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May 30, 2005
Posted 8:04 PM
by Mary
print close Tue 31 May 2005 Aid chief held for reporting rapes Gethin Chamberlain SUDAN arrested one of the most prominent international aid workers in the country yesterday, for claiming that there was evidence of widespread rape in the Darfur region. Paul Foreman, the country head of the aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Holland, has been charged with crimes against the state and faces three years in jail if convicted. MSF Holland released the report in March, saying its doctors working in Darfur had medical evidence of about 500 rape cases over four-and-a-half months. The Sudanese government, embarrassed by the attention drawn to its campaign of genocide in Darfur, has cranked up the pressure on aid agencies over the past six months. The Oxfam country director was ordered out at the end of last year, and a number of aid workers, including Rafe Bullick from Edinburgh, have been killed. Yesterday, Mohamed Farid, Sudan's attorney-general, said the report was false and that the government had begun criminal proceedings because MSF should have consulted and co-ordinated with the governmental Humanitarian Aid Commission before publishing any such information. He said: "These kind of false reports damage the image of Sudan. We need the organisation MSF to do its medical work in Sudan ... and to be present here," he said. "But it has to do its work in its specific capacity, and this is not within its capacity here." The Sudanese government said that it has repeatedly asked MSF to provide evidence to back up its claims, but that the aid agency had not replied. But Mr Foreman said he could not violate the confidential doctor-patient relationship by giving the authorities the medical documents. He said: "The reports and the victims of rape are both very real, and we continue to do our medical work in Darfur." Geoff Prescott, general director of MSF in Amsterdam, said they were distressed about the arrest. But he added: "As providers of medical assistance and as human beings we find it impossible to stay silent when we are witnessing these abuses wherever they occur. MSF wants to make people and governments aware of these serious violations so that real action is taken to stop them. "Everybody who has looked into the situation in Darfur, including the government of Sudan, has concluded that rape is a problem." Mr Foreman was released on bail last night but has been told he must not leave the country. This article: scotsman.com
May 28, 2005
Posted 10:29 AM
by Mary
The UN conference stumbles over priorities. The US, focused on North Korea and Iran, is criticized over its own weapons stockpile. By Maggie Farley Los Angeles Times Saturday 28 May 2005 United Nations - A monthlong conference aimed at curtailing the spread of nuclear weapons ended in failure Friday after being scuttled by arguments among the United States, Iran and Egypt. Representatives of more than 150 nations convened at UN headquarters to seek ways to stop more countries from developing nuclear weapons, prevent terrorists from acquiring them, and get a renewed commitment from atomic powers - especially the United States - to significantly reduce their stockpiles. But strong disagreements over priorities prevented substantive efforts to address the gaps between the world's nuclear haves and have-nots. The United States tried to keep the focus on alleged nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea instead of its pledges to whittle down its own arsenal. Iran, which contends that its atomic program is strictly for generating electricity, refused to discuss proposals to restrict access to nuclear fuel and objected to being singled out as a "proliferation concern." And Egypt joined Iran in demanding that the conference address Israel's nuclear status and declare the Middle East "a nuclear-free zone." "The conference after a full month ended up where we started, which is a system full of loopholes, ailing and not a road map to fix it," Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Vienna as the conference fizzled to a close. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the conference - a review of the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - on May 2, telling delegates that "the consequences of failure are too great to aim for anything less" than new measures to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number of existing arms. Under the treaty, atomic powers pledged to dismantle their arsenals and transfer nuclear know-how for generating electricity to other nations, in exchange for vows from those countries not to develop nuclear weapons. Reviews of the treaty are held every five years. But critics say that not only are the nuclear powers not living up to their side of the deal, they are now seeking to restrict sensitive technology that other countries have a right to. The US and some other nuclear powers, however, contend that increasingly stringent rules on transferring technology are needed to keep weapons out of terrorists' hands. Annan said Friday that conference participants had "missed a vital opportunity" to strengthen the world's collective security and urged leaders to take up the issues again at a September summit at the UN Conference president Sergio de Queiroz Duarte of Brazil acknowledged that "very little had been accomplished," but said the meeting was not a total failure. The month of discussions forced leaders to debate their differences even if they did not solve them, and paved the way for future talks, he said. Asked why the conference collapsed, he responded, "I think you can write several books on that." A number of diplomats put much of the blame for the deadlock on the United States.
May 25, 2005
Posted 11:23 PM
by Mary
ARMED CONFLICTS NOW LEADING CAUSE OF WORLD HUNGER - UN REPORT New York, May 23 2005 2:00PM Armed conflicts have become the leading cause of world hunger, with the effects of HIV/AIDS and global warming close behind, according to a new report out today by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Conflict destroys lives, opportunities and environments and may be one of the most significant obstacles to sustainable development as it can destroy in hours and days what has taken years and decades to develop," says the report, presented to an <"http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/102562/index.html">FAO committee meeting this week in Rome to review policies towards reducing world hunger, including food production and physical and economic access to food. The proportion of food emergencies that can be considered human-made has increased over time, the report says, warning that the goal of halving the world's hungry by 2015 is almost certain to be missed by a wide margin if current trends continue. More than a third of food emergencies between 1992 and 2003 were due to conflict and economic problems, compared with around 15 per cent from 1986 to 1991, the report says, adding that war also contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS through displacement, rape or commercial sex. "The impact...is not limited to the conflict area. It diverts resources from national development programmes and weakens government capacity, indirectly affecting the provision of services to the whole population," it says.
Posted 10:26 PM
by Mary
Guterres of Portugal named new UN refugee chief 24 May 2005 22:30:21 GMT Source: Reuters By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, May 24 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan chose former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres on Tuesday as the new U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, responsible for 17 million homeless people around the world. Guterres, 56, president of the Socialist International since 1999, replaces former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, who was pressured to resign in February following allegations of sexual harassment, which he vigorously denied. The Geneva-based UNHCR, the largest refugee agency in the world, has an annual budget of close to $1 billion and 6,000 staff in 115 countries. The U.N. General Assembly must approve the nomination, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric in making the announcement. Diplomats said the 191-member body was expected to do so soon. Guterres was one of eight candidates interviewed by a panel of senior U.N. officials and outside experts. Annan made the final decision.
May 16, 2005
Posted 10:26 PM
by Mary
US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals' Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions busting by American firms Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson in Washington Tuesday May 17, 2005 The Guardian The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation. A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them. The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua. In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together. "The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales. The report is likely to ease pressure from conservative Republicans on Kofi Annan to resign from his post as UN secretary general.
May 10, 2005
Posted 6:41 AM
by Mary
For a real UN commission on human rights The International Herald Tribune April 27, 2005 The New York Times … A real, functioning human rights commission would need a different sort of membership. Today, regional blocs sponsor virtually any volunteer, even those committing genocide. The system allows abusive governments, which are hostile to the very notion that mass murder or torture is anyone's business, to stifle criticism of themselves and their political allies and weaken the Commission's response to abuses. The Commission's replacement should also meet year-round. Under the current system, governments can make cosmetic changes or pledges that deflect criticism until next year's session. The Commission cannot address emergencies unless they occur during March or April and can do little to prevent abuses. When the annual session begins, its members are deluged with a hundred reports, all to be considered in six weeks. One example of the consequences: A special investigator working for the Commission warned in August 1993, eight months before it began, that genocide was likely in Rwanda. The warning was not read until March 1994, and then disappeared in the crush of business. Even when the Commission does use such reports to demand action, it has no system to monitor whether a country is keeping its pledges between sessions. Annan is proposing a smaller Human Rights Council that would solve these problems. Its members, who would be elected by the General Assembly, should campaign for slots on a platform of their own record and ideas for promoting human rights. The Council would sit year round, which means it could follow up on the reports of its special investigators with ongoing public pressure and on-the-ground monitoring. A robust human rights body would be able to call the world's attention to situations where massacres were imminent, and could formally ask the Security Council to consider sending peacekeepers or refer the matter to the International Criminal Court. When the world's heads of state meet at the United Nations in September, they should vote to establish a real human rights panel and abandon this showpiece of dysfunction. www.iht.com
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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