Media Matters: "In response to recent remarks by Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, who criticized "U.S. administrations of both parties" for allowing the U.N.'s "loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," to define the international organization for the "U.S. heartland," Limbaugh and various other Fox News media figures smeared Brown, referring to him, in turn, as a "pointy-headed, elitist liberal" and "a phony."
The United Nations is launching a global appeal for funds to support 100,000 refugees in East Timor. The number of people displaced from their homes in East Timor's capital, Dili, is still rising. At least 65,000 people are in camps around Dili while an estimated 35,000 have fled to outer districts, the ABC reports.
The United Nations is launching a flash appeal in New York to raise money to feed and shelter those in the camps for months if needed. The UN Development Program is hoping to raise at least $28 million, and is confident the international community will pitch in. [More]
Sebastian Mallaby: "Last month President Bush issued a rare apology. "Saying 'Bring it on,' kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal," he confessed. "I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted."
Well done, Mr. President, you've understood that bluster can backfire. Now how about sharing this insight with your ambassador to the United Nations?"
A U.N.-backed investigator reported Saturday "considerable progress" in his probe of a former Lebanese prime minister's assassination, and said most of his work could be wrapped up in several months.
"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today the reported death in Iraq of the Jordanian insurgent Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a "relief" since such a "such a heinous and dangerous man" will no longer be around to continue harming Iraqis, even though violence was unlikely to end with his elimination in the war-torn country." [More]
During his speech in New York on Tuesday, Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown gave one of the most astute summaries (pdf) of US-UN relations that I have read in a very long time. It was at once complimentary, prodding and constructive. And as Malloch Brown said at the outset, it was intended as "a sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy towards the UN by a friend and admirer." Unfortunately, Ambassador John Bolton did not see it that way.
"The United Nations said on Wednesday that seven of its peacekeepers, who were kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 10 days earlier, were well and that indirect contact had been established with their captors.
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Armchair Generalist writes, "The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) has released a historical summary on Iraq's chemical weapons program that documents its start in 1971 and follows the work conducted through the 1980s and 1990s.
At the Washington Note, Jeremy Kahn posts an interesting entry about "non-verbal politics".
Treehugger covers the UN's World Environment Day: "This year they chose to highlight something we don't hear about often enough: Natural deserts and drylands also need to be protected. These areas that most people consider to be almost "dead" are in fact vital ecosystems."
Michelle Malkin posts another anti-UN diatribe with a headline that tells you everything about her level of discourse: "Hey, U.N.: Boo-Freaking-Hoo."
A thoroughly bizarre story appeared in Rupert Murdoch's Australian tabloid, the Herald Sun yesterday. Reporters Rob Taylor and Olivia Rondonuwu suggest that the UN mission in East Timor tried to cover up a May 25 massacre in which 12 unarmed East Timorese police officers were gunned down by a group of renegade Timorse soldiers. The reporters base this claim on a leaked email in which the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in East Timor allegedly instructs UN employees against cooperating with an Australian investigation into the massacre.