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Warlord in the Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between Elections

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press

   September 26-27, 2006 -- The United Nations Mission in the Congo, MONUC, is the UN system's largest peacekeeping project. In the run-up to MONUC chief William Lacy Swing's September 27 briefing to the Security Council, five questions have been raised to the Office of the Spokesman for the UN and MONUC. One was referred to the U.S. State Department, one was ignored and another awaits response.

   Two questions, regarding the mass arrest in Kinshasa of 500 woman and children and the German Defense Minister's desire to pull out the European Union force in November, garnered terse responses. On the former, " more than a dozen children and some 100 other men and women, some with babies, remained in custody on Tuesday inside the police compound in Kinshasa." Click here.  The UN responded, "About recent violence, he Secretary General has repeatedly appealed to Congolese and their leaders to ensure that the elections proceed peacefully."

   On the statement by German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, the UN's response is that it did not expect the EU force to stay.

   A question about William Lacy Swing's previous service in Liberia in the time Samuel Doe, during which current president Sirleaf-Johnson was locked up, was referred to the U.S. State Department, or to Swing "in his personal capacity."

The UN in Kinshasa

  A question about the continued boycott of the second round of elections by the largest opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress  and its leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, has yet to be answered. UPDS released a statement saying that the UN has excluded it; the UN has not responded. And a fourth question, pending for 48 hours, has been entirely ignored. This was the question, and context, posed to the Spokesman's office on the afternoon of September 25:

[Please]  provide any background or comment on ex-militia leader Mbusa Nyamwisi, formerly of the Armee Populaire Congolaise of the RCD / KML and now minister for regional cooperation of the DR of Congo? This question is asked in the context, among other things, of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Frazer's comment last week [to Inner City Press] that MONUC must closely scrutinize the FARDC and wider DRC government if MONUC is going to continue to work with them]

            The further context of this still-unanswered question is that on September 22 at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel on Manhattan's Park Avenue, Inner City Press spoke with ex-warlord Mbusa Nyamwisi, who said he was staying in room 1612 of the Waldorf through the weekend, even though Joseph Kabila had left town. Mbusa Nyamwisi  was the counterparty to Jean-Pierre Bemba in the latter's Operation "Effacer Le Tableau" (Erase the Blackboard) in Eastern Congo, in which villages were burned, civilians killed and pygmies were reportedly eaten.  Friday Mbusa Nyamwisi's belly was larger and softer as he settled in for a weekend in New York.  In the first round of the election, Mbusa Nyamwisi threw his weight behind Kabila. Is this the UN's work plan? One would expect some comment.

            Inner City Press has had in a request to interview W. L. Swing. Tuesday at noon it was announced that Mr. Swing will take questions after he briefs the Security Council on Wednesday. Inner City Press aims to be there, to get these questions answered. Watch this site.

Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

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At the UN, Tales of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While Copters Grounded

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- This week's Yemeni elections, mentioned as a sign of hope by U.S. President George W. Bush in his speech to the UN General Assembly, have resulted in charges of fraud by the opposition. On Friday at a UN press conference, Inner City Press asked Yemen's Minister of Foreign Affairs Abubakr A. Al-Qirbi about the opposition's charges. Al-Qirbi responded that since the opposition is also attacking the credibility of European Union observers, their claims should be taken with skepticism.

            Inner City Press then asked about a report by the Human Rights Information and Training Center, that state-run television in Yemen favored the incumbent Ali Abdullah Saleh. Foreign Minister Al-Qirbi responded that in the run-up to the election, opposition parties founded human rights groups to raise claims on their behave. Inner City Press then asked if Al-Qirby was stating, beyond just implying, that the Human Rights Information and Training Center was a front for opposition parties. After some hesitation Al-Qirby said, "As far as a know, it was not founded by opposition parties."

            Then Yemen's Ambassador to the UN, who'd sat with Al-Qirby at the podium, added that "Our neighbors say: 'This is unprecedented that you allow the opposition to come in and attack you on the official TV." Video here, following Minute 20:30. This quote showed up mis-attributed to Al-Qirby himself in a hastily-issued Associated Press article without a byline, entitled "Yemen's FM denies vote-rigging, praises advances toward democracy." These things happen, apparently, during a grueling week of General Assembly debate.

West Darfur per UN

            Other exhausted reporters gathered Friday from 4 to 6 at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue. In the Hilton Room just off lobby where a piano tastefully played, Mark Malloch Brown, Condoleeza Rice and the foreign ministers of Denmark, Ghana, Senegal and other countries met about Darfur. Reporters were ejected from the room once opening statements were over. In the lobby, U.S. security personnel pushed reporters into an impromptu pen, after a dog has sniffed their equipment (TV equipment, we mean). To while away the hour and a half of the meeting, reporters who'd accompanied Condi Rice from DC swamped stories. One well-groomed Fox News reporter told the tale of a woman who'd just ended a relationship of six year, because she caught her partner cheating with another man -- the third time this had happened to the woman. "I told her it's not her, it's societal," the Fox man said. Later Condi Rice called on him by name, for a question why the U.S. is not being harder on Iran. And so it goes...

            On Darfur, beyond set-up Condi Rice stakeout at the Waldorf, at the UN reporters asked Amre Moussa, secretary-general of the League of Arab States, about the lack of Arab League support for the African Union mission in Sudan, AMIS, on which Inner City Press reported yesterday.  Amre Moussa answered vaguely that now that AMIS' mandate has been extended through the end of the year, financial support will be forthcoming, in an amount yet to be determined.

            On the U.S.'s charges -- video now online here -- that Sudan's Al-Bashir government has been sabotaging armored personnel carriers en route to AMIS in Darfur, and delaying the issues of visas, Inner City Press asked these questions at the UN Spokesman's noon briefing on Friday, as summarized by the UN:

   Asked about comments from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer that the Sudanese Government has been dismantling armored personnel carriers and other equipment intended for the African Union Mission in Sudan, the Spokesman said that the United Nations intended to move more than 100 UN personnel, as well as communications equipment, to help bolster the AU Mission prior to the transition to a UN force.

    He said that, as with any peacekeeping force, the United Nations in Sudan would have to work with the sovereign government, but it would expect all equipment that it delivers to be 'in one piece.' He noted that UN personnel would accompany the equipment being transported to the African Union Mission

            In further inquiries, Inner City Press has heard that the Sudanese Army has been allowed to tamper with AMIS' helicopters at night, removing for example the motor oil so that the helicopters can't fly in the mornings, and military actions against civilians can continue. A correspondent reports that the UN's man in Sudan, Jan Pronk, speaks of equipment languishing in Port Sudan, under control of the Al-Bashir government.

            Back in media-world, penned in at the Waldorf, among the unrelated news-bits learned is that Ghana's Foreign Minister Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, whom Inner City Press interviewed during Ghana's Security Council presidency in August of this year, click here to read, plans to run for the presidency of Ghana in 2008. One correspondent at the Waldorf Friday reminisced about Ghana's Council presidency, compared to the current president, who at Friday afternoon declined to do a stakeout interview after a Council meeting at which a President Statement on Congo was issued and Sudan acted on. When a business-minded reporter asked him if the UN's political chief Ibrahim Gambari might be the one to brief the Council on Myanmar, the current Council president responded, "You are asking about unimportant matters." Unimportant to whom?

Third Day of UN General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and Montenegro and Still Somalia

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- On the sidelines of the unfolding UN General Assembly meeting, surreal scene unfold, such as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov speaking with reporters in front of a graphic photo exhibition of victims of terrorism, while canapes go like hot cakes, literally. This took place Thursday evening, three-quarters of the way through a day of speeches. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a press conference in Conference Room 4 mused which of his questioners were Zionists, and which one "work for the UN... trying to enforce Security Council resolution" like Resolution 1701 barring weapons in Lebanon except for that country's government.

   Ahmadinejad said repeatedly that he supports people who are getting killed, anywhere and by anyone. Time or the MC did not allow for these questions to be asked: what about in Darfur? Or in Xingjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, or Chechnya?

PeaceDay@UN

  Thursday at the UN began with a ceremony for the International Day of Peace, including without explanation Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall and on cello, Yo-Yo Ma. There was singing by a choir of 193 children -- one wag wondered if this was a harbinger of the outcome of the Kosovo status talks, given that there are currently only 192 member states of the UN.

  Number 192, Montenegro, told Media Accreditation, which told the Spokesman's Office, which told correspondents, that the new nation's prime minister would appear at the Security Council stakeout to take questions. Inner City Press passed through metal detectors with two questions to ask. But there was no microphone, no camera, and no Montenegrins. Here though are the questions: what will happen with the weapons Montenegro says it will sell, now that it has split with Serbia? And what are the prime minister's plans, to step down or not? And what about cigarette smuggling? But that would be the third, unanswered question...

   Some statements are so surreal they preempt all questions. Briefing on the Day of Peace, it was read-out that "in Somalia, for example, our office there tells us that communities in major population centers throughout the country are celebrating the Day with special activities ranging from peace marches and sporting events to music and dance." But the UN's own write-up of the Day of Peace quotes UN "Special Representative Francois Lonseny Fall highlighted two 'particularly violent events this week [that] have pushed peace deeper into the shadows,' the murder of an Italian nun who had served the needs of children in Mogadishu and the assassination attempt on President Abdullahi Yusuf in Baidoa. 'I wish I could paint a bright picture for Somalia today, but there are too many clouds, too many uncertainties on the horizon. And there are far too many competing interests that have too little to do with the profound humanitarian needs of the civilian population and the development of the country,' he said." So what happened to the music and dance?

  At the same briefing, Inner City Press was asked to summarize its still-unanswered questions on Somalia. From the transcript:

Question:  What communications has the UN system had with Transition Federal Government since the assassination attempt?  And, I have two questions into OCHA and about Somalia, that if you could light a fire under them…

Associate Spokesman:  And what are those questions?

Question:  Whether OCHA works with a particular member of the Islamic Courts known to have torn up Italian cemeteries and built a mosque on top on them, a known fanatic.  Just a question whether they work with him or not.  And whether in fact there is, as is reported, an investigation of UNDP Somalia for missing funds?  Those are the two questions and both of them said they would give an answer as of last week and have not.

Associate Spokesman:  Well, I’m sure they are still looking into those two questions.  As for your first question, we are permanently in contact with the Somali authorities and we have an office based in Nairobi that specially monitors development in Somalia, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia has very specifically the mandate of monitoring developments in Somalia.  So, he is touch regularly with the authorities in Somalia.  And, I will make sure that my colleagues get back to you on your two other questions.

  Inner City Press checked in later with the Associate Spokesman and reiterated the questions. So now we'll just wait...

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org

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

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.

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