NEW DELHI, August 26 (Compass Direct News) – At least 18 people are confirmed dead in 92 incidents of violence against Christians since suspected Maoists murdered Hindu leader Swamiji Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others on Saturday (Aug. 23) in Orissa state.

With Hindu extremists inciting hatred by heated accusations that Christians killed Saraswati, the national newspaper Hindu reported today that nine people had been killed in Orissa violence, and a Compass source near the state capital of Bhubaneswar confirmed an additional nine people slain.

The death count by the Hindu included four people killed in the Barakhama area. News agencies had earlier confirmed three dead in Raikia and two others, including a woman, killed in Bargarh, where a missionary-run orphanage was set on fire yesterday. The figure of 92 incidents thus far comes from the Global Council of Indian Christians.

Additionally, the Compass source said that Hindu extremists today killed pastor Samuel Naik of the Bakingia Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Kandhamal, and Jacob Digal and Gopan Naik of Damba village were slain this morning. Also killed today was Golok Naik of Pidinanju village (under Mondakia police station), and yesterday pastor Mukunda Bardhan from Mukundapur, Gajapati was burned to death.

Three other people whose names have not yet been verified, said the source, were killed in Katingia village of G. Udaygiri, along with a pastor belonging to Operation Mobilization from the same area. In Badimunda, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from G. Udaygiri, nearly 25 Christian homes were burned down.

There were many reports of Christians being pulled from their homes and killed or beaten, with many homes of Christians torched in Baliguda. According to reports by the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), the East India office of Compassion International in Bhubaneswar was ransacked.

Saraswati and four others were killed by suspected Maoists in the swami’s ashram, or religious center, in the Jalespata area of Kandhamal district’s Tumudiband Block in Orissa state. A warning letter found at the Saraswati religious center and use of expensive arms suggested Maoists were behind the attack.

In a state with a strong Maoist presence, police reportedly said they have evidence to link the communist rebels to the murders of Saraswati and his four associates. One police theory is that Maoists would attack Hindu leaders in a misguided effort to gain support among area tribal people, many of whom have converted to Christianity.

On Sunday (Aug. 24) the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a partner in the state’s ruling coalition, and the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) called for 12-hour a shut-down in which inflammatory speeches were made accusing Christians of killing Saraswati.

Authorities in Denial

Orissa Police Chief Gopal Chandra Nanda downplayed the violence, telling Reuters that incidents were only “sporadic” and that “some prayer houses have been attacked and vehicles have been burnt.”

Likewise, local authorities and media have painted the shutdown as “peaceful,” denying that organized attacks took place. The state is ruled by a coalition of the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal party.

At the same time, Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists have continued to incite hatred against Christians and criticized the local government. VHP Secretary General Pravin Tagodia accused the state government of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of acting like a “eunuch” and demanded his apology for the killing of Saraswati and his companions.

“Christians murdered Swamiji, but the government is lying and giving it a Maoist color,” Tagodia said. “Naveen as an individual and police, in particular, are responsible for this attack orchestrated by the church on Hindu dharma.’’

At the same time, a senior leader from Christian relief and development organization World Vision told Compass that a news report about the arrest of their staff members in connection with Saraswati’s killing was false. The police had merely kept two of their employees for protection, he said.

“No complaint had been lodged against them,” he said. “The employees have safely reached their homes.”

Widespread Violence

Sources from Kandhamal district said hundreds of Christians along with their families have fled to the nearby forests to save their lives in the rainy climate and are without shelter, food and clothing.

“Three adults and one child were reportedly killed in fresh violence in Barakhama, Kandhamal,” EFI News reported.

At least 14 Christians have been killed in Kandhamal, according to the news agency: Hacked to death by a rampaging mob of Hindu extremists were two Christians in Mutungia village, one in Petaponga village, one in Borimunda village, three in Katinga village, three in Tianga village, three in Adikuppa village and one in Bakingia village.

According to reports received from Kalahandi district, many incidents of violence and house burning have taken place even though it is more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the place where Saraswati was killed.

Christian sources said pastor Sikandar Singh of the Pentecostal Mission was beaten and his house was burned in Bhawanipatna. In Kharihar, three Christian shops were looted and burned. Pastor Alok Das was beaten at Kharihar, as was pastor I.M. Senapati. In Aampani, pastor David Diamond Pahar was beaten by more than 200 people. They chased him away from Aampani, and he is hiding in nearby villages.

Pastor Pravin Ship and two other area pastor identified only as Pradhan and Barik were beaten and chased away with their families. In Naktikani, an angry mob surrounded the village to attack Christians. The government sent forces to try to control the mob but without success.

Christian Pleas

A delegation of Christian leaders in New Delhi met with Home Minister Shivraj Patil to brief him of the situation and to register their concern. Patil assured the Christian delegation, including the Rev. Dr. Richard Howell, general secretary of EFI, and Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India of the central government’s support in curbing violence against Christians in the state.

Another delegation led by Orissa state Christian leaders met Gov. Rameshwar Thakur with the same objectives. The Rt. Rev. Samson Das and attorney Bibhu Dutta Das were also among those who met with the Orissa governor today.

In Kolkata, the All-India Minority Forum today condemned the attack on churches in Orissa and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Patnaik for his “failure” to protect religious minorities in his state.

“We condemn in unequivocal terms the incident of burning alive people who belong to the Christian community by Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists, and armed attacks on churches in Orissa,” Forum President Idris Ali said.

‘Kill Christians’

The violence has spread even though church leaders across the country condemned the Hindu priest’s killing and appealed for peace.

The VHP and its allies had called for a 12-hour shutdown to protest the killing of the swami, and Christian leaders expected Hindu mobs would use it to mobilize strikes at the Christian community.

“But what has taken place has even surpassed what we expected,” said one pastor who wished to remain anonymous.

Hindu extremists paraded the body of Saraswati throughout nearby villages, whipping up anger and mobilizing crowds against Christians, in uncontested defiance of a Kandhamal district administration prohibition against the gathering of four or more people. Among the slogans shouted was, “Kill Christians and destroy their institutions.”

In spite of an Orissa state-imposed curfew, crowds violated restrictions and proceeded to attack Christian communities throughout the state. Compass has received reports that the violence has spread to the districts of Gajapati, Phulbani, Nuaparha, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput.

The Orissa Legislative Assembly was disturbed for the second consecutive day at the various calls for the resignation of Chief Minister Patnaik.

Christians make up 2.4 percent of Orissa’s population, or 897,861 of the total 36.7 million people.  

Report from Compass Direct News

For anyone who thought that stark international aggression was a thing of the past, the last week must have come as a startling wake-up call. After clashes in the Georgian region of South Ossetia, Russia invaded its neighbor, launching attacks that threaten its very existence. Some Americans may wonder why events in this part of the world are any concern of ours. After all, Georgia is a small, remote and obscure place. But history is often made in remote, obscure places.

As Russian tanks and troops moved through the Roki Tunnel and across the internationally recognized border into Georgia, the Russian government stated that it was acting only to protect Ossetians. Yet regime change in Georgia appears to be the true Russian objective.

Two years ago, I traveled to South Ossetia. As soon as we arrived at its self-proclaimed capital -- now occupied by Russian troops -- I saw an enormous billboard that read, "Vladimir Putin, Our President." This was on sovereign Georgian territory.

Russian claims of humanitarian motives were further belied by a bombing campaign that encompassed the whole of Georgia, destroying military bases, apartment buildings and other infrastructure, and leaving innocent civilians wounded and killed. As the Russian Black Sea Fleet began concentrating off of the Georgian coast and Russian troops advanced on one city after another, there could be no doubt about the nature of their aggression.

Despite a French-brokered cease-fire -- which worryingly does not refer to Georgia's territorial integrity -- Russian attacks have continued. There are credible reports of civilian killings and even ethnic cleansing as Russian troops move deeper into Georgian territory.

Moscow's foreign minister revealed at least part of his government's aim when he stated that "Mr. Saakashvili" -- the democratically elected president of Georgia -- "can no longer be our partner. It would be better if he went." Russia thereby demonstrated why its neighbors so ardently seek NATO membership.

In the wake of this crisis, there are the stirrings of a new trans-Atlantic consensus about the way we should approach Russia and its neighbors. The leaders of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Latvia flew to Tbilisi to demonstrate their support for Georgia, and to condemn Russian aggression. The French president traveled to Moscow in an attempt to end the fighting. The British foreign minister hinted of a G-8 without Russia, and the British opposition leader explicitly called for Russia to be suspended from the grouping.

The world has learned at great cost the price of allowing aggression against free nations to go unchecked. A cease-fire that holds is a vital first step, but only one. With our allies, we now must stand in united purpose to persuade the Russian government to end violence permanently and withdraw its troops from Georgia. International monitors must gain immediate access to war-torn areas in order to avert an even greater humanitarian disaster, and we should ensure that emergency aid lifted by air and sea is delivered.

We should work toward the establishment of an independent, international peacekeeping force in the separatist regions, and stand ready to help our Georgian partners put their country back together. This will entail reviewing anew our relations with both Georgia and Russia. As the NATO secretary general has said, Georgia remains in line for alliance membership, and I hope NATO will move ahead with a membership track for both Georgia and Ukraine.

At the same time, we must make clear to Russia's leaders that the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world require their respect for the values, stability and peace of that world. The U.S. has cancelled a planned joint military exercise with Russia, an important step in this direction.

The Georgian people have suffered before, and they suffer today. We must help them through this tragedy, and they should know that the thoughts, prayers and support of the American people are with them. This small democracy, far away from our shores, is an inspiration to all those who cherish our deepest ideals. As I told President Saakashvili on the day the cease-fire was declared, today we are all Georgians. We mustn't forget it.

Prejudice against people living with HIV/AIDS makes them afraid to speak out and allows the disease to make its deadly impact around the globe, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today. “Stigma remains the single most important barrier to public action. It is the main reason too many people are afraid to see a doctor to determine whether they have the disease, or to seek treatment,” Mr. Ban writes in an op-ed article in The Washington Times.

“It helps make AIDS the silent killer, because people fear the social disgrace of speaking about it, or taking easily available precautions. Stigma is a chief reason the AIDS epidemic continues to devastate societies around the world.”

Mr. Ban addressed a major international conference on AIDS in Mexico earlier this week, which brought together more than 20,000 activists, academics and policymakers. In today’s article he says he called on world leaders “to speak out against discrimination and to guarantee the rights of people living with HIV.”

“Schools should teach respect and understanding. Religious leaders should preach tolerance. The media should condemn prejudice and use its influence to advance social change, from securing legal protections to ensuring access to health care,” he stressed.

The Secretary-General notes that, for the first time, fewer people are being infected by HIV and fewer are dying, thanks to changes in sexual behaviour – particularly among young people – and better access to anti-retroviral drugs.

He says these gains would not have been possible without strong support from the international community, and cites a renewed pledge by the G-8 group of countries to work toward the goal of universal access to HIV treatment by 2010, as well as a $48 billion commitment by United States President George Bush toward the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the next five years.

Donal McLaughlin, designer of the UN logo, was honored by his hometown of Garrett Park, Maryland on his 101th birthday on Saturday, July 26 with an honorary renaming of his street. The street sign includes the UN logo that he designed in 1945. Will Davis, director of the UN's Washington office, provided congratulatory remarks at the event.

The following article on McLaughlin's Centennial first appeared on UNA-USA's website in July 2007:

Donal McLaughlin, like any architect, said his wish was to see his designs come to life in brick and stone. Instead, the hallmark of McLaughlin's distinguished career can fit on a button one and one-sixteenth inches in diameter.

McLaughlin, who celebrated his 100th birthday on July 26, designed the lapel pin for the United Nations Conference on International Organization held in San Francisco in 1945. At the time, he had no idea his creation would be a symbol of peace and global cooperation throughout the world.

His design, which is stamped on the UN Charter signed June 26, 1945, remains the emblem of the UN today and one of the most recognizable symbols throughout the world.

McLaughlin, who was working at the State Departments's Office of Strategic Services (OSS) at the time of the conference, said the assignment came to him more by the luck of the draw.

"The previous three years during the war, I was employed by "Wild Bill" Donavan in the OSS as chief of graphics in that division," McLaughlin explained. "The war came to an end and the State Department was planning a meeting of United Nations in San Francisco and they asked my boss if they could employ our presentation division to help out there … among the things they needed was an identifying pin for all the delegates."

After McLaughlin and his team of artists drafted about nine different designs, a final illustration was chosen, although not without the breaking of some basic architectural rules, he said.

"The hardest part of the project was fitting the design and copy onto the small, circular pin that was one and one-sixteenth inches in diameter," McLaughlin said. "I did my thesis at Yale involving circular design and when I finished that I swore I'd never do another circular design because everything has to radiate from one center point."

To fix this problem, he drew the globe as an azimuthally equidistant projection so that all the countries of the world could fit into the circle. Then, McLaughlin moved the projection off-center - this final trick made everything fit.

The lapel pin and accompanying Charter displayed a globe projected in a way that showed all the continents surrounded by olive branches to represent peace. The outer edge of the circle had the conference's name, location and date.

"We had been using maps all throughout the war and we picked up on that projection," McLaughlin said. "The idea that we had was to represent one world through this projection."

A year later, the design was changed slightly when voted on by the General Assembly, he added. "The map was turned a quarter to the left so the east and west were in balance," whereas the logo on the Charter had North America on the centerline and the rest of the world upside down.

The refined design became the official symbol of the United Nations.

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

To visit UNIC's website, follow this link.

How many Christians still believe that what Israel is doing to Christian and Muslim Palestinians is legal, morally correct or even righteous?  If you do, please offer what you think Jesus (pbuh) would say about your response.

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.

The arrest of Radovan Karadzic on Monday gave badly needed credibility to international war crimes tribunals that have struggled for years to bring fugitives to justice, according to former prosecutors, legal experts and human rights groups. And the arrest bolstered arguments from tribunal officials that patience, multilateral diplomacy and creativity can make the institutions more effective.

“It’s building up piece by piece,” said Martha Minow, a law professor at Harvard and an expert on war crimes trials. “This is building up the legitimacy of these institutions.”

Mr. Karadzic will be the third high-profile figure to be brought before a United Nations-backed tribunal on war crimes charges in the last six years, following in the footsteps of President Charles Taylor of Liberia and the Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic. For years, supporters of the tribunals have argued that if leaders were brought to trial the courts could serve as a deterrent.

But Mr. Karadzic, who remained free for nearly 13 years, made a mockery of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which in 1993 became the first such body established by the United Nations.

Although repeatedly seen in public when American and NATO forces entered Bosnia in 1996, he was not arrested, in part out of fear that seizing him could cause a violent backlash against NATO forces.

Instead, the United States and the European Union tried to use economic and diplomatic pressure on Serbia to force his arrest. Until Monday, the policy appeared to be a failure.

At the same time, other war crimes tribunals established by the United Nations came under fire. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was criticized by Rwandans as being hugely expensive, based outside Rwanda and largely detached from the country itself. And the establishment of the International Criminal Court — a permanent tribunal intended to prosecute war crimes globally — was delayed for years by tortuous negotiations and fierce opposition from the Bush administration.

Only last week, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was criticized for requesting that genocide charges be filed against President Omar al- Bashir of Sudan. Critics warned that the move would complicate peace negotiations for the Darfur region of Sudan and never lead to Mr. Bashir’s arrest, given the international community’s poor track record on arresting fugitives.

After Mr. Karadzic’s s arrest, legal experts said his capture bring subtle new pressure to bear on the Sudanese leader.

Undermining a leader’s or regime’s legitimacy can also serve as leverage.

“The third way is what the world needs,” said one war crimes investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The problem is we are thinking two ways: we accept him or we go to war with him.”

Human rights groups said the arrest of Mr. Karadzic had the potential to significantly bolster the clout of the long-maligned tribunals. Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program, said that Mr. Karadzic had come to “personify impunity.”

“For international justice, this is a very good thing,” he said. “ I think it validates that justice has a long memory and a long reach.”

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

Related articles:
- EU applauds Karadzic arrest as important step for membership
- Serbs hope Karadzic arrest will lead to more
- Arrest of a strongman

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.

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.

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.

Prior to attending the Group of Eight Summit meeting in Toyako, Japan, next week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling upon the G8 leaders to address three main challenges the world is now facing: climate change, the food crisis, and progress on the Millennium Development Goals.

Ban’s concerned were highlighted in a recent letter addressed to the eight leaders, asking for their support and scaled up efforts to find sustainable solutions and plans of action.

The United Nations has reached “a critical juncture” in the implementation of its development agenda, the Secretary-General said earlier this week in a message to the opening of the annual high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Soaring oil and food prices, turmoil in the financial markets, inequality and climate change are all threatening to strike hardest at the world’s poorest people.

In his letter to the G8, Ban warns that, if we do not act decisively on resolving the food crisis, an additional 100 million people may fall below the poverty line worldwide. He recommends an increase in the proportion of Official Development Assistance that goes to agricultural production and rural development, from the current level of 3 percent to a new level of 10 percent, without diverting funds from existing education or health budgets.

On climate change, the Secretary-General says that we must arrive at a shared vision of what a new climate change agreement will look like, addressing all the building blocks agreed upon in Bali.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, known as IPCC, provided the science; the Stern Report, the economics; the UN High-Level Event on Climate Change, the political leadership; Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, the public awareness,” Ban said earlier this week, at the beginning of his official trip to Japan. “Taken together, all these contributed to rising momentum and achieving a significant breakthrough in the global response. This came in the Bali Roadmap agreed last December, which launched a new negotiations process to design a comprehensive post-2012 framework.”

“The race is under way to develop and provide needed solutions, such as clean technology, renewable energy, efficient products and processes, and sustainable goods and services,” the Secretary-General told Japanese political and business leaders in Tokyo. “I have no doubt that the Japanese companies will play a leadership role in this new era of responsible and sustainable business.”

Ban arrived in Japan on Saturday at the start of a two-week, three-nation East Asian tour which will also take him to China, the Republic of Korea and then back to Japan to attend the summit of Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Alain Le Roy of France as the new head of United Nations peacekeeping, tasked with overseeing almost 110,000 personnel serving in 20 peace operations around the world. Mr. Le Roy, 55, will replace Jean-Marie Guéhenno of France, who has held the post since October 2000.

“The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Guéhenno’s dedicated service to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations [DPKO] and for his important contribution to the achievement of its goals,” UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters. “He recalled the strong sense of commitment and professionalism shown consistently by Mr. Guéhenno to the fulfilment of his responsibilities.”

As the new Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Le Roy brings to the job an extensive experience in public administration, management and international affairs, both at the political level and in the field.

After serving in the private sector as a petroleum engineer, he joined the public service as Sous-préfet, then as Counsellor at the Cour des comptes (French Audit Office). He is currently Conseiller Maître à la Cour des comptes and has served since September last year as Ambassador in charge of the Union for the Mediterranean Initiative – a proposed community of European Union member States and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea which is set to be established next month.

He has previously served the world body as Deputy to the UN Special Coordinator for Sarajevo and Director of Operations for the restoration of essential public services. He also went on missions for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Mauritania and was appointed UN Regional Administrator in Kosovo (West Region).

After having been National Coordinator for the Stability Pact for South-east Europe in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was appointed EU Special Representative in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. He was subsequently appointed Assistant Secretary for Economic and Financial Affairs in the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, before serving as the French Ambassador to Madagascar.

Mr. Le Roy holds a degree in Engineering from the Ecole nationale supérieure des Mines de Paris; and a DEA (Master of Advanced Studies) in Economics from Paris I. He also completed the program for senior managers in government at the Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

For 16 months, Russia and the West have been a bit eyeball-to-eyeball in the United Nations Security Council over the status of Kosovo. But to borrow Dean Rusk's famous phrase during the 1963 Cuban missile crisis, it appears that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has just blinked.

Mr. Ban's concession on Friday appeared to brush aside Russia's objections and clear the way to end the nine-year "UNMIK" mission in Kosovo. Last week, Pristina authorities inked a milestone constitution, following a February declaration of independence.

For much of the past nine years, Kosovars described themselves as bystanders in their own fate; the future of this gritty city was controlled by Moscow, Washington, Brussels, and New York. A UN departure may begin to change that.

"Ban Ki Moon has clearly moved closer to the position of those states that recognize Kosovo, but from the Serb position, they've got what they wanted," says James Lyon of the International Crisis Group in Belgrade. "They have de facto taken Kosovo north of the Ibar River."

To be sure, Serbs strongly contest Kosovo. On Friday, a parliament of Kosovo Serbs will meet, backed directly by Belgrade. The body, considered illegal by Western officials, will coordinate Serb agencies, police, security, and even Ministry of Defense offices. It remains an open question whether the European Union can enter the largest enclave, Mitrovica.

"What will not be helpful is to push this problem off," says a senior Western diplomat affiliated with an international agency. "We don't want Kosovo as an international ward for years to come…. Drift contributes not just to instability in Kosovo. It contributes to Serb instability, [which is] the problem in the region."

Kosovo is a "second tier" priority for the United States and the West at a time of an Iran-Israel crisis, the Iraq war, and Afghanistan. Yet the dispute pits key principles in international affairs – state sovereignty against the relatively new concept of self-determination for the Kosovars. It is seen as a test of whether the Balkans can integrate into Europe – or are destined to devolve into nationalistic groups.

On Friday at a special Security Council meeting, Ban described the Kosovo problem as the most difficult of his diplomatic career.

Lacking Security Council authority, the question of the UN in Kosovo had come down to Ban's authority as an arbiter, with Moscow saying he couldn't pull the UN out of the country without the Security Council, and most Western diplomats saying he could. Ban said Kosovo's newly declared independence created "profound new realities" on the ground. "It is ... the view of the United Nations that [a reconfiguration] constitutes the best possible way in order to manage the situation in Kosovo.…"

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a June 19 speech that Russia's internal developments have been a contributing factor, despite cooperation in many key areas. "[T]here is some disappointment that we have not been able to move closer to the common values with Russia that one would have thought possible in 2000," Ms. Rice said. "In fact, it is the internal development of Russia away from a more democratic course that has been, in some ways, the hardest part of managing the relationship."

Yet in a fateful miscalculation, diplomats admit Moscow never agreed to vote affirmatively in the Security Council – bringing confusion and bickering among allies. Moscow's diplomatic maneuvering has cost little; the West, in comparison, has spent billions.

"You don't have a Security Council resolution, so you have the Spanish and Greeks opposing progress. You don't have Serbia isolated," said a Western diplomat, one of several interviewed off the record in Pristina. "We've got a customs house burned down in February by the Serbs that no one at NATO has asked to rebuild."

Lacking Security Council approval, the complications faced by the Kosovars has strained its capability, talent, and preparedness.

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

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned that a military strike on Iran to prevent it developing atomic weapons would turn the region into a "fireball". Mohamed ElBaradei said unilateral military action, which has not been ruled out by Israel or the US, would push the Islamic republic into a "crash course" of developing nuclear weapons and threatened to resign if an attack took place.

"What I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger," said Mr ElBaradei. "If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work."

"A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything," the International Atomic Energy Agency director general said. "It would turn the region into a fireball."

He said any attack would only make the Islamic Republic more determined in its confrontation with the West over its nuclear programme.

"If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."

Sources at the Pentagon and other US government agencies have confirmed that Israel recently carried out a full rehearsal of an air assault on Iran's nuclear sites. The exercise, was said to have involved as many as 100 warplanes and its target in the eastern Mediterranean was 900 miles from Israel, roughly the same distance as Iran's nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz.

A Pentagon official said that it was designed by Israel as a clear signal of the seriousness of its intentions towards Iran. "They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know," said the official.

The exercise, in the first week of June, came as President George W Bush and Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, both said in public that a nuclear Iran was "unacceptable". Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East and has twice acted by itself to stop its regional enemies developing a nuclear capability, in Syria last year and Iraq in the 1980s.

Facing so much domestic political opposition over his policies in Iraq, President Bush will be unlikely to cobble together the necessary backing for a US-led attack on Iran. However, an Israeli-led attack would not need domestic American support.

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

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 20 nations around the world finds that none of the national leaders on the world stage inspire wide confidence. While US President George W. Bush is one of the least trusted leaders, no other leader--including China's Hu Jintao and Russia's Vladimir Putin--has gained a broad international base of support.

Only UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received largely positive ratings in a worldwide poll that asked respondents whether they trusted international leaders "to do the right thing regarding world affairs."

WorldPublicOpinion.org conducted the poll of 19,751 respondents in nations that comprise 60 percent of the world's population. This includes most of the largest nations--China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia--as well as Mexico, Argentina, Britain, France, Spain, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, the Palestinian territories, South Korea and Thailand. Fielding was conducted between January 10 and May 6. The margins of error range from +/-2 to 4 percent.

WorldPublicOpinion.org, a collaborative research project involving research centers from around the world, is managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland.

Sixteen of the 20 publics surveyed say they lack confidence in US President George W. Bush. Only Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf is rated negatively in more nations. Just two countries (Nigeria and India) give Bush positive ratings while a third (Thailand) is divided. Bush also got the highest average percentage of negative ratings (67%).

Although China is a rising world power, most publics do not express confidence in Chinese President Hu Jintao. Thirteen publics give Hu predominantly negative ratings while only five (Nigeria, South Korea, Iran, Azerbaijan and Ukraine) tend to be positive. India is divided. On average 44 percent of those surveyed around the world show little or no confidence in the Chinese leader; only 28 percent express some or a lot of confidence. (In all cases the leader's own public is excluded from the count of countries and the average rating.)

Vladimir Putin remains popular inside Russia as he makes the transition from president to prime minister but he has not emerged as an attractive world leader. Eleven publics have a negative view of Putin while just five are positive and three are divided. On average 32 percent express confidence in Putin--one of the highest positive ratings--but a larger 48 percent do not. No region has predominantly positive views on Putin's global leadership.

Putin appears to have become a divisive figure. Although his ratings have improved slightly since a 2007 poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the large positive movement in certain countries--such as China, where Putin's ratings are up 17 points--is balanced by negative movement in others--such as the United States, where his ratings are down 21 points.

"While the worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a global leadership vacuum, no alternative leader has stepped into the breach," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are popular among some nations, but more mistrust them than trust them. Also the nations that trust them are not organized into any clusters that have the potential to be a meaningful bloc."

The only world leader to elicit largely positive views is UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In nine nations a plurality or majority say they have some or a lot of confidence in him to do the right thing. In eight nations a plurality or majority say they have little or no confidence. Three nations are divided.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, though relatively new to the world stage, gets positive ratings in six nations, more than any other chief of state. Nonetheless, even more publics (11) say they do not trust the British leader. Two (France and Thailand) are divided.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has the poorest ratings around the world. Only in China do positive views (37%) outweigh negative ones (30%). Nigeria is divided and the other 18 nations lean negative.

In the Middle East publics are generally the most negative: Egyptians, Jordanians, Iranians and the Palestinians express little or no confidence in nearly all of the leaders rated.

Although France gets positive ratings in other international polls, President Nicolas Sarkozy does not. Fifteen out of 19 nations rate his international leadership unfavorably. On average, 25 percent of those surveyed express confidence in Sarkozy to do right thing while 48 percent express little or no confidence.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets negative ratings in 13 nations, the most after Bush and Musharraf. Only three nations are slightly positive while one is divided. On average across the 17 nations (excluding Iranians) asked about Ahmadinejad, only 22 percent say they have some or a lot of confidence, while 52 percent say they have little or no confidence.

Although confidence in Ahmadinejad is up slightly from polling conducted by Pew in 2007, he is still far from being a viewed as a credible leader, even in the Muslim world. Majorities in all four Arab nations surveyed (Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories) say they lack confidence in Ahmadinejad. So does a majority in Turkey, including 54 percent who say they have "no confidence at all." Only in Indonesia does a bare plurality view Ahmadinejad favorably as an international leader.

Ban Ki-moon is the only leader to receive moderately positive ratings. In nine nations a plurality or majority say they have "some" or "a lot of" confidence in him to do the right thing. In eight nations a plurality or majority say they have "little" or "no confidence at all". However, many do not provide an answer.

Those saying that they have confidence include majorities in South Korea (83%) [Ban's country of origin], Nigeria (70%), and China (57%). Pluralities say so in Britain (49 to 27% little or no confidence), France (45 to 21%), India (40 to 22%), Indonesia (39 to 33%), and Azerbaijan (38 to 29%). Interestingly, Iranians also give Ban a positive rating (43 to 18%), despite the sanctions that the United Nations Security Council has imposed on Iran to press it to stop its uranium enrichment program.

Five nations show strongly negative views--all in the Middle East region. Majorities say they have little or no confidence in the Palestinian territories (90%, 59% no confidence), Jordan (70%, 63% no confidence), Turkey (63%, 56% no confidence) and Egypt (78%, 38% no confidence).

Four other countries--the United States, Russia, Argentina and Thailand--predominantly express low levels of confidence in the UN leader, with relatively few saying they have "no confidence at all." In these countries the dominant answer is "not too much" confidence, or a failure to give a response. Those saying they have "not too much" confidence may be expressing a lack of familiarity with the relatively new and low-profile Secretary General, rather than indicating that they hold a negative view of the world leader.

In the United States, 40 percent say they have "not too much confidence," while 20 percent say they have "no confidence at all." Most Russians choose not to answer (46%), though 20 percent say "not too much" and 10 percent say "no confidence at all." Similarly, among Argentines, 36 percent do not answer, 16 percent say "not too much" and 21 percent say they have no confidence. Finally, in Thailand 49 percent do not answer, 23 percent say "not too much" and 7 percent have no confidence.

Views are divided in Mexico, Spain and Ukraine. In Spain, 32 percent express confidence, while 30 percent lack confidence. In Mexico, 44 percent say they have confidence while 41 percent express little or no confidence (16%, no confidence). In Ukraine a remarkably high 67 percent do not answer, while 16 percent express confidence and 18 percent little or no confidence.

US President George W. Bush has the second largest number of nations expressing negative views of his role in international affairs. Fifteen nations give negative ratings and two give positive ratings. Thailand is divided. On average 67 percent express low confidence.

The one country with a majority expressing a positive view of Bush is Nigeria with 60 percent saying they have some or a lot of confidence. Indians also lean positive (45 to 34%). Interestingly, this year Chinese views have softened (41% positive, 45% negative)--with the number of those expressing positive views up 10 points since Pew's 2007 poll.

The most negative ratings come from the Middle East region. Despite the Bush administration's renewed efforts to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nearly all Palestinians (95%) express low confidence, with 79 percent expressing "no confidence at all." Nearly as many express a lack of confidence in Egypt (92%, 68% no confidence), Jordan (88%, 84% no confidence) and Turkey (83%, 77% no confidence). Iran, interestingly, gives the mildest negative ratings in the region (80%, 72% no confidence). Nearby Azerbaijan, though, only leans negative (49% negative, 42% positive).

The two Latin American countries polled--Argentina and Mexico--are also intensely negative. In Argentina 84 percent express a lack of confidence (63% no confidence). In Mexico 83 percent express a lack of confidence (54% no confidence). Negative views have risen in Mexico since 2007 by 16 points.

European countries are only slightly less negative on President Bush. Most negative are the French: 85 percent express a lack of confidence (63% no confidence). Among the British, 77 percent give negative ratings (up 7 points from 2007), while 48 percent express no confidence at all.

Interestingly, Russians are relatively moderate with 66 percent saying they lack confidence in Bush to do the right thing and 36 percent saying they have "no confidence at all." Similarly six in ten Ukrainians lack confidence, and 36 percent have none at all.

While Indian views lean positive and Thai views are divided, those of their Asian neighbors are more negative. Majorities in Indonesia and South Korea are negative and China also leans negative, though these publics' negative views are decreasing over time.

Fifty-seven percent of Indonesians express a lack of confidence in Bush, down from 79 percent in 2007. Those expressing "no confidence at all" have dropped from 35 to 19 percent. Among South Koreans, 68 percent give Bush a poor rating, but this too is down from 73 percent in 2007. The numbers of those saying they have "no confidence at all" have only inched downward from 22 to 18 percent. Among the Chinese, 45 percent lean negative, down from a majority of 51 percent. The number of those giving Bush a positive rating is up 10 points, from 31 to 41 percent.

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You teach the poor farmers how to handle their crops, but at the same time think about the millions of tons of food the first world eats! This is outrageous! If we cut down our food portions by just a little bit, we'd have enough food to feed the poor. Look at the crazy obesity rates around the modern world now. I repeat, WE DO NOT NEED TO PRODUCE MORE FOOD!

Disappointed with Mr. Ban. I thought he'd offer better solutions.

UN chief raises spectre of a billion starving people

Ban calls for bold measures, with 50% rise in food output by 2030

ROME - NEARLY one billion people could go hungry if the world does not act now to resolve the current food crisis.

'The world needs to produce more food,' United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon told world leaders at the opening of a summit on the crisis here yesterday.

To head off mass starvation, he said food output must increase 50 per cent by 2030.

Lambasting 'trade and taxation policies that distort markets', he called for trade barriers to be lowered and export bans removed immediately.

Food prices have doubled in three years, according to the World Bank. Aid agencies say Japan and China have contributed to high rice prices by controlling their stocks.

'Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man-made,' Mr Ban said.

The Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is hosting the three-day summit to try to solve the short- term emergency of increased hunger caused by soaring prices. Already, an estimated 100 million people are being pushed into hunger.

'We have a historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture,' Mr Ban told some 50 heads of state and government.

'I call on you to take bold and urgent steps to address the root causes of this global food crisis.'

The summit will set the tone on food aid and subsidies for the Group of Eight summit in Japan next month and what is regarded as the concluding stages of the stalled talks under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) aimed at reducing trade distortions.

With food prices at a 30-year high, he warned that while the world must 'respond immediately', it must also put the long-term focus on 'improving food security'.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urged fellow world leaders to release excess stockpiles of food to ease shortages in poorer countries, offering more than 300,000 tonnes of imported rice held by Japan.

Mr Ban said a UN task force he set up to deal with the crisis is recommending the nations 'improve vulnerable people's access to food and take immediate steps to increase food availability in their communities'.

That means increasing food aid, supplying small farmers with seed and fertiliser in time for this year's planting seasons, and cutting trade restrictions to help the free flow of agricultural goods.

While pressures on the world's food supply are serious, they should not be exaggerated, the coordinator of the UN task force John Holmes said on the sidelines of the summit.

'We are not trying to say that millions of people are going to starve to death tomorrow...,' he said.

'We do need to act quickly both to meet these immediate needs and to start the longer-term process of re-investing in agriculture.'

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Seeks special status for Kodagu on a par with Jammu and Kashmir

CNC secretary-general N.U. Nachappa told presspersons here on Saturday that the CNC would also stage a satyagraha on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Bangalore to press for its demands.

Mr. Nachappa said the CNC would urge the Government to consider its demands.

The first was to take steps to create a Codava Autonomous Region (CAR) on the lines of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. Forty-five ‘nads’ (groups of villages) inhabited by Kodavas in Kodagu in the past should be merged to carve out the CAR, he said.

Land rights

In view of the traditional land rights enjoyed by Kodavas, he said Central legislation should be enacted to protect their rights, including ‘jamma’, a form of land tenure. One of the demands of the CNC, Mr. Nachappa said, was that special status be accorded to Kodagu, similar to that of Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern States.

Reservations

Kodavas should be considered a minority tribal community for the purpose of extending reservation in all spheres. Buduru Srinivasulu, a member of the National Tribal Commission, had recommended minority tribal status for the Kodavas after his visit to Kodagu some time ago. The State Government should view this seriously, he said.

Including the Kodava language in the VIII Schedule of the Constitution and its introduction in all fields was on CNC’s list of demands. Mr. Nachappa urged the Government to allot land at what he called the ‘Kodava Kund’, near Napoklu, to establish a Kodava university. [The Hindu]

Also check out: www.kodava.org for more info on Kodavas

Actor George Clooney is commemorating Thursday's 60th anniversary of U.N. peacekeeping with a public service announcement praising the soldiers who wear the U.N.'s distinctive blue helmets for risking their lives for peace.

Clooney was named a U.N. Messenger of Peace in January by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with a special focus on U.N. peacekeeping. He has been actively campaigning to end the five-year conflict in Darfur and traveled with the U.N. soon after his appointment to visit peacekeepers in Sudan.

In the spot entitled "Peace is Not...," Clooney reminds viewers that some 100,000 U.N. peacekeepers protect civilians, oversee elections and disarm ex-combatants to ensure peace in many dangerous and politically volatile regions from Congo and Liberia to Haiti and Lebanon.

"We owe all of the United Nations peacekeepers a debt of gratitude for the dangerous work they do to ensure that peace is preserved, civilians are protected, and elections are respected," Clooney said in the announcement.

"These brave men and women go to places where few others will and risk their lives for peace. I am proud to continue my work with the U.N. to remind those in the United States and around the world that peace is not easy, and like war, must be waged," he said.

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United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon met Friday with the inflexible leader of Myanmar's ruling junta, hoping to persuade him into allowing full international access to 2.5 million cyclone survivors.

Ban arrived at the remote capital of Naypyitaw after a flight from Yangon, 250 miles to the south. He witnessed some of the cyclone's devastation during a carefully choreographed tour Thursday.

The contents of the talks between the U.N. chief and the most powerful man in the country, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, were not immediately known.

Highest on Ban's agenda was urging Than Shwe — who had earlier refused to take his calls from New York — to allow an unimpeded influx of foreign aid and experts to reach survivors. Most are women and children at growing risk of starvation, disease and exposure to monsoon rains.

By the military government's count, some 78,000 people were killed by the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis and another 56,000 are unaccounted for.

Pro-democracy activists had urged Ban to also bring up the fate of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose latest period of detention expires Monday. A string of U.N. envoys have in the past failed to spring the democracy icon from house arrest, confronting a junta that has proved virtually impervious to outside pressure.

The 76-year-old Than Shwe — reclusive, superstitious and known as "the bulldog" for his stubbornness — has held virtually unassailable power since 1992.

As Ban's visit proceeded, the regime appeared to ease some of its restrictions on foreigners.

France-based Doctors Without Borders said it now had some foreign staffers working in four areas of the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta, which had previously been virtually off limits to non-Myanmar relief workers.

A second French cargo plane loaded with 40 tons of relief supplies was due to land Friday in Yangon, while Canada said it would lend its biggest military aircraft, a C-17 cargo lifter, to deliver U.N. World Food Program helicopters to Myanmar.

The regime had earlier allowed the U.N. agency to bring in 10 helicopters to fly emergency aid to stranded victims.

Ban's firsthand look at the devastation wrought by the storm left the secretary-general shaken Thursday, even though the areas to which he was taken were far from the worst-hit.

"I'm very upset by what I've seen," Ban told reporters after a walk through a makeshift relief camp where 500 people huddled in blue tents at Kyondah village in Dedaye township, about 45 miles southwest of Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.

Myanmar's military regime has been eager to show it has the relief effort under control despite spurning the help of foreign disaster experts and has trotted out officials to give statistics-laden lectures to make the point.

But the U.N. says up to 2.5 million cyclone survivors face hunger, homelessness and potential outbreaks of deadly diseases, especially in the lower-lying areas of the Irrawaddy delta close to the sea. It estimates that aid has reached only about 25 percent of them.

The places Ban visited — the Kyondah Relief Camp and the town of Mawlamyinegyun, an aid distribution point — seemed well-organized.

But the destruction in the areas around them was relatively mild compared to that farther southwest in the townships of Labutta and Bogalay. Officials gave no explanation of why Ban was not taken to those areas, where the preponderance of dead and missing are reported.

To read the article in full, please click here.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has this afternoon announced the appointment of Mr Bekele Geleta as its new Secretary General. Mr Geleta will replace the current Secretary General, Mr Markku Niskala, who is retiring after a long and successful Red Cross Red Crescent career.

The new head of the world's largest humanitarian organization is a former Ethiopian political prisoner who made a new life for himself in Ottawa after arriving as a refugee in 1992.

 “It is my pleasure to inform you that today, 21 May 2008, during its 17th session, the Governing Board of the IFRC appointed Mr Bekele Geleta as the new Secretary General,” said Juan Manuel Suàrez del Toro, president of the IFRC, in a letter to all Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, and to all IFRC delegations and staff.

Mr Geleta was born in Ethiopia on 1 July 1944 and has a Masters degree in economics from Leeds University in the United Kingdom.

He has worked as general manager of the Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company, as urban development officer for Irish Concern International, and as a programme manager for Kenya and Somalia for Care Canada. He was Ethiopia’s ambassador to Japan, and its vice-minister of transport and communications.

From 1984 to 1988, during one of the most challenging times in recent African history, he served as Secretary General of the Ethiopian Red Cross. From 1996 to 2007, Mr Geleta was head of the Africa department at the IFRC secretariat in Geneva, deputy head of the IFRC’s delegation to the United Nations in New York and head of the IFRC’s regional delegation in Bangkok, Thailand.

His appointment came while he was General Manager of International Operations for the Canadian Red Cross at its headquarters in Ottawa.

“I wish the new Secretary General of the IFRC success in his new position,” said Mr Suàrez Del Toro.

“I also want to express my thanks and appreciation for the solid work done by Markku Niskala, now Secretary General Emeritus, for his commitment and leadership in guiding the IFRC secretariat through some of the most challenging times in humanitarian history.”

 Also read his interview with Tadias.

Source

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to arrive in Myanmar on Thursday to visit the areas that have been most affected by Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Myanmar early this month, and also to meet with senior Government officials.

Mr. Ban’s objective is to reinforce the ongoing aid operation to see how the international relief and rehabilitation effort can be scaled up, and to work with Myanmar authorities to significantly increase the amount of aid flowing through Yangon to the Irrawaddy delta, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters. Up to 2.4 million people have been affected by the disaster and more than 130,000 are listed as dead or missing.

Mr. Ban also today released a joint statement with the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announcing that an international conference will be held in Yangon on Sunday to raise money from donors for the crisis.

The statement said the conference will seek international support and financial assistance “to meet the most urgent challenges, as well as the longer-term recovery efforts.” Mr. Ban and the Chair of ASEAN called on the international community to “rise to the occasion and translate their solidarity and sympathy into concrete commitments to help the people of Myanmar emerge from the tragedy and rebuild their lives.”

Meanwhile, the UN’s top relief official today visited three cyclone-affected areas, including the town of Labutta in the delta, with the full cooperation from the Myanmar authorities. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes also met with the UN humanitarian country team and with the Myanmar Red Cross and plans to hold talks with Government officials tomorrow.

UN agencies in Myanmar report that they are making progress in reaching victims of the cyclone, but that the operation still needs to be ramped up.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that the official toll of dead and missing now exceeds 132,000, with more than 19,000 injured. Speaking at a press conference in Bangkok, spokesperson Maureen Birmingham said that assessments of the health needs of townships was continuing. She cited Ngaputaw township as one specific example.

WHO found that the most common conditions reported there after the cyclone were injuries, followed by acute respiratory infections, gastroenteritis, dysentery and malaria. Some 46 per cent of the population of the township has been affected by the cyclone and 49 per cent of houses suffered some damage.

WHO and its partners have procured more than 350 tons of medical supplies and equipment for the cyclone-affected area. These include 3 million water purification sachets, 90,000 water containers, more than 50,000 insecticide treated mosquito nets, shelter equipment and emergency health kits.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it has dispatched enough food to feed over 250,000 people with a first ration of rice – enough to last for two weeks – as well as high-energy biscuits and beans. Most supplies were purchased by the agency within Myanmar itself. WFP is using air transport as well as boats, barges and tugs to distribute aid.

WFP spokesperson Marcus Prior said that this was still insufficient and too slow. He said that aid workers were coming across settlements that have received little if any assistance so far.

Amanda Pitt, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the current estimate for people who had been displaced was around 150,000. She said they are staying in 120 official or spontaneous settlements.

The UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has deployed 100 satellite terminals to facilitate in-country coordination of the humanitarian effort.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced that he will lead a high-powered task force to coordinate the efforts of the United Nations system in addressing the global crisis arising from the surge in food prices.

The Task Force on the Global Food Crisis will bring together the heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes and the Bretton Woods institutions, as well as experts within the UN and leading authorities from the international community.

The group will have two coordinators – Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes in New York and Senior UN System Influenza Coordinator David Nabarro in Geneva – and expects to meet in the first week of May.

The announcement came after a two-day meeting of the Chief Executive Board (CEB) – which brings together 27 heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes – chaired by the Secretary-General in the Swiss city of Bern.

In a press communiqué issued following the meeting, the CEB called on the international community to urgently provide the $755 million in emergency funds needed for the UN to feed millions of hungry people worldwide, as the first of a series of concrete measures to be taken.

“We see mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition which has severely strained the capacities of humanitarian agencies to meet humanitarian needs, especially as promised funding has not yet materialized,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in Bern.

He warned that “without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.”

Protests and riots have broken out in some countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. Mr. Ban noted that escalating energy prices, lack of investment in agriculture, increasing demand, trade distortion subsidies and recurrent bad weather are among the reasons for the surge in prices.

The food crisis “threatens to undo all our good work,” Mr. Ban noted later in the day in a lecture delivered in Geneva, the first of a series organized by the UN office there and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

“If not managed properly, it could touch off a cascade of related crises – affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world,” he said.

In addition to the immediate priority of feeding the hungry, Mr. Ban emphasized the need to “ensure food for tomorrow,” by giving small farmers the support they need to assure their next harvest.

UN agencies are already taking concrete measures to address the crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed an emergency initiative to provide low-income countries with the seeds and inputs to boost production and is calling for $1.7 billion in funding.

In addition, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is making available an additional $200 million to poor farmers in the most affected countries to boost food production.

“I am confident that we can deal with the global food crisis. We have the resources. We have the knowledge. We know what to do. We should therefore consider this not only as a problem but also as an opportunity,” the Secretary-General added, as he called on world leaders to attend the High-Level Conference on Food Security, to be held in Rome from 3 to 5 June.

Past U.N. stories on this issue:
Soaring food prices jeopardizing UN's ability to feed the world's hungry