Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS. On
Uzbekistan:
Subject: RE: UNDP questions, re...
Uzbekistan
From: [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:44 PM
Regarding your Uzbekistan question:
On 16 November in Tashkent, UNDP
Uzbekistan launched the Uzbekistan National Human Development Report , focused
on national health issues (not the 2006 Global Human Development Report , as
incorrectly reported by the
Ferghana)
. The UNDP Resident Representative in Uzbekistan, Fikret Akcura, was one of the
speakers.
Mr. Akcura had
previously argued to Inner City Press that human rights have no place in the
UN's Millennium Development Goals. Perhaps this explains, for example, UNDP's
funding in Uganda, discussed at Thursday's noon media briefing at UN
Headquarters. Also at Thursday's noon briefing, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said
that "Mr. Mark Malloch Brown played no role in Mr. Gleeson's transfer from one
job to another," adding that "as for the nitty gritty details of what is going
on at UNDP... if you have any questions, address it to them." Video
here,
from Minute 16:07.
Inner
City Press noted that UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis has not held a press
conference in UN Headquarters for 14 months, and asked that from now on, at
least UNDP's spokesperson come periodically, every week or two, to the regular
noon briefings and take questions. Two other journalists echoed this request.
Video
here,
from Minute 18:50.
As for
"the nitty gritty details of what is going on at UNDP," half an hour before
Thursday's noon briefing the agency's deputy communications officer wrote among
other things:
Subject: RE: Press questions, on deadline,
re UNDP & Brian Gleeson, Kalman Mitzei, etc.
From: [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:28 AM
Ms. Kori Udovicki of Serbia is the new
Assistant Administrator and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and
the CIS. She was chosen following an extensive search through a competitive
selection process in line with UNDP’s recruitment policy. Kindly find attached
an announcement to UNDP staff about her appointment. Mr. Dervis did not know her
prior to her appointment as Director for UNDP’s Regional Director for Europe and
the CIS.
The announcement, from Kemal
Dervis and dated November 27 stated, among other things, that
"after short-term assignments in the World
Bank, Kori started her professional career in the International Monetary Fund as
a desk economist for Mozambique and later for Zimbabwe. In 1999 she became a
desk economist for Bosnia and Herzegovina and in 2000 she took over the
portfolio for FR Yugoslavia. In 2001 Kori was appointed as a Special Adviser to
Minister of Finance and Economy in the Government of the Republic of Serbia and
from June 2002 to July 2003 she served her country in the capacity of
Minister of Energy and Mines.
From July 2003 to March 2004 she worked as a Governor of the National Bank of
Serbia."
Ms.
Udovicki appointed as Governor of the National Bank of Serbia was
described as illegal,
and was terminated in 2004.
For more,
much more, on the "nitty gritty of what happens in UNDP," as the UN Spokesman
put it on Thursday, see today's
Second Installment in Inner City Press'
Periodic Series, Profiles of Kemal Dervis' UNDP.
One aside and interim update about Brian
Gleeson, who yesterday was "redesignated" from heading up UNDP's Office of Human
Resources to a Senior Advisor to Surge position: some Gleeson supporters, while
not disputing that Kemal Dervis attempted to fire Gleeson as, in September,
Kalman Mizsei was fired, say that along with the other issues, Gleeson refused
to quash one or more investigations that Dervis wanted stopped. Brian Gleeson's
office was called to discuss just this type of nuance. Watch this space.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
UNDP
Sources Say Dervis Fires Malloch Brown-linked Officials, Then Offers Hush-Up
Jobs
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
November 29 -- Kemal Dervis, the administrator of the UN Development Programme,
sent out an email mid-afternoon on November 29 stating that the Director of
UNDP's Office of Human Resources, Brian Gleeson, was taking a lower-level job as
a Senior Advisor. UNDP sources tell Inner City Press that the Special Advisor
position was quickly created after two events. In the first, UNDP moved to fire
Brian Gleeson for having funneled high-paying jobs, outside of normal channels,
to associates of UN Deputy Secretary-General, and former UNDP Administrator,
Mark Malloch Brown. According to these UNDP sources, alternative grounds
for firing or requesting resignation involved sexual harassment or the outright
sale of jobs for cash, or first month's salary. Then, between 11 a.m. and Mr.
Dervis' 2:20 p.m. email, something changed. Some say Mark Malloch Brown
intervened. Other say Mr. Gleeson went to the office of Kemal Dervis and showed
evidence of other improprieties at UNDP which he would release if the firing
proceeded. Suddenly the Senior Advisor position was offered, effective
immediately.
This is also a story about an agency and its personnel being unable or unwilling
to answer simple factual questions on a timely basis. By telephone and
email, and in person in the case of Kemal Dervis, Inner City Press sought
comment on these UNDP issues. The agency's head of Communications William Orme
was told that these were questions on deadline, but made no response. Brian
Gleeson was called and a detailed message was left with his secretary. Given the
lack of subsequent response, only
this film,
click here,
can be offered, expressing dissatisfaction at "certain political leaders" and at
reporters for not telling the UN's story. You have to return calls, some
reporters say.
In the UN
Headquarters building, the UN spokesman was asked to seek comment, including
from Mark Malloch Brown. Was Malloch Brown consulted prior to Mr. Gleeson's
redesignation? Did Malloch Brown play any role in this process? These are yes or
no questions.
It was at
2:20 p.m. Wednesday that Mr. Dervis wrote to "colleagues" that "this
is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of Human Resources (OHR),
Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve as Senior Advisor for
the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery... on
Thursday, 30 November, 2006." Mr. Dervis' email also thanked Brian Gleeson for
having "done a difficult job well." If the swirl of Gleeson issues remains, this
written praise by the head of UNDP seems more like cover-up than diplomacy.
The
demotion announced Tuesday is the most recent of moves by Mr. Dervis against
officials previously installed by Mark Malloch Brown. In UNDP's Office of
Finance, covering all European and CIS countries, the Hungarian Kalman Mitzei
was fired, Inner City Press is told by UNDP sources, for sexual harassment and
favoritism and was replaced by one of Mr. Dervis' colleagues from when he was at
the World Bank, a before that from Belgrade. Observers question the wisdom of
this selection, for Balkan(ized) geo-political reason and otherwise.
It's
worth noting that both Mark Malloch Brown and Kemal Dervis formerly worked at
the World Bank. Those who know him say Mr. Dervis envied Malloch Brown's ascent
to the top of UNDP. Now that he rules UNDP, with surprisingly little oversight,
Mr. Dervis is putting his own hand-picked associates in place.
Kemal
Dervis, speechifying, refusing questions, then emailing:
From: Kemal Dervis [mailto:kemal.dervis@undp.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:20 PM
Subject: Appointment of Brian Gleeson as Senior Advisor for BCPR Surge Project
Dear Colleagues,
This is to inform you that Brian Gleeson, Director, Office of
Human Resources (OHR), Bureau of Management (BoM), has been designated to serve
as Senior Advisor for the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and
Recovery (BCPR). On behalf of the organization, I would like to thank Brian for
doing a difficult job well for more than two and a half years and to wish him
success in his new assignment While the selection process for the appointment of
a new OHR Director is underway, I have asked Romesh Muttukumaru, Acting Deputy
Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships (BRSP), to serve
as Officer-in-Charge of OHR. These transition arrangements will come into effect
on Thursday, 30 November, 2006. I urge all staff to please cooperate during this
transition period.
With best regards, Kemal
Mark
Malloch Brown, of course, is still asserting himself. His close ally Bruce Jenks
remains in place at UNDP's Bureau of Resources and Partnerships (Mr. Jenks was
traveling on Wednesday and would not be able to comment, Inner City Press was
told, until next week at the earliest) and his Cape Verdean associate Carlos
Lopez has been selected to give briefings to incoming Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Some
call it Shakespearean, this hard-ball dueling between ex-World Bankers Kemal
Dervis and Mark Malloch Brown. But how is it, these people ask, that high-paying
UNDP jobs are given outside of official channels, in some cases, such as that of
one Nancy Barnes, without even showing up in databases of employees? In UNDP's
European Union and CIS shop, corruption is said to be endemic. The European
Union in Brussels funnels funding through UNDP, a funding stream never reviewed
even by UNDP's Executive Board. Nor is oversight being given by UNDP auditor
Jessie Mabutas, whose role in jobs-for-pay may be more participatory than
investigative. More on this next week.
For now
we note: on November 27, Inner City Press attempted to ask Kemal Dervis
questions in the General Assembly hall, after a meeting about the Millennium
Development Goals. As Inner City Press recounted at that day's UN noon briefing,
Mr. Dervis said, "I don't answer questions this way, walking out of meetings."
Inner City Press reiterated its request, made for more than five months now,
that Mr. Dervis come to a press conference and answer questions, which he hasn't
done since a single press conference when he got the UNDP job, 14 months ago.
Mr. Dervis indicated that it would take a "special event" to get him to a press
conference. Might these events be considered special? We'll see.
Inner
City Press sought to reach Brian Gleeson on Wednesday afternoon. His office
expressed surprise that word of his (down) shift to Special Advisor had "spread
to the UN." Some thought that UNDP was part of the United Nations. UNDP
is the UN's main representative to most countries. But UNDP these days is
apparently run as a fiefdom unto itself. In seeking UNDP's explanation for Mr.
Gleeson's abrupt downshift, and UNDP's response to this story, messages to the
UNDP Communications Office went unanswered, as has become a pattern. An attempt
to reach Kalman Mitzei yielded that he has returned by Hungary. A 6:45 p.m. call
to Romesh Muttukumaru, Brian Gleeson's interim replacement at the helm of UNDP
Human Resources, yielded an outgoing message that Romesh Muttukumaru was busy on
the phone; a message seeking comment, or UNDP's official explanation of the
change at the top of its Office of Human Resources, was not returned.
Given what UNDP sources say of Mr. Gleeson, now downshifted to advisory status
with
"the Surge Project in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery," it's worth
noting that a recent UNDP
job ad
for a position with this Surge Project in the BCPR lists, among required
"corporate competencies," that the employee (and presumably advisor)
"Treats all people fairly without
favoritism" and "Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN values and ethical
standards." Developing...
At
the UN, Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
November 27 -- With Ethiopian and Ugandan troops already inside Somalia, and the
U.S. reportedly preparing a Security Council resolution to grant them UN powers
to expanding fighting against the Council of Somali Islamic Courts, on Monday
both Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton dodged the issue.
As Kofi
Annan left the General Assembly's meeting on development, Inner City Press asked
Mr. Annan what the UN was doing about war in Somalia. As
transcribed by UN
staff:
Inner City
Press: On Somalia. The monitoring group’s report about ten countries violating
the arms embargo -- what do you think the UN can or should do to try to hold off
a war that seems to be brewing between the Islamic Courts and the Ethiopians and
others?
Secretary-General: I think we have encouraged both parties to resume their
talks in Khartoum. They’ve made various attempts to talk together and find a
way of working together. It is important that they do find a way of coming
together, not escalate the situation, which may draw neighboring countries into
the conflict in Somalia, and make matters much worse. So we will continue our
efforts. My own Special Representative on the ground is working quite actively
with both parties.
In real
time, Mr. Annan first called the work of SRSG Francois Lonseny Fall "fairly"
active. Video
here,
from Minute 2:40. In reality, the UN's Office on Somalia is not even based in
the country, but rather in Nairobi. And Mr. Annan's statement that event "may"
draw neighboring countries into the conflict in Somalia is months late.
Ethiopian troops are all around Baidoa, and now Uganda has
acknowledged having
sent troops.
Breakdown
in Chad
U.S.
Ambassador John Bolton, emerging for a Security Council meeting about Myanmar,
was asked by Inner City Press for the U.S. position on Somalia. Last week Amb.
Bolton told Inner City Press he had nothing to say on the topic, while at the
State Department's briefing in Washington it was said that the U.S. was working
hard at the UN on the issue. Monday Amb. Bolton repeated that he had nothing to
say, but added that he might have something to say in "a couple of days." Video
here,
from Minute 11:30.
Inner
City Press asked Amb. Bolton to respond to
Somali denials of
the authenticity of a letter from the Islamic Counts' Sheik Aweys, which was
reportedly the trigger for the U.S.'s recent terrorism alert in East Africa. "I
have nothing to add to that point," Amb. Bolton said.
On
Myanmar, Amb. Bolton unceremoniously dropped from his litany of Myanmar's sins
the allegation, which he previously made, that Myanmar is a threat to
international peace and security because it is engaged in money laundering.
Weeks ago at a stakeout outside the General Assembly, Inner City Press asked Amb.
Bolton to comment on the G-8's FATF having dropped Myanmar from its money
laundering blacklist. At the time, Amb. Bolton said he hadn't heard of it. Inner
City Press provided the information to Amb. Bolton's staff for a comment, which
never came. Now the issue is dropped -- although the spread of refugees and
"diseases such as HIV / AIDS" is cited by Amb. Bolton in support of a resolution
said to be coming in the next "days or weeks."
Inner
City Press asked the UN's head of political affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, if his
briefing to the Council had addressed money laundering or drug trafficking.
Video
here,
from Minute 4:10. Mr. Gambari mentioned "progress" on stopping drug trafficking,
and did not mention money laundering. As one of the top five issues he listed
humanitarian access. Earlier in the day, Myanmar's government
reportedly threw the Red Cross out of
the country.
Inner
City Press asked Council President Voto-Bernales if either money laundering or
drug trafficking was discussed in the Council meeting. There was "no general
discussion on the matter," Amb. Voto-Bernales said. Video
here,
from Minute 3:20. He added that Somalia will be on the Council's agenda for
Wednesday. Click
here
for further analysis.
Finally,
for this report, we are compelled to note that outside the very General Assembly
meeting following which Secretary-General Kofi Annan stopped and took questions
from reporters, both in the hall and before the stakeout camera (video here),
Inner City Press sought to ask UN Development Program Administrator Kemal Dervis
about
UNDP's role in funding and / or monitoring
involuntary disarmament in northeast Uganda.
Mr.
Dervis said, "I don't just answer questions like this, walking out of a room."
Inner
City Press suggested that Mr. Dervis come to a press conference in UN
Headquarters Room 226 to take questions.
Mr.
Dervis allowed, "Perhaps that can be arranged."
Inner
City Press pointed out that the request has been made, for months, to UNDP
Communications staff, and that Mr. Dervis has not held such a press conference
for 14 months.
"It would
have to be something special," Mr. Dervis said. Why not hold a press conference
to take questions, as do the heads of other UN agencies and even Kofi Annan,
who, it must be noted, did on Monday "answer questions like this, walking out of
a room."
Also Monday outside the (GA) room, Mr. Dervis rebuffed another reporter from his
home country. Earlier, his staff had declined to provide an advance copy of his
speech to the General Assembly, claiming that it would be extemporaneous. Why
play hide the ball about a public speech to be delivered? Lack of transparency
and lack of accountability apparently start at the top.
At
Monday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric
what are the minimum standards of accessibility and transparency for the heads
of UN agencies like Mr. Dervis.
"I am not
the boss of him," Mr. Dujarric answered, adding that that from emails he has
seen, UNDP is answering questions. We note that a question about Bangladesh
asked two weeks ago has still not been answered.
Inner
City Press was told, by a representative of the Islamic Development Bank, that a
Memorandum of Understanding would be signed at 3:30 Monday afternoon at UNDP
Headquarters. (This concerns an IDB initiative to fight poverty, one that will
not use the types of "conditionalities" employed by the World Bank, Inner City
Press was
told by the IDB's Dr. Amadou Boubacar Cisse, formerly a minister of Niger,
click here
for more). Inner City Press asked to attend but was told that it was an internal
UNDP event. Inner City Press has asked for a copy of the agreement. "There is
nothing sensitive in it," an IDB official replied. "But I don't know about
UNDP's information disclosure policies." Developing.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
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