En Route to Deutsche
Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban
Ki-moon Arrives and Moldova Spins
Byline: Matthew Russell
Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED
NATIONS, November 15 -- As Annan-era
officials check out from the UN, there is
still no post-employment conflict of
interest policy in place. On his final day
as Under Secretary General for Management,
Chris Burnham predicted that the policy he
drafted will be finalized before December
31. Answering a question from Inner City
Press, Burnham said that although he is
leaving before the policy goes into place,
"I have absolutely every intent to live by
the rules I drafted. I cannot imagine any
situation in which I would do business
with... the UN."
Deutsche Bank is hiring Chris Burnham. Inner
City Press inquired into Deutsche Bank's
role in predatory lending in the U.S., and
as lead private banker for the
president-for-life of Turkmenistan,
and ask if Burnham will be carrying any
human rights principles to Deutsche Bank.
"It would be inappropriate for me to
comment," Burnham began. "Let me check in
and get my ID. Then probably I'll turn that
over to the Deutsche Bank spokesman." Video
here, from
Minute 1:09:21. Reporters laughed, as they
did when Burnham mused that when bore pole
are sunk on the UN's North Lawn, in
preparing for construction, they might find
"some old Ambassador buried out there." On
the question of applying human rights to
Deutsche Bank, he said that 18 months at the
UN has made a "kinder and gentler Chris
Burnham."
Burnham's five-minute answer to Inner City
Press' question about Deutsche Bank and the
revolving door included praise for Costa
Rica's Permanent Representative turned
Foreign Minister, and a sketch of the UN's
investment strategy for pensions. "We use
five firms, and also real estate
investments... Prudential, JPMorgan, and
some others I haven't heard of." The
Townsend Group provides advice to the UN on
real estate investments.
Burnham said that this Townsend Group
advised him that there is no UN business
with Deutsche Bank. Inner City Press notes
that Deutsche Bank has gotten itself on the
list of UN suppliers, click
here to
view in PDF, at page 32.
Burnham called again for a UN
Freedom
of Information Act, and said
that Mark Malloch Brown has indicated his
commitment to getting the anti-revolving
door restrictions in place before he leaves.
We'll see.
C. Burnham:
Straight to Deutsche Bank's spokesman?
Meanwhile, acting on yesterday's tip that
Ban Ki-moon's transition team has set up on
the sixth floor of the DC-2 building across
First Avenue from UN Headquarters, an Inner
City Press correspondent took the elevator
to Six. Unlike other times and other floors,
there was additional security, and questions
about what one was on the floor for. Mine
Action, of course. There are Minds in
Action.
Sometimes the actions of minds can be bought
or pre-determined. A panel discussion
Wednesday in the Trusteeship Council
featured law professors arguing against a
series of secessionist states. While the
underlying report concerns
Moldova and Transnistria, the two
professors, Mark A. Meyer and Christopher J.
Borger, repeatedly referred to other
conflicts, Kosovo and Montenegro. Their
point was to try to distinguish those two
from the so-called frozen conflicts, which
include Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia. The Ambassadors of Azerbaijan,
Ukraine and Georgia (the other members, with
Moldova, of the "GUAM" group) all spoke,
before the panel deigned to take questions.
Inner City Press asked the professors to
explain the basis for Abkhazia being dealt
with in the UN Security Council, while the
other conflicts are before the OSCE, and
infrequently the General Assembly.
"That's a political question," the moderator
said. "We're talking about the law."
As if their unconnected, one muttered.
"Okay, then -- are you saying that the
Security Council has or would have no power,
under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, to
move for Kosovar independence?"
" Sure there are vast powers under Chapter
Seven," said one. "But our report is not
about that." Then what is
it about?
And why did the Bar Association of the City
of New York get bought into one side of a
two-sided argument? We'll see.
At Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City
Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman about the
UN Somalia sanctions monitoring group's
report, that asserts than over 700 Somalis
went to South Lebanon earlier this year to
fight and for training. Inner City Press
asked if UNIFIL would confirm or deny this.
Video
here, from
Minute 14:46. The spokesman said he'd have
to see the report.
Wednesday, many reporters asked the
spokesman about the Somalia report. Video
here. The
spokesman said he'll try to get the
Monitoring Group to come take reporters'
questions. We'll be here...
Feedback:
editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY
10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile:
718-716-3540
Nagorno-Karabakh
President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil
and UN, in Exclusive Interview with Inner
City Press - Video here
Byline: Matthew Russell
Lee, Correspondent at the UN
UNITED
NATIONS, November 13 -- Of the so-called
frozen conflicts in the world, the one in
the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan,
claimed by Armenia, heated up this Fall --
literally.
In August and September 2006, Azerbaijan and
Armenia traded volleys of draft resolutions
in the UN General Assembly, about a series
of fires in the Nagorno-Karabakh region
which on most maps is Azerbaijan, but is not
under Azeri control.
The subtext of the fight was that Azerbaijan
wants the dispute to be addressed in the
UN
General Assembly, while
Armenia prefers the ten-year process before
the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE. In the UN
General Assembly these frozen conflicts are
often treated as footnotes, particularly to
a press corps which covers the
Security Council in the most minute
detail, at the expense of most other
activities undertaken by the world body.
Last week Inner City Press sat down for an
interview with the president of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arkady
Ghoukasyan, and asked him about the fires,
about the UN and other matters. Click here
for the video.
"The fires were provoked by Azerbaijan
firing," Mr. Ghoukasyan said. "They used
special bullets that would ignite wheat
fields."
In the UN, "the countries of the Islamic
Conference are present and Azerbaijan is
hoping to use their support," said Mr.
Ghoukasyan. He added that most countries in
the UN know little of the Karabakh conflict,
so "Azerbaijan can try propaganda in the
United Nations," in a way that it can't with
the OSCE "experts."
By contrast, the situation in Abkhazia is
routinely put on the UN Security Council
agenda by Russia, with representative of
Georgia often excluded from the meetings and
resorting to sparsely-attended press
conferences outside, most recently on
October
12.
President,
flag & correspondent
On Nagorno-Karabakh, UN observers see Turkey
backing Azerbaijan, while the NKR is
represented, if one can call it that, by
Armenia. The interview, originally scheduled
for a hotel across from UN Headquarters, was
moved six blocks south to the Armenian
mission in a brownstone on 36th Street, to a
second-story room with the Nagorno-Karabakh
flag on the table. Through a translator, Mr.
Ghoukasyan argued that no negotiations that
do not involve representatives of
Nagorno-Karabakh can solve the problem. "The
prospects are diminishing, without
Nagorno-Karabakh involvement, it's just
impossible to come to a resolution," he
said.
Hot Words From Frozen
Conflicts
Inner City Press asked Mr. Ghoukasyan to
compare Nagorno-Karabakh to certain other
so-called frozen conflicts, two of which are
before the OSCE: Transnistria a/k/a
Transdnestr, and South Ossetia, where a
referendum was held on November 12, the
results of which no country in the world
recognized.
"We already had our referendum," Mr.
Ghoukasyan said, "back in 1991. We would
only hold another one if Azerbaijan and the
co-chairs of the OSCE group agreed in
advance to recognize its results."
Mr. Ghoukasyan said he had come to the U.S.
less to build political support or to
propose a referendum than to raise funds for
infrastructure projects in Nagorno-Karabakh,
mostly from "different circles of Armenians
in the United States." He is on a whirlwind
tour: "Detroit Boston, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, and maybe Fresno, we are still
finalizing our West Coast program," he said.
A highlight will be a telethon from Los
Angeles on November 23.
Speaking of funds, and of infrastructure,
Inner City Press asked about the impact of
the Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan (BTC) oil
pipeline on the conflict.
"Azerbaijan is trying to get maximum
political dividends from fact of this
pipeline," said Mr. Ghoukasyan. "Since the
West is interested in undisruptible oil,
Azerbaijan tries to beef up their price for
this stability. This emboldens Azerbaijan,
making it more aggressive and less
willing to come to agreement."
What would an agreement look like?
"In any resolution, we think that Karabakh
should have physical land connection with
Armenia," said Mr. Ghoukasyan.
At a press conference about the BTC pipeline
earlier this year, the
Azeri
Ambassador told Inner City Press that
twenty percent of Azerbaijan's territory has
been occupied by Armenia.
On the disputed numbers of displaced people,
Mr. Ghoukasyan quipped, "I always suspected
they are bad in mathematics." He estimated
it, "maximally," to be 13%, and put the
number of displaced Azeris at "only"
650,000, rather than the one million figure
used by Azerbaijan. Mr. Ghoukasyan
admonished, "There is information in books."
And so to the library went Inner City Press.
Therein it is recounted that while "in 1989,
the Armenian Supreme Council made
Nagorno-Karabakh a part of Armenia, this
decision was effectively annulled by NKR
declaring its independence in 1991. Whether
the decision to declare independence was
made cooperatively with Yerevan is not yet
known."
The UN's role is dismissed: "with one
exception the UN never condemned the capture
of Lachin, the strategic link between
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The UN passed
Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874
and 884... Each UN resolution reiterated the
international body's support for the OSCE
Minsk Group process."
Going back, some pundits blame the conflict
on Stalin: "he took a part of Armenia and
gave it to Azerbaijan, and now so many
people are dying while trying to correct his
foolish mistake. Now redefining the borders
is as painful as cutting someone's flesh
when that person is alive."
Fast forward to 1977, when the
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast's first
secretary from 1973 to 1988, Boris Kevorkov,
told visiting journalists that Karabakh
Armenians were happily separated from the
Armenian republic, saying that "the history
of Nagorny (Mountainous) Karabakh is closely
interwoven with Azerbaijan's... By contrast,
the region is close to Armenia
geographically but is separated by high
mountains, which were an insuperable barrier
in the past for any extensive contacts."
(Quoted in Claire Mouradian's "The
Mountainouse Karabagh Question").
Also found are rebuttals, including from
Azeri poet Bakhtiyar Vahadzade in his 1988
Open Letter, that "since 1828, our people
have been divided into two parts," and that
both Azeris and Karabakh Armenians "emanate
from the same ethnic stock: the Caucasian
Albanians." Others say Turkey always takes
the Azeri side. There are references
to the shoot-down of an Iranian C-130
aircraft in 1994 as it crossed the
Azeri-Karabakh line on contact, and of
Iran's demand for an apology.
Going back, a volume by Mazda Publishers in
Costa Mesa, California entitled "Two
Chronicles on The History of Karabakh,"
contains the full texts of Tarikh-e Karabakh
(History of Karabakh) by Mirza Jamal
Javanshir and of Karabakh-name by Mariza
Adigozal Beg. In the introduction,
translator-from-Persian George A.
Bournoutian reports that "Armenian
historians maintain that all of Karabakh
was, at one time, part of the Armenian
kingdom and that the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh has had an Armenian
majority for several hundred years. Azeri
historians assert that the region was never
part of Armenia and that the Armenian
population arrived there from Persia and the
Ottoman empire after the Treaty of
Turkmenchay (1828) when, thanks to the
Russian policy that favored Christians over
Muslims, the Armenians established a
majority in what became Nagorno-Karabakh."
In a footnote he addresses
nomenclature: "Nagorno-Karabakh is the
Russian designation. The Armenians call is
[sic] Artsakh or Gharabagh and the Azeris
Karabag."
Finally, on the question of numbers, Arif
Yunosov in "The Migration Situation in CIS
Countries" opines that the conflict has
caused 353,000 Armenia refugees and 750,000
Azeris -- less than the one million figure
used by Azeri President Aliev, but large,
and 100,000 larger than acknowledged in the
interview. And a more solid figure than
Aliev's 20%, but more than was acknowledged,
is 13.62 percent. The search for truth
continues. If the comparison is to the
original, Soviet-defined Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast, it must be noted that NKR
is claiming, beyond the Oblast, the
territory of Shahumian.
By the end of the interview, Mr. Ghoukasyan
was focusing on two regions of the old
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast over
which now Azerbaijan has de facto control:
Martakert and Martuni. While Mr.
Ghoukasyan's point was that these should be
subtracted from the 13 percent, they raise a
larger question, that of break-aways from
break-aways.
The analogy, to Inner City Press, is to the
serially-opening or
"nesting"
Russian dolls. Inside one republic is
another, but inside the breakaway is another
smaller portion, that either wants to remain
with the larger, or to itself be
independent. Northern Kosovo comes to mind,
and the portion of Abkhazia into which a Tbilisi-based
government is trying to relocate.
How small can these Russian dolls become?
And how will the UN-debated status of
Kosovo, now frozen into 2007, impact or
defrost other frozen conflicts? Developing.
Other Inner City Press reports are
archived on www.InnerCityPress.org -
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
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 -
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