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At the UN, The Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes Congo

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

UNITED NATIONS, November 22 -- While in Somalia, Ethiopian troops now openly patrol the roads to Baidoa, and U.S. Special Forces are reported on the Somali border with Kenya, Inner City Press on Wednesday asked American Ambassador John Bolton for the U.S. position on the unfolding war in the Horn of Africa.

            "I don't have anything for you on that," Amb. Bolton said. Video here.

            But it's reported that the U.S. State Department has commissioned a report which warns that up to a dozen countries could be drawn into war in Somalia, echoing the Congo. And at the U.S. State Department's Wednesday briefing, Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey deflected DC-based reporters' questions by referring to a process at the UN -- "this is something that's under discussions and in consultation at the UN" -- a process on which the U.S. Ambassador to the UN was unwilling to comment. Passing the buck?

            Meanwhile at the UN, the Somalia Monitoring Group's four members, called experts, are apparently in hiding. Their recently-leaked report names violators of the sanctions, and says that 720 Somalis were in South Lebanon. Despite the spokesman saying they would briefing the press this week, they have not been seen. It is reported that the Security Council Sanctions Committee is arranging for the countries named in the report to be able to question the experts, at some unspecified time and place next week. Inner City Press asked the spokesman if Uganda has protested the report. The spokesman said this has happened in a meeting, verbally. When and where this meeting took place was not specified.

            The UN Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, on Wednesday announced 28 grants in 17 countries to counter domestic violence against women. Four are in Somalia, with one each in Somaliland and Puntland. Inner City Press asked UNIFEM director Noeleen Heyzer if her agency has had dealings with the Union of Islamic Courts. Mr. Heyzer said yes, and that details would be provided. We'll see. Inner City Press asked for UNIFEM comment on the trial in Utah for rape and polygamy. Ms. Heyzer said the case shows that there is domestic violence "without regard to income." Dog bites man -- or should.

            Tuesday John Bolton has been slated to speak at Syracuse University. Inner City Press asked a staff if it was being cancelled and was told no, Amb. Bolton would do it by video-conference. Subsequently it was reported that Amb. Bolton was canceling, because he was "unable to travel to Syracuse because of pressing negotiations over Iran in the U-N Security Council." But Tuesday's meetings were entirely about Lebanon.

            After Amb. Bolton bolted Wednesday morning, Jackie Sanders took over. She said that she "too want to thank Under Secretary-General Jan Egeland for his briefing on some of the continuing critical humanitarian challenges in Africa.  We're grateful for his first-hand report on the initiative mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan to bring an end to the mayhem perpetrated by the Lord's Resistance Army."

            Back in October, judge Richard Goldstone told Inner City Press that no one in the UN should be meeting with International Criminal Court indictees Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti of the LRA, unless and until the Security Council formally suspends the indictments.

            Wednesday Inner City Press asked Jan Egeland to explain how a UN Under Secretary General meeting with LRA leaders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti while International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Kony and Otti are outstanding doesn't create at least the appearance of impunity. Egeland responded that there is no impunity, but that justice might be done in a national or "local" way.

            Bitter root ceremonies for war criminals?

            Egeland & Otti, LRA LLC

   Inner City Press also asked Egeland to comment on rumors that he may remain in the UN system, while living in Norway, working for a new UN micro-agency charged with mediation support. Video here. Egeland shrugged and said he plans to write a book, and to sleep in his own bed after having lived like a guerrilla fighter. A reporter laughed, then asked what the lede should be, for Egeland's briefing. If he's going to write a book, he'll make his own ledes from now on.

            Wednesday morning, asked by Inner City Press about human rights resolutions pending in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, Amb. Bolton said that his colleague "Ambassador Miller" would be in the Third Committee meetings down in Conference Room 1 in the basement. That would be Richard Terrence Miller, described by the mission as an "accomplished singer himself." 

            Inner City Press found Amb. Miller in Conference Room 1, his entourage sprawled out on a nearby table. While in the Security Council each country-representative has four seats behind him or her, in Conference Room 1 is only one assister's seat. So while Cameroon had a lone attendee, the U.S.'s team spread out.  Six countries voted to censure the U.S. on human rights: Belarus, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, Myanmar, and Syria. Several more said they would have voted against the U.S., invoking Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, but they were principled in opposing all country-specific human rights resolutions. There was groaning in the audience, particularly when the chairman said that proceedings would continue on Friday. After a beat, he corrected himself and said Tuesday. The crowd broke into the cheer, and the meeting broke up. A journalist from the crux between Europe and Asia was heard to say, Turkey can't have a turkey. And again the groaning started...

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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.

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.

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

For reporting about banks, predatory lending, consumer protection, money laundering, mergers or the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), click here for Inner City Press's weekly CRA Report. Inner City Press also reports weekly concerning the Federal Reserve, environmental justice, global inner cities, and more recently on the United Nations, where Inner City Press is accredited media. Follow those links for more of Inner City Press's reporting, or, click here for five ways to contact us, with or for more information.

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