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Mass Evictions Ignored by UN in World Habitat Day in
Angola, As Arms Trial Begins
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 6 -- The UN chose Angola's
capital Luanda as the place to celebrate "Harmonious Cities" today.
At UN headquarters, Inner City Press asked the UN's Spokesperson to
respond to
criticism of the selection, based on the many forced evictions carried
out in
Luanda. The Spokesperson said that UN-Habitat chief Anna
Tibaijuka on
the contrary commended Angola for social housing, and said that the UN
"stands by Angola."
But did she
or the UN express any concerns about the forced evictions? "No comment
on
that," the Spokesperson said. Video here.
Ms.
Tibaijuka is respected in much of the UN system for her earlier report
on forced
evictions in Zimbabwe. Perhaps she feels the situation in Angola is not
as bad,
and therefore merits no comment at all. Or perhaps she feels its best
for the
UN or UN Habitat to offer unconditional support to Angola. Her silence
raises
questions, however. When next UN-Habitat speaks about evictions
elsewhere, the
old saw of double standards will be raised.
Ban Ki-moon and Anna Tibaijuka, Angolan
mass evictions and comments not shown
For now,
here is a portion of an Amnesty International report
on evictions in Angola:
"On the same day, 77
families in Bairro 28 de Agosto and 23 families in Banga Wé were
forcibly
evicted from their homes, which were then demolished. Six days later,
on 30
November, 70 heavily armed police officers from the Fifth Police
Division,
together with military police, soldiers, members of a private security
company
and private demolition personnel, reappeared in the Cambamba
neighbourhoods to
continue with the forced evictions and house demolitions."
And Anna
Tibaijuka and UN-Habitat, as stated by the UN's Ban
Ki-moon's Spokesperson on World Habitat Day, have
no comment on this?
There are
other Angola issues in the days news. In Paris,
the trial is set to begin in a matter begun when Angolan president
Eduardo Dos
Santos, who has held power the country since 1979, contacted arms
company chief
Pierre Falcone in 1992 with Luanda subject to a United Nations arms
embargo. Also
charged is Jean-Cristophe Mitterrand, son of the president from 1981 to
1995,
now facing prison time on bribery, embezzlement and complicity in
illegal
trade.
This case
of Angolan involvement in breaking a UN arms embargo is being
opposed by the government, whose lawyer Francis Teitgen says that the
Luanda
authorities are against "public discussion of [national security]
information
in a foreign court." Apparently,
they are against public discussion of mass evictions as well, and the
UN is
obliging them.
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs.
* * *
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
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