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June 27, 2003
Posted 12:21 PM
by Mary
http://www.nologo.org/
Bush to NGOs: Watch Your Mouths , by Naomi Klein June 20 2003
The Bush administration has found its next target for pre-emptive war, but It's not Iran, Syria or North Korea, not yet anyway.
Before launching any new foreign adventures, the Bush gang has some homeland housekeeping to take care of: it is going to sweep up those pesky non-governmental organizations that are helping to turn world opinion against U.S. bombs and brands.
The war on NGOs is being fought on two clear fronts. One buys the silence and complicity of mainstream humanitarian and religious groups by offering lucrative reconstruction contracts. The other marginalizes and criminalizes more independent-minded NGOs by claiming that their work is a threat to democracy. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is in charge of handing out the carrots, while the American Enterprise Institute, the most powerful think tank in Washington D.C., is wielding the sticks.
June 20, 2003
Posted 8:21 PM
by Mary
By JEFF SALLOT From Saturday's Globe and Mail Saturday, Jun. 14, 2003
Ottawa — Canada is calling for a sweeping reform of the United Nations, including the expulsion of members who violate the fundamental principles of the world body.
Canada also wants permanent members of the UN Security Council to refrain from using their veto to block peacemaking or policing operations in a crisis if there is a broad international consensus to proceed.
The UN Charter makes it clear "membership is not a right, but a commitment to uphold the principles and purposes of the organization," Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said yesterday.
Yet membership standards are not being applied, he said in a keynote speech in New York to a UN reform conference convened by the Academic Council on the United Nations System.
He cited three examples to make his point: •Libya's election earlier this year to the chairmanship of the UN Commission on Human Rights despite the North African country's poor record of jailing and torturing political opponents. •Iraq's membership at the UN Disarmament Conference last year while the regime of Saddam Hussein was being scrutinized by UN arms inspectors. •Rwanda's membership on the Security Council in 1994 when the country's regime was slaughtering members of the Tutsi ethnic minority.
"The time has come to revisit the basis upon which membership in these bodies is determined," Mr. Graham said.
"The UN must consider suspending or expelling member states which have failed in their obligation to the organization and violated the basic principles of the Charter," he added.
The toughest UN reform issue of them all is the question of the Security Council, where five permanent members — the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France — each has a veto, which means anyone can thwart the will of the other four permanent members and the 10 elected representative countries.
He endorsed a reform proposal that would not allow the use of a veto to block resolutions authorizing military intervention to protect human lives if a Security Council majority favours the intervention.
The UN as an organization often takes the rap for the political failures that have more to do with the policies and decisions of individual member states, he said.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Graham suggested that permanent members of the Security Council should be restricted to using a veto only if they can find a second permanent member to support them.
A number of humanitarian efforts have been stymied over the years because of the threatened use of a veto, he said. Asked for some examples, Mr. Graham diplomatically declined to point fingers. But Lloyd Axworthy, a former Liberal foreign affairs minister, and other Canadian officials were critical of the U.S. government in 1994 for failing to support deployment of a large international force to prevent the Rwandan genocide. Bill Clinton later apologized to Rwandans when he was president.
In his speech, Mr. Graham also proposed making greater use of the UN General Assembly, where all 191 member countries are represented, to deal with major issues rather than passing off the "big issues of the day" to the 15-member Security Council.
The five major powers do not have a veto over decisions by the assembly.
Mr. Graham met earlier in the day with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss the conflicts in the Middle East and the Congo, the postwar reconstruction of Iraq and the continuing imprisonment of democratic reform leader Aung San Suu Kyi by the military junta of Myanmar. Mr. Graham said he believes the UN has weathered the political crisis it faced earlier this year when the Security Council would not authorize military intervention in Iraq by the United States and Britain.
June 12, 2003
Posted 10:04 AM
by Mary
UNITED STATES NATIONAL APPOINTED TO SENIOR UN PEACEKEEPING POST New York, Jun 11 2003 4:00PM Secretary-General Kofi Annan today appointed a national of the United States who has served in several senior posts in major foundations engaged in international affairs to a senior position in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
Jane Holl Lute was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the UN Foundation and the Better World Fund - established by businessman and philanthropist Ted Turner to administer his $1 billion contribution to support the goals of the United Nations - before being named to replace Michael Sheehan as Assistant Secretary-General for Mission Support, effective 1 August.
She previously served as Executive Director of the Association of the United States Army's project on the role of the American Military Power and also headed the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict.
June 9, 2003
Posted 10:19 AM
by Mary
SAINT LUCIAN ELECTED GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT FOR 58TH SESSION New York, Jun 6 2003 6:00PM The United Nations General Assembly today www.un.org elected Julian R. Hunte, Minister of External Affairs, International Trade, and Civil Aviation of Saint Lucia, as the President of its fifty-eighth session.
Following his election, Mr. Hunte, who will assume his role upon the opening of the new session in September, said it was notable that the presidency of "this singularly important world body" would pass to a representative of the smallest country ever to hold that office. Thus would the UN reaffirm its faith in the equal right of nations large and small, as enunciated in the UN Charter.
Elected to the Assembly's vice- presidencies were the States of Cape Verde, China, Equatorial Guinea, France, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, United States and Yemen.
In other business today, the Assembly appointed Christopher Thomas of Trinidad and Tobago as a member of the Joint Inspection Unit for a five-year term beginning on 1 January 2004. It also decided to extend the appointment of Rubens Ricupero as Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for a period of one year starting from 15 September
2003.
Additionally, in separate meetings, the Assembly elected the Chairperson of its six main substantive Committees. Jarmo Sareva of Finland was elected to chair the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury of Bangladesh will chair the Second Committee
(Economic and Financial) and Martin Belinga-Eboutou of Cameroon, will head the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).
Enrique Loedel of Uruguay was elected to chair the Fourth Committee
(Special Political and Decolonization), Hynek Kmonicek of the Czech Republic will head the Fifth Committee (Financial and Budgetary) and Lauro Baja of the Philippines will chair the Assembly's Sixth Committee (Legal).
June 6, 2003
Posted 10:34 PM
by Mary
Evidence of Iraq weapons was "big bluff": German UN inspector Fri Jun 6, BERLIN (AFP) - A German member of the UN team investigating Iraq s alleged programme of weapons of mass destruction has accused US authorities of presenting false evidence against the regime, the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reports. yahoo.com
His criticism adds to a growing tide of accusations that the United States and its key ally Britain deliberately manipulated information to make it look as if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The fear that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had such arms at his disposal was one of the chief justifications for the war to topple him.
The German inspector, Peter Franck, was part of the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq from December last year until shortly before the US-led invasion in March.
He told Der Spiegel that US Secretary of State Colin Powell did not present truthful evidence to the UN Security Council in a famous February 5 speech.
It was "all a big bluff," Franck said. "Basically, it was all a show for the American public.
He said Powell used satellite pictures to try to show that decontamination trucks in front of an ammunition bunker were proof that Iraq was experimenting with chemical weapons there.
However, an earlier visit by UN inspectors had already determined that the trucks were firefighting vehicles.
"What Powell said simply wasn't true," Franck told the magazine.
He said US officials exaggurated the numbers of soldiers and equipment Iraq had at its disposal. A UN inspection of an air defence base showed the United States had over-estimated the number of planes there by five times.
Franck said US officials appear to have concentrated too much on satellite images, which could be interpreted different ways.
London and Washington have strongly denied claims that they manipulated any evidence.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted the intelligence was "good," and promised Thursday that Powell's testimony "will be proved right."
Posted 12:05 PM
by Mary
Associated Press Worldstream, June 5, 2003 Thursday, INTERNATIONAL NEWS,
U.S. will seek extension of deal to exempt American peacekeepers from prosecution by International Criminal Court, EDITH M. LEDERER;
In an effort to avoid a replay of the most contentious confrontation at the United Nations before the Iraq crisis, the United States said Thursday it will seek an extension of a deal to exempt American peacekeepers from prosecution by the new international war crimes tribunal.
Last year's battle pitted the world's lone superpower against countries around the world, including its closest European allies and neighbors Canada and Mexico.
It ended in July, when the Security Council agreed to exempt from arrest or trial peacekeepers from the United States and other countries that have not ratified the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court.
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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