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The UN Shrugs on Congolese Warlords, While UNDP Assists Sudanese Justice, and OIOS Is In Hiding

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

  UNITED NATIONS, October 11 -- A Congolese warlord identified by the UN as having used child soldiers, Mathieu Ndugjolo, was on Tuesday formally granted the rank of colonel in the Congolese army. Peter Karim, who held seven UN peacekeepers hostage for two months earlier this year, was also made a colonel.

   On May 30 of this year, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan answered Inner City Press' questions about the kidnapping by saying that Peter Karim would face "personal accountability" for his actions, which have included killing UN peacekeepers and looting the Congo's natural resources, according to UN experts' reports.

            Wednesday Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman for his reaction to the integration of these two into the FARDC. "We have made clear our position on the first gentleman [Ndugjolo], we have accused him of using child soldiers," the spokesman said. Video on UNTV, from Minute 11:55.

   "We expect armies to respect human rights," the spokesman said. He did not address the kidnapper Peter Karim, for whom Kofi Annan on camera promised "personally accountability ." Getting a promotion and being given more soldiers seems a strange brand accountability for having killed and kidnapped UN peacekeepers. Actually, Kofi Annan had articulated a clear position on Peter Karim: personal accountability. There just was no follow-through.

UN through a glass darkly (Burundi, see below)

Peace Building, Anyone?

         The UN's Carolyn McAskie Wednesday described for reporters the new peace-building commission and its two initial focuses, Burundi and Sierra Leone. Inner City Press asked if the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which the UN has become so militarily involved with 17,000 peacekeepers and what the UN's William Lacy Swing has described as an air force, is not a candidate for peace-building support, financial and otherwise. Video on UNTV, from Minute 33:26.  

   In response Ms. McAskie cited the danger of mistaking post-election for post-conflict. "The few months before an election are usually peaceful," she had. "But after the election there are winners and losers, giving rising to another set of tensions."

            The United Kingdom appears to be thinking along these lines: it is pulling all of its "non-essential" personnel out of the DR Congo in connection with the run-off election scheduled for October 29. Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman on Monday if the UN had any response to the UK's expression of doubts in safety in the Congo, despite the UN and European Union troops there. The spokesman answered that the UN does not comment on security.

            If the DRC is too dangerous for UN peace-building funds, what of Burundi, where the FNL rebels now won't join in ceasefire monitoring, or Sierra Leone, which is embroiled in conflict about Yenga with Guinea? Inner City Press asked Ms. McAskie, who answered that neither of these "elements of fragility" are a problem, in her judgment. And "people trust our judgment," she added.

            The UN Development Program is being put in charge of the peace-building funds, nearly $140 million dollars. The money can be used for such things as paying judges, Ms. McAskie said Wednesday. As it turns out, despite events in Darfur, UNDP is funding the government judiciary in Sudan, according to a press release earlier this year. UNDP has refused to comment on its assistance to governments like that of Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, and now has pending before it questions about its operation in Somalia, and for an update on its controversial funding of forced disarmament in Uganda. With this lack of transparency, one wonders why $140 million and more is being shifted across First Avenue to an entity not apparently audited by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services?

            Since OIOS recently issued a report detailing, among other things, the theft of $179,000 from the UN's Economic Commission for Africa, Inner City Press has been asking the Spokesman's Office that OIOS come and brief reporters, hopefully Under-Secretary General Inga-Britt Alhenius. The spokesman said he would ask. On October 6, following an interview on the 35th floor of the UN Headquarters with Kofi Annan's envoy to The Gambia, Inner City Press stopped in at OIOS' office, also on the 35th floor, and asked about a briefing for reporters. "Have the spokesman ask us," Inner City Press was told. This was conveyed to the spokesman, who said "we can talk offline." We'll see.

            Among the issues for OIOS to answer is why, in their audit of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, they did not review what safeguards are in place to ensure the OCHA and other parts of the UN system do not work through or offer strength to organizations on the UN's sanctions list, as BBC has asserts the UN has done in Pakistan, click here for more. Despite no mention of this issue in the OIOS' report, has OIOS considered it? So far, no answer. Ah, transparency...

Kofi Annan on Peter Karim, May 30, 2006:

From the video at Minutes 13:40 - 15:25, and the transcript:

Inner City Press question: "On the Democratic Republic of the Congo, what's being done for the 7 peacekeepers that were taken hostage in Ituri? And also, over the weekend, the UN military head in Bunia said elections can't really be held in this type of circumstance? What can be done in the run-up to elections to make it more?"

Secretary-General answer: "It is tragic what happened in Bunia and we lost one Nepalese and three are wounded and about seven are missing. And we have been in touch with Karim's group -- we think that is the group holding them, and demanding their release. And hopefully, we will get them released. But Karim and others who get involved in these sort of activities, must understand that they will be held accountable, as Lubanga has been picked up and is now in the hands of the ICC [International Criminal Court]. They will be held individually accountable for these brutal acts."

  Now, Peter Karim is a colonel in the Congolese army. Accountability?

Feedback: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

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UN Defers on Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia

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

UNITED NATIONS, October 10 -- "If you work in Kashmir, there will be people given aid that belong to organizations with fundamentalist beliefs," Jan Egeland, the head of the UN's Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday.

   At a press conference on disaster reduction, Inner City Press asked Mr. Egeland about reports on the UN's dealing in Pakistan with the Al Rashid Trust, an organization on the UN's own sanctions list. "I'm sure we did cover people with many different beliefs, and many different political orientations," Mr. Egeland answered. Video on UNTV, from Minute 44:58.

            The BBC radio report -- click here for MP3 audio, here for less-detailed text -- includes interviews in which officials of Al Rashid Trust and Jamaat ud-Dawa brag that UN officials visited them every day and provided them with tents and transport and other services without which they could not have opened or operated the camps. While it should be noted that almsgiving and the care of orphans are laudably central principles of the Islamic tradition, the report BBC states that these two organizations have enrolled children orphaned by the earthquake in madrassas in which military training for jihad is offered. From the report:

"Jamaat ud-Dawa and al-Rashid Trust and their brand of extremist Islam never had a big presence in these areas before the earthquake. But their relief efforts - and the aid they got from international agencies - have really boosted their position locally. One Jamaat leader told us that people were now trusting them with their children - they hadn't before the earthquake - and they had actively recruited hundreds of children left orphaned or fatherless. He said they had already sent 400 such children under the age of nine to board at their madrassas, or religious schools, some hundreds of miles from their homes. That's despite a Pakistan government promise a year ago that these vulnerable children would be looked after either by their extended families or by the state, not by outside agencies." Click here for more.

Building a camp in Balakot

            Mr. Egeland is deservedly a much-respected humanitarian. His agency OCHA's responses on what safeguards are in place appear, however, to leave many questions unanswered. After the press briefing, supplemental answers were provided by one of Mr. Egeland's two hard-working spokespeople, Kristen Knutson. Asked how, in the future, OCHA will try to ensure that it does not increase the influence of groups like the Al Rashid Trust by providing aid to camps they establish, Ms. Knutson insisted that determining who can set up a camp is entirely up to governments of member states. And once a camp is open, OCHA and the UN will provide aid to the people in that camp.

            In Pakistan, despite the Al Rashid Trust being on the UN's terrorism sanctions list, Pakistan's Minister of the Interior told the BBC that because the Al Rashid Trust filed suit in court in Pakistan, nothing can be done about their operations so  long as the case remains pending in the Pakistani court system.

            And what of the case of states like Afghanistan under the Taliban, where what courts existed would have ignored UN sanctions lists, or now of (most of) Somalia, where there are only Islamic court or no courts at all?  As to Somalia, it took OCHA several weeks to respond to Inner City Press' written question concerning whether OCHA works with a particular individual, who is known to have dug up bones from an old Italian cemetery, crushed them in the street, and built a mosque on top. Now Inner City Press has asked for a description of OCHA's operations in Somalia. Ms. Knutson on Tuesday with refreshing candor disclosed that Somalia is the only country in the world right now in "Phase Five," the UN's highest level of alert for nations in which UN international staff cannot live, but only enter as part of temporary missions from their base in Nairobi. She committed to providing a list of OCHA's and the UN's main contacts in Somalia. A similar request remains pending with UNDP, into which an intrepid assistant UN spokesman re-inquired on Tuesday. Watch this space.

            Also at the UN on Tuesday, a report on violence against women was released. Kofi Annan's adviser on gender issues, Rachel Mayanja, called for greater coordination within the UN system on the issues. Only in producing the report, she said, was it realized that UN Habitat works on violence against women issues, in terms of such housing-related issues as lighting and proximity to transportation. The report notes that the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction includes violence against women. On Monday many UN agencies decried an increase in rape in Darfur. So when will the ICC prosecution begin?

            Finally, for this report, and also on the need for prosecution, Tuesday at the UN Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin was, as he was on Monday, the only one of the ambassadors of the Permanent Five ambassadors of the Security Council to not take questions on camera from reporters. Click here to see the list of those who spoke on UNTV on Tuesday. Thus, as to Russia's UN representative, the questions about the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya remain to be asked, or answered.

Amid UN's Korean Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Exposer of Chechnya Abuse

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

UNITED NATIONS, October 9, 2 p.m. -- Monday morning at the UN Security Council, with the help of a Permanent Five member, Russia, one story buried another. On the issues raised by North Korea's underground nuclear test on October 8, the UN ambassadors of four of the Security Council's five veto-wielding members spoke before television cameras at the formal stakeout position. Only Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin refused to take questions on camera. He spoke only to Russian reporters, and only off-camera. Click here to view links to video of those who spoke on camera, and note the missing name.

            On October 7, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, known worldwide as one of the very few who reported in depth on Russia's crackdown on Chechnya, was shot in the back of the head. In the 48 hours that followed, the newspaper she worked for, Novaya Gazeta, announced a near-one million dollar reward to catch her killers. German parliamentarians called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to break his silence, noting the Russia is the third-most deadly country for journalists, after only Iraq and Algeria. Click here for CPJ analysis.

            At UN headquarters in New York Monday at the daily noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman whether the UN system had any response to Ms. Politkovskaya's assassination. (Video on UNTV at Minute 11:25.) The spokesman said that that the secretary-general condemns this attack and hope her killers are found. After the briefing, Inner City Press asked for clarification on the spokesman's guidelines on specifically condemning events in member states. The spokesman said he had sought guidance prior to the press conference, and then made a  comment he said was off the record.

Never happened: silence on Anna Politkovskaya

            More than two days after Ms. Politkovskaya's assassination -- after Putin's silence had been noted as far away as Australia -- the Russian government issued a press note stating that during a telephone conversation with U.S. President George W. Bush about the North Korean nuclear test, Mr. Putin had said he will investigate Ms. Politkovskaya's killing. Setting aside even more problematic connections, such as direct involvement, if the trail leads to Russian-favored Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, what would Putin do? And, from a UN perspective, when will Amb. Churkin speak on the issue?

   By way of background, when he was Russia's Ambassador to Canada in 2003, Mr. Churkin faced protest concerning Russian treatment of Chechen journalist Zamid Ayubov - click here for more.

Interim North Korea Report

            After voting Monday morning for Ban Ki-moon for secretary-general, to pass his name for rubber-stamping by the General Assembly, the Security Council met on North Korea. U.S. Amb. Bolton spoke of working 24-hours a day to get a sanctions resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Chinese Amb. Wang spoke of being firm but "prudent." To a correspondent, North Korea's ambassador said his country will continue to develop its "nuclear deterrent," and noted that North Korea is already under sanctions. The Security Council's deliberations resume at 3 p.m. Monday with an experts meeting. Developing.

Somalia on and over the Brink

            Ethiopia's reported takeover of the Somali town of Bur Haqaba was also inquired into by Inner City Press at the UN's noon briefing. The UN's spokesman said that the UN's "office in Somalia" tells him that Ethiopia has again denied having troops in Somalia. Inner City Press has previously been told that the UN has no office in Somalia, only a political mission based in Nairobi which says it has no "monitoring mandate" inside Somalia. The spokesman went on to say that the Secretary-General is following the heightening tensions between the Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Court and calls on both to live up to previous commitments, while call on neighboring countries to respect the arms embargo. Video on UNTV at Minute 12:56. When the UN's embargo experts, who have previously declined to answer questions until they brief the Security Council, will in fact brief the Council, is not known.

Pakistan and the Taliban Discussed Behind Closed Council Doors (Another Dead Reporter: Hayat Ullah Khan)

            After Monday's Security Council session on Afghanistan, Inner City Press asked Council President Oshima if the issue of what Pakistan is or is not doing with regards to the Taliban and Al Qaeda had come up. Amb. Oshima indicated that the Permanent Representative of Pakistan had been present and had provided an explanation, particularly with regard to the "border areas." Inner City Press asked if the Council members had been convinced. Amb. Oshima did not say yes or no, only that the presentation had been made. Video here. A recent expose shows Pakistan military figures with known Taliban leaders, and shows Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf saying he knows nothing of the disappearance and killing in mid-2006 of journalist Hayat Ullah Khan for taking and publishing a photograph of a U.S. Hellfire missile in the rumble of a North Waziristan home -- click here for more.

News Analysis: Qazi but not Politkovskaya, Iraq but Not Russia -- Why?

            In further inside-baseball coverage of the UN, it was noteworthy that at Monday's noon briefing, the UN chose to affirmatively present the condemnation of its envoy to Iraq of the killing of an Iraqi general (video at 6:20), but to wait and see if any reporter raised a question about the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya - if no question had been raised, nothing would have been said. The UN spokesman declined to describe for the record how such decisions are made. One observer noted in this case that the U.S. would join in condemning the killing of an Iraqi general, but Russia clearly did not quickly condemn, or even mention, the killing of critical journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The UN works at all levels, even in P.R., for the so-called P-5 members, this inside observer concluded.

UN Envoy Makes Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled Election

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

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- In the Gambian election last month, thousands of non-Gambians from Senegal were brought in to vote by President Yahya Jammeh, it was admitted Friday by Kofi Annan's envoy to the election, former Nigerian General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

          Jammeh recently said, "If I want to ban any newspaper, I will."  Interviewed by Inner City Press on the 35th floor of the UN Headquarters on Friday, just after he briefed Kofi Annan, Gen. Abubakar was dismissive of reports of Jammeh's crackdown on the press, including his reported involvement in the killing of the editor of The Point newspaper. Jammeh's denial in that case was that "I don't believe in killing people, I believe in locking you up for the rest of your life."

Gen & S-G on 38

            Asked by Inner City Press about these and other Jammeh quotes, Gen. Abubaker was dismissive. "Jammeh can say he'll rule for the next thirty or forty years, but he could be voted out," Gen. Abubaker said.

      Gen. Abubakar acknowledged the criticism by Gambian opposition groups and the Commonwealth observers of security personnel voting while in uniform, but stated that this is permitted by the Gambian Constitution.

      Asked by Inner City Press about Yahya Jammeh's changes to the constitution, Gen. Abubakar said that people are entitled to their own opinions. Democracy, he said, is in the developing world a "sensitive matter" that must be "done with caution."  He stated that the elections had gone "very well... I was there on election day and from what I saw it was peaceful."

            Yahya Jammeh took power in 1994 in The Gambia, a country of 1.5 million people surrounded on three sides by Senegal. Industries include peanut farming and some tourism. In an interview with Inner City Press on September 21, 2006, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Frazer said that the Jammeh regime is reaching out for help to China, Iran and Venezuela. Friday Inner City Press asked UN Envoy Gen. Abubaker about this. Gen. Abubaker responded by quoting Jammeh, if you don't have to be my friend, you can't stop me from having other friends.

            Asked by Inner City Press what his recommendations are, and what the UN will do, Gen. Abubaker first listed the need for better training of journalists. Perhaps a stop to the killing of journalists and editors would help. One wonders why Kofi Annan selected this Nigerian general, who ruled after Sani Abacha, as the UN envoy to the preordained re-election of Yahya Jammeh. One wonders what instructions Gen. Abubaker was given. After changing the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term, and after threatening districts that voted against him with losing development aid, he won garnered 67% of votes, to Oussainou Darboe's 27%, with voter turnout below 60%. This includes the votes of non-Gambians brought in from Senegal's still-troubled Casamance region, an influx that Gen. Abubaker put at "only" four thousand.

            When asked if there was outside influence on the Gambian election, Gen. Abubaker said no, despite his statement about thousands of non-Gambians voting. "It wouldn't have changed the result," Gen. Abubaker said. Apparently, nothing would have.

Sudan's UN Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist Groups in Pakistan

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

  UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- Sudan's ambassador to the UN on Friday acknowledged the right of the international community to intervene without governmental consent in a situation like Rwanda in 1994. In response to a question from Inner City Press about Darfur, Rwanda and Cambodia under Pol Pot, Sudanese Amb. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem mentioned the UN Millennium Declaration and the duty "to protect," while seeking to distinguish "orderly" Sudan from Rwanda. Video on UNTV from Minute 10:12, http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/sc/so061006pm1.rm

Amb. Abdalhaleem: Rwanda yes, Darfur no

            Inner City Press also asked the Sudanese Ambassador about reports of his government sabotaging military equipment en route to the African Union force in Darfur, including the statements of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Frazer about bolts being removed from armored personnel carriers and the AMIS force commander having to wait in Ethiopia while a visa to enter Sudan was delayed.

            Amb. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem called these "minor matters" and said that "bureaucratic delay is bureaucratic delay." He said that Inner City Press and the other media present could get visas for Sudan and Darfur anytime. Since journalists have been locked up by Sudan, and many have their computers' hard drives scanned and copies as they enter or leave Sudan, the invitation may mean less than it sounded like at the stakeout. Video on UNTV from Minutes 7:43.

            Also at the UN on Friday, following an upbeat press conference by George H.W. Bush and a minister from Pakistan to mark the one year anniversary of the South Asia earthquake, Inner City Press asked the UN's spokesman about a BBC expose of aid money going to terrorists groups -- click here to view. BBC has reported that the Al Rashid Trust and Jamaat ud-Dawa were not strong in the area before the quake hit, but set up camps and were inflated by the flowing of aid to those in "their" camps.  Inner City Press asked (video on UNTV from Minute 13:50), what safeguards do UN agencies have to avoid such consequences while seeking to deliver clearly-needed aid? While Inner City Press' questions remaining pending about Somalia, UNICEF on Friday responded about Pakistan:

Is UNICEF cooperating with Al Rashid?

No. UNICEF does not cooperate with Al Rashid, and nor is UNICEF money or material supplied to Al Rashid. Children have a right to education, no matter where they live, just as they have a right to immunization no matter where they live. The NGO DOSTI is an NGO which had the capacity to deliver educational services to 5300 children affected by the earthquake. Some of these children live in Al Rashid camps, through no fault of their own. DOSTI fulfilled its obligation by establishing a school in three such camps. The use of UNICEF material and the educational activities it supports are carefully monitored  by UNICEF. To suggest that the rights of children who have lost their homes and schools should be ignored because by chance they are living in a particular location, would contravene the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which the Netherlands is  signatory. (FYI information the schools and the camp we referred to doesn't exist anymore. The only camp remaining in Mansehra is Jaba camp) The organization Jamaat [u]d Dawa is running 2 schools in Mansehra and UNICEF is not providing any support to this organization. Another question you might have is whether UNICEF cooperating with any individual/organization included in the UN  list of banned individual / organizations. The answer is: No. UNICEF has no contract/agreement  with individuals or organization included in this list and nor is UNICEF money or material supplied to these organizations / individuals.

            We report, ask and get answers, you decide. UNICEF has been asked about its Somali operations, developing.

Also on Friday at the UN:

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

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