|
UN Dodges Bias in Africa, Won't Criticize Ethiopia,
Meets Obiang, Calls it Social Investment
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 22 -- In the days before
the UN's annual General Debate starts on September 23, UN top officials
have
been dodging questions of their impartiality in Africa. The UN's envoy
to
Harare, Haile Menkerios, on September 19 was asked to respond directly
to
charges by Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the UN that his Department of
Political
Affairs was biased in its reporting. The Secretary-General has spoken
on that,
Menkerios said, pulling away from the microphone. Inner City Press
followed up,
what about Russia's charges that DPA is biased toward Georgia and the
U.S.? We
stand behind our reports, Menkerios said, and was gone. Video here.
That same
day, the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes sought to thread the needle
of
counter-accusations of inaccuracy by the Ogaden National Liberation
Front and
Ethiopia's government. ONLF says
Holmes
is underplaying starvation and privation in Ogaden,
which they say is based on military blockades. Inner
City Press asked Holmes about the charge. Video here.
Holmes
acknowledged that there are some problems
of access, but said they are being resolved. (He also said that the
UN's forced
departure from areas of Sri Lanka is being mitigated by government
service.
Meanwhile, the UN's base and resources were looted, click here for that).
Ban Ki-moon and Obiang, human rights
and money laundering concerns not shown
Meanwhile
on Sunday, among Ban Ki-moon's fast and furious meetings was a
notorious
dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. Why is he so
rarely
criticized? Did Ban seek his consent to give ex-UN legal chief Nicolas
Michel a
job there?
In two
recent press conference, UN officials have appeared to equate any and
all
investment in Africa as socially responsible or in pursuit of the
Millennium
Development Goals. Inner City Press has asked about the examples of
Zimbabwe
and Equatorial Guinea, without substantive response. The buzzwords
used: peer
review, and "governance" issues. . Click here and here.
Is
investment in Teodoro Obiang Nguema's oil sector socially responsible?
Does
that money reach the people of Equatorial Guinea? The questions must be
asked.
And they will be, throughout this week.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
