Nick Wadhams
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/ 26 June 2006

Advocates seek UN help to curb small arms trade

Bearing a message from the Russian who invented the world’s most common assault rifle, activists will press governments at a United Nations conference on small arms to ensure such weapons are not used to trample human rights. The groups and some officials at the conference advocate a fundamentally new approach for trade in the light arms that are said to kill 1 000 people a day.

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/ 20 May 2006

UN: Sudan relief efforts could collapse within weeks

The top United Nations humanitarian official warned on Friday that relief efforts in Darfur could collapse within weeks unless the government makes good on a peace deal and donors fund aid work in the troubled Sudanese region. Jan Egeland, the top humanitarian aid official, told the UN Security Council that the government must lift restrictions on aid groups if they are to do their job properly.

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/ 8 April 2006

UN envoy says Darfur is like Rwanda

Twelve years after the Rwanda genocide, nations still seem unwilling to commit the troops and money that would be needed to stop other mass slaughters of civilians, a top United Nations envoy said on Friday. Governments have repeatedly promised ”never again” in the years since the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwanda killings. They have gotten better at nurturing peace processes, but are still reluctant to do much more.

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/ 23 December 2005

Oil for food: When will prosecution start?

In a secret and secure location, a set of computers holds the hundreds of thousands of files that document how companies and individuals exploited the United Nations oil-for-food programme in league with Saddam Hussein. Yet, two months after the programme’s troubles were exposed, there has been no rush by the authorities in question to study the documents.

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/ 8 August 2005

Former oil-for-food chief resigns ahead of report

The former chief of the Iraq oil-for-food programme resigned on Sunday, a day before investigators release a report that is expected to accuse him of taking kickbacks. Benon Sevan accused United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan of failing to stand by him and blasted the independent inquiry committee investigating allegations of corruption.

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/ 5 May 2005

UN says DRC faces serious hurdles before poll

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s transitional government still has a long way to go before it will be ready to hold national elections, but a credible vote is possible and registration will begin next month, United Nations officials said. he DRC was supposed to hold elections on June 30 as part of a peace plan that ended a five-year war.

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/ 4 March 2005

DRC peacekeepers say the cupboard is bare

United Nations peacekeeping officials sought more power to conduct aerial surveillance and electronic warfare against militia who have stepped up attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s lawless Ituri region. The officials’ request, which they said on Thursday would help prevent weapons from pouring into the eastern region, came days after peacekeepers killed up to 60 people.