UN Silent As Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast,
As UNMOVIC Plods On and War Spreads in Somalia
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, November 21 -- In
continuing fall-out from the September
dumping of toxic waste
in Cote d'Ivoire, a crowd of protesters was
tear gassed this
week in Abidjan. Given the large UN presence and role in Ivory Coast, Inner City
Press on Tuesday
asked
the UN spokesman if the Secretariat or the UN's two envoys to the country have
any comment on the tear gassing of the protesters. The following written
response was received: "The UN has no reaction to the dispersal by police of
people protesting developments in the toxic waste scandal."
In September, the
demonstrators in Abidjan targeted the home of the then-head of the Abidjan port,
Marcel Gossio,
a supporter of President Laurent Gbagbo and of his street youth team, the Young
Patriots. Nine weeks later, the protest was
BY
the Young Patriots, seeking to
get Mr. Gossio put back in his job. In the interim, the UN Security Council
passed a
resolution allowing
Gbagbo to stay in power for at least another year. Apparently
emboldened,
Gbagbo through his street team now want to regain full control of the port
through which the pollution came.
Back on
September 13,
Inner City Press had asked Kofi Annan about the toxic waste, as well as
financial disclosure, and Mr. Annan had responded, according to the UN's
transcript:
"this is a
serious issue. We need to be careful that the developing world and the poor
countries do not become dumping grounds for these kinds of waste, and I hope
serious action will be taken against the company and all involved. And of course
UN agencies have been active in helping the Government resolve this."
Nine weeks later, the dumper of the toxic
waste, Trafigura, has
moved on to scandals in Jamaica, where is has stealthy paid tens of millions
of dollars into the bank account of a politician's campaign while seeking
another sweetheart oil deal.
As Inner City Press reported
back in September,
Trafigura figured in the Volcker report on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal, as
having paid $250,000 into a bank account of Kofi's son Kojo Annan.
And still the UN has no comment,
as tear gas is deployed? It is not only the waste which is toxic.
Medicine
in Cote d'Ivoire
The full question-and-answer
on
September 13 was
as follows:
Inner City
Press: Mr. Secretary-General, this is on Côte d'Ivoire, following up on an
earlier question. I know that you're meeting on the 20th of September in the G.A.,
or on the sideline of the G.A. Do you think with the postponed elections, when
should they be held? Should President Laurent Gbagbo stay in power until the
elections are held? And what about this toxic dumping that's taken place? It's
actually by a company, Trafigura, which shows up in the Volcker report in
connection with Cotecna. Also, if you could just address one thing, and this is
for your able spokesman, that said, “Have you filed your financial disclosure
and if so, why not?”
Kofi Annan: Let
me take it in turn. First of all, on the question of Côte d'Ivoire, we are going
to have a mini-summit here with all the leaders of the political parties and
regional leaders. And we will resolve some of the issues that you have raised.
On the question of the toxic waste, I think that this is a serious issue. We
need to be careful that the developing world and the poor countries do not
become dumping grounds for these kinds of waste, and I hope serious action will
be taken against the company and all involved. And of course UN agencies have
been active in helping the Government resolve this. As to your second, your
third question, I honor all my obligations to the UN, and I think that is as I
have always done.
Since then, Mr. Annan has begrudging
filed his financial disclosure form, which insisting that it remain
confidential. Last week outgoing Under-Secretary-General Chris Burnham, now at
Deutsche Bank, said that incoming S-G Ban Ki-moon, whose spokeswoman was present
at Tuesday's noon briefing, will make his financial disclosure public, and that
in the future all officials at the Assistant S-G level and above should be
required to publicly disclose their finances. The Annan administration has had
no comment on that, either.
Fresh from Switzerland, where
he met with
Ivan Pictet,
who is both on the UN Investment Committee and
sold services to the UN,
Mr. Annan will be back at Headquarters on Wednesday, to describe his Darfur deal
to the Security Council. Developing.
Inner City Press also asked
for comment on the reported fighting in Somalia between Ethiopian troops and the
Union of Islamic Courts. Unlike Monday, the spokesman
responded:
Spokesman:
Well, as you put it, I think the Secretary-General called on all parties
concerned to stop shooting it out, as you put it. He spoke, I think, very
clearly on that during his press conference in Nairobi, where he urged all
parties to put their difference aside and resume the discussions. And he also
clearly called on the international community to assist Somalia. And that would
go through asking neighboring countries not to rush in troops or support one
movement over another. I think there’s enough violence and enough guns in
Somalia as it is. What we need to support is the resumption of the discussions
between the Islamic Court and the transitional Government.
Inner City
Press: And the Monitoring Group. When are they going to get back to the
Council?
Spokesman: The
Monitoring Group, if I recall, has another meeting with the Security Council
Sanctions Committee this afternoon somewhere in this building.
More than a week after their explosive
report, including allegations of 720 Somalis in South Lebanon, became public,
the Monitoring Group has yet to surface, has yet to take a single journalistic
question. "Somewhere in this building," the spokesman Tuesday said. But where?
What Inner City Press
did stumble on in the basement of UN Headquarters was a meeting of the
seemingly-mooted UN team to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, UNOMIC. On
Tuesday, the following was asked:
Inner City
Press: What’s the current mandate?
Spokesman:
They’re still around, if that’s the question.
Inner City
Press: I tried to go in. It’s a closed meeting. Can you articulate what
they’re about?
Spokesman:
Their mandate is given by the Security Council and it’s up to the Security
Council to decide on the fate of UNMOVIC. And as for their activities, they put
out quarterly reports, which are public documents, which would explain to you
exactly what they are doing.
In the basement outside
Conference Room A, a television monitor announced an UNMOVIC meeting inside. A
staffer quickly rose to block entry, and directed Inner City Press to "UNMOVIC
dot com" to learn what this unit has been up to since Saddam Hussein fled, then
was captured, and now sentenced to death. It's
http://www.unmovic.org/, and
frankly the web site is not convincing, in explaining this continued use of UN
and member state money. Developing.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile: 718-716-3540
In the UN, Uzbekistan Gets a Pass
on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and War's On in Somalia
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, November 20 -- On Friday evening, the
UN General Assembly moved to express concern and investigate Israel's bombing of
Gaza, by a vote of 156 in favor, 7 against and 6 abstaining. Afterwards, Inner
City Press interviewed the GA President, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalif.
"According to the [UN] Charter," she said, "we are the people of the world. We
must protect civilians."
Inner City Press asked GA President to
compare the processes of the GA and Security Council. "This is democracy, you
see," she said. "Nobody accepts killing civilians for no reason. It is not
fair."
On Monday morning, the GA's Third
Committee voted to quash a resolution expressing concern about the "Situation of
human rights in Uzbekistan," A/C.3/61/L.39. The vote was close, with 74
countries voting with Uzbekistan, 69 against, and 24 abstaining.
The UN's Special Rapporteur on torture
has found that in Uzbekistan "there is ample evidence that both police and other
security forces have been and are continuing to systematically practice torture,
in particular against dissidents or people who are opponents of the regime" of
Islam Karimov. Particularly vulnerable are participants or witnesses in the May
2005 Andijan demonstrations, ended by government crackdown.
The UN Secretary-General's recent
report on Uzbekistan
"highlights
concerns over asylum seekers and refugees who fled Andijan and have been
detained or returned to Uzbekistan, including fears for the safety of five men
who were returned by Kyrgyz authorities in August. The Uzbek Government claimed
fewer than 200 people were killed in the unrest. However, more than 450 of the
Uzbek refugees subsequently provided testimony... Uzbek authorities called for
the closure of the UNHCR office in Uzbekistan earlier this year."
Monday when the results were
posted, showing victory for Uzbekistan's request for no action on its human
rights record, "there was applause among some delegations as the results
appeared on the electronic voting board," as described by the UN's
Meeting Coverage.
The 74 countries voting to quash any
further inquiry into Uzbekistan's human rights record include, for example,
Russia, China, South Africa, Morocco, Pakistan and India, which is the
beneficiary last week of a U.S. Senate vote for the nuclear sharing.
Following the vote, early Monday
afternoon Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador John Bolton to comment on the
Third Committee's vote against the U.S.-sponsored resolution on Uzbekistan. From
the U.S. Mission-prepared transcript:
Inner City
Press: The Third Committee just voted down this morning the resolution on human
rights in Uzbekistan. Does the U.S. -- or do you have any comment on that not
going forward?
Ambassador
Bolton: It's obviously a disappointment to us. I've been involved in the
Security Council all morning. I can't -- I don't know what the vote was, so --
The vote was 74 for Uzbekistan, 69 for
the U.S.-sponsored resolution, and 24 abstainers, including Brazil, Colombia,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Somalia (this last
apparently referring to those in Baidoa, where the UN's Francois Lonseny Fall
held a meeting on Monday regarding which the UN spokesman had no read-out, hours
later, see below in this report for Somalia update.)
Those not voting at all on the Uzbekistan
resolution included Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Lebanon and Cote D'Ivoire, which
abstained from Friday's vote on Israel, in a move many called a return favor to
the U.S. for supporting Laurent Gbagbo during the recent Security Council
resolution process.
Fleeing
Uzbeks cut carrots, pixellated to remain anonymous
Friday by the Security Council Inner City
Press asked for a U.S. comment on the loss of American Michael J. Matheson, one
of 44 candidates for 34 seats on the UN International Law Commission. Inner City
Press was told this was not part of any larger trend of U.S. losses in the
United Nations, but only the product of their being other qualified European
candidates. What struck many observers in Friday's votes was the EU and even
United Kingdom breaking from the U.S. and voting for the resolution to
investigate the bombing of Beit Hanoun. In the Security Council resolution that
the U.S. vetoed, the UK had abstained.
Has Uzbekistan benefited from
growing opposition to the United States? Separately, have some agencies in the
UN system working with the Karimov regime, for example
UNDP helping the regime collect taxes,
helped bring about Monday's result? Developing.
On Somalia, some updates were
provided in response to
Inner City Press' questions to the UN
Spokesman on Monday:
Inner City
Press: In the reports from Somalia between Ethiopian troops and the Union of
Islamic Courts, can anyone in the United Nations system confirm, deny or speak
to that?
Spokesman:
I'll see if I can get something from the Somali office.
Inner City
Press: Has Lonseny Fall or any... I know he was supposed to be... (inaudible)
Spokesman: I
did not have an update on his activities today, but we'll try to get one.
Inner City
Press: And also on the monitoring group report on Somalia. On Friday, I think
you said what countries had protested or issued demarches to the United Nations
about their being named in the report. Do you have that list?
Spokesman: I
had that list Friday afternoon and I've deleted it from my head. There were two
countries that came to see the Secretariat and I do know a number of other
countries have written to the Sanctions Committee. For that, you would have to
talk to the Security Council.
Inner City
Press: Do we know what two countries?
Spokesman:
That, I will find out. [The correspondent was later informed that, as of today,
the countries that had filed formal complaints to the UN Secretariat in reaction
to the Somalia report were Egypt, Iran and Syria.
It is unclear why
Uganda
is not on this list. Later on Monday, the following arrived:
"We have no
independent confirmation of fighting between Somalia's Islamist fighters and
Ethiopian troops. FYI, the Ethiopian government has denied that any fighting
took place or that any Ethiopian troops were killed in Somalia by Islamists."
Now even Somalia's president
has
admitted the
presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Developing.
At the UN, Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs
Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with Water -- for Life
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN
UNITED NATIONS, November 17 -- As in the
UN General Assembly speeches continued on Israel's bombing of Gaza, Israel's
Ambassador Dan Gillerman was asked by Inner City Press about his country's use
of cluster bombs. "I must confess I really don't know about that," Ambassador
Gillerman said. "I arrived very early this morning. I may have missed something
during my flight." Video
here,
at Minute 12:41.
Inner City Press subsequently
asked Kofi Annan's spokesman if the UN's condemnation of cluster bombs, and
their use in South Lebanon earlier this year, had been conveyed to Israel. The
spokesman answered, "We have spoken out very
publicly."
Video
here,
at Minute 14:50.
On the topic of the
power plant in Gaza,
which was destroyed by Israeli bombs and is insured by the U.S. Overseas Private
Insurance Corporation, Inner City Press asked Amb. Gillerman for an update.
Video
here,
at Minute 10:55. "We are in the process of building a high-pressure cable to
enable the residents of Gaza to have electricity," Amb. Gillerman replied.
Another correspondent muttered, "So that they can turn it on and off."
Inner City Press later asked the UN for an update, and received this in return:
"It
would appear that temporary transformers from Egypt (replacing the destroyed
ones from Sweden) are in place , with power imported from Israel also assisting
to cover any outstanding gaps. This is a temporary measure."
The U.S. government's
OPIC's role in this should be pursued.
Recently, the
U.S. government's aid chief, Randall
Tobias, who visited Lebanon last month to check on U.S. aid work there, said
that "at the time I was there, the estimate was that we had removed or assisted
in the removal of about 50,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance."
After the bombing, where are the bombs?
Another traveling U.S. diplomat was in
the UN on Friday: Phil Reeker, previously a State Department spokesman and now
the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. In the half-light
of the Security Council stakeout he recounted how the-Secretary of State Colin
Powell has once offered to "drop him off" by plane in Budapest while flying
elsewhere, an offer with Reeker declined.
Reeker's companion, who will remain
unnamed, pointed out that the day after the UN General Assembly's Third
Committee passed a resolution about naming-and-shaming countries on human
rights, the full GA spent the day debating Israel's bombing of Gaza. Inner City
Press subsequently put this question to the GA President's spokeswoman, who said
"there are ironies everywhere."
Later
she pointed out that the full GA does not yet have to follow a resolution
approved in committee.
Later
still, she forwarded an answer to Inner City Press' question if the GA's new
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance"
applies to the U.S.'s extraordinary rendition flights, or to abductions by North
Korea. The answer, from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights'
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, is that "extraordinary
rendition is not necessarily enforced disappearance. There are several elements
of the act that are required. The definition of enforced disappearance is
contained in the draft Convention, as well as the preamble to the GA Declaration
on Enforced Disappearance."
These provide that "enforced disappearance is
considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of
deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the State or by persons or groups
of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State,
followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by
concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place
such a person outside the protection of the law."
Significantly, the new Convention on Involuntary
Disappearances also provides that "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever,
whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any
other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced
disappearance."
So --the definition of
involuntary disappearance appears to apply to abductions, extraordinary
rendition and to the fate of the
Chinese Uighur last seen in Kazakhstan,
described below in this report.
The Third Committee's passage of the
resolution against naming-and-shaming countries on their human rights records
was not the United States' only loss on Thursday. In elections of 34 members of
the UN International Law Commission, from only 44 candidates, the U.S. nominee
Michael J. Matheson lost out, while among the elected were representatives from
Cameroon and Sri Lanka and, from Nigeria, Bayo Ojo. The GA President will be
meeting with NGOs on Tuesday, her spokeswoman says.
Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's
spokesman for comment on the GA's Third Committee's passage of a resolution
against the naming-and-shaming of countries for their human rights records.
While declining to comment on the GA's work, the spokesman made reference to Mr.
Annan's earlier statements that the countries on the new Human Rights Council
should have their records reviewed. Inner City Press then asked if Mr. Annan or
anyone else in the UN system has spoken out about incidents in Mexico's Oaxaca
region -- Governor Ulises Ruiz's crackdown on APPO, the dead of journalist Brad
Will, etc. -- particularly given Mexico's role in the UN Human Rights Council.
Subsequently, the spokesman's office sent Inner City Press the following:
"The Special Rapporteur on Indigenous
Issues made a
statement
on the situation last month. The High Commissioner for Human Rights Office in
Mexico is monitoring the situation and is in contact with the authorities. They
also issued a
statement
condemning the violent acts in late October."
Speaking of speaking out, Jay-Z returned
to the United Nations on Thursday evening, and took questions from reporters in
the lobby of the UN prior to the premiere of
the MTV documentary "Water For Life."
As first done at the
August 8 press conference announcing
that this documentary would be filmed, Inner City Press on Thursday asked Jay-Z
for his views on the privatization of water systems in the developing world. On
August 8, Jay-Z called the question one of "bureaucracy."
Thursday he answered, "I don't know about
privatization. I was just in people's houses."
Inner City Press asked a follow-up
question, if the water in the houses he visited was provided by governments or
private businesses.
"They paid fifty cents a bucket for it,"
Jay-Z said.
"Sounds like privatization to me,"
a correspondent muttered.
Upstairs in the Trusteeship
Council chamber, there were roped-off VIP rows. Journalists were herded to the
front, then told to go back, up to the video booths. The wireless worked fine,
as Anne Veneman of UNICEF thanked "Jay-Z and his staff," and mentioned his trip
to Angola. A reporter arranging a trip to Angola found that visas cost over
$200. Ms. Veneman called it the launch of UNDP's report on water, about which
reporters were briefed ten days ago. Click
here for
Inner City Press' story on the report, including on UNDP's partnering with Shell
Oil and Coca-Cola.
Back on August 8,
when Jay-Z briefed reporters at the UN at his video's outset, he praised
Coca-Cola for providing ten "play pumps" to children in Africa. Coca-Cola is
under fire on at least two continents for pilfering communities' water resources
to profit from sugar-laden soda. Is humanitarianism being privatized as well?
"I don't know," was the seconded response.
The documentary will be shown on MTV-2 on
November 19, and on MTV itself on November 24. The footage of Angola is worth
it.
Later on Thursday night, the
UN Mission of Kazakhstan threw a party, with a fashion show and an apparently
lip-synching trio of singers, at the New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue.
The models in the fashion show were, as usual, tall, and some were blonde (not
expected). The reception afterwards featured lamb chops and shrimp and the crowd
contained, among others, the Russian mission's press spokeswoman, Ambassadors of
Hungary and Azerbaijan, the teacher of the Kazakh Ambassador's daughter and, of
course, the Ambassador himself, Yerzhan Kazykhanov, one of the best hosts in the
UN. Afterwards many of the attendees loaded onto an Omega Express tour bus,
which a bodyguard said was headed "to Pennsylvania." Mysterious, but not as
troubling as the fate of the Chinese Uighur asylum seeker who disappeared in
Almaty on October 23, click
here for
more.
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
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