A
Tale of Two Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and
Sheeran Shiner
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS,
October 27 -- The four-person short list to replace Jim Morris as head of
the UN World Food Program includes Tony Banbury, a Democrat who worked in
the Bush Administration for a year before rejoining the UN system and the
current head of WFP's Asia operation, Inner City Press has learned.
As
first
reported by Inner City Press on
September 29, the Bush
Administration's nominee for the WFP post is Josette Sheeran (Shiner),
formerly an editor of the Washington Times and a 20-year member, until 1998,
of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. The two other short listers are
Canada's Robert Fowler and Walter Fust. Sources say that many senior figures
in the Bush Administration could live with Tony Banbury getting the job,
given his strong credentials earned in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean
tsunami and the earthquake in Pakistan. They simply couldn't or didn't
choose to nominate a Democrat instead of a Republican, particularly a
Republican with a history with the Unification Church, a sub-constituency.
Friday, a senior UN official confirmed to Inner City Press that Tony Banbury
is on the WFP short list. The list was whittled from eight candidates to
four by a five-person panel that included the UN's Deputy Secretary-General
Mark Malloch Brown, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan
Egeland and UNFPA's Thoraya Obaid, and well as two representatives from the
UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Now the finalists will be
interviewed by
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf,
who is currently in New York. It is widely known that Dr. Diouf does not get
along with finalist Robert Fowler who has been serving as Canada's
ambassador to the FAO in Rome. Dr. Diouf's views on Walter Fust, are not
known. Nor are Dr. Diouf's connections with the Bush Administration although
regarding these, the coming decision may speak loudly.
WFP's
outgoing Jim Morris
On
October 25, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, as
transcribed by the UN:
Question:
On the World Food Program (WFP) process, we have heard that there is a
shortlist. Is that true? Who is on it?
Spokesman:
I have said all I have to say on that, and we expect an announcement in the
next couple of weeks.
Inner City
Press question: When the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) selected Mr. Guterres they did actually say who was on the
shortlist. Is that not going to be done in this case?
Spokesman:
The process here is slightly different because as opposed to UNHCR this is
not an appointment that goes to the General Assembly. This is an
appointment that is made jointly by the Secretary-General and the Director
General of the FAO.
Inner City
Press question: Will it be a five-year appointment?
Spokesman:
My understanding is that it will be.
Concerns have been raised about Kofi Annan making five year appointments now
that he remains Secretary-General for only nine more weeks. On September 27
at the UN, before the WFP nomination had become public, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters
that Kofi Annan's appointment of new UN officials would only be okay if these
officials' contracts ended "soon after January 1." Video
here,
at Minute 4:43.
September 29 at the UN, Inner City
Press asked Ambassador Bolton if the U.S.'s position is that Josette Sheeran
(Shiner) could be given a five-year WFP term even before Kofi Annan leaves the
UN in three month. Ambassador Bolton answered that the appointment could be made
before January 1, that "the precedents have differed." Video
here,
from Minute 8:15, the US mission's transcript:
Inner
City Press: On the secretary-general transition and the World Food Program
looking for a new executive director, I've heard that the U.S. put forward
Josette Sheeran Shiner. Is it your position that this should not be done until
January 1st or that she could be appointed and given a five-year term prior to
that?
Ambassador Bolton: She could be appointed prior to January 1 or thereafter. And
the precedent has differed from reappointment to reappointment.
U.S. Ambassador
Bolton added that Josette Sheeran Shiner was "the most qualified candidate."
As
Inner City Press
reported on September 29,
open-source research reflects that Josette Sheeran (Shiner) was an active member of Rev. Sun
Myung Moon's Unification Church from 1975 through at least 1996. After that
date, it is reported that she went "into the world," including into William
Bennett's Empower America organization and then the U.S. State Department, in
order to spread the Unification Church's message and position. Beyond
controversial views on abstinence,
mass-marriage and other matters,
including the
UN, these include business ties
with and praise of North Korea.
The internal U.S. State Department memo
obtained by Inner City Press stated that
"For the past
several weeks, we have been working with the White House to search for a highly
qualified candidate to succeed Jim Morris as Executive Director of the World
Food Programme. We now have an excellent candidate in Ambassador Josette Sheeran
(Shiner)... Through the course of a distinguished career in government, business
and journalism, Ambassador Sheeran has excelled as a diplomat, humanitarian,
business leader and development policy leader."
The reference to journalism is to Ms.
Sheeran's tenure as managing editor of the Moon-owned Washington Times.
In that capacity, in 1992 Ms. Sheeran
went on an 11-day visit to North Korea, leading up a feature article
commemorating the 80th birthday of Kim Il-Sung's 80th birthday. "Even if the sky
is falling down on us, there will always be a hole for me to rise up through,"
said Kim -- a sentence Sheeran-Shiner later recollected, as recounted by the
American Prospect, as "this wonderful thing which I printed in the paper."
Sheeran-Shiner's interview with Kim
Il-Sung painted him as a "self-confident, reflective elder statesman rather than
the reclusive, dogmatic dictator he is usually portrayed as in the West."
Now Kim Il-Sung's son is being
portrayed by Ms. Sheeran-Shiner's nominator as a threat to international peace
and security. More documents on the North Korea - Moon connection are online
here.
Josette Sheeran's first appearance in the
media was in Time magazine of November 10, 1975, in an article entitled "Mad
About Moon" --
"One
typical worried parent is New Jersey's state insurance commissioner James
Sheeran, three of whose daughters—Vicki, 25, Jaime, 24, and Josette, 21—are Moon
converts. He wants laws to protect people from 'cruel and exotic entrapment of
their minds, souls and bodies.' Late one night last August, Sheeran decided to
act when Josette, normally compassionate, showed little interest upon learning
that her grandmother was in the hospital. He, his wife and a son drove to Moon's
school to seek Josette. Fifteen Moon men materialized, a scuffle ensued, and
state police arrived amid mutual charges of assault."
In
fairness or under the doctrine of equal time,
Inner City Press has heard a person who states that she "worked with Ms. Sheeran at the Office of
the Untied States Trade Representative" and that "she severed her ties with the
Unification Church... do you actually think the State Department's security
clearance process" who have passed a Unification Church member?
Well, yes. George H.W. Bush has given speeches extensively praising Sun Myung
Moon. But it's duly noted here, this missive from a person who worked with Ms.
Sheeran also at the Washington Times, that after 20 years of membership in the
Unification Church, it's stated that all ties were then severed. It remains
newsworthy, also on the shifting positions on whether Kofi Annnan should be
allowed to hand out five-year appointments in the less than three months he has
remaining in office. U.S. Amb. Bolton said Annan shouldn't make appointments
beyond the end of 2006, then receiving new instructions, said there'd be
precedent to give Ms. Sheeran five years right now. Would he and the Bush
Administration take the same position on Tony Banbury? We'll see.
WFP
insiders have pointed out to Inner City Press that within the U.S. State
Department, of Josette Sheeran (Shiner) it is said, "She is no Al Larson,"
her predessesor as Under-Secretary for Economic
Affairs. These WFP sources note that Ms. Sheeran Shiner has no experience in
humanitarian operations, or in emergency relief work, in international
affairs, or in managing a large, complex, multi-billion dollar agency. One
argues, "it would still be possible for Kofi Annan to retain an American for
the WFP post and to not agree to the Bush Administration's rather
unqualified candidate. After the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, America
learned a lesson: Don't place unqualified political appointees in charge of
critical emergency response agencies. The same lesson applies to leadership
considerations for the WFP, the global 'first responder' for floods,
hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis the world over."
Yer doin' a
heckuva job, Shinie! Developing.
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, Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless
Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution, How Our World Turns
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press
at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, October 26 -- On the
topic of literacy, a
390-page study
was released at the UN on Thursday. On page 201, it is reported that in the
African nation of Chad, adult literacy stands at 25.7%. The figure has
declined from 1990. Inner City Press asked two officials of UNESCO to
explain this Chadian tragedy. "Increases in population," said UNESCO's
Nicholas Burnett.
"And not enough schools opening."
Earlier in Thursday's
briefing, Inner City Press asked what the UN is doing about Niger's move to
expel tens of thousands from Diffa Province back to Chad. Click
here for
one report. "It is something UNHCR is aware of," the spokesman answered.
"But has the UN told Niger not to do
it?"
"They're trying to gather more
information," the spokesman answered. "I can't go beyond that."
UNHCR has been aware for some time of
the shooting of Tibetans trying to flee into Nepal. Publicly, however, UNHCR
has said little. Inner City Press has asked UNHCR in Geneva to explain its
position.
Another topic the UN says
it will now consider is the opposition to UNESCO's plan to name Sri Lanka's
former President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, to a 14-month term of a Special
Consultant to UNESCO on Education for All, the topic of Thursday briefing at
UN Headquarters. Opposition has arisen given
Mrs. Kumaratunga's human rights record.
Click
here for
more.
Learning
to read per UNESCO,
here's
suggested
reading
Inner City Press' question to Kofi Annan's
spokesman about how Special Consultants are selected was referred to the two
UNESCO officials in attendance. They indicated that UNESCO's executive
director Koichiro Matsuura may not have been aware of these issues and that
they will not look into it. One of them said wistfully, "And I thought it
would be a quiet weekend." Not in Chad.
Nor in the Congo. Days before the
run-off election, the UN's apparently non-blogging envoy to the DR Congo,
William Lacy Swing, met with Jean-Pierre Bemba about an upcoming campaign
rally. Front-runner Joseph Kabila has denied the UN access to one of his
camps to check for weapons. Not a good sign.
While many correspondents, including
that of Inner City Press, took as a sign of Jan Pronk imminent
defenestration -- figurative, of course -- the comments of Kofi Annan
Wednesday late afternoon, that he would make his decision only after
speaking with Mr. Pronk, as of 4 p.m. Thursday it appears Pronk will live to
blog another day. At least one additional day. Japanese Ambassador Oshima
let it be known that the Security Council will meet Friday on Sudan. Head of
UN peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno will be there. One assumes that Mr.
Pronk might make an appearance as well. He was seen entering the UN at 10:30
on Thursday and heading to the basement. One wag joked that he might well be
blogging from the public access computers, a sort of Stations of the Cross,
the 12 steps by which he may be forced or eased out.
Inner City Press posed the
riddle of Jan Pronk to UN lightening rod Jean Ziegler -- who is special
rapporteur on food but also a punching bag for the right wing, not without
reason, for his
role in the Gaddafi Human Rights Prize
-- at Prof. Ziegler's press conference on Thursday afternoon. Ziegler's
first response was that Pronk is a socialist, then a good man, only doing
his job. Video on
UNTV.
Ziegler had previously
called for
UN intervention into Darfur without Sudanese consent, a position which
ironically the detractors of his Lebanon report would otherwise embrace. He
cannot be pigeonholed, this Jean Ziegler. He denounced Sudan's al-Bashir
government as well as Israel's use of cluster bombs in Lebanon.
Inner City Press ended with a legal
question, on whether Mr. Ziegler believes that the Geneva Conventions
require that victims of conflict be provided adequate food resources, and if
so, by whom. Mr. Ziegler ignored this question, choosing instead to explain
how the UN Human Rights Council rejected Israel's argument that the Geneva
Convention protocols did not apply to this summer's conflict, since the
non-state actor, Hezbollah, was in another state. For its rejection of
Israel's position, Ziegler praised the Human Rights Council, a plaudit which
is strikingly rare.
Also on the legal beat,
but in Liberia and not Wall Street, Ms. Leymah Gbowee on Thursday explained
the recent improvements in the Liberian law of rape. Video on
UNTV.
Inner City Press asked about an
UNMIL report chiding
the country for not prosecuting rape. Ms. Gbowee said the commitment is
there, just not the resources. She also called for the lifting of the UN's
diamond sanctions.
On the beat of most
pressing interest to the neo-liberal press (we're channeling Jean Ziegler
here), the draft resolution on Iran leaked to some of the media on
Thursday. It is sure to be subject to fuller exegesis elsewhere. What leaps
out as unique is the carve out in Paragraph 14 for sales, mostly by Russia,
to the Bushehr I Civil Nuclear Power Plant. Even with this, Russia is
chafing.
Where now is the American firebrand John Bolton? Why does Sudan, as Inner
City Press reported yesterday and
got on camera today,
lavish praise on U.S. envoy Andrew Natsios? Tune in tomorrow, for the next
episode in this Inner City Press series, How Our World Turns...
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
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
Georgia on its
Mind, Russia Delays North Korea Nuclear Resolution with Abkhazia
Allusions
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
The UN Shrugs on
Congolese Warlords, While UNDP Assists Sudanese Justice, and OIOS Is In
Hiding
Hungarian
Revolutions Past and Present, Kissinger to UN and Ban Ki-Moon Speaks, Of
Needs and Refugees
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
U.S. Calls for Annan and Ban Ki-moon to Publicly Disclose Finances, As U.S.
Angles for 5-Year WFP Appointment
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
UN's Annan
Dodges Danger and Set-Backs in Gabon, Geneva, Tibet, Sudan, Disclosure
Form Also for Successor?
At the UN, Ban
Ki-Moon's Track Record on Myanmar Criticized by ASEAN Parliamentarians
on Human Rights
At the UN, Cagey
Council President of the GA on the Bottom of the Sea, of Stolen Chairs,
Uzbek Human Rights and Georgia
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
Behind the UN
Speeches, A Thai Coup, Somali Assassins and Hit-and-Run Chirac Ignoring
Ivory Coast
Annan Pitches UN
With No Mention of Reform; EU President Dodges Human Rights and
Micro-States
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
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
At the UN,
Disinterest in Zimbabwe, Secrecy on Chechnya, Congo Polyanna and
Ineptitude on Somalia
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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