May 4, 2004

Sudan: humanitarian situation in Darfur one of worst in the world - UN officials and then on the same day U.N. Votes to Keep Sudan on (UN Human Rights) Commission Even the UN has described the Sudan conflict as ethnic cleansing carried out by armed Arab militia against the local black Africa population. This is the same "Human Rights Commission" that was chaired by Libya in 2003. Is this really the people you trust to be the world body's human rights watchdog?  3:12:40 PM

UN to Iraq: Drop Dead.  The United Nations has defended a letter sent by the head of its Iraq oil-for-food program telling a contractor not to release any documents related to the program without first consulting it.  The letter, sent April 14 by an aide on behalf of U.N. oil-for-food head Benon Sevan to the manager of the Dutch company Saybolt, asks the company "to maintain the confidentiality of documentation and information relating to its services in connection with the program." Saybolt was the independent inspection agency hired by the United Nations to monitor the loading of Iraq's crude oil at the two locations sanctioned by the program. According to the letter, released Monday by the United Nations, a "governmental authority" had requested internal U.N. reports from Saybolt. The only "governmental authority" investigating UNSCAM in mid-April was Iraq's Governing Council (IGC). The US Congress held its first introductory hearings late in April. If the UN wants to play a key role in Iraq, impeding the IGC's investigation of the UN's complicity with Saddam seems like a poor way to build Iraq's confidence in that institution.  [Friends of Saddam] 10:36:49 AM

U.S. Walks Out as Sudan Elected to U.N. Rights Body (Reuters). Reuters - Sudan won an uncontested election on Tuesday to the United Nations' main human rights watchdog, prompting the United States to walk out because of alleged ethnic cleansing in the country's Darfur region. [Yahoo! News - World] 10:32:00 AM

American military commanders said Monday that they had selected a new commander for the Iraqi security force in Falluja, dropping a general who had been accused of involvement in widespread repression under Saddam Hussein. The American commanders said they had chosen Muhammad Latif, a former intelligence officer, to lead the Iraqi security force. Unlike the man he is replacing, Jasim Muhammad Saleh, Mr. Latif appears to have been regarded as an opponent of Mr. Hussein. Shawn Baldwin/ Reflex News, for The New York Times Muhammad Latif, a former Iraqi intelligence officer, has been chosen to lead the new Iraqi force in Falluja. 10:20:48 AM

North Korea, probably the world's most secretive and isolated nation, has offered an olive branch to the US by promising never to sell nuclear materials to terrorists, calling for Washington's friendship and saying it does not want to suffer the fate of Iraq. 9:27:57 AM