Sunday, March 14, 2004

Good news from the UN!

Through UNICEF, IKEA Supports Children's Right to Play

UN Finds Black Box Lost in Rwanda Genocide Probe
A red-faced United Nations acknowledged on Thursday that an aircraft black box possibly linked to an air crash that triggered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda had turned up in a U.N. filing cabinet.

The Paris daily Le Monde reported this week that a black box from the Falcon 50 shot down by a rocket on April 6, 1994, killing the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, had been sent to U.N. headquarters in New York and was never seen again.
...
Asked about the article on Tuesday, U.N. chief spokesman Fred Eckhard flatly dismissed charges the United Nations was obstructing the probe or had the black box, joking, "I've got it right under the table here."

But two days later, an embarrassed Eckhard said the world body had indeed found a black box locked in a filing cabinet.

He said the device had been sent by diplomatic pouch to U.N. headquarters from Rwanda in 1994. But U.N. air safety experts had put it away in the filing cabinet after concluding it was not from the crashed plane because it was undamaged.
...
Annan, asked about the discovery, said, "I must say, I was as surprised as you were to find out that a black box existed, much less in this building. From what I have picked up, it sounds like a real foul-up, a first-class foul-up."
Those pesky black boxes are all over the place!

UN caves in on inquiry into its Iraq oil-for-food 'scandal'
The United Nations has bowed to international pressure to investigate allegations of corruption surrounding its oil-for-food programme, under which Iraqi oil was sold on behalf of Saddam Hussein's regime.
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A senior UN official said last night that the international body's Office of Oversight Services in New York, had started to examine the administration of the programme and any UN role in the alleged corruption. A formal announcement of the internal inquiry is expected this week.

Last month the UN denied accusations of corruption within its operations and demanded documentary evidence before it would act on the complaints.
They'll file the documentation right next to the flight recorder.