Zim Online
Thursday 05 July 2007
By Farisai Gonye
HARARE -
Food aid is urgently required in some parts of rural Zimbabwe where
some
families have completely run out of food and have to go for days
without
eating, according to a draft report by World Vision International.
The
report, that has not yet been officially released to the public but was
shown to ZimOnline on Wednesday, was prepared following a survey last May by
World Vision in the districts of Beitbridge, Bubi, Bulilima, Chiredzi,
Gwanda, Insiza, Lupane and Mangwe in hunger-prone south-western
Zimbabwe.
The northern districts of Mt Darwin, Rushinga and
Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe
were also covered in the survey.
The report
titled "Rapid Food Assessment Draft Report" says all the
districts surveyed
recorded poor yields in the just ended farming season
harvesting enough food
to last "between 0-3 months."
"Generally all the wards are food insecure
such that food assistance is
required urgently . . . some households have
even resorted to restricting
consumption by adults so that children may eat
more meals. Households often
take risky strategies of skipping entire days
without eating and some have
resorted to begging," the report reads in
part.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the
World
Food Programme (WFP) had issued an earlier warning last month that a
third
of Zimbabwe's 12 million people will face serious food shortages by
early
next year.
The FAO and WFP who visited Zimbabwe in April at the
invitation of the
government to assess food availability said crop failure
exacerbated by an
unprecedented economic meltdown would leave more than four
million
Zimbabweans in need of food aid.
The World Vision report
makes the same point, noting that the unavailability
and inaccessibility of
food from retailers and other sources would worsen
hunger in Zimbabwe with
even those families able to raise cash to buy food
still unable to feed
themselves because there would be no food in the shops.
Zimbabwe is in
the midst of a deep recession seen in the world's highest
inflation of
nearly 5 000 percent, widespread poverty and joblessness.
However,
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo downplayed the latest warning of
hunger by
World Vision as well as the earlier one issued by the FAO and WFP,
saying
there was no need to panic because the cash-strapped Harare
administration
was importing maize from neighbouring countries.
Gumbo said the
government, which has declared 2007 a drought year, would
invite
international relief agencies to help feed the wider population only
if it
"really needed" their assistance.
"We are importing grain from
neighbouring countries. We are aware of the
situation. We only invite NGOs
(non-governmental organisations) once we are
satisfied we really need them,"
said Gumbo.
For now, NGOs have mostly focused on giving food aid to the
marginalised
groups in communities such as orphans, the elderly, widows and
people living
with HIV/AIDS.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's food crisis
directly on Mugabe's haphazard
fast-track land reform exercise that
displaced established white commercial
farmers and replaced them with either
incompetent or inadequately funded
black farmers.
Food production
plunged by about 60 percent as a result while chaos in the
mainstay
agriculture sector because of farm seizures also hit hard Zimbabwe's
once
impressive manufacturing sector that had depended on a robust farming
sector
for orders and inputs.
Most of Zimbabwe's factories have since the
beginning of farm seizures in
2000 either closed completely or scaled down
operations to below 30 percent
of capacity, in a country where unemployment
is more than 80 percent. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 05 July 2007
By
Hendricks Chizhanje
HARARE - Zimbabwe Industry and International Trade
Minister Obert Mpofu on
Wednesday summoned the country's business leaders to
warn them again to
halve prices of goods, keep factories running, and shops
open.
Mpofu, who was not immediately available for comment on the matter,
is said
to have instructed manufacturers not to interrupt the supply chain
by
stopping production or selling goods whose prices the governments has
ordered rolled back to June 18 levels.
President Robert Mugabe's
government, which charges business is conniving
with its Western enemies to
hike prices and incite popular revolt, has said
it will seize factories that
stop production over prices.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
president Callisto Jokonya said
business leaders told Mpofu they needed
foreign currency to import raw
materials and spare parts to keep production
lines running.
"We told them that there is need to avail foreign currency
for us to produce
goods," Jokonya told ZimOnline.
Meanwhile,
consumers across the country continued to grab whatever was still
available
in the shops in a bid to take advantage of halved prices to
stockpile on
goods that are expected to soon become short on the formal
market in
response to the tough price controls.
In Harare, long queues could be
seen at shops and even at some fast food
outlets as people took advantage to
feast on re-priced food. Fast food
outlets had until now been spared from
the price cuts.
The government last week froze prices of all commodities
following a spate
of price hikes that had seen prices of basic goods rising
by more than 500
percent in the space of just three weeks.
Soldiers
and police have since last week raided several shops in Harare to
force
owners to lower prices. At least 194 retailers have been arrested and
the
figure is set to rise as the police intensify the crackdown on
businesses
defying the order to reduce prices.
Analysts say the government's latest
effort to keep a lid on prices was
meant to pacify angry workers ahead of
general presidential and
parliamentary elections next year but would come at
a heavy cost as this
could force some companies to shut down and force more
workers to join the
growing jobless list. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 05 July 2007
Own
Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa that
has not
registered economic growth and single digit inflation rates,
according to
the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
IMF deputy
managing director Takatoshi Kato told a news conference on the
sidelines of
the African Union (AU) in Accra, Ghana, that Zimbabwe's rampant
inflation of
5 000 percent should be a cause for concern for the continent.
"Consumer
prices (for most of Africa) altogether came down to single digit,
excluding
Zimbabwe," said Kato.
Kato said President Robert Mugabe's government
should do more to stem
Zimbabwe's economic collapse that has been described
as unprecedented for a
country not at war.
The IMF official said
southern African regional leaders should also do more
to help stop a looming
collapse of Zimbabwe's economy.
"We would welcome any further dialogue
between neighbouring African
countries and Zimbabwe.
The situation in
Zimbabwe is affecting neighbouring countries very
dramatically, it's also
the responsibility of the authorities," said Kato.
IMF's director for
Africa, Abdoulaye Bio-Thiane, said although neighbours
could suggest
solutions to Zimbabwe's crisis, in the end "it's really the
responsibility
of the authorities (in Harare) to address the current
situation."
The
IMF's sharp comments come as President Thabo Mbeki, was expected to
brief
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders on the sidelines
of
the Accra meetings on progress in his mediation efforts in Zimbabwe.
The
South African president was last March tasked by SADC to lead efforts to
find a negotiated solution to Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. SADC
is also mulling providing an economic rescue package to Harare. - ZimOnline
The Zimbabwean
Zimbabwe has been plunged into
chaos as a motley assortment of state
agents - including armed police, Green
Bombers, war vets and 'inspectors' -
obey Mugabe's ludicrous order to
enforce price reductions in an effort to
stem the tide of inflation
resulting from his government's printing of
nobody knows how many billions
of worthless bank notes and bearers' cheques.
How is it that Mugabe and his
few remaining supporters are incapable of
comprehending the most basic
economic fundamentals? Terrorising the final
link in the production chain,
the retailer, into slashing the prices of
goods to the general public in the
hope of averting national economic
collapse must surely be the actions of a
madman.
The systematic destruction of the means of production by Zanu (PF)
over the
past two decades has brought the economy to where it is today.
Without
addressing these fundamentals, and of course the rampant corruption,
cronyism and patronage on which the party survives, jumping in to thrash
retailers into reducing prices is hardly a recipe for economic
recovery.
Reports indicate that a few retailers did indeed give into the
terror
tactics - sparking a frenzy among shoppers as a few people got lucky,
gobbling up the reduced-price goods as though there were no tomorrow. No
doubt many thousands of green bombers, war vets and policemen went to bed
that night on a full stomach for the first time in months, if not
years.
But now what? Now it is tomorrow! And as the photos in this issue
demonstrate so well - there is nothing left. Instead of alleviating the
suffering of millions of Zimbabweans, Mugabe and his henchmen have - yet
again - simply made it worse. Much worse.
Many businesses were brutally
forced to empty their storerooms. Violence,
assault, looting and arrests
were reported country-wide.
A large wholesaler lost about Z$500 million on
orange juice alone after
reducing the price. Another chain gave away all its
bread rather than sell
it at a loss. Many shops have closed and the owners
are reported to be in
hiding.
Even the black market has dried up. And
what of tomorrow?
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
BY ITAI
DZAMARA
President Thabo Mbeki believes the only workable solution for the
Zimbabwean
crisis is to set up a transitional government of national unity
between the
ruling party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
This entity
would work on constitutional, electoral and other reforms before
holding
elections at a later date.
Highly-placed sources, named but not
able to be identified, told The
Zimbabwean that Mbeki had already suggested
the plan to the ruling party and
both factions of the MDC.
"Mbeki hopes
to accomplish the very difficult mission of convincing
President Robert
Mugabe to step down in exchange for a guarantee of
indemnity from
prosecution for alleged crimes against humanity," said the
source.
"If he
manages to get the aged leader out of the way, the next move would be
having
a reformed Zanu (PF), with former finance minister Simba Makoni
touted as
the leading candidate, to bring in a government of national unity
with the
opposition.
However, Mbeki faces a serious stumbling block in Mugabe who not
only still
wants to cling on, but has been alerted to the plan aimed at
getting rid of
him and is countering it with a headstrong march towards
preparing for next
year's elections.
Political observers say the aged
leader can also easily frustrate Mbeki's
efforts by making sure his party
plays delaying tactics and refuses to
engage the opposition in dialogue on
the basis of the usual allegations of
it failing to acknowledge his
presidency, selling out and so forth.
In addition, both factions of the MDC
have vowed to decline going into a
government of national unity and have
dismissed the idea of a reformed Zanu
(PF), saying this will not solve the
political logjam.
The Zimbabwean
LONDON
The influential
Financial Times reported this week on the group of
dispossessed Dutch
farmers who have taken advantage of an investment treaty
between Zimbabwe
and the Netherlands that enables them to bypass Zimbabwean
courts.
The
farmers, who bred cattle and produced tobacco, flowers, maize, coffee
and
soybeans, are each seeking around US$1m for loss of property and
agricultural equipment.
The lawsuit has been launched at the
International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID), an
arbitration tribunal housed at the World
Bank in Washington. It underlines
the potential for private litigants to sue
governments for compensation in
politically explosive areas using official
bilateral investment
treaties.
The farmers allege that Mugabe's government breached its
international law
obligations by failing to provide adequate police
protection for Dutch
property owners in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2002 and
by actively supporting
a series of violent land invasions that led to their
farms being abandoned.
They add that the Zimbabwean government subjected
them to unlawful racial
discrimination by targeting white farmers.
The
Zimbabwe Attorney General's office was supposed to file its evidence by
June
15, but missed the deadline. The court has given an extension until
Friday
this week and stated it would be reluctant to grant further
extensions.
Zimbabwe's deputy ambassador to the US, Gideon Gapare,
reportedly told the
FT Zimbabwe was "fully co-operating" with the
proceedings but declined to
comment on the merits of the case.
A handful
of countries, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and
Denmark,
have investment protection treaties with Zimbabwe. A treaty with
the UK -
which boasted the largest number of nationals farming in Zimbabwe -
was
never ratified.
Agric Africa, a UK-based group that has helped co-ordinate
the Dutch
farmers' arbitration claim, has received a small grant from the
Open Society
Initiative for Southern Africa, a non-profit organisation
established by the
financier and philanthropist George Soros.
The Zimbabwean
PRETORIA
Senior
diplomats working for the Zimbabwean Embassy to South Africa are
under
investigation for diamond trafficking.
The move follows a tip-off to the
South African Police Service (SAPS) about
the smuggling of diamonds from
Zimbabwe through the use of diplomatic bags.
A top South African police
official, who has chosen to keep details closed
to the media, said any issue
subject to investigation would undergo the
required process.
But
international regulations make it illegal for any country to search the
baggage and luggage of diplomats.
A receptionist at the Zimbabwean
Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, referred
to only as Chiwoniso, was
allegedly shot two months ago following the flop
of a diamond deal.
This
has been rumored to be the deal the Zimbabwean government struck with
its
employees in South Africa as part of payment for their salaries.
The
Zimbabwean government has failed to pay its employees for the past four
months and this has forced government officials to be involved in diamond
scams that almost claimed one life.
Since the discovery of diamonds in
the country about 33 000 illegal miners
have been arrested and senior
officials, including the late William Nhara,
have been caught up in the
vicious battle for wealth.
Chris Mapanga, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe
Consulate, could not confirm or
deny the allegations levelled against the
government by the time of going to
press. - Own correspondent
The Zimbabwean
MUSINA
Thousands of Zimbabweans gathered at Musina over the
weekend to listen to
efforts being made by the National Constitution
Assembly to bring in a
democratic, people- driven constitution before 2008
polls.
Coordinator for the NCA in South Africa, Tapera Kapuya, said no
political
party should dream of winning elections before a new constitution
is in
place.
"The groceries and remittances you are sending should be
accompanied by a
clear message to those at home to participate in
democratization process.
Zanu (PF) represents a history of betrayal and
misery. It must be brought
down for development to take place in our
country," said Kapuya.
"A people-driven constitution is the surest guarantee
that Zimbabweans will
not be subjected to the whims and caprices of
self-seeking politicians ever
again."
An estimated crowd of 3 000
welcomed the move as a positive one towards
ensuring that an election is in
place in less than six months.
"Our 2001 National Convention resolution still
stands: We will support a
political party that commits to facilitating the
writing of a people driven
democratic constitution as part of its program.
Equally, we will frustrate
any political party whose mission is to exclude
Zimbabweans from writing
their own Constitution," said Kapuya to a rapturous
applause. - Trust
Matsilele
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
BY ITAI
DZAMARA
Reserve bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono is in trouble from
those
opposed to him within the Zanu (PF) regime who blame him for presiding
over
the collapse of the economy.
The Zimbabwean can reveal that Gono has
recently increased security around
him after he learnt of plans to get at
his life as the politics of power and
authority in the Mugabe regime suck
him deeper and the economic decline
proves too stubborn for his cocktail of
attempted remedies.
It is all turning sour for Gono who, since taking over
the central bank in
December 2003, has been riding high, exuding a lot of
energy, enthusiasm and
purported commitment to the extent there were rumours
he wanted to succeed
his master, President Robert Mugabe.
In the
forefront of a serious attack on Gono are two camps, the Mujuru
faction and
proponents for the reformed Zanu (PF) under former finance
minister Simba
Makoni.
A document being circulated within the ruling party and government
circles
this week, entitled "There is no option for success", is apparently
aimed at
deriding Gono who has been on the record continuously declaring
there was no
option for failure, despite it unfolding right under his nose
daily.
The document (copy seen) seeks to shape public opinion and says "Gono
must
just resign and admit that, like Jonathan Moyo, he was a mole who
wanted to
kill us from within."
It further states: "The truth must
finally be told, and it is that we have
reached this level of economic
failure because of the policies of Prime
Minister Gono, in all the sectors
of the economy and he must just go."
Gono's adversaries promise in the
document to expose "his earth shattering
scandals" soon in order for the
world to see the man behind all those
gimmicks. It was difficult to trace
the origins of the document but senior
government officials confirmed to
this paper that it has been circulating
even within top echelons of the
regime.
Gono was not available to comment.
It has also emerged that recent
cabinet and Zanu (PF) politburo meetings
deliberating on the economic
malaise presented anti-Gono officials the
opportunity to lobby for his
disgraceful removal mainly on the basis of
allegations he has been involving
the central bank in a lot of quasi-fiscal
activities and contributed to
economic problems.
Gono is said to be girding his loins for campaigning to
lead the reformed
Zanu (PF) and through that he has reportedly created
another camp of enemies
in those agreed on the candidature of
Makoni.
Gono took over the RBZ leadership when inflation was around 300% and
his
presided to it shooting to above 6000% currently.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE
Opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged Zimbabweans to exercise
restraint despite
worsening abuse by President Robert Mugabe and his ruling
Zanu (PF)
party.
Tsvangirai said the opposition was acutely aware of the worsening
hardships
but said the people should avoid the temptation to lose hope. The
MDC leader
told the Mashonaland East provincial council at the weekend that
Zimbabwe
had entered the "final, decisive stages of our generational and
political
transition to a new Zimbabwe."
"We live in trying times,"
Tsvangirai said. "Our entire business sector has
been criminalized and
attacked for merely trying to perform an essential
service and for supplying
the people with the little goods and services they
can still salvage from
the current hyper-inflationary environment."
Tsvangirai spoke as soldiers and
police officers moved into supermarkets
demanding the reversal of prices in
a populist policy that critics say is
likely to result in empty
shelves.
Tsvangirai said change was imminent. He emphasized that the MDC did
not hate
President Mugabe, but his system of governance which had plunged
the country
into its worst economic and political crises since
independence
"We are on course," he said. "It has become clear that we are on
the final
stages of the dictatorship. Change is inevitable; change is
coming."
Tsvangirai said he hoped the ruling party would take the mediation
being
spearheaded by President Thabo Mbeki seriously. He said his party
fully
endorsed the sub region's concern for Zimbabwe and hoped that
something
positive can emerge from the engagement.
"Given the right
political will, peace is possible," said Tsvangirai. "There
are always
opportunities in dialogue. What we need is principled dialogue,
away from
emotions, and anchored on raw facts about the situation in our
country. SADC
has seen the need for this and is trying to push Zanu (PF)
away from the
state of denial. Let us steer away from embarrassing our SADC
neighbours."
Tsvangirai did not elaborate on what form of action his
party would take in
the event the mediation failed, but ruled out the use of
arms.
"If we deliberately allow our emotions to undermine a reasoned pacific
process, a possibility exits for a serious power vacuum whose consequences
could be too ghastly to contemplate. There is simply too much anxiety within
the population at the moment," he said.
Tsvangirai cautioned the
government against using state institutions to
carry out acts of violence
against the opposition.
"Our uniformed forces and all civil servants must
confine themselves to
their Constitutional mandate and serve Zimbabweans
across the board," he
said. "Our war veterans must realize that they were
demobilized after a
sterling performance against colonialism. They cannot
allow a political
party to de-humanise them and turn them into a militia.
They cannot become a
reserve force whose command structure rests with the
Zanu (PF) Politburo.
Genuine war veterans must refuse to be answerable to a
political party. They
fought for Zimbabwe, not Zanu (PF)."
The Zimbabwean
"things cannot go on
like this"
HARARE
Former Finance Minister, Dr Simba Makoni, has lashed out
at politicians who
claim that he is a "sell-out".
In the past few weeks
Makoni, who is also a senior Zanu (PF) politician has
spoken at a number of
occasions including the recent World Economic Forum
for Africa in Cape Town,
saying the economic crisis in Zimbabwe must not
continue.
And in an
apparent reference to accusations by the Minister of Information
and
Publicity, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Makoni said in an exclusive interview in
Harare this week: "I have contributed more to this country than those who
now claim to be custodians of what it means to be Zimbabwean. To mask
poverty and the misery of our people can never be what determines
patriotism."
Ndlovu had said, reportedly in reference to Makoni: "In any
revolution there
are sell-outs. Some of the Selous Scouts were blacks. You
would expect that
a member of a party would know what channels to use to air
their grievances
if they do not see eye to eye with the leader of their
party."
Asked to comment on the MDC, Makoni said it was a home-grown
political
opposition that "grew out of our failure as a governing party to
develop the
country and address the collapse of the economy".
On the
March 11 clamp-downs, Makoni, the only senior Zanu (PF) official to
visit
civic and political leaders hospitalised after being assaulted by the
police
said:
"We can not allow a situation of hostility toward those at variance
with our
political thinking. What happened to Madhuku, Tsvangirai and
Kwinjeh was
wrong. It was criminal."
"What we are witnessing in the
country should not be taken as a reflection
on all of us in Zanu (PF)," he
said.
Makoni resigned as finance minister in 2003.
Asked about Mugabe's
candidature in the 2008 elections, Makoni was
blistering: "The options still
remain of another candidate. Contrary to
public opinion, there has not been
any decision by the party on who its
candidate will be. This decision will
be made at the annual conference and
endorsed by politburo in December. The
crisis in the country has been
personified.
"So the party in choosing a
candidate would have to answer whether
Zimbabweans will be voting in 2008
for the crisis or for its resolution."
He added that there was "a process
ongoing within the party, within
Zimbabwe, and even with some of our
friendly partners. There is an agreement
that the state of affairs cannot
and must not go on, and that it must be
reversed". - Own Correspondent
The Zimbabwean
JOHANNESBURG
Millions of Zimbabwean refugees will join their African
counterparts in
Newtown, Johannesburg to commemorate the Africa Refugee Day
on Saturday.
Several entertainment groups such as the musical groups, drama
and theatre
have been lined up for this day.
Among other performers
lined-up for the commemoration day include Oscar
Benjamin, Prophet JD, Ras
Franky, Kaky Crew, Mbizo and Nyasha. The
entertainment is set to take place
at Horror Cafe in the heart of
Johannesburg on Saturday.
Several speakers
have been lined-up to share their experiences of living in
exile as refugees
and the challenges they are facing in South Africa.
So many questions have
been raised about the South African Police Service
(SAPS) involved in
corruption, and the question of xenophobia. - CAJ News
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
04 July
2007
International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials
speaking on the
sidelines of the just-ended African Union summit in Accra,
Ghana, expressed
concern at deepening economic distress in Zimbabwe and
urged AU leaders to
help resolve the crisis.
IMF Deputy Managing
Director Takatoshi Tako is reported to have cited the
impact of "the
heightened rate of inflation on the people," referring to
inflation last
estimated at 4,500%, and challenged Harare to tackle "very
comprehensive
measures head-on."
Unnamed World Bank officials were also quoted as
predicting "total collapse"
due to the government's "lack of taste for
embracing any reforms."
The international financial officials noted that
with the exception of
Zimbabwe, African countries last year posted an
average rate of growth of
around 5%. The Zimbabwean economy has been in a
contraction since the
beginning of the current decade.
While urging
countries in the region to assist Zimbabwe in stabilizing its
economy, IMF
Director for Africa Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane acknowledged that "in
the end it's
really the responsibility of the Zimbabwe authorities to
address the current
situation."
Economist David Mupamhadzi told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that is it is hard to dismiss the figures
cited by
global experts.
Inner City Press
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City
Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, July 5 -- As Ban Ki-moon kicks off the UN
Global Compact
summit, on the sidelines a debate has begun about the lack of
enforcement or
even evaluation of compliance by the corporations which brag
of their
membership in the Compact and links with the UN.
Missing so far from the debate, however, is the question of
whether the UN
system itself complies with the principles it says it is
promoting to
corporations through the Compact.
In the area of human
rights, the "Global Compact asks companies
to.... make sure that they are
not complicit in human rights abuses." But in
the past year and a half, UN
peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of
Congo have been accused of
torture, and the UN has continued to support the
Ethiopia-based Transitional
Federal Government in Somalia, even as it
routinely fired ordnance into
civilian neighborhoods in Mogadishu.
The UN Development
Program in 2006 supported violent disarmament
by Ugandan soldiers in the
Karamoja region, in which villages were torched,
and children held hostage
to be traded for weapons. UNDP in Zimbabwe has
helped Robert Mugabe set up a
"Human Rights Commission," while supporting
Mugabe cronies in, for example,
diamond mining.
While human rights principles need
enforcement on corporations,
the UN itself shows a lack of accountability.
UNDP has attempted to downplay
or obscure its role in Uganda and Zimbabwe;
the UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services' audits of DRC peacekeeping,
taking up to two years, are
so slow as to be nearly meaningless. By the time
findings are announced, the
peacekeepers have gone home, outside the reach
of any discipline by the UN.
Most recently, UN peacekeepers in Kosovo who
killed two demonstrators by
shooting them with 13-year old, hardened rubber
bullets left Pristina for
Romania and have still not faced any
justice.
In a press briefing in New York to promote this
week's summit,
the Compact's executive director Georg Kell was asked the
membership of
Shell, accused of complicity in the murder of Nigerian
activist Ken
Saro-Wiwa. Kell praised Shell's recent actions and did not
address its
record in Nigeria.
Shifting the most recent
of the Compact's principles,
anti-corruption, Inner City Press asked Kell,
at what point in its
disintegration might Enron have been thrown out of the
UN Global Compact?
Kell's response was that companies too deserve due
process, and that
punishments are left up to each country's national
courts. So Enron could
join and remain a member, it seems
clear.
"It is not possible to either suspend or expel
participating
companies in cases of substantive breach of the Global
Compact's
principles," Amnesty International's head of economic relations,
Audrey
Gaughran, told the press in Geneva.
"What is
needed are legally binding regulations to control
corporate activities with
respect to human rights," said Aftab Alam Khan of
ActionAid, which has
issued a report about the performance in Ghana of
AngloGold Ashanti, a
subsidiary Anglo American of chairman of Anglo
American, the employer of
Global Compact (and former HSBC) leader, Mark
Moody-Smith, available here.
These critiques have stopped short of assessing
the UN's own compliance with
the Global Compact principles.
In the environmental field, UN
Headquarters is notorious full of
asbestos, leaking heat in the winter and
air conditioning in the summer. In
the field of labor, the UN does not allow
its employees to seek remedies in
national courts, confining them to an
internal justice system that Ban
Ki-moon himself has admitted it broken --
while still seeking to retain the
power to appoint the judges in the
proposed new system.
The UN system, alongside some workers
with "permanent
contracts," is full of insecure workers who face
unemployment every months.
Recently at UN headquarters, a whistleblower
about UNDP's activities in
North Korea sought the protection of the UN
Ethics Office -- and two weeks
later was put on a watch list, not to be
allowed to enter the UN. His
complaints about UNDP include corrupt payments
to the Kim Jong-il regime,
contrary to the UN Global Compact's tenth
principle against extortion and
bribery.
At two press
briefings in New York in recent weeks, Inner City
Press asked Georg Kell and
Melissa Powell of the Global Compact what steps,
if any, have been taken to
ensure the UN's own compliance with the ten
principles of the Compact. Ms.
Powell to her credit acknowledged that the
principles had not been
explicitly addressed within the UN's Office of Human
Resources Management,
and that following the Oil-for-Food scandal,
implementation by the UN's
procurement department slowed. Georg Kell said,
"We are not a watchdog of
the UN."