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Predate: Via Avedon once more, MEC has the trace as regards arraignable crimes.

TPM Mess hall has the copy pro the openness Moyers roundtable and hones inwards headed for the centrosymmetric touch points.

Blogswarm to Impeachment

A French diplomat, Alain Le Roy, has been appointed by the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, as the world's chief peacekeeper. With UN peace operations facing the most serious crisis since Rwanda and Srebrenica, the timing could not be more critical.

UN peacekeeping is the victim of its own success: Never before in their 60-year history have blue helmets been in such high demand. About 110,000 personnel are deployed in 20 peace operations around the world, more than a six-fold increase from 10 years ago.

However, UN member states have neglected making crucial investments in the support infrastructure for an expanding network of large peace operations with increasingly complex tasks, from protecting civilians to rebuilding defunct institutions in post-conflict states. As a result, the UN apparatus is severely overstretched, exhibiting increasingly serious pathologies ranging from sluggish deployments to shocking sexual abuse scandals.

Worse yet, the Security Council has returned to the ill-fated practice of sending peacekeepers into ever-more hostile environments where there simply no peace to keep.

Recent reports from Darfur, the largest and most expensive UN mission to date, are reminiscent of the news from Bosnia in the weeks before the fall of Srebrenica: UN peacekeepers, facing a logistical and political nightmare, are unable to defend themselves, let alone protect the civilian population. Were further large-scale atrocities to occur under the UN's watch in Darfur, the repercussions would threaten to undermine the entire business of peace operations.

There is a risk of an all-out anti-UN backlash overshadowing the good work UN peacekeepers have done in exceptionally difficult circumstances over the past decade. UN members need to act now and give the new head of peacekeeping the tools and support necessary to pull UN peacekeeping back from the brink.

To accomplish this, member states need to clearly commit to the doctrine that a UN peace operation should only be deployed if there is actually a peace to keep, underwritten by a credible commitment by the major conflict parties to work toward a political solution. If taking the "Responsibility to Protect" seriously in some cases requires military intervention, member states should not rely on the instrument of peacekeeping, which is ill-suited for this task.

Therefore, under present circumstances the UN should not deploy peacekeepers to Somalia or Chad, where the absence of political will among rival parties renders peacekeepers as little more than turquoise targets.

Key member states must also lower expectations on what peacekeepers can realistically achieve in Darfur. They must make it crystal clear to the public that the absence of peace in Darfur is not the fault of UN peacekeepers but a result of the international community's inability to force the conflict parties into a lasting political settlement.

In addition, UN members urgently need to invest in the infrastructure for peace operations worldwide. Resources need to match the grandiose rhetoric and ambitious goals set out in Security Council mandates. This includes seriously enlarging the UN's standby blue helmet capacity - with a clear manpower commitment on the part of the United States, Canada and Europe, not just Asian and African states who currently supply the vast majority of peacekeepers.

It also means expanding the team of rapidly deployable police officers and complementing it with a team of judicial and legal experts who can play a critical role in struggling peace operations worldwide.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

In his letter Ban said: "I strongly commend Israel's readiness to engage in another release of Palestinian detainees and welcome Hezbollah's willingness in principle to further contribute to the solution of the humanitarian cases."

Ban said he hoped the next releases lead to "further humanitarian moves."

I suppose this is the inevitable outcome of Israel's capitulation to the demands of Hezbollah. Remember that "prisoner" swap?

After releasing child-killer Samir Kuntar (or Kantar, or Quntar, or whichever transliteration is least offensive) in return for the bodies of Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev (soldiers murdered by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid), Kuntar was hailed throughout the Arab world -- particularly in Lebanon -- as a national hero. And it's not because he's become a peacemaker.

On Tuesday he was interviewed by Lebanon's Future TV:

Interviewer: Are you considering completing your master's?
Samir Al-Quntar: No. Allah willing, I will do a different one.
Interviewer: In what?
Samir Al-Quntar: A master's degree in resistance.
Interviewer: What form will it take?
Samir Al-Quntar: Military...
Interviewer: So Samir Al-Quntar is declaring tonight that...
Samir Al-Quntar: I've already declared this.
Interviewer: You declared that you would be a member of the resistance, but today you are declaring that you will be a resistance fighter, and that you will carry out military missions for the resistance.
Samir Al-Quntar: Without the slightest doubt.
Interviewer: The Islamic resistance?
Samir Al-Quntar: Yes.
Interviewer: Is that a done deal?
Samir Al-Quntar: Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. I say it three times.

Nice. That's what the UN terms a "humanitarian move."

So in return for two dead Israeli soldiers, Israel is likely to get more dead or wounded Israeli soldiers. And possibly (probably?) more dead or wounded Israeli civilians too. That is, after all, Kuntar's MO.

And don't think Hamas isn't itching to get in on the action. Let's not forget they still hold Gilad Shalit, hopefully alive. What monsters will they want released in return?

According to United Nations Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, the conflict between the Janjaweed, a militia group recruited mostly from the Arab Abbala tribes of northern Rizeigat, and the African farmers, which was declared a "genocide" by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2004, was caused by man-made global warming, which has destroyed many of the area's natural resources. It is believed that global climate change is responsible for the decades of drought that has plagued Darfur, bringing the two factions to violence over scarce water and cultivatable land.

It is believed that this style of violence could end up being repeated in parts of North Africa and the Middle East, due to the ever-growing population places a strain on their limited water supply. This belief also comes from the fact that these areas have been suffering a steady decline in rainfall. In Darfur alone, the amount of annual rainfall has been cut by at least half since the last figures were collected in 1917.

The current population of Darfur, according to estimates, is well over 6.5 million people, and an estimated 10,000 people are killed every month from ethnic violence (over 333 people per day). As of right now, it is estimated that over 200,000 people have been killed in this conflict, with over 2.5 million people left homeless.

There has been some relief in Darfur, however, through such programs as the United Nations World Food Programme and the International Lifeline Fund, who introduced a redesigned stove that would require less wood to burn, preserving the trees necessary for the people of Darfur to grow food. Aid groups, in addition to the United Nations, are currently seeking ways to reconcile the African farmers and the Arab nomads. As a matter of fact, Arab chiefs have agreed to revive a "peace committee" to manage the common resources they have with the local leaders of African tribes. In addition, the Sudanese government has planned a pilot project, in which they will spend $10 million to replant trees and build dams for water conservation.

While it may seem that the conflict in Darfur may not have much to do with global warming (or environmentalism, for that matter), the evidence is clear that much of the violence in this nation have been linked to deforestation and drought, which are both symptoms of climate change. The current conflict in Darfur is proof-positive that global warming affects everybody's way of life.

For more information, check out this Wikipedia article or purchase the film Darfur Now, starring American film actor and author Don Cheadle.

Here is the trailer:

Following our organization's strong condemnation of the United Nations and its Secretary General for their "addiction" to the "carbon habit," getting endless fixes through flying tens of millions of miles each year, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has now taken the lead on condemning the business world's unbridled flying habits.

Tutu condemned businesspeople who contribute to global warming by taking flights rather than using video conferencing, thereby "condemning millions of the world's poorest people to death."

He wants developed countries that have caused global warming to take the lead slashing emissions of climate changing greenhouse gases.

"It is the countries which are the least responsible for causing climate change that are paying the heaviest price," he said in a video message to a meeting of the World Development Movement lobby group Thursday.

"Do not fly in the face of the poor by allowing the emissions produced by endless and unnecessary business flights to keep growing." He said, adding that scientists predicted as many as 185 million Africans would die this century because of climate change.

Desmond Tutu (Former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. (Photo date: 2004)

Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate who campaigns tirelessly for global justice and equality, said: "Climate change is for real. As I speak, famine is increasing, flooding is increasing, as is disease and insecurity globally because of water scarcity," he said.

"As an African I urgently call on ordinary people in rich countries to act as global citizens, not as isolated consumers. We must listen to our consciences, and not to governments who speak only about economic markets.

"These markets will cease to exist if climate change is allowed to develop to climate chaos," he added.

"In South Africa we confirmed that if we act on the side of justice we have the power to turn tides," Tutu said.

"I urge you ... to work together with campaigners in the global South and call for strong climate change laws in your own countries in the North, as well as internationally." (Source: Reuters).

Related Links:

• UN Hypocrisy: Kick the CO2 Habit!
• Stop New Zealand Committing Eco-Terrorism!

• Cyprus Collapse May Be Imminent!
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

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The secretary-general will name South African Judge Navanethem Pillay as the next U.N. human rights commissioner as early as today, diplomats and U.N. officials said Thursday.

The daughter of a Tamil bus driver in Durban, she experienced human rights violations firsthand. Pillay earned a law degree at Harvard, but for 28 years during apartheid, she was not allowed to set foot in a judge's chambers as a lawyer because of her South Asian origins. In 1995 she became the first woman of color to become a judge on the High Court.

Pillay, born in 1941, also served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecuting crimes related to that nation's genocide. She presided over landmark cases in international law that established rape as a war crime, convicted a former head of state for atrocities committed during his rule and prosecuted media for inciting genocide. She has served for five years on the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Pillay may not be as outspoken as the current commissioner, Canadian Judge Louise Arbour, who often shamed governments and leaders that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would not criticize by name.

Arbour took the forefront on issues such as the United Nations' opposition to capital punishment when Ban said he supported each state's right to decide whether to use it, and has criticized the United States for skirting international law in its fight against terrorism.

Human Rights advocates wonder whether Pillay will stand up to big powers when they violate human rights, or push her native South Africa on controversial issues, such as human rights violations in neighboring Zimbabwe and elections there that the U.N. has declared illegitimate.

"The challenge for her will be to use the bully pulpit and be a strong advocate for human rights," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. "As a judge, she has no experience with that."

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Podpisano wspólną deklarację Unia Europejska-Izrael "kooperacji w dziedzinie edukacji". Komisarz Unii Europejskiej ds. edukacji, szkoleń, kultury i młodzieży, Ján Figel' oraz izraelski minister edukacji Yuli Tamir podpisali wspólną deklarację "kooperacji i dialogu w sferze edukacji".

Deklarację podpisano 16 lipca br. podczas wizyty - pochodzącego ze Słowacji - Komisarza w Izraelu. Celem deklaracji jest "wzmocnienie procesu integracyjnego pomiędzy programami nauczania Izraela i Unii Europejskiej".

Izrael i Unia Europejska zasygnalizowali również zainteresowanie w poszerzeniu kooperacji pomiędzy uniwerstytetami, szczególnie w ramach programu Unii Europejskiej Erasmus Mundus and Tempus. Komisarz Figel' podczas wizyty w Izraelu otworzył dwa biura programu Tempus - w Jerozolimie i Ramallah.

Komisarz Figel' zwracając uwagę na podobieństwo ramów edukacyjnych Izraela i Unii Europejskiej powiedział, że "Unia Europejska jest zdeterminiowana w opracowani bliższego parterstwa z Izraelem. Proces ten należy postrzegać w kontekście szerszych relacji naszych wspólnych interesów."

Niemiecki wywiad pośredniczy w tajnych rozmowach Izraela z terrorystami

Niemiecki wywiad pośredniczył w tajnych negocjacjach między Izraelem a terrorystami z organizacji Hezbollah. Rozmowy dotyczyły rozpoczętej dziś rano operacji wymiany jeńców między Izraelem a Hezbollahem.

W ramach tej wymiany Hezbollah przekazał szczątki dwóch izraelskich żołnierzy uprowadzonych w 2006 roku. Ich zniknięcie wywołało wówczas wojnę w Libanie. Ich los był do dziś nieznany. W zamian za ciała żołnierzy Izrael zobowiązał się do zwolnienia z więzień pięciu terrorystów oraz do wydania doczesnych szczątków dwustu innych bojowników Hezbollahu.

Niemiecki agent wywiadu BND działał w imieniu Organizacji Narodów Zjednoczonych - wynika z ujawnionych dziś przez prasę dokumentów.

Dlatego przebywający obecnie z wizytą w Niemczech sekretarz generalny ONZ Ban Ki Moon po spotkaniu z niemieckim ministrem obrony Franzem Josefem Jungiem podziękował niemieckim władzom za pomoc w negocjacjach. Trwały one półtora roku. Niemiecki rząd zapewnił, że również w przyszłości chce pomagać w tego typu misjach.

Barak In Washington To Lobby For Iran Attack

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
July 11, 2008

Israeli war minister Ehud Barak will visit Washington next week to meet with top U.S. government officials and President Bush in what some are suggesting will be the final planning session in anticipation of a military strike on Iran.

Read Full Article Here

President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran

The Sunday Times
July 13, 2008

President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.

Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.

“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support.

Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets.

“It’s really all down to the Israelis,” the Pentagon official added. “This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn’t believe that anything but force will deter Iran.”

The official added that Israel had not so far presented Bush with a convincing military proposal. “If there is no solid plan, the amber will never turn to green,” he said.

There was also resistance inside the Pentagon from officers concerned about Iranian retaliation. “The uniform people are opposed to the attack plans, mainly because they think it will endanger our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the source said.

Read Full Article Here

Calling climate change "one of the great global challenges of our time," the world's richest nations and emerging powers joined together Wednesday for the first time to commit themselves to pursue long-range cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions, but were split on how to achieve that goal.

The declaration grew out of an unprecedented meeting that brought together 16 nations and the European Union - a group dubbed the "major economies" - around the issue of global warning. The 16 are the Group of 8 industrialized nations: the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Britain and Russia; the Group of 5 emerging economies: China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa; and three other major trading nations: Australia, South Korea and Indonesia.

The session, organized by President George W. Bush, took place here on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido, where leaders of the Group of 8 wrapped up three days of meetings on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, leaders of the Group of 8 pledged to "move toward a carbon-free society" by cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases in half by 2050. But Group of 5 poorer countries refused to sign onto that goal. They are holding out until rich nations like the United States take more aggressive steps to cut pollution over the next decade.

That fissure prevented the 16 countries from "reaching any meaningful understanding" in the special Wednesday session, said one expert, Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. But an environmental campaigner, Phillip Clapp of the Pew Environmental Group, said the declaration helped set the stage for the next American president to grapple with climate change when the United Nations conducts negotiations on a binding treaty in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

"It is good that the developing countries have embraced the principal of a global target that they will participate in," Clapp said. "It would have been better if the United States and the other G-8 countries would have been willing to step up to the plate and make a strong commitment about what they would do over the next 10 years. "

Bush claimed success.

"In order to address climate change, all major economies must be at the table," he said before flying back to Washington. "And that's what took place today."

But the meetings did not produce a long-term emissions goal accepted by all the countries, rich and emerging, which was the goal the Bush administration had sought since announcing the "major economies" effort last year.

For Bush, who is trying to salvage his legacy on climate change late in his administration after years of international pressure to take a more aggressive stance, the back-to-back declarations were still an important step. Bush has long insisted that any international treaty include developing nations like China and India.

"This is an enormous movement for a man who questioned the science on global warming, who was opposed to international treaties and who was opposed to international targets," said Clapp, a frequent critic of the president's policies. "Here he is leading the way trying to get a global target. He's gotten the developing countries to acknowledge there should be a global goal."

Although the meeting put the United States on record for the first time as embracing a specific long-term goal, environmentalists complained that the declaration by the G-8 did not go far enough.

" Major economies meeting turns into major embarrassment meeting for G8," the WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement.

Together, the countries that issued the declaration are responsible for more than 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists have said are warming the planet. But there is a dispute between rich and poor nations over how to set targets, and who should bear the brunt of the responsibility.

There is also a dispute over the starting point for the Group of 8 plan to halve emissions by 2050. There was no mention of a baseline in the group's declaration.

Many scientists say cutting emissions in half by 2050 is not enough to combat climate change, and that it would take an 80 percent drop from 2008 levels to limit chances of runaway warming and centuries of rising sea levels. Developing countries agree.

Under a proposal put forth by China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil, developed nations would cut emissions between 25 and 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. David Doniger, an expert on climate change at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, predicted the two sides could come together, but probably not until a new president is in the White House.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

To read the G8 statement on energy security and climate change, please click here.

For more about the G8 Summit in Japan, click here.

Only 10,000 troops of a planned 26,000-force have been deployed

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned an ambush which left seven members of the joint UN-African Union peace mission to Sudan's Darfur region dead.

Twenty-two others were injured, seven critically, in one of the deadliest assaults on UN forces in recent years.

The UN says its peacekeepers fought for over two hours to repulse suspected Janjaweed fighters, who were armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Only 10,000 of a planned 26,000-strong peacekeeping force have been deployed.

Correspondents say the UN-AU mission, which began work this year, lacks the military hardware, including attack helicopters, needed to operate effectively in a region roughly the size of France.

'Extreme violence'

Khartoum, which wants predominantly African peacekeepers, has been accused of slowing down the deployment of the force by repeatedly raising objections.

About 40 armoured vehicles ambushed the peace force while it was on patrol in North Darfur on Wednesday.

Ten vehicles from the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) were destroyed, Sudan's state media reported.

A spokeswoman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he "condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence".

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN in New York says that UN officials suspect Janjaweed militia loyal to Sudan's government were to blame.

She says diplomats are wondering whether the timing of the attack could be linked to the fact that top Sudanese officials could be indicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court next week.

The Janjaweed has long been hostile to UN troops in Sudan, fearing they could be used to arrest anyone indicted by the court at the Hague, our correspondent says.

Since the conflict began in Darfur five years ago, the UN estimates that some 300,000 people have died and two million have fled their homes.

The conflict began when rebels took up arms in protest at alleged government discrimination against the region.

Pro-government Arab militias have been accused of widespread atrocities against the black African population.

Abstracted from BBC News  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7498811.stm ]]> http://hrcastro.wordpress.com/?p=350 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:28:07 +0000 Henrique http://hrcastro.wordpress.com/?p=350

A alta dos preços dos alimentos ameaça reverter todos os avanços globais com desenvolvimento e levar 100 milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo para baixo da linha de pobreza, advertiram nesta segunda-feira o secretário-geral da ONU, Ban Ki-Moon, e o presidente do Banco Mundial, Robert Zoellick.

A declaração de ambos foi feita na ilha de Hokkaido, no Japão, onde acontece a reunião de cúpula anual do G8, o grupo dos sete países mais industrializados do mundo mais a Rússia. Ambos haviam participado de uma reunião pela tarde com os líderes do G8 e oito chefes de Estado ou governo africanos.

Ban e Zoellick cobraram dos países do G8 uma ação urgente para combater a atual crise e para prevenir futuras altas nos preços dos alimentos. Segundo o secretário-geral da ONU, o mundo enfrenta três crises simultâneas e interligadas - dos alimentos, do clima e de desenvolvimento - para as quais são necessárias soluções integradas. "Nossos esforços até agora têm sido muito divididos e esporádicos. Agora é a hora de termos um enfoque diferente", afirmou Ban. "A ONU está pronta para ajudar com todos esses desafios globais", disse. Segundo ele, "todo dólar investido hoje equivale a dez amanhã ou cem no dia seguinte".

Oportunidade

O presidente do Banco Mundial afirmou que a atual crise é uma oportunidade para que o mundo consiga alcançar um caminho de desenvolvimento no longo prazo, mas que para isso é necessário um comprometimento dos países ricos por mais investimentos. Segundo ele, investimentos em projetos como irrigação podem ajudar a expandir as colheitas, principalmente na África, e ajudar a combater a escassez global de alimentos. "Só 4,9% das terras aráveis da África são irrigadas, contra 40% no Sudeste Asiático", observou. Segundo ele, os caminhos para possíveis soluções para os problemas atuais já são conhecidos, mas o que falta são mais recursos.

Impacto dos biocombustíveis

Questionados durante a conferência sobre o impacto que os biocombustíveis teriam sobre a alta global dos alimentos, Ban e Zoellick afirmaram que a produção certamente afeta a atual crise, mas argumentaram que são necessários mais estudos para avaliar a exata dimensão desse impacto.

Na semana passada, um documento do Banco Mundial vazado para o jornal britânico The Guardian estimava em 75% a parcela de culpa dos biocombustíveis na alta dos alimentos, principalmente pelo desvio de cultivos como o milho ou a soja para a sua produção. "É verdade que os biocombustíveis contribuem para o aumento no preço dos alimentos, mas não está claro quanto", afirmou Ban. "Acredito que precisa haver mais pesquisas para quantificar isso."

Fonte: BBC | G1.com.br

Het Colombiaanse leger slaagde erin Ingrid Betancourt, drie Amerikanen en elf andere gijzelaars te bevrijden na maandenlange voorbereidingen en infiltratie. De infiltratie van de FARC verandert de machtsverhoudingen tussen beide partijen drastisch. Tot nu toe kon de guerrilla door de gijzeling van Ingrid Betancourt en drie Amerikanen rekenen op een voortdurende aandacht van de internationale media. Tegelijkertijd boden de buitenlanders bescherming tegen een militaire invasie.

Pasmunt

De gijzelaars die zijn gered, maakten deel uit van een groep van 40 gijzelaars die de FARC jarenlang naar voren schoof als pasmunt voor 500 gevangen guerrillero’s. Die vraag lijkt in het huidige klimaat, zonder charismatische buitenlandse gijzelaars in handen, niet langer realistisch. Het is Uribe die nu met een nieuw voorstel komt: 'Wij nodigen de FARC uit het vredesproces concreet te maken, te beginnen met de vrijlating van alle gijzelaars die zij nog in hun macht hebben.'

Het pleidooi voor onvoorwaardelijke vrijlating vindt internationale weerklank. Naast Ban Ki-Moon, secretaris-generaal van de VN, en Javier Solana, Hoog Vertegenwoordiger van het Gemeenschappelijk Buitenland- en Veiligheidsbeleid van de EU, spraken ook de Amerikaanse presidentskandidaten John McCain en Barack Obama zich uit voor de vrijlating van de ruim 700 resterende gijzelaars.

Tegenslagen

De tegenslagen voor de FARC volgen elkaar snel op. Op 26 maart overleed de historische leider van de Colombiaanse rebellenbeweging, Manuel Marullanda. De 62-jarige Alfonso Cano volgde Manuel Marullanda op. Op 1 maart stierf de nummer twee van de FARC, Raul Reyes, in een actie van het Colombiaanse leger op Ecuadoraans grondgebied.

Op 6 maart werd een ander lid van het FARC-bestuur, ‘Iván Ríos’ vermoord door een van zijn lijfwachten, die hem de hand afsneed om bij de Colombiaanse regering zijn beloning in ontvangst te nemen. Op 20 mei ten slotte gaf FARC-commandante ‘Katrina’ (Nelly Avila Moreno) zich over aan de Colombiaanse politie, in ruil voor amnestie.

Opluchting

'Ik dank het leger van mijn vaderland Colombia. De reddingsoperatie verliep smetteloos', verklaarde een opgeluchte Betancourt op de luchthaven in Bogotá. Betancourt, geboren in 1961, Française en Colombiaanse van nationaliteit, was eerst gedeputeerde en daarna lid van de Senaat in Colombia, waar ze streed tegen de corruptie en de drugsbaronnen. Ze werd op 23 februari 2002 door de FARC (de Revolutionaire Strijdkrachten van Colombia) ontvoerd toen ze kandidaat was voor de presidentsverkiezingen.

Sinds de zomer van 2003 vernam haar familie niets meer van haar, in 2007 verscheen een video en mocht ze onverwacht een brief schrijven aan haar moeder, familie en kinderen. 'Mamita, ik ben moe, het lijden moe. Ik ben sterk geweest, dat heb ik althans geprobeerd. Deze bijna zes jaar van gevangenschap hebben me aangetoond dat ik niet zo taai en ook niet zo moedig, intelligent en sterk ben als ik dacht. Ik heb heel wat strijden gestreden, ik heb verschillende ontsnappingspogingen gedaan, ik heb geprobeerd niet de hoop te verliezen en het hoofd boven water te houden. Maar momenteel voel ik me verslagen, mamita', schreef Betancourt in de brief die in mei in MO* verscheen.

In april schreef Alma De Walsche al in een opinie: 'Niet dat de Farc nog enige legitimiteit bezit. De terreur van deze rebellengroep en de honderden gijzelaars die ze in hun bezit hebben, hebben elk greintje sympathie voor een maatschappelijk project van sociale rechtvaardigheid, dat er in een ver verleden was, teniet gedaan. En de manier waarop ze volharden in hun voortbestaan is een immense hypotheek voor de Colombiaanse civiele samenleving en een hinderpaal voor elk nieuw maatschappelijk project.' Met de bevrijding van de meest bekende gijzelaars lijkt nu definitief de verbrokkeling van de FARC ingezet.

Bron: MO - Mondiaal Nieuws

Auteurs: Diana Cariboni, Lien De Coster, Alma De Walsche.

d.d. 04/07/2008

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is downplaying speculation in the media he may be headed to North Korea for a short visit. Speaking in his native South Korea, the U.N. chief did call on North Korea to improve its human rights, and urged his home country to contribute more to U.N. operations.

Speaking at a Seoul press conference Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said North Korea is not on his itinerary on this Asia trip.

Ban said he has expressed a willingness, in principle, to travel to the North but that no concrete plans had been made.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, arrived here Thursday for his first visit home since taking the top job at the U.N. more than a year ago.

Ban said he is concerned about human rights in the North.

"North Korea should also take necessary measures to improve the human rights situation ... there are still many areas in the world whose human rights are not properly protected and promoted, and even abused. This is a very undesirable and unacceptable situation."

Earlier in the day, Ban told South Korean lawmakers he feels "ashamed" at the relatively low amount of aid and peacekeeping personnel South Korea contributes to U.N. operations.

A U.S.-led United Nations coalition repelled North Korean and Chinese forces to the current North-South border after North Korea invaded the South in 1950. The United Nations is still active in monitoring the armistice along that border.

Still, Ban says South Korea is at the bottom among rich nations in providing funds for less developed countries, and calls upon the South to "repay its debt" to the international community.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

In Sudan's western Darfur region, a few thousand African peacekeepers continue to wait in parched misery for the 31,000 U.N.-backed reinforcements that the Sudanese government agreed to accept and were slated to begin arriving in December.

In Iran, physicists continue to enrich uranium deep beneath the earth in Natanz, despite three U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to halt the process for fear it would permit Iran to make nuclear weapons.

The inevitable question is: Why do some world leaders and their governments so flagrantly reject supposedly binding U.N. resolutions?

"A Security Council resolution carries a certain weight," said Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"But the message is often weak or unclear," Mr. Schaefer said. "When [Saddam Hussein] wouldn't cooperate, the council would retaliate by passing yet another resolution.

"The council has been devalued."

On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad circulated a draft resolution in the Security Council to impose travel and financial restrictions on Mr. Mugabe and his senior associates.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe

"We have to respond, not only because Zimbabwe is important, and not only because what happens there affects the region, but also the credibility of the council is at stake," Mr. Khalilzad said Monday.

"We spoke loudly and clearly and made demands that were ignored. If we do nothing, if there is no response, what does that say about the council? What does it say about how others should take the council in terms of the seriousness of what we say?" he said.

Read the rest:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/04/
un-ambiguity-adds-to-image-as-paper-tiger/

Il problema è sempre il referendum, sul quale il Polisario è inamovibile.

Ma c’è una novità: i rappresentanti del governo Sahrawi in esilio sono completamente in disaccordo anche con i supervisori Onu, questa volta; non più solo con il Marocco. Peter Van Walsum, l’inviato di Ban Ki-moon, infatti, ritiene l’opzione referendaria attualmente irrealistica; facendo un passo indietro rispetto al 1991 e al 1997, quando fra le possibilità vagliate dal MINURSO – la missione ONU di peacekeeping per il Sahara Occidentale - c’era una consultazione popolare che prevedeva anche l’indipendenza per la Repubblica democratica araba del Sahrawi, dichiarata unilateralmente dal Polisario nel 76 e mai riconosciuta dal Marocco.

Il sei settembre del 91, infatti, fu siglato un cessate il fuoco fra Rabat e il Fronte di Liberazione proprio sull’opzione referendaria, ponendo fine ad anni di lotte e di sangue.

Il Fronte aveva incominciato ad organizzarsi come movimento di liberazione nazionale del popolo Sahrawi sulla scia del processo di decolonizzazione avviato a Bandung nel 65. Fino alla caduta del franchismo nel 76, il principale antagonista dei ribelli era stata la Spagna. In quegli anni anche la corte dell’Aja riconobbe il diritto all’autodeterminazione del popolo Sahrawi.

Ma anche con la ritirata di Madrid, la situazione era lungi dal risolversi. Il deserto viene occupato da Marocco e Mauritania; quest’ultima esce di scena solo grazie ad un’insurrezione del proprio esercito, nel 79, nonostante gli aiuti della Francia volti a mantenere lo status quo territoriale.

Da quel momento il Marocco continua da solo l’occupazione del territorio Sahrawi, completamente travolto da una situazione di guerrilla permanente, con morti da ambo le parti.
Dal cessate il fuoco del 91, in più di un’occasione, le delegazioni marocchine e del Fronte Polisario si sono incontrate con il MINURSO, giungendo ad un nulla di fatto.
Dal 2007, infine, il Marocco ha abbandonato l’opzione referendaria a favore di un nuovo progetto di completa autonomia della regione del Sahrawi, sotto la sovranità di Rabat, riuscendo ad ottenere l’appoggio di Francia e Stati Uniti.

L’ultimo round delle negoziazioni di Manhasset (USA) di marzo, conclusesi pochi giorni fa, imprimono un’ulteriore interruzione alle negoziazioni. Peter Van Walsum ha sonoramente bocciato le velleità indipendentiste del Polisario ed ha dato la sua adesione al progetto di Rabat.

Mohamed Haddad, il rappresentante del Polisario, accusa pesantemente l’ONU, delegittimandone il ruolo di arbitro. “Giochiamo una partita nella quale l’arbitro chiede ad una squadra di ritirarsi dal campo per far fare gol all’altra”, ha dichiarato al quotidiano spagnolo El Paìs.

La situazione è complicata: il documento ufficiale ONU incriminato omette colpevolmente le relazioni di minoranza di chi, come Costa Rica e Sud Africa, continua ad appoggiare la posizione del Polisario. La “dimenticanza” del Consiglio di Sicurezza getta più di un’ombra sulla sua effettiva terzietà e solleva pulsioni complottistiche da parte degli stati vicini ai Sahrawi.

Allo stato attuale, anche se è improbabile che Ban Ki-moon cambi opinione, la posizione di Walsum vacilla sempre di più.

Alessio Postiglione
(pubblicato su www.notizieverdi.it)

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HOKKAIDO, Japan -- Global growth is the leitmotif of our era. The great economic expansion, now in its fifth decade, has raised living standards worldwide and lifted billions out of poverty.

Yet today, many wonder how long it can last. The reason: Plenty comes at an increasingly high price. We see it daily in the rising cost of fuel, food and commodities. Consumers in developed countries fear the return of "stagflation" -- inflation coupled with slowing growth or outright recession -- while the world's poorest no longer can afford to eat.

Meanwhile, climate change and environmental degradation threaten the future of our planet. Population growth and rising wealth place unprecedented stress on the Earth's resources. Malthus is back in vogue. Everything seems suddenly in short supply: energy, clean air and fresh water, all that nourishes us and supports our modern ways of life.

As the leaders of the Group of Eight gather here, we know that these issues affect us all: north and south, large nations and small, rich and poor. And we know we must find ways to extend the benefits of the global boom to those who have been left behind, the so-called "bottom billion." In dealing with problems of such dimension and complexity, there is only one possible approach: to see them for what they are -- as parts of a whole requiring a comprehensive solution.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, left, shakes hands with South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo upon his arrival at the Seoul Military Airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Thursday, July 3, 2008.(AP Photo/Yonhap, Lee Joung-hoon) 

A big part of that solution should be a "global supply-side response," as some economists put it, grounded in sustainable development -- nations, international financial organizations, the United Nations and its various agencies working as one.

Begin with the global food crisis. It has many causes, among them a failure to give agricultural development the importance it deserves. What's needed, in effect, is a "green revolution" of the sort that once transformed Southeast Asia, this time with a focus on small farmers in Africa. With the right mix of programs, there is no reason productivity cannot be doubled within a relatively short span, easing scarcity worldwide. We've seen it happen in Malawi, which, with international assistance, has shifted within a few years from being a country plagued by famine to one that exports food.
.
In Hokkaido, I will call on G-8 nations to triple official assistance for agricultural research and development over the next three to five years. We must act immediately to get seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural "inputs" to farmers in vulnerable countries in time for the coming harvests. We must encourage nations to eliminate the export restrictions that many placed on foodstuffs this spring, as well as the more long-standing subsidies that many developed nations provide their farmers. Such artificial barriers distort trade patterns and drive up prices, deepening the immediate crisis and jeopardizing global growth.

With climate change, as well, sustainable development figures large in the solution. Most experts agree that we are nearing the end of cheap energy. Alternative technologies are among our best hopes for cleaner, affordable power. Here, too, a new "green revolution" is underway. The United Nations Environment Program has found that $148 billion in new funding went into sustainable energy last year, up 60 percent from 2006 and accounting for 23 percent of new power-generating capacity.

Our job, as national and international leaders, is to assist in guiding and hastening this nascent economic transformation. We need to change social behavior and consumption patterns throughout the developed world. And we must help developing countries "green" their economies by spreading climate-friendly technologies as broadly as possible.

We can take a big step forward in Hokkaido. Mindful of our responsibilities to the poorest nations most vulnerable to climate change, we must fully fund the global Adaptation Fund and make it operational. Looking forward to the December climate change summit in Poznan -- and to Copenhagen in 2009 -- we must push ahead with negotiations for a comprehensive agreement limiting greenhouse gases. Above all, we need to inject a sense of urgency and real leadership into this quest. It is not enough to set goals for 2050, far down the road. We need a middle-term timeline to 2020 if we are serious about promoting change now.

Lastly, Hokkaido will test our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. For Africa alone, donors have pledged $62 billion a year by 2010. Those in need have faces: mothers who die needlessly in childbirth, infants stunted through life because they do not receive adequate nutrition during their first two years. We promised this assistance. Now is the time to provide it.

Never in recent memory has the global economy been under such stress. More than ever, this is the moment to prove that we can cooperate globally to deliver results: in meeting the needs of the hungry and the poor, in promoting sustainable energy technologies for all, in saving the world from climate change -- and in keeping the global economy growing.

These are the ties that bind us. We must act, in Hokkaido and beyond -- not merely because it is the right thing to do but also because it is in the enlightened interest of all of us.

The writer is secretary general of the United Nations.

Niet Nicolas Sarkozy of Hugo Chávez stonden aan het hoofd van de ultieme reddingspoging van Ingrid Betancourt, maar wel de Colombiaanse president Uribe. Die kreeg tijdens de meer dan zes jaar durende gijzeling van Betancourt geregeld de kritiek niet voldoende inspanningen te doen voor haar vrijlating.

Laatste buitenlandse gijzelaars

“Ik dank het leger van mijn vaderland Colombia. De reddingsoperatie verliep smetteloos”, verklaarde een opgeluchte Betancourt op de luchthaven in Bogotá. Het waren niet de enige lovende woorden aan het adres van het leger en Álvaro Uribe. De president zelf omschreef de actie als “een historische daad en een hommage aan de mensenrechten”.

De infiltratie van de FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) door het Colombiaanse leger en de geweldloze bevrijding van 14 gijzelaars veranderen de machtsverhoudingen tussen beide partijen drastisch. Tot nu toe kon de guerrilla door de gijzeling van Ingrid Betancourt en drie Amerikanen rekenen op een voortdurende aandacht van de internationale media. Tegelijkertijd boden de buitenlanders bescherming tegen een militaire invasie.

De 14 die zijn gered, maakten deel uit van een groep van 40 gijzelaars die de FARC jarenlang naar voren schoof als pasmunt voor 500 gevangen guerrillero’s. Die vraag lijkt in het huidige klimaat, zonder charismatische buitenlandse gijzelaars in handen, niet langer realistisch. Het is Uribe die nu met een nieuw voorstel komt: “Wij nodigen de FARC uit het vredesproces concreet te maken, te beginnen met de vrijlating van alle gijzelaars die zij nog in haar macht hebben.”

Onthoofde guerrilla

Dit pleidooi voor onvoorwaardelijke vrijlating vindt internationale weerklank. Naast Ban Ki-Moon, secretaris-generaal van de VN, en Javier Solana, Hoog Vertegenwoordiger van het Gemeenschappelijk Buitenland- en Veiligheidsbeleid van de EU, spraken ook de Amerikaanse presidentskandidaten John McCain en Barack Obama zich uit voor de vrijlating van de ruim 700 resterende gijzelaars.

Het verlies van Ingrid Betancourt is voor de FARC de zoveelste tegenslag op rij dit jaar. Op 1 maart vermoordde het Colombiaanse leger commandant Raúl Reyes op Ecuadoriaans grondgebied. Zijn computer werd in beslag genomen en onthulde gevoelige informatie. Een ander kopstuk, Iván Ríos, werd in dezelfde maand om het leven gebracht door een van zijn eigen mannen. In dezelfde periode stierf Pedro Antonio Marín, een derde belangrijke man.

Auteur: Lien De Coster

bron: MO - Mondiaal Nieuws

d.d. 03/07/2008

Nicolas Sarkozy sprak van een "met succes bekroonde militaire operatie". De Franse president heeft van de bevrijding van Betancourt altijd een van de topprioriteiten van zijn buitenlands beleid gemaakt.

Sarkozy had woensdagavond al een telefonisch onderhoud met de Colombiaanse president Alvaro Uribe, om deze te bedanken voor de bevrijding van Betancourt.

Ook de Amerikaanse president George W. Bush bracht zijn gelukwensen over aan Uribe en noemde hem een "groot leider".

Oproep
De Venezolaanse regering reageerde woensdagavond al verheugd op de bevrijding van de gijzelaars. De regering van president Hugo Chavez roept de rebellen op alle andere gijzelaars ook vrij te laten.

Volgens de Venezolaanse publieke omroep heeft Chavez woensdag zijn Colombiaanse collega Alvaro Uribe opgebeld om hem te feliciteren. Zelf heeft de Venezolaanse president, die in januari en februari via bemiddeling de vrijlating van zes gijzelaars bereikte, nog niet in het openbaar gereageerd.

Secretaris-generaal Ban Ki-moon riep de FARC op "de dialoog aan te gaan met de autoriteiten om een einde te maken aan het geweld waar Colombia al zo lang onder gebukt gaat."

Felicitaties Leterme
In eigen land feliciteerde premier Yves Leterme de Colombiaanse overheid met de bevrijding van Betancourt en van de 14 andere gijzelaars.

"De gedachten van de premier gaan eerst en vooral naar de families van de bevrijde gijzelaars die deze avond een enorme opluchting kennen, na vele jaren van angstig afwachten", meldde zijn woordvoerder Peter Poulussen woensdagavond. Leterme hoopt ook dat alle andere gegijzelden snel worden bevrijd.

bron: Knack

d.d. 03/07/2008

Yes, yes kids... For crying out loud! I know what Country I'm in!

(Ban Ki Moon)

picture: dunno source, via our lolcat builder. lol caption: Miah

» Recaption This

... "The food and fuel crisis, and climate change, are the ties that bind us all. The leaders of the G8 must act, at the Hokkaido Toyako summit and beyond"

Writing in response:

READING through your article, Secretary General, I cannot help but think of the grave errors made in the recent past. Why for instance did the UN allow, for example such rape and pillage of the land throughout Southeast Asia in pursuit of biomass. Those policies, now backfiring, have deprived the farmers of scarce land that was needed in the growth of staple food products. Because of such guilt-ridden US policies in removing its dependence on oil, the world is faced with soaring food prices and struggling to pay for the almost weekly increases in fuel.

When you talk of "sustainable development", Mr. Ki-Moon, what do you actually mean? Like the term "terrorism" the United Nations has been unable to provide a definitive statement of what it means. Ambiguity runs central to much of what the UN purports.

The previous actions taken by the United States throughout the Far East on environmental policy, given current estimates, will lead not only to increasing hunger and starvation of many millions but, to an increase in diseases like malaria and typhoid which manifest ten-fold when climate temperatures are warmer. The likely death rate from disease, and drought, will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe on a level the world has never witnessed.

Most of the western world has an issue with food stuffs being grown from GM crops. The problem exists because of the lack of scientific scrutiny and because of the anxieties that people have on consuming such foods. Whilst I accept that GM food production is probably key in resolving the supply of essential foods, even this will be difficult as farmers, particularly small-scale, are faced with increasing costs of production.

© Mark Dowe 2008: all rights protected

Reference:

• Ban Ki-Moon, "Paying the price for global growth"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/03/g8.climatechange?commentpage=1&commentposted=1