At the UN, Questions of Humanitarian Aid and Congo
Body Count, Despots' Crackdown on Dissent
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- A range of faces of
humanitarian aid were on display Thursday in and around the UN. Jan Egeland gave
his last media briefing, in which he credited a free and independent press with
informing the public of the needs of the poor and how these are met and not met.
Joakim Stymne, who has been Sweden's State Secretary for International
Development Cooperation for only six weeks now, held a smaller press briefing in
the Swedish mission's 46th floor office, speaking about focusing Sweden aid on
fewer countries in the future. Missing, however, was a member of the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative, Christian Mounzeo of Congo - Brazzaville,
whose government did not allow him to travel, for having allegedly defamed the
president.
Given Jan Egeland's meetings
with indicted war criminals Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti of the Lord's
Resistance Army in Uganda, Inner City Press asked him if he will stay involved
in the peace talks between the LRA and the Museveni government, even after he
leaves the UN on December 15. Video
here,
from Minute 59:30. Mr. Egeland said he'll stay in involved, in a way that time
will tell. He did not mention the Museveni government's continued violent
disarmament crack-down in the Karamoja region.
Inner City Press asked Joakim
Stymne for Sweden's thinking on the UN Development Program having funded
disarmament in Karamoja, and having spent over
$500,000 in core funds to publish a
laudatory book, "UNDP: A Better Way?"
Mr. Stymne said that such expenditures should be closely examined, to see if
they are within the strategy and within the budget. Afterwards one of Mr. Stymne
staffers said it was good that the UNDP vanity press issue had been raised.
Outside, 46 stories down and across the shining East River, the tenements
streets of Central Brooklyn were gleaming.
The chairman of the EITI, ex-World Banker
Peter Eigen, spoke passionately about the lock-up of Christian Mounzeo.
Afterward, Inner City Press interviewed the coordinator of Publish What You Pay,
Henry Parham, would clarified that Mr. Mounzeo and also Brice Mackosso had been
arrested, and were now charged with having defamed the president. With Republic
of Congo on the UN Security Council, until the end of the month, it seems the
issue should be raised.
The EITI announced that it is placing its
secretariat, which may only employ six to ten people, in Oslo, Norway. Mr. Eigen
contrasts the EITI with the better-staffed UN Global Compact. During the
briefing, the Global Compact's new staffer Eleonore Kopera explained that while
extractive company which join the Compact are not required to adopt EITI's
system of disclosure, the Compact does recommend it as an implementation tool.
Afterwards, the Compact's Matthias Stausberg argued that to require particular
practices of companies before they join the Global Compact would make of the
Compact "an elite club of leaders." One analysis of the issue is that if and
when the EITI system of disclosure becomes more widely accepted, it will be
difficult for the Compact not to strong encourage extractive industry Compact
members to abide by it.
In hard news, Inner City
Press' inquiries into claims of
150 "rebels" killed in Eastern Congo
resulted in the following response, reproduced here in full:
Subject: Re: DR
Congo
From: [ ] @
un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 6:40 PM
This is the DRC
reply. The information cited in various news reports is correct. This fatalities
figure (exactly 151) was mentioned, on the record, by the regular FARDC
(Congolese Armed Forces) in the area and is based on a count of bodies actually
seen on the battlefield area.
· MONUC has not
officially confirmed the number given by FARDC. MONUC’s line is that it is not
fixating on, interested in, "body count".
· Most of these
causalities were inflicted by MONUC attack helicopters and armor when they
returned fire after MONUC troops were being fired upon in Sake area by hostile
attacking dissident forces during their attempted offensive against Goma.
· Some of the
casualties were possibly inflicted by FARDC regular Integrated Brigades, who
were deployed to consolidate the positions MONUC liberated on the hills around
Sake.
· Sufficient
warning was given that our troops would respond, if they or civilians were to be
targeted, in conformity with their right to self-defense, protection of civilian
mandate, rules of engagement as per Chapter VII.
· The important
thing is that our troops acted in strict compliance with their Rules of
Engagement and within their mandate and acted to protect themselves and civilian
populations in danger of physical violence.
That UN Peacekeeping is not interested in body
count is questionable to some. Questions remain outstanding regarding the
incidents in April 2006 in the village of Kazana, click
here for more.
Eastern Congo
Ironic in light of the
references throughout Thursday in UN press briefings to the importance of an
independent press and of the tendency of arrogant leaders to attack the press
for defamation, Thursday at noon the Secretariat's spokesman launched into a
lengthy lecture about alleged (Inner City) Press attacks on high UN officials.
Click
here for
the transcript -- we will not waste further space or time on this here. Rather,
click
here
for the next installment in Inner City Press' UNDP Series, "Waste,
Fraud and Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN Secretariat Urges Censorship."
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
Annan's Spokesman Silent on 150 Dead in Congo, War in
Somalia - But in Loud Defense of UNDP's $567,000 Book
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, December 5 -- The Secretariat of the
UN System is a bully pulpit, it is said, from which human rights issues and the
voices of the underdogs can be amplified. One wonders, therefore, in the final
month of Kofi Annan's tenure, how they are decided on what issues to spotlight
in their noon media briefing.
Tuesday for example, nothing
was said of
reports of 150 killed by UN troops in
Eastern Congo. These may well
all be rebels -- although as in Kazana, a village torched in April of this year,
click here for more, they may not -- but 150 killed by the UN, it seems, should
merit mention at the Spokesman's daily briefing. When only the happy news of UN
Peacekeeping head Jean-Marie Guehenno being in-country was mentioned,
the following exchange took place:
Inner City
Press: There are reports from eastern Congo of renewed fighting involving
renegade General Nkunda, not the town of Sake this time, but Bunagana. What
does the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (MONUC) have to say about continued fighting in eastern Congo?
Spokesman: I
will try to get you something from them
But nothing was provided, even eleven
hours later. In the interim, Inner City Press asked French Ambassador de la
Sabliere for his position on Ivory Coast. As transcribed by the French mission:
Inner City
Press: On Cote d' Ivoire, what is France thinking of the situation? [Gbagbo has
blocked UN Security from accompanying Prime Minister Banny, and Gbagbo has said
*he* will protest to the Security Council the actions of the International
Working Group.] Will France want to get back --
Ambassador:
There was a meeting of the international working group on Friday, which
represents the international community. I don't know if you have seen the
communique which is an important one. We think that the Council should endorse
this communique.
Another
Tuesday question and non-answer
by Kofi Annan's spokesman:
Inner City Press: On Somalia, the
Transitional Government has said it will
not speak with the Islamic Courts.
Also, an adviser to the President of Ethiopia has said that
Ethiopia is at war with Somalia.
Does the Secretary-General or Mr. Fall have a comment? Do they think the
resolution introduced might embolden the Government not to speak with the
Courts?
Spokesman: We
would encourage the Federal Transitional Government to speak to the Islamic
Courts, as we would the other way around, and to resume a dialogue. I will see
from Mr. Fall’s office if there’s a more formal response.
Again, after more than eleven hours, no
response was provided. Perhaps as the spokesman argues (below), putting requests
"on the clock" is "unfair." But in this case these are wars we're talking about.
Civilians flee in eastern DRC
Given the two non-answers
about the Congo and Somalia, some were surprised by the length and vehemence of
the Spokesman's response to a question about the book "UNDP: A Better Way?"
According to the
UN-produced transcript,
the following was said:
Inner City
Press: Yesterday I asked you about the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
I did receive a response that UNDP paid $567,000 to produce the book. But I've
also gotten a message that you’ve gotten as well from UNDP, complaining about
what’s essentially a book review, saying that reporting on what employees of
UNDP say is somehow reprehensible and asking to speak to my superiors. As a UN
agency, is this an appropriate use of funds? Can you find out if these are core
funds meant to assist low-income world citizens and also whether that's
appropriate press relations because my intention is to ask you questions about
UNDP from now on. You get the answer and quibble about how it’s characterized,
but it's not working for me.
Spokesman: I
think UNDP has been extremely, extremely responsive to all your questions. You
have submitted some 50 or more questions to them and they have responded to
them, not always in the time frame that you allow them to respond because you
ask very detailed questions and they respond to them. You have printed on your
website, in full, emails that may or may not be from UNDP staffers airing
grievances. Some of them are slanderous to a number of UNDP staffers. That is
obviously your right, but you may also want to extend the same courtesy to UNDP
by publishing, in full,
their responses to you, notably on the book. I think it is totally appropriate
for a UN agency to commission a book about its activities. As they told you,
the author had full editorial freedom in writing, in researching and writing the
book.
Obviously,
there is a very good system in place at UNDP on whistle-blowing, through which
staff can air their grievances. Obviously, people are free to use the press to
do so; it is their right. But I think if you are going to publish, in full,
emails that are completely slanderous, you owe it to UNDP to put out their
answers in full. Again, they have been extremely, extremely responsive to you.
I noticed on your site you document the amount of time it takes them to answer
questions, sometimes eighty hours. When you ask very detailed questions on a
Friday, maybe it takes until Monday to answer. If you want to put a time log on
how long it takes to answer every one of my questions, that’s your right. But I
think it’s completely unfair.
Consider the line, "Obviously,
there is a very good system in place at UNDP on whistle-blowing," and compare to
the following two sample findings of the UNDP Ombudsman:
"management has
known of a visit in advance, retaliatory action has sometimes been taken the
members of staff have been warned about the consequences of saying certain
things to the Ombudsperson -- a term that has been dubbed 'pretaliation.' There
are also many cases of staff being primed as to what to say to the
Ombudsperson."
As is relevant to Inner City Press'
reporting so far in its UNDP series, the UNDP Ombudsman also found that
"Most
disturbing of all is when a visit from the Ombudsperson which throws light on
abusive behavior actually makes the situation worse for those members of staff
in an already vulnerable position. An abusive manager will sometimes use
intimidation or try to discover by a process of questioning and elimination the
names of those who have consulted the Ombudsperson. When no effective action has
been taken after the visit of the Ombudsperson to remedy the situation, there
are instances of where the abusive behavior has intensified, renewed attempts
have been made by the abuser to find out who spoke to the Ombudsperson and
retaliatory action has been taken against anyone suspected of doing so."
These are findings of the UNDP Ombudsman.
After such findings, it is questionable for the Secretariat to (mis-) use its
bully pulpit to claim that UNDP employees "obviously" have "a very good system
in place at UNDP on whistle-blowing."
Inner City Press is told by UNDP sources
that after work began on its UNDP series, UNDP's Associate Administrator Ad
Melkert met with Poverty Group staff to try to short circuit internal dissent at
the violation of recruitment and hiring rules to accommodate some in the
winding-down UN Millennium Project. UNDP sources tell Inner City Press that Ad
Melkert told staff not to complain as rules are broken. One of the more
egregious current cases involves Guido Schmidt-Traub, who sources tell Inner
City Press has already been given a UNDP job even while the purported
recruitment process for the position is still open. Inner City Press' question
to UNDP about Mr. Schmidt-Traub's position remain unanswered.
Now UNDP seeks to problematized the
process of asking questions, even by email, by demanding that the entirety of
their verbose responses be used. No publication that covers the UN System --
except perhaps those paid for by UNDP itself -- grants an agency the right to
dictate what is published and whether or not employees can be quoted. In fact,
the UN Secretariat has a policy that "As a matter of principle, every member of
the Secretariat may speak to the press, within limits: 1) Speak only within your
area of competence and responsibility; 2) Provide facts, not opinions or
comment; and 3) Leave sensitive issues to officials who are specifically
authorized to speak on them."
It has been made clear to Inner City
Press by numerous sources inside UNDP that UNDP does not abide by this policy.
Secondarily, one wonders if the matters of the until-last-week head of the
Office of Human Resources and of the "UNDP: A Better Way?" book deal have
formally been deemed "sensitive issues."
Perhaps UNDP feels free to tell its
employees to whom they can speak. But UNDP cannot dictate to the media who they
must be covered. For example, while Inner City Press has been giving UNDP the
courtesy of asking for the agency's response, and sometimes waiting two or more
weeks for it, this is not required. Take, for example, this concluding news
analysis, in advance of the December 18 or 19 press conference at which Kemal
Dervis will now appear, after repeated requests for months:
News
analysis: Nexis searches show current UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis'
inordinate focus on his native Turkey: being
quoted on accession to the European Union
and even on controversial questions about
Cyprus.
These quotes are not related to, and in fact may not assist, UNDP's work. But
one can surmise that Dervis, having had his attempt to be taken seriously as a
candidate for UN Secretary-General rebuffed, is aiming for a position in Turkey.
In this view, Dervis is using UNDP money to further his own goals.
Must one seek UNDP's comment
on this news analysis, and wait two weeks to get it? While the answer is "no,"
even if it were "yes" Inner City Press eight days ago sought to ask Mr. Dervis a
question, only to be told that he doesn't answer questions in this fashion, in
the General Assembly hallway, coming out of meetings. It must be noted that Kofi
Annan does take such questions with aplomb. His
deputy, most recently, less so.
In fact, some think that the Secretariat spokesman on Tuesday was so vehement in
his defense of UNDP and its $567,000 book because of the looming presence of his
Number Two boss, the former Administrator of UNDP. In these times of transition
there is sympathy. But there are still wars, and defending the indefensible
while ignoring the ignored cannot be countenanced.
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
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
For reporting about banks, predatory
lending, consumer protection, money laundering, mergers or the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), click
here for Inner
City Press's
weekly CRA Report.
Inner City Press also reports weekly concerning the
Federal Reserve,
environmental justice,
global inner cities, and more recently
on the United
Nations, where Inner City Press
is accredited media. Follow those links
for more of Inner City Press's reporting, or, click
here
for five ways to
contact us,
with or for more information.
Copyright 2005-2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editors [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540