Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Beast of the Month: January 2013
Benjamin Netanyahu
Okay, The Konformist concedes the complexitites of Middle East politics can't be fairly reduced to a snarky paragraph placing all the blame on one bad "Beast" character. Still, Bibi, the current Israeli Prime Minister and head of the Likud Party, is the ideological equivalent of the Neocons that drove the US to Iraq War disaster. All his recent movements - the bombings of the Gaza Strip, the failed attempt to block Palestine observer state status in the UN, and the spiteful response with plans to build 3,000 new settlements in the occupied West Bank territories, betray a bellicosity that took us dangerously close to World War III. Meanwhile, it's time to acknowledge that when comparing the treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid-era abuses, Israel could be fairly described as little more than South Africa with bagels.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Berners-Lee flags UN net conference concerns
Sir Tim Berners-Lee flags UN net conference concerns
Leo Kelion
4 December 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20594779
Sir Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of the world wide web - is the latest voice to raise concerns about a meeting of communication tech regulators in Dubai.
He spoke of concerns that some attendees would push for a UN agency to "run the internet" rather than leaving it to groups already "doing a good job".
Internet pioneer Vint Cerf has also highlighted the issue on Google's site.
But the UN agency itself is playing down suggestions of a power-grab.
Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU), said ahead of the event: "There is no need for the ITU to take over the internet governance."
Internet governance
The United Arab Emirates is playing host to 193 countries at World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit).
They aim to revise a telecommunications treaty which has not been overhauled since 1988.
The ITU has said there was a need to address the fact technologies like the internet were not properly addressed by the current regulations, and that more efforts must be made to change the fact that "two-thirds of the world's population" did not have access to the net.
The US has vowed to block what it says is a Russian proposal to alter governance of the internet
Among the proposals being considered is a clause put forward by Russia which says: "Member states shall have equal rights to manage the internet, including in regard to the allotment, assignment and reclamation of internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources and to support for the operation and development of basic internet infrastructure."
This has been interpreted by some as a starting point for domain name regulator Icann, the Internet Engineering Task Force and other organisations that oversee the internet's technical specifications to be forced to be pass at least some of their powers to another body such as the ITU.
Sir Tim is director of a standards body himself - the World Wide Web Consortium. He said that governments can already influence changes but should resist further interference.
"I think it's important that these existing structures continue to be used without any attempt to bypass them," he said.
"These organisations have been around for a number of years and I think it would be a disruptive threat to the stability of the system for people to try to set up alternative organisations to do the standards."
Accelerating access
Sir Tim also indicated that there was no need to create new internet-specific sections to an international treaty in order to improve access.
"It seems that at the moment the growth of the internet is spectacular and the developing countries have the highest growth rate.
"A few years ago we started [World Wide] Web Foundation worrying that connectivity was relevant, but now today connectivity is clearly becoming ubiquitous - we need to look at other concerns such as net neutrality and whether governments spy on the internet and whether they block it.
"A lot of concerns I've heard from people have been that, in fact, countries that want to be able to block the internet and give people within their country a 'secure' view of what's out there would use a treaty at the ITU as a mechanism to do that, and force other countries to fall into line with the blockages that they wanted to put in place."
However, Sir Tim added that resistance to such an idea by other nations would mean the problem could be avoided.
The ITU's leader has said he intends to prevent any measure being put to a vote, and that proposals must be agreed, instead, by consensus.
The US has already made clear that it would block any attempt by Russia or another country to make changes to internet governance.
"We will actively oppose the Russian proposal," said Terry Kramer, the US ambassador to Wcit, last week.
"We have had good working relationships with our Russian colleagues, but the proposal that actually came out, to us, was shocking."
The US is now pressing for there to be no reference to the internet in the treaty.
Human rights
Early discussions at Wcit have included a debate over an internet-related clause championed by Tunisia.
Delegates have been given two weeks to agree the text of a new telecommunications treaty
It said the revised treaty should contain a clause committing member states to protecting freedom of expression on the net including "the freedom of online peaceful assembly".
The ITU said the text sparked a "vigorous debate", but was deemed unnecessary since such the issue was already addressed by human rights treaties which take precedence over whatever would ultimately be included in the communications agreement,
The conference continues until 14 December.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Palestinians win upgraded UN status
Palestinians win upgraded UN status by wide margin
29 November 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20550864
The UN General Assembly has voted to grant the Palestinians non-member observer state status - a move strongly opposed by Israel and the US.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the assembly the vote was the "last chance to save the two-state solution" with Israel.
Israel's envoy to the UN said the bid pushed peace process "backwards", while the US said the move was "unfortunate".
The assembly voted 138-9 in favour, with 41 nations abstaining.
Hundreds of Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Ramallah, in the West Bank, after the result was announced.
'Birth certificate'
"Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel," Mr Abbas said shortly before the vote in New York.
"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," he said.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said "the only way to reach peace is through agreements" between the parties, not at the UN.
"No decision by the UN can break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel," he said.
Opponents of the bid say a Palestinian state should emerge only out of bilateral negotiations, as set out in the 1993 Oslo peace accords under which the Palestinian Authority was established.
Speaking after the vote, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, urged the Palestinians and Israel to resume direct peace talks and warned against unilateral actions.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counter-productive", saying it put more obstacles on the path to peace.
"By going to the UN , the Palestinians have violated the agreements with Israel and Israel will act accordingly," said the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter.
The UK abstained from the vote, as did Germany. The Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands and Panama were among the nations voting with the US and Israel.
In the West Bank, crowds celebrated the vote by waving flags and chanting "God is great!"
"For the first time, there will be a state called Palestine, with the recognition of the entire world," Amir Hamdan was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"Today the world will hear our voice," he added.
Symbolic milestone
The Palestinians are seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967.
While the move is seen as a symbolic milestone in Palestinian ambitions for statehood, the "Yes" vote will also have a practical diplomatic effect, says the BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN.
It would allow the Palestinians to participate in debates at the UN and improve their chances of joining UN agencies and bodies like the International Criminal Court.
Last year, Mr Abbas asked the UN Security Council to admit the Palestinians as a member state, but that was opposed by the US.
Mr Abbas was much criticised by many Palestinians for remaining on the sidelines of the conflict earlier this month in Gaza and efforts to achieve a ceasefire with Israel.
His Fatah movement, based in the West Bank, is deeply split from the militant Hamas movement which governs Gaza.
Gaza's Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh said in a statement sent to the BBC that Hamas' "support for the UN bid is based on the 'rule of non-recognition of the occupier'... and the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland".
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-blame-game
Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure of Copenhagen deal
Wealthy nations accused of bullying tactics to get developing countries to sign 'death warrant'
John Vidal in Copenhagen
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 19 December 2009
Bolivian President Evo Morales said the Copenhagen deal was a failure because of the 'lack of political will by a small group of countries led by the US'
The blame game over the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks started last night with countries accusing each other of a complete lack of willingness to compromise.
The G77 group of 130 developing nations blamed Obama for "locking the poor into permanent poverty by refusing to reduce US emissions further."
"Today's events are the worst development for climate change in history," said a spokesperson.
Pablo Solon, Bolivian ambassador to the UN, blamed the Danish hosts for convening only a small group of countries to prepare a text to put before world leaders. "This is completely unacceptable. How can it be that 25 to 30 nations cook up an agreement that excludes the majority of the 190 nations."
But rich countries said that developing countries had wasted too much time on "process" rather than the substance of the talks. An epic stand-off over whether to ditch the Kyoto protocol's legal distinctions between developed and developing countries and their obligations to cut their emissions caused a huge delay to the negotiations.
But Martin Khor, director of the South Centre, an intergovernmental think tank for developing countries said, "Developing countries are very disappointed because they've invested a lot of time in the documents they're negotiating here."
Politicians from all corners of the world were blamed widely for not setting ambitious enough targets to counter climate change. "They refused to lead and instead sought to bribe and bully developing nations to sign up to the equivalent of a death warrant. The best outcome now is no deal," said Tim Jones, climate policy officer from the World Development Movement.
China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, blamed a lack of trust between countries: "To meet the climate change challenge, the international community must strengthen confidence, build consensus, make vigorous efforts and enhance co-operation."
But indigenous Bolivian president Evo Morales blamed capitalism and the US. "The meeting has failed. It's unfortunate for the planet. The fault is with the lack of political will by a small group of countries led by the US," he said.
Even veterans of previous environmental negotiations were disappointed. "Given where we started and the expectations for this conference, anything less than a legally binding and agreed outcome falls far short of the mark," said John Ashe, chair of the Kyoto protocol talks.
Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure of Copenhagen deal
Wealthy nations accused of bullying tactics to get developing countries to sign 'death warrant'
John Vidal in Copenhagen
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 19 December 2009
Bolivian President Evo Morales said the Copenhagen deal was a failure because of the 'lack of political will by a small group of countries led by the US'
The blame game over the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks started last night with countries accusing each other of a complete lack of willingness to compromise.
The G77 group of 130 developing nations blamed Obama for "locking the poor into permanent poverty by refusing to reduce US emissions further."
"Today's events are the worst development for climate change in history," said a spokesperson.
Pablo Solon, Bolivian ambassador to the UN, blamed the Danish hosts for convening only a small group of countries to prepare a text to put before world leaders. "This is completely unacceptable. How can it be that 25 to 30 nations cook up an agreement that excludes the majority of the 190 nations."
But rich countries said that developing countries had wasted too much time on "process" rather than the substance of the talks. An epic stand-off over whether to ditch the Kyoto protocol's legal distinctions between developed and developing countries and their obligations to cut their emissions caused a huge delay to the negotiations.
But Martin Khor, director of the South Centre, an intergovernmental think tank for developing countries said, "Developing countries are very disappointed because they've invested a lot of time in the documents they're negotiating here."
Politicians from all corners of the world were blamed widely for not setting ambitious enough targets to counter climate change. "They refused to lead and instead sought to bribe and bully developing nations to sign up to the equivalent of a death warrant. The best outcome now is no deal," said Tim Jones, climate policy officer from the World Development Movement.
China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, blamed a lack of trust between countries: "To meet the climate change challenge, the international community must strengthen confidence, build consensus, make vigorous efforts and enhance co-operation."
But indigenous Bolivian president Evo Morales blamed capitalism and the US. "The meeting has failed. It's unfortunate for the planet. The fault is with the lack of political will by a small group of countries led by the US," he said.
Even veterans of previous environmental negotiations were disappointed. "Given where we started and the expectations for this conference, anything less than a legally binding and agreed outcome falls far short of the mark," said John Ashe, chair of the Kyoto protocol talks.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Copenhagen climate summit 'Danish text' leak
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-disarray-danish-text
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol
John Vidal in Copenhagen
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 December 2009
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.
The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.
The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.
The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol's principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.
The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks".
A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:
• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";
• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;
• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.
Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.
"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.
Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: "This is only a draft but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurting. On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40% cuts that science is saying is needed."
Hill continued: "It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10 agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks."
The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries to be a working framework, which would be adapted by countries over the next week. It is particularly inflammatory because it sidelines the UN negotiating process and suggests that rich countries are desperate for world leaders to have a text to work from when they arrive next week.
Few numbers or figures are included in the text because these would be filled in later by world leaders. However, it seeks to hold temperature rises to 2C and mentions the sum of $10bn a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2012-15.
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol
John Vidal in Copenhagen
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 December 2009
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations.
The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.
The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.
The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol's principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.
The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks".
A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:
• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;
• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";
• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;
• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.
Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.
"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.
Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: "This is only a draft but it highlights the risk that when the big countries come together, the small ones get hurting. On every count the emission cuts need to be scaled up. It allows too many loopholes and does not suggest anything like the 40% cuts that science is saying is needed."
Hill continued: "It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10 agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks."
The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries to be a working framework, which would be adapted by countries over the next week. It is particularly inflammatory because it sidelines the UN negotiating process and suggests that rich countries are desperate for world leaders to have a text to work from when they arrive next week.
Few numbers or figures are included in the text because these would be filled in later by world leaders. However, it seeks to hold temperature rises to 2C and mentions the sum of $10bn a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2012-15.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Iran's Greatest Roller Coaster Ever
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/irans_nuclear_operation_revealedIran's Nuclear Operation Revealed To Be Cover For Greatest Roller Coaster Ever
December 15, 2008 Issue 44•51
Ali Baba and the 40 Loops
TEHRAN, IRAN — Nearly 30 years of tense relations between the U.S. and Iran came to a dramatic end this March when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed that his country's suspected nuclear program was in fact a covert operation to build "Ali Baba and the 40 Loops"—the largest, most thrilling roller coaster in the Middle East.
In a globally televised address before the United Nations, Ahmadinejad unveiled the 500-foot-tall steel coaster, which he called a "very real threat" to anyone not interested in having a blast. The Iranian leader then challenged all thrill-seekers—young and old, Christian, Muslim, or Jew—to ride the mighty coaster, which can reportedly reach speeds of 165 mph by using a newly developed electromagnetic propulsion system previously seen only in blurry satellite images.
All U.N. inspectors were given complimentary season passes for being so patient.
"I regret having kept you in the dark for this long, but doesn't the surprise make it so much better?" a smiling Ahmadinejad said while gesturing to the massive coaster's interlocking quadruple vertical corkscrews. "And to think, you were all afraid we would use this technology for evil. Well, the only thing the world should fear now is Ali Baba's heart-stopping 400-foot drop!"
Members of a special U.N. envoy were immediately granted access to the new ride, and spent the next six hours conducting more than 30 separate critical examinations of the roller coaster. By late evening, however, inspectors said their findings were still inconclusive and determined that the fact-finding mission would require further test rides, corn dogs for everyone, and photographic documentation of their efforts.
Despite years of economic sanctions and the constant threat of military action, Iran reportedly continued working on the clandestine project by stockpiling metal tubes for the tracks, enriching uranium to provide glow-in-the dark lighting for the subterranean portion of the ride, and purchasing hundreds of gallons of neon green paint from Pakistan.
"We have moved wisely and decisively to establish Iran as a regional power in the amusement park field," said Ahmadinejad, adding defiantly that the nation would not succumb to Western standards for height requirements. "Wheeeee!"
In response to rumors that the new Iranian amusement park will include a ride dedicated to bridging the foreign relations gap with Israel, Ahmedinejad flatly denied the existence of the so-called "Holocoaster."
-------------
For more in-depth analysis of world affairs, read special commentary by Department Head Rawlings. This piece is part of The Onion's complete Our Annual Year: 2008 A.D. coverage.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
UN food chief urges crisis action
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7360485.stm
UN food chief urges crisis action
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Josette Sheeran from the UN World Food Programme has spoken about the shortages.
The head of the UN World Food Programme has said urgent action is required to stimulate food production and help the poor cope with soaring food prices.
Josette Sheeran told the BBC that an additional 100 million people, who did not need assistance six months ago, could not now afford to purchase food.
Her warning came ahead of a meeting in London to discuss the rise in prices and an EU policy encouraging biofuels.
Biofuels are intended to tackle climate change but can take away farm land.
Earlier, Latin American leaders had warned about the growth in production of biofuels, which are derived from plant crops.
'Clock ticking'
In an interview with the BBC, Ms Sheeran said she would be stressing the urgent need to tackle the global rise in food and commodity prices when she attended the meeting hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday afternoon.
"We find that people are being thrown into the urgent category and we really want to make the point that the clock is ticking and we need to help people now meet their nutritional needs," she said.
"We're seeing about 100 million people... who maybe didn't need assistance six months ago but today simply can't afford enough food for their family."
Ms Sheeran said the price of rice in Asia had soared from $460 a ton on 3 March to more than $1,000 seven weeks later. The global prices of wheat, rice and maize have nearly doubled in the past year.
Ms Sheeran said the crisis required large-scale, high-level action by the international community, focused on both emergency and longer-term solutions.
In the short term, she said the WFP needed increased donations to make sure it could meet the needs of those who already relied on it, because its budget requirements were rising by several millions of dollars a week in line with the cost of food.
"We can purchase less food than we could in June - in fact, 40% less," she said.
Ms Sheeran said the international community needed to pay attention to the food supply system and look at all the factors that have increased demand.
"Certainly, biofuel is one of those things that is impacting it and we need the experts to sit down and look at how much food is needed and to make sure people can get it at an affordable price," she said.
Latin American concern
Writing ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Mr Brown said rising food prices posed as great a threat to world prosperity as the global credit crisis and warned that they threatened to reverse progress made to alleviate poverty in the developing world.
"Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations," he said in a statement.
Food riots earlier this month in Haiti, which is highly reliant on imports of food and fuel, led to the deaths of at least six people, including a UN peacekeeper.
There has also been unrest in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal.
Mr Brown said he feared the use of agricultural land to produce biofuels, which he said were known to be "frequently energy-inefficient", might have been a factor in driving up food prices.
South Americans warn over biofuels
"We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support," he added.
"If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets."
The EU has come under criticism for its target of getting 10% of road transport fuel from crops by 2020, while ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US maize crop by 2010.
Biofuels are being developed in many countries as an alternative to fossil fuels, on the basis that they absorb carbon dioxide while growing and therefore contribute less to climate change.
But there are concerns that forests, which also absorb large amounts of carbon, are being cleared to make way for biofuel crop plantations, as well as that their cultivation is taking land out of food production.
Speaking at the UN in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales attacked those who put luxury cars ahead of human lives. His Peruvian counterpart, Alan Garcia, said using land for biofuels was putting food out of reach for poor people.
The comments came after one of the world's major producers, Brazil, announced a venture in Ghana to grow sugar cane for bio-ethanol.
UN food chief urges crisis action
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Josette Sheeran from the UN World Food Programme has spoken about the shortages.
The head of the UN World Food Programme has said urgent action is required to stimulate food production and help the poor cope with soaring food prices.
Josette Sheeran told the BBC that an additional 100 million people, who did not need assistance six months ago, could not now afford to purchase food.
Her warning came ahead of a meeting in London to discuss the rise in prices and an EU policy encouraging biofuels.
Biofuels are intended to tackle climate change but can take away farm land.
Earlier, Latin American leaders had warned about the growth in production of biofuels, which are derived from plant crops.
'Clock ticking'
In an interview with the BBC, Ms Sheeran said she would be stressing the urgent need to tackle the global rise in food and commodity prices when she attended the meeting hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday afternoon.
"We find that people are being thrown into the urgent category and we really want to make the point that the clock is ticking and we need to help people now meet their nutritional needs," she said.
"We're seeing about 100 million people... who maybe didn't need assistance six months ago but today simply can't afford enough food for their family."
Ms Sheeran said the price of rice in Asia had soared from $460 a ton on 3 March to more than $1,000 seven weeks later. The global prices of wheat, rice and maize have nearly doubled in the past year.
Ms Sheeran said the crisis required large-scale, high-level action by the international community, focused on both emergency and longer-term solutions.
In the short term, she said the WFP needed increased donations to make sure it could meet the needs of those who already relied on it, because its budget requirements were rising by several millions of dollars a week in line with the cost of food.
"We can purchase less food than we could in June - in fact, 40% less," she said.
Ms Sheeran said the international community needed to pay attention to the food supply system and look at all the factors that have increased demand.
"Certainly, biofuel is one of those things that is impacting it and we need the experts to sit down and look at how much food is needed and to make sure people can get it at an affordable price," she said.
Latin American concern
Writing ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Mr Brown said rising food prices posed as great a threat to world prosperity as the global credit crisis and warned that they threatened to reverse progress made to alleviate poverty in the developing world.
"Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations," he said in a statement.
Food riots earlier this month in Haiti, which is highly reliant on imports of food and fuel, led to the deaths of at least six people, including a UN peacekeeper.
There has also been unrest in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal.
Mr Brown said he feared the use of agricultural land to produce biofuels, which he said were known to be "frequently energy-inefficient", might have been a factor in driving up food prices.
South Americans warn over biofuels
"We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support," he added.
"If our UK review shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets."
The EU has come under criticism for its target of getting 10% of road transport fuel from crops by 2020, while ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US maize crop by 2010.
Biofuels are being developed in many countries as an alternative to fossil fuels, on the basis that they absorb carbon dioxide while growing and therefore contribute less to climate change.
But there are concerns that forests, which also absorb large amounts of carbon, are being cleared to make way for biofuel crop plantations, as well as that their cultivation is taking land out of food production.
Speaking at the UN in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales attacked those who put luxury cars ahead of human lives. His Peruvian counterpart, Alan Garcia, said using land for biofuels was putting food out of reach for poor people.
The comments came after one of the world's major producers, Brazil, announced a venture in Ghana to grow sugar cane for bio-ethanol.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/
Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket
Story Highlights
Rise in food prices is "the world's big story," development official warns
World Bank chief warns that rise in prices could set anti-poverty efforts back
Crisis also spurs debate on whether ethanol production is to blame
Riots have occurred in numerous countries recently
(CNN) -- Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.
"This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.
"The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States."
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.
"While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers.
"The international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap identified by the U.N.'s World Food Programme to meet emergency needs," he said. "Governments should be able to come up with this assistance and come up with it now."
The White House announced Monday evening that an estimated $200 million in emergency food aid would be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere," the White House said in a news release.
"In just two months," Zoellick said in his speech, "rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family."
The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said -- meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food.
"This is not just about meals forgone today or about increasing social unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth," Zoellick said.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, also spoke at the joint IMF-World Bank spring meeting.
"If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible," he said.
He added that "disruptions may occur in the economic environment ... so that at the end of the day most governments, having done well during the last five or 10 years, will see what they have done totally destroyed, and their legitimacy facing the population destroyed also."
In Haiti, the prime minister was kicked out of office Saturday, and hospital beds are filled with wounded following riots sparked by food prices. Watch Haitians riot over food prices »
The World Bank announced a $10 million grant from the United States for Haiti to help the government assist poor families.
In Egypt, rioters have burned cars and destroyed windows of numerous buildings as police in riot gear have tried to quell protests.
Images from Bangladesh and Mozambique tell a similar story.
In the United States and other Western nations, more and more poor families are feeling the pinch. In recent days, presidential candidates have paid increasing attention to the cost of food, often citing it on the stump.
The issue is also fueling a rising debate over how much the rising prices can be blamed on ethanol production. The basic argument is that because ethanol comes from corn, the push to replace some traditional fuels with ethanol has created a new demand for corn that has thrown off world food prices.
Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, has called using food crops to create ethanol "a crime against humanity."
"We've been putting our food into the gas tank -- this corn-to-ethanol subsidy which our government is doing really makes little sense," said Columbia University's Sachs.
Former President Clinton, at a campaign stop for his wife in Pennsylvania over the weekend, said, "Corn is the single most inefficient way to produce ethanol because it uses a lot of energy and because it drives up the price of food."
Some environmental groups reject the focus on ethanol in examining food prices.
"The contrived food vs. fuel debate has reared its ugly head once again," the Renewable Fuels Association says on its Web site, adding that "numerous statistical analyses have demonstrated that the price of oil -- not corn prices or ethanol production -- has the greatest impact on consumer food prices because it is integral to virtually every phase of food production, from processing to packaging to transportation."
Analysts agree the cost of fuel is among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices.
Another major reason is rising demand, particularly in places in the midst of a population boom, such as China and India.
Also, said Sachs, "climate shocks" are damaging food supply in parts of the world. "You add it all together: Demand is soaring, supply has been cut back, food has been diverted into the gas tank. It's added up to a price explosion."
Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket
Story Highlights
Rise in food prices is "the world's big story," development official warns
World Bank chief warns that rise in prices could set anti-poverty efforts back
Crisis also spurs debate on whether ethanol production is to blame
Riots have occurred in numerous countries recently
(CNN) -- Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.
"This is the world's big story," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.
"The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend," he said on CNN's "American Morning," in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. "There are riots all over the world in the poor countries ... and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States."
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.
"While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers.
"The international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap identified by the U.N.'s World Food Programme to meet emergency needs," he said. "Governments should be able to come up with this assistance and come up with it now."
The White House announced Monday evening that an estimated $200 million in emergency food aid would be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere," the White House said in a news release.
"In just two months," Zoellick said in his speech, "rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family."
The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said -- meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food.
"This is not just about meals forgone today or about increasing social unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth," Zoellick said.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, also spoke at the joint IMF-World Bank spring meeting.
"If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible," he said.
He added that "disruptions may occur in the economic environment ... so that at the end of the day most governments, having done well during the last five or 10 years, will see what they have done totally destroyed, and their legitimacy facing the population destroyed also."
In Haiti, the prime minister was kicked out of office Saturday, and hospital beds are filled with wounded following riots sparked by food prices. Watch Haitians riot over food prices »
The World Bank announced a $10 million grant from the United States for Haiti to help the government assist poor families.
In Egypt, rioters have burned cars and destroyed windows of numerous buildings as police in riot gear have tried to quell protests.
Images from Bangladesh and Mozambique tell a similar story.
In the United States and other Western nations, more and more poor families are feeling the pinch. In recent days, presidential candidates have paid increasing attention to the cost of food, often citing it on the stump.
The issue is also fueling a rising debate over how much the rising prices can be blamed on ethanol production. The basic argument is that because ethanol comes from corn, the push to replace some traditional fuels with ethanol has created a new demand for corn that has thrown off world food prices.
Jean Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, has called using food crops to create ethanol "a crime against humanity."
"We've been putting our food into the gas tank -- this corn-to-ethanol subsidy which our government is doing really makes little sense," said Columbia University's Sachs.
Former President Clinton, at a campaign stop for his wife in Pennsylvania over the weekend, said, "Corn is the single most inefficient way to produce ethanol because it uses a lot of energy and because it drives up the price of food."
Some environmental groups reject the focus on ethanol in examining food prices.
"The contrived food vs. fuel debate has reared its ugly head once again," the Renewable Fuels Association says on its Web site, adding that "numerous statistical analyses have demonstrated that the price of oil -- not corn prices or ethanol production -- has the greatest impact on consumer food prices because it is integral to virtually every phase of food production, from processing to packaging to transportation."
Analysts agree the cost of fuel is among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices.
Another major reason is rising demand, particularly in places in the midst of a population boom, such as China and India.
Also, said Sachs, "climate shocks" are damaging food supply in parts of the world. "You add it all together: Demand is soaring, supply has been cut back, food has been diverted into the gas tank. It's added up to a price explosion."
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Food crisis being felt around world
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=412984
Food crisis being felt around world
Market Chaos, Riots
Peter Goodspeed, National Post
Published: Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Sharply rising prices have triggered food riots in recent weeks in Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania and Yemen, and aid agencies around the world worry they may be unable to feed the poorest of the poor.
In the Philippines, officials are raiding warehouses in Manila looking for unscrupulous traders hoarding rice, while in South Korea, panicked housewives recently stripped grocery-store shelves of food when the cost of ramen, an instant noodle made from wheat, suddenly rose.
The shadow of "a new hunger" that has made food too expensive for millions is the result of a sudden and dramatic surge in food prices around the world.
Rising prices for all the world's crucial cereal crops and growing fears of scarcity are careening through international markets, creating turmoil.
Last Thursday, as world rice prices soared by as much as 30% in one day, Egypt decided to suspend rice exports for six months to meet domestic demand and to try to limit price increases.
That was bad news for its main rice customers -- Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Egypt's move was matched by Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter after Thailand, which cut exports by 25% and ordered officials not to sign any more export contracts this year.
India and Cambodia also rushed to curb their exports in order to have enough supplies to feed their own people.
With crude oil soaring above US$100 a barrel, higher fuel prices have driven up the cost of production and increased transportation costs for all foods.
Pests in Southeast Asia, a 10-year drought in Australia and a 45-day cold snap in China have combined to aggravate the situation.
At the same time, millions of people in China and India have suddenly become relatively wealthy and are changing their eating habits, consuming more meat and chicken, which places a huge demand on cereal stocks.
In China, per-capita meat consumption has increased 150% since the 1980s. But producing more meat requires more feed to raise more animals.
"You simply feed less people on maize [corn] via cattle than you do in maize direct," said John Powell, the UN World Food Program's (WFP) deputy director of external programs in Rome.
Also influencing the food crisis is the move in North America and Europe to biofuel in an effort to ease global warming and reduce reliance on imported energy.
A surge in demand for biofuel has resulted in a sharp decline in agricultural land planted for food crops. About 16% of U.S. agricultural land formerly planted with soybeans and wheat is now growing corn for biofuel.
"For the first time in history, there is a clear link between the price of fuel and the price of food," Mr. Powell said.
"If there were a miraculous 20% increase in the quantity of food production, we would not know what would go toward increased food consumption and what would go to biofuels.
"Where it would go is where the prices are best."
Rice is a staple food for half the world's population. But the sudden surge in prices and restrictions on exports come at a time when stockpiles of rice are at their lowest level in decades.
At the moment, world rice inventories are said to stand at a mere 72 million metric tonnes -- about 17% of what the world consumes annually.
The low stockpiles create a market in which any supply disruption will result in radical price swings.
They also complicate delivering foreign aid to those most in need.
The WPF, which feeds 73 million of the world's most destitute each year, says its costs have increased 55% since June. Unless it gets US$500-million in emergency funding, it may soon have to reduce feeding programs.
Experts predict world food markets will be locked into an inflationary spiral for at least four years, but some say the crisis could linger for a decade or more.
"There is pretty much a sense that what we are seeing is a step change or a structural change and not a peak to be followed by a trough," Mr. Powell said.
"In other words, we are into an era of high food prices. It's not just volatility, it's a step increase."
Food crisis being felt around world
Market Chaos, Riots
Peter Goodspeed, National Post
Published: Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Sharply rising prices have triggered food riots in recent weeks in Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania and Yemen, and aid agencies around the world worry they may be unable to feed the poorest of the poor.
In the Philippines, officials are raiding warehouses in Manila looking for unscrupulous traders hoarding rice, while in South Korea, panicked housewives recently stripped grocery-store shelves of food when the cost of ramen, an instant noodle made from wheat, suddenly rose.
The shadow of "a new hunger" that has made food too expensive for millions is the result of a sudden and dramatic surge in food prices around the world.
Rising prices for all the world's crucial cereal crops and growing fears of scarcity are careening through international markets, creating turmoil.
Last Thursday, as world rice prices soared by as much as 30% in one day, Egypt decided to suspend rice exports for six months to meet domestic demand and to try to limit price increases.
That was bad news for its main rice customers -- Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Egypt's move was matched by Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter after Thailand, which cut exports by 25% and ordered officials not to sign any more export contracts this year.
India and Cambodia also rushed to curb their exports in order to have enough supplies to feed their own people.
With crude oil soaring above US$100 a barrel, higher fuel prices have driven up the cost of production and increased transportation costs for all foods.
Pests in Southeast Asia, a 10-year drought in Australia and a 45-day cold snap in China have combined to aggravate the situation.
At the same time, millions of people in China and India have suddenly become relatively wealthy and are changing their eating habits, consuming more meat and chicken, which places a huge demand on cereal stocks.
In China, per-capita meat consumption has increased 150% since the 1980s. But producing more meat requires more feed to raise more animals.
"You simply feed less people on maize [corn] via cattle than you do in maize direct," said John Powell, the UN World Food Program's (WFP) deputy director of external programs in Rome.
Also influencing the food crisis is the move in North America and Europe to biofuel in an effort to ease global warming and reduce reliance on imported energy.
A surge in demand for biofuel has resulted in a sharp decline in agricultural land planted for food crops. About 16% of U.S. agricultural land formerly planted with soybeans and wheat is now growing corn for biofuel.
"For the first time in history, there is a clear link between the price of fuel and the price of food," Mr. Powell said.
"If there were a miraculous 20% increase in the quantity of food production, we would not know what would go toward increased food consumption and what would go to biofuels.
"Where it would go is where the prices are best."
Rice is a staple food for half the world's population. But the sudden surge in prices and restrictions on exports come at a time when stockpiles of rice are at their lowest level in decades.
At the moment, world rice inventories are said to stand at a mere 72 million metric tonnes -- about 17% of what the world consumes annually.
The low stockpiles create a market in which any supply disruption will result in radical price swings.
They also complicate delivering foreign aid to those most in need.
The WPF, which feeds 73 million of the world's most destitute each year, says its costs have increased 55% since June. Unless it gets US$500-million in emergency funding, it may soon have to reduce feeding programs.
Experts predict world food markets will be locked into an inflationary spiral for at least four years, but some say the crisis could linger for a decade or more.
"There is pretty much a sense that what we are seeing is a step change or a structural change and not a peak to be followed by a trough," Mr. Powell said.
"In other words, we are into an era of high food prices. It's not just volatility, it's a step increase."
Thursday, February 28, 2008
9/11 may have been an insiders’ job
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00229.htm
Thursday, 21 February 2008
9/11 may have been an insiders’ job – Dr. Hans Koechler
Syed Akbar Kamal
In a significant observation many time UN contributor & international observer Professor Hans Koechler said “9/11 may have been an insider’s job” in response to a question from one of the delegates attending his lecture The 'Global War on Terror - Contradictions of an Imperial Strategy' last night at the Trades Hall in Auckland.
“I am not a boy-I am 59. There are many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the official version of events. Those who could not handle a Cessna pulled off 9/11,” he said.
But he was quick to note that the official version has to be challenged. Quoting David Ray Griffin he said these events, in terms of destruction caused, these incidents cannot have been exclusively organized by a shadowy network of Mujahedeen from the remote places of the globe.
The causes officially given for the incidents are not a sufficient explanation for what actually happened on that day, especially as regards the logistics of this highly sophisticated operation and the very advanced infrastructure required for it.
He has published more than 300 books, reports and scholarly articles in several languages. In his book The Global War on Terror and the Metaphysical Enemy he writes the atrocities of September 11, 2001- Instead of dealing with the contradictions and inconsistencies in the official version of events and the numerous gaps in terms of the factual information, a “dogma of political correctness” has been promulgated according to which 19 Islamic-inspired Arab hijackers, directed by an elusive “Al-Qaeda” (“base”), succeeded in carrying out the atrocities all by themselves.
During the course of his lecture he recalled the detailed and precise questions asked on 11 January 2008 by Yukihisa Fujita, member of Japan’s House of Councillors (Senate) and Director of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, about the 9/11 attacks as the origin of the war on terror are a rare exception.
The total silence about Mr. Fujita’s intervention before the Committee, that was broadcast live on Japan’s public NHK television channel, in the Western corporate media is a telling example of the
lack of courage in front a powerful political establishment. Thus, a rather docile and obviously opportunistic intellectual ̩lite in the West, in tandem with client r̩gimes in the Muslim world, has effectively silenced Рor at least marginalized Рcritical opinion.
Against this bleak – geopolitical as well as civilizational – background we can basically identify two desiderata of international politics in the framework of the increasing alienation between Islam and the West, which accompanies the confrontation over the “global war on terror”:
The countries of the West, “assembled,” to varying degrees of intensity and loyalty, around the United States as the imperial hegemon, have to realize that they are about to embark upon an unwinnable test of wills: a conflict that cannot be ended in (conventional) military terms and that will, if not contained by means of multilateral diplomacy, completely absorb the “political energies” and exhaust, to a considerable extent, the resources even of advanced industrial societies.
At the same time, they have to correct and eventually reverse the process of “civilizational alienation” vis à - vis Islam for which they are responsible in important respects. There is a need, as then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has put it, “to unlearn the stereotypes that have become so entrenched in so many minds and so much of the media.”
Since 1972, UN Secretaries-General in their statements subsequently acknowledged Professor Köchler’s contributions to international peace. In April 2000, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Professor Koechler as international observer at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands (Lockerbie Trial).
He said “up to the present day, the government of the United Kingdom has rejected calls for a public inquiry into the circumstances of the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1989. As international observer, appointed by the United Nations, of the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands I have outlined the flaws in the proceedings and called for a revision of the court’s verdict.”
Eventually, in June 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, apparently sharing the author’s original concerns, referred the case back to the appeal court.
He pointed out the sentencing of a lone intelligence officer from Libya for the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which has caused the death of 270 people. While this individual most likely is not guilty as charged, i.e. is not the one who inserted the bomb onto the plane via Malta and Frankfurt (according to the “Opinion of the Court”: The High Court of Justiciary at Camp Zeist, Case No: 1475/99, 31 January 2001), no efforts have been made to date to comprehensively investigate the midair explosion and prosecute the actual perpetrators. The U.K. and U.S. governments have both rejected a public inquiry into the circumstances of this incident, thus preventing efficient measures against possible acts of terrorism against civil aviation in the future.
Prof Koechler is the Founder and President of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.), an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in consultative status with the United Nations and with a membership in over 70 countries, representing all continents.
Through his research and international activities, Professor Koechler made major contributions to the debate on international democracy and United Nations reform, in particular reform of the Security Council. This was acknowledged by international figures such as the German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. In 1985, Professor Koechler organized the first major colloquium on "Democracy in International Relations" on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the United Nations in New York. With Irish Nobel Laureate Seán MacBride he initiated the Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War, which set in motion an international campaign that eventually led to a General Assembly resolution and the issuing of an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice. As President of the I.P.O., he dealt with the humanitarian issues of the exchange of prisoners of war between Iran and Iraq and with the issue of Kuwaiti POWs and missing people in Iraq.
*****
Syed Akbar Kamal is Producer/Director for current affairs programme Darpan - The Mirror nationwide on Stratos & Triangle TV.
www.teamworkproductions.co.nz
Thursday, 21 February 2008
9/11 may have been an insiders’ job – Dr. Hans Koechler
Syed Akbar Kamal
In a significant observation many time UN contributor & international observer Professor Hans Koechler said “9/11 may have been an insider’s job” in response to a question from one of the delegates attending his lecture The 'Global War on Terror - Contradictions of an Imperial Strategy' last night at the Trades Hall in Auckland.
“I am not a boy-I am 59. There are many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the official version of events. Those who could not handle a Cessna pulled off 9/11,” he said.
But he was quick to note that the official version has to be challenged. Quoting David Ray Griffin he said these events, in terms of destruction caused, these incidents cannot have been exclusively organized by a shadowy network of Mujahedeen from the remote places of the globe.
The causes officially given for the incidents are not a sufficient explanation for what actually happened on that day, especially as regards the logistics of this highly sophisticated operation and the very advanced infrastructure required for it.
He has published more than 300 books, reports and scholarly articles in several languages. In his book The Global War on Terror and the Metaphysical Enemy he writes the atrocities of September 11, 2001- Instead of dealing with the contradictions and inconsistencies in the official version of events and the numerous gaps in terms of the factual information, a “dogma of political correctness” has been promulgated according to which 19 Islamic-inspired Arab hijackers, directed by an elusive “Al-Qaeda” (“base”), succeeded in carrying out the atrocities all by themselves.
During the course of his lecture he recalled the detailed and precise questions asked on 11 January 2008 by Yukihisa Fujita, member of Japan’s House of Councillors (Senate) and Director of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, about the 9/11 attacks as the origin of the war on terror are a rare exception.
The total silence about Mr. Fujita’s intervention before the Committee, that was broadcast live on Japan’s public NHK television channel, in the Western corporate media is a telling example of the
lack of courage in front a powerful political establishment. Thus, a rather docile and obviously opportunistic intellectual ̩lite in the West, in tandem with client r̩gimes in the Muslim world, has effectively silenced Рor at least marginalized Рcritical opinion.
Against this bleak – geopolitical as well as civilizational – background we can basically identify two desiderata of international politics in the framework of the increasing alienation between Islam and the West, which accompanies the confrontation over the “global war on terror”:
The countries of the West, “assembled,” to varying degrees of intensity and loyalty, around the United States as the imperial hegemon, have to realize that they are about to embark upon an unwinnable test of wills: a conflict that cannot be ended in (conventional) military terms and that will, if not contained by means of multilateral diplomacy, completely absorb the “political energies” and exhaust, to a considerable extent, the resources even of advanced industrial societies.
At the same time, they have to correct and eventually reverse the process of “civilizational alienation” vis à - vis Islam for which they are responsible in important respects. There is a need, as then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has put it, “to unlearn the stereotypes that have become so entrenched in so many minds and so much of the media.”
Since 1972, UN Secretaries-General in their statements subsequently acknowledged Professor Köchler’s contributions to international peace. In April 2000, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Professor Koechler as international observer at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands (Lockerbie Trial).
He said “up to the present day, the government of the United Kingdom has rejected calls for a public inquiry into the circumstances of the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1989. As international observer, appointed by the United Nations, of the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands I have outlined the flaws in the proceedings and called for a revision of the court’s verdict.”
Eventually, in June 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, apparently sharing the author’s original concerns, referred the case back to the appeal court.
He pointed out the sentencing of a lone intelligence officer from Libya for the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which has caused the death of 270 people. While this individual most likely is not guilty as charged, i.e. is not the one who inserted the bomb onto the plane via Malta and Frankfurt (according to the “Opinion of the Court”: The High Court of Justiciary at Camp Zeist, Case No: 1475/99, 31 January 2001), no efforts have been made to date to comprehensively investigate the midair explosion and prosecute the actual perpetrators. The U.K. and U.S. governments have both rejected a public inquiry into the circumstances of this incident, thus preventing efficient measures against possible acts of terrorism against civil aviation in the future.
Prof Koechler is the Founder and President of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.), an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in consultative status with the United Nations and with a membership in over 70 countries, representing all continents.
Through his research and international activities, Professor Koechler made major contributions to the debate on international democracy and United Nations reform, in particular reform of the Security Council. This was acknowledged by international figures such as the German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. In 1985, Professor Koechler organized the first major colloquium on "Democracy in International Relations" on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the United Nations in New York. With Irish Nobel Laureate Seán MacBride he initiated the Appeal by Lawyers against Nuclear War, which set in motion an international campaign that eventually led to a General Assembly resolution and the issuing of an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice. As President of the I.P.O., he dealt with the humanitarian issues of the exchange of prisoners of war between Iran and Iraq and with the issue of Kuwaiti POWs and missing people in Iraq.
*****
Syed Akbar Kamal is Producer/Director for current affairs programme Darpan - The Mirror nationwide on Stratos & Triangle TV.
www.teamworkproductions.co.nz
Friday, February 22, 2008
Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080218163315.psfe6g65
Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency
Feb 18, 2008
Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday.
"We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago," the UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.
Five undersea cables were damaged in late January and early February leading to disruption to Internet and telephone services in parts of the Middle East and south Asia.
There has been speculation that the sheer number of cables being cut over such a short period was too much of a coincidence and that sabotage must have been involved.
India's Flag telecom revealed on February 7 that the cut to the Falcon cable between the United Arab Emirates and Oman was caused by a ship's anchor. But mystery shrouds what caused another four reported cuts.
"Some experts doubt the prevailing view that the cables were cut by accident, especially as the cables lie at great depths under the sea and are not passed over by ships," Murshed said on the sidelines of a conference on cyber-crime held in Gulf state of Qatar.
The Falcon cable has since been repaired, along with the Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable which was damaged off Egypt's Mediterranean coast. The status of the remaining cable is still unclear.
Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency
Feb 18, 2008
Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday.
"We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago," the UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.
Five undersea cables were damaged in late January and early February leading to disruption to Internet and telephone services in parts of the Middle East and south Asia.
There has been speculation that the sheer number of cables being cut over such a short period was too much of a coincidence and that sabotage must have been involved.
India's Flag telecom revealed on February 7 that the cut to the Falcon cable between the United Arab Emirates and Oman was caused by a ship's anchor. But mystery shrouds what caused another four reported cuts.
"Some experts doubt the prevailing view that the cables were cut by accident, especially as the cables lie at great depths under the sea and are not passed over by ships," Murshed said on the sidelines of a conference on cyber-crime held in Gulf state of Qatar.
The Falcon cable has since been repaired, along with the Flag Europe Asia (FEA) cable which was damaged off Egypt's Mediterranean coast. The status of the remaining cable is still unclear.
UN Security Council meets on Kosovo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080218/ap_on_re_eu/un_kosovo
UN Security Council meets on Kosovo
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 18, 2008
Russia tried to block Kosovo's independence during a closed-door emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday, saying it is deeply concerned about the safety of Serbs living in the territory.
The discussion of the 15-member council continued to expose divisions among members on the future of Kosovo. Russia backs its close ally Serbia, while the United States, Britain, France and other European Union members support Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.
China, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member that had close ties with the Yugoslav government of Slobodan Milosevic, expressed its "deep concern" Monday over Kosovo's declaration and called on the province to reach a "proper solution through negotiations" with Serbia.
The council met at the request of Serbia and Russia, which argue that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia made earlier Sunday violates a 1999 council resolution that authorizes the U.N. to administer the territory.
The session got off to a rocky start; shortly after it began, it had to be suspended for a couple hours because of a lack of interpreters.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Serbia's president told him that Kosovo's declaration carries no legal weight, while Kosovo's prime minister assured him he was committed to "equal opportunities and no discrimination" against anyone in Kosovo.
Ban urged all sides to "refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo and the region."
The Security Council resolution on Kosovo remains in force and the U.N. "will continue to implement its mandate in the light of the evolving circumstances," Ban said.
Before the session, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow was "highly concerned" about Sunday's decision by Kosovo's parliament in Pristina "to declare unilateral independence of Kosovo."
The government said in a statement it regretted Kosovo's unilateral declaration and hoped it would not bring about fresh tension and conflict in the Balkan region. It said U.N.-backed principles of upholding the territorial integrity of developing nations must be supported.
The past Security Council resolution means the U.N. still runs Kosovo and "it is not obvious at all what could possibly be the legal basis for even considering" Kosovo's declaration of independence," Churkin said.
He specifically addressed the estimated 120,000 Serbs living in enclaves in Kosovo.
"Our concern is for the safety of the Serbs and other ethnic minorities in Kosovo," Churkin told reporters. "We'll strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures, should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence."
U.S. and other Western countries said there was little danger to the Serbs in Kosovo and that the 1999 resolution does not preclude Kosovo's independence.
"We've knocked it down over and over again. This is an unprecedented situation, it creates no precedent," Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., told reporters before the session
Wolff said the United States is not "particularly concerned or sees no particular danger to be worried about" with regards to the safety of Serbs in Kosovo.
"We're pleased by the commitments made to respect for religious and ethnic communities in Kosovo," he told reporters. "We're very much pleased that the declaration also reflects a position of the United States that's longstanding."
Council member Indonesia, concerned about its own secessionist movements, said it was following the situation closely but was not yet prepared to recognize Kosovo's statehood.
Kosovo's 2 million population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, mainly secular Muslims, who do not want to be part of Serbia, a predominantly Christian Orthodox nation.
Kosovo has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a NATO-led air war.
In April 2007, U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended that Kosovo be granted internationally supervised independence — a proposal strongly supported by the province's ethnic Albanians, the U.S. and most of the European Union, but vehemently opposed by Serbia and Russia, a traditional Serb ally.
Russia blocked the Ahtisaari plan. An additional period of negotiations failed to bridge the differences between the Serbs, who have offered wide autonomy, and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, who insist on independence.
Kosovo hopes for international recognition that could come on Monday when European Union ministers meet in Brussels, Belgium. Russia, which has veto power on the council, insists Kosovo is a Security Council issue — not an EU issue — and argues that Kosovo's move sets a dangerous precedent for separatist groups globally.
On Tuesday afternoon, a more formal and open debate is planned by the Security Council at Serbia's request. Churkin said Russia insisted it should be an open meeting, and the president of Serbia will attend.
However, diplomats said it was unlikely the council would be able to reach agreement on a resolution or statement.
UN Security Council meets on Kosovo
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 18, 2008
Russia tried to block Kosovo's independence during a closed-door emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday, saying it is deeply concerned about the safety of Serbs living in the territory.
The discussion of the 15-member council continued to expose divisions among members on the future of Kosovo. Russia backs its close ally Serbia, while the United States, Britain, France and other European Union members support Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.
China, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member that had close ties with the Yugoslav government of Slobodan Milosevic, expressed its "deep concern" Monday over Kosovo's declaration and called on the province to reach a "proper solution through negotiations" with Serbia.
The council met at the request of Serbia and Russia, which argue that Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia made earlier Sunday violates a 1999 council resolution that authorizes the U.N. to administer the territory.
The session got off to a rocky start; shortly after it began, it had to be suspended for a couple hours because of a lack of interpreters.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Serbia's president told him that Kosovo's declaration carries no legal weight, while Kosovo's prime minister assured him he was committed to "equal opportunities and no discrimination" against anyone in Kosovo.
Ban urged all sides to "refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo and the region."
The Security Council resolution on Kosovo remains in force and the U.N. "will continue to implement its mandate in the light of the evolving circumstances," Ban said.
Before the session, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow was "highly concerned" about Sunday's decision by Kosovo's parliament in Pristina "to declare unilateral independence of Kosovo."
The government said in a statement it regretted Kosovo's unilateral declaration and hoped it would not bring about fresh tension and conflict in the Balkan region. It said U.N.-backed principles of upholding the territorial integrity of developing nations must be supported.
The past Security Council resolution means the U.N. still runs Kosovo and "it is not obvious at all what could possibly be the legal basis for even considering" Kosovo's declaration of independence," Churkin said.
He specifically addressed the estimated 120,000 Serbs living in enclaves in Kosovo.
"Our concern is for the safety of the Serbs and other ethnic minorities in Kosovo," Churkin told reporters. "We'll strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures, should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence."
U.S. and other Western countries said there was little danger to the Serbs in Kosovo and that the 1999 resolution does not preclude Kosovo's independence.
"We've knocked it down over and over again. This is an unprecedented situation, it creates no precedent," Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N., told reporters before the session
Wolff said the United States is not "particularly concerned or sees no particular danger to be worried about" with regards to the safety of Serbs in Kosovo.
"We're pleased by the commitments made to respect for religious and ethnic communities in Kosovo," he told reporters. "We're very much pleased that the declaration also reflects a position of the United States that's longstanding."
Council member Indonesia, concerned about its own secessionist movements, said it was following the situation closely but was not yet prepared to recognize Kosovo's statehood.
Kosovo's 2 million population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, mainly secular Muslims, who do not want to be part of Serbia, a predominantly Christian Orthodox nation.
Kosovo has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a NATO-led air war.
In April 2007, U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended that Kosovo be granted internationally supervised independence — a proposal strongly supported by the province's ethnic Albanians, the U.S. and most of the European Union, but vehemently opposed by Serbia and Russia, a traditional Serb ally.
Russia blocked the Ahtisaari plan. An additional period of negotiations failed to bridge the differences between the Serbs, who have offered wide autonomy, and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, who insist on independence.
Kosovo hopes for international recognition that could come on Monday when European Union ministers meet in Brussels, Belgium. Russia, which has veto power on the council, insists Kosovo is a Security Council issue — not an EU issue — and argues that Kosovo's move sets a dangerous precedent for separatist groups globally.
On Tuesday afternoon, a more formal and open debate is planned by the Security Council at Serbia's request. Churkin said Russia insisted it should be an open meeting, and the president of Serbia will attend.
However, diplomats said it was unlikely the council would be able to reach agreement on a resolution or statement.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Jolie in Iraq: 2M refugees need help
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/07/iraq.jolie/index.html
Jolie in Iraq: 2M refugees need help
Story Highlights
Angelina Jolie visits Iraq to boost efforts to help internally displaced refugees
Actress tells CNN: "There doesn't seem to be real coherent plan to help them"
Jolie is goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
More than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled homes, 2 million to neighboring states
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is visiting Iraq to boost what she sees as lagging efforts to deal with the problems of 2 million "very very vulnerable" internally displaced people in the wartorn country.
"There doesn't seem to be a real coherent plan to help them," said Jolie, speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN's Arwa Damon Thursday.
"There's lots of goodwill. Lots of discussion, but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment, and a lot of pieces that need to be put together. I'm trying to figure out what they are."
A goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie wants to find ways to help the agency be more active inside war-torn Iraq.
Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the country has sparked a displacement crisis that is considered the most significant in the Middle East since the 1948 creation of Israel.
More than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, around 2 million to neighboring states, mostly Syria and Jordan, and another 2.2 million displaced inside Iraq.
The flight was aggravated by the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an attack that stoked pitched sectarian warfare. Many of the internally displaced live precarious lives amid conditions of squalor, crowded into camps and slums that often lack basic necessities, such as proper food, health care and shelter.
"How Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East," said Jolie. "It's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement can lead to a lot of instability and aggression."
Jolie has been working to help draw attention to the problem and has called for governments to bolster their support of the U.N.H.C.R. In August, Jolie first visited Iraq and Syria to get a sense of the problem. She heard stories from refugees about their plight.
This visit to Iraq is focusing on the problems of the internally displaced, 58 percent of whom are under age 12. A top issue for the agency is getting better security.
Jolie is talking with U.S. officials, including top U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, about that issue, and are willing to provide such security which she said "needs to be addressed and solved."
The Iraqi government needs to empower agencies that deal with migration to address the concerns of the displaced -- but that has not happened yet, she said.
Jolie said it was crucial that the government prepare a plan to deal with refugees who return home from Syria and Jordan and find that their homes are "occupied" by others or "bombed out." She emphasizes the way in which these people are resettled will have "broad implications" in the region.
Jolie also is talking to people about moving forward the U.S. effort to resettle Iraqi refugees in the United States, which has set a goal of taking in 12,000 of those people by September. Only 375 have been admitted so far.
"I have to believe there are people working toward that goal," she said.
International agencies, such as the United Nations and the Arab League, and many countries in the region and in Europe are addressing the refugee and the internally displaced persons' crisis, and money is being allocated to Iraq and host countries to help clothe, feed and house people.
Most of the refugees are in Syria and Jordan, and they reside in big cities like Damascus and Amman. The U.N.C.H.R. is trying to help governments in Syria and Jordan to cope with the influx, which has stretched the resources of institutions like schools and health systems. It is also attempting to help 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, such as Palestinians and Iranians.
Last month, the UNHCR announced a plan to seek $261 million this year for its work to help these refugees. It has almost 350 staffers "directly engaged in operations for Iraq and the surrounding region."
Officials in Iraq and the coalition have been heartened by the fact that some refugees are starting to trickle back home. But they are returning to a country where mixed Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods have turned into Sunni or Shiite enclaves and that they might not be able to return to their homes.
Jolie in Iraq: 2M refugees need help
Story Highlights
Angelina Jolie visits Iraq to boost efforts to help internally displaced refugees
Actress tells CNN: "There doesn't seem to be real coherent plan to help them"
Jolie is goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
More than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled homes, 2 million to neighboring states
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is visiting Iraq to boost what she sees as lagging efforts to deal with the problems of 2 million "very very vulnerable" internally displaced people in the wartorn country.
"There doesn't seem to be a real coherent plan to help them," said Jolie, speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN's Arwa Damon Thursday.
"There's lots of goodwill. Lots of discussion, but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment, and a lot of pieces that need to be put together. I'm trying to figure out what they are."
A goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie wants to find ways to help the agency be more active inside war-torn Iraq.
Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the country has sparked a displacement crisis that is considered the most significant in the Middle East since the 1948 creation of Israel.
More than 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, around 2 million to neighboring states, mostly Syria and Jordan, and another 2.2 million displaced inside Iraq.
The flight was aggravated by the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an attack that stoked pitched sectarian warfare. Many of the internally displaced live precarious lives amid conditions of squalor, crowded into camps and slums that often lack basic necessities, such as proper food, health care and shelter.
"How Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East," said Jolie. "It's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement can lead to a lot of instability and aggression."
Jolie has been working to help draw attention to the problem and has called for governments to bolster their support of the U.N.H.C.R. In August, Jolie first visited Iraq and Syria to get a sense of the problem. She heard stories from refugees about their plight.
This visit to Iraq is focusing on the problems of the internally displaced, 58 percent of whom are under age 12. A top issue for the agency is getting better security.
Jolie is talking with U.S. officials, including top U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, about that issue, and are willing to provide such security which she said "needs to be addressed and solved."
The Iraqi government needs to empower agencies that deal with migration to address the concerns of the displaced -- but that has not happened yet, she said.
Jolie said it was crucial that the government prepare a plan to deal with refugees who return home from Syria and Jordan and find that their homes are "occupied" by others or "bombed out." She emphasizes the way in which these people are resettled will have "broad implications" in the region.
Jolie also is talking to people about moving forward the U.S. effort to resettle Iraqi refugees in the United States, which has set a goal of taking in 12,000 of those people by September. Only 375 have been admitted so far.
"I have to believe there are people working toward that goal," she said.
International agencies, such as the United Nations and the Arab League, and many countries in the region and in Europe are addressing the refugee and the internally displaced persons' crisis, and money is being allocated to Iraq and host countries to help clothe, feed and house people.
Most of the refugees are in Syria and Jordan, and they reside in big cities like Damascus and Amman. The U.N.C.H.R. is trying to help governments in Syria and Jordan to cope with the influx, which has stretched the resources of institutions like schools and health systems. It is also attempting to help 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, such as Palestinians and Iranians.
Last month, the UNHCR announced a plan to seek $261 million this year for its work to help these refugees. It has almost 350 staffers "directly engaged in operations for Iraq and the surrounding region."
Officials in Iraq and the coalition have been heartened by the fact that some refugees are starting to trickle back home. But they are returning to a country where mixed Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods have turned into Sunni or Shiite enclaves and that they might not be able to return to their homes.
Taliban set for windfall from Afghan opium crop
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T232903.htm
Taliban set for windfall from Afghan opium crop-UN
By Jon Hemming
KABUL, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer, is set for another bumper crop in 2008, providing a windfall for the Taliban who tax farmers to finance their fight against government and foreign forces, the UN said on Wednesday.
More than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban, the failure to bring spiralling opium production under control means Afghanistan is now locked in a vicious circle -- where drug money fuels the Taliban insurgency and official corruption, weakening government control over large parts of the country, which in turn allows more opium to be produced.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) predicted the 2008 opium crop would be similar to, or slightly lower than, last year's record harvest. In 2007, Afghanistan had more land growing drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined.
"While it is encouraging that the dramatic increases of the past few years seem to be levelling off, the total amount of opium being harvested remains shockingly high," said UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa in a statement.
Opium is processed into heroin, increasingly inside Afghanistan, and smuggled mainly to Europe where users often turn to crime to pay for the highly addictive drug.
"Europe and other major heroin markets should brace themselves for the health and security consequences," he said.
Opium poppy cultivation has become more concentrated in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban are strongest, while the more peaceful north is increasingly becoming poppy-free.
That trend is likely to increase this year, the UNODC said.
The number of poppy-free provinces is expected to rise from 12 in 2007, to 14 or 15, mostly in the north and east, out of a total of 34 Afghan provinces, the UNODC said.
ALARMING GROWTH
But opium production continues to grow "at an alarming rate" in the south and west, it said. All the poppy farmers surveyed in southern Afghanistan said they paid a tax of 10 percent of their opium income to the Taliban or corrupt government officials.
"In the north, we would need much more positive incentives for farmers, while in the south we have a very difficult situation with a kind of an alliance of convenience between drug-traffickers, corrupt officials and insurgents," UNODC representative Christina Gynna Oguz told reporters in Tokyo.
"So there you would have to fight all these three elements, meaning that you must have more emphasis on interdiction and fighting corruption."
The U.N. report comes as Afghan ministers and international donors are meeting in Japan to discuss developments in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, said his country was focused on eradicating opium fields, though he stressed that international financial support was needed to help farmers.
"We are committed to destroying 50,000 hectares of poppy lands this year," he told a news conference in Tokyo. "We have only one choice. (The) poppy can destroy us, or we destroy the poppy."
He reiterated Afghanistan's opposition to using chemicals to destroy crops, despite the U.S. government's push last year for aerial spraying. The idea to spray herbicide from the air was dropped and instead, a limited trial of ground spraying has been agreed.
The southern province of Helmand, where mainly British troops are engaged in almost daily battles with the Taliban, accounted for 53 percent of Afghan opium production in 2007. If Helmand were a country, it would still be the biggest opium producer.
(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno, Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo; Editing by Katie Nguyen and Alex Richardson)
Taliban set for windfall from Afghan opium crop-UN
By Jon Hemming
KABUL, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer, is set for another bumper crop in 2008, providing a windfall for the Taliban who tax farmers to finance their fight against government and foreign forces, the UN said on Wednesday.
More than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban, the failure to bring spiralling opium production under control means Afghanistan is now locked in a vicious circle -- where drug money fuels the Taliban insurgency and official corruption, weakening government control over large parts of the country, which in turn allows more opium to be produced.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) predicted the 2008 opium crop would be similar to, or slightly lower than, last year's record harvest. In 2007, Afghanistan had more land growing drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined.
"While it is encouraging that the dramatic increases of the past few years seem to be levelling off, the total amount of opium being harvested remains shockingly high," said UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa in a statement.
Opium is processed into heroin, increasingly inside Afghanistan, and smuggled mainly to Europe where users often turn to crime to pay for the highly addictive drug.
"Europe and other major heroin markets should brace themselves for the health and security consequences," he said.
Opium poppy cultivation has become more concentrated in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban are strongest, while the more peaceful north is increasingly becoming poppy-free.
That trend is likely to increase this year, the UNODC said.
The number of poppy-free provinces is expected to rise from 12 in 2007, to 14 or 15, mostly in the north and east, out of a total of 34 Afghan provinces, the UNODC said.
ALARMING GROWTH
But opium production continues to grow "at an alarming rate" in the south and west, it said. All the poppy farmers surveyed in southern Afghanistan said they paid a tax of 10 percent of their opium income to the Taliban or corrupt government officials.
"In the north, we would need much more positive incentives for farmers, while in the south we have a very difficult situation with a kind of an alliance of convenience between drug-traffickers, corrupt officials and insurgents," UNODC representative Christina Gynna Oguz told reporters in Tokyo.
"So there you would have to fight all these three elements, meaning that you must have more emphasis on interdiction and fighting corruption."
The U.N. report comes as Afghan ministers and international donors are meeting in Japan to discuss developments in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, said his country was focused on eradicating opium fields, though he stressed that international financial support was needed to help farmers.
"We are committed to destroying 50,000 hectares of poppy lands this year," he told a news conference in Tokyo. "We have only one choice. (The) poppy can destroy us, or we destroy the poppy."
He reiterated Afghanistan's opposition to using chemicals to destroy crops, despite the U.S. government's push last year for aerial spraying. The idea to spray herbicide from the air was dropped and instead, a limited trial of ground spraying has been agreed.
The southern province of Helmand, where mainly British troops are engaged in almost daily battles with the Taliban, accounted for 53 percent of Afghan opium production in 2007. If Helmand were a country, it would still be the biggest opium producer.
(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno, Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo; Editing by Katie Nguyen and Alex Richardson)
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Meeting the Taliban: row over talks exposes divide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2232354,00.html
Meeting the Taliban: row over talks exposes divide
· Afghanistan US suspicious of British attempts at engagement
· Kabul government split on ethnic and political lines
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Thursday December 27, 2007
The Guardian
The threatened expulsion of two senior western officials from Afghanistan yesterday laid bare growing tensions over Kabul's great burning issue: can the Taliban be brought to the negotiating table?
Britain is quietly spearheading efforts to engage militants who are ready to quit the Taliban, although Downing Street vehemently denies reports that MI6 opened talks with some Taliban commanders last summer, trying to convince them to stop shooting by appealing to their better feelings - or through large cash payments.
The enthusiasm for deal-making has echoes of the Raj, when British officers roamed the wild Pashtun lands. But it is most firmly rooted in Britain's struggle to tame Helmand, where more than 7,000 troops are trapped in a bloody fight against an obdurate enemy.
The policy has been resisted by the US military, which is suspicious of attempts to negotiate with "terrorists" and which instead relies heavily on military force.
"The Americans have a way of painting this black and white," said one European official. "For them it's like a cowboy film - you're either a good guy or a bad guy. But anyone with any experience in this country knows it's not that simple."
US generals point to the fiasco of Musa Qala, the strategic Helmand town where British officers struck an experimental peace deal with local insurgents in late 2006, only to see the Taliban seize control in February. The town became a base of Taliban operations and drug smuggling, until Nato seized it back this month.
The two western officials who face expulsion today, Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson, met tribal elders in Musa Qala on Monday.
The Afghan government is also divided, but along ethnic and political lines. About 5,000, mostly low-level insurgents - disparaged as "cannon fodder" by one western official - have swapped sides under a long-running "national reconciliation" programme. But government officials of the former Northern Alliance, which helped topple the Taliban in 2001 and is dominated by Tajiks, remain hostile to any moves to bring more senior Taliban commanders into power in Kabul.
Ordinary Afghans are desperate for an end to a wave of violence that has surged to new heights - more than 5,000 deaths in 2007, many of them civilians - but terrified of a return to the medieval punishments and harsh repression that characterised the Taliban government.
The UN supports the Taliban contacts, saying reports from political officers in the provinces indicate that many commanders are looking for a "way out". The UN believes it is possible to separate the hardcore leadership linked to al-Qaida from less ideological commanders driven by money, nationalism or disaffection with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.
"We know the Taliban are not a homogenous group. Some have been coerced into fighting, others have been paid," said UN spokesman Aleem Siddique. "The important thing is to focus on those people who can be brought under the big tent of the government of Afghanistan to support the peace process."
Some analysts say talks will only undermine the fragile national parliament elected in 2005 and human rights groups worry that they could bring notorious rights abusers back into power. "There is an urgent need for greater clarity in who we should be talking to, when and why," admitted one western official in Kabul.
Karzai himself has repeatedly offered to open direct talks with the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. But he is reportedly angry with British efforts to pursue talks without his knowledge.
In such a fluid and complex situation first-hand local knowledge is vital - which is what the EU's Semple and the UN's Patterson were trying to obtain this week, friends and colleagues said yesterday. Some were confident they will shortly be able to return to Kabul, terming the controversy a "hiccup". But for now their services are no longer available.
Meeting the Taliban: row over talks exposes divide
· Afghanistan US suspicious of British attempts at engagement
· Kabul government split on ethnic and political lines
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Thursday December 27, 2007
The Guardian
The threatened expulsion of two senior western officials from Afghanistan yesterday laid bare growing tensions over Kabul's great burning issue: can the Taliban be brought to the negotiating table?
Britain is quietly spearheading efforts to engage militants who are ready to quit the Taliban, although Downing Street vehemently denies reports that MI6 opened talks with some Taliban commanders last summer, trying to convince them to stop shooting by appealing to their better feelings - or through large cash payments.
The enthusiasm for deal-making has echoes of the Raj, when British officers roamed the wild Pashtun lands. But it is most firmly rooted in Britain's struggle to tame Helmand, where more than 7,000 troops are trapped in a bloody fight against an obdurate enemy.
The policy has been resisted by the US military, which is suspicious of attempts to negotiate with "terrorists" and which instead relies heavily on military force.
"The Americans have a way of painting this black and white," said one European official. "For them it's like a cowboy film - you're either a good guy or a bad guy. But anyone with any experience in this country knows it's not that simple."
US generals point to the fiasco of Musa Qala, the strategic Helmand town where British officers struck an experimental peace deal with local insurgents in late 2006, only to see the Taliban seize control in February. The town became a base of Taliban operations and drug smuggling, until Nato seized it back this month.
The two western officials who face expulsion today, Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson, met tribal elders in Musa Qala on Monday.
The Afghan government is also divided, but along ethnic and political lines. About 5,000, mostly low-level insurgents - disparaged as "cannon fodder" by one western official - have swapped sides under a long-running "national reconciliation" programme. But government officials of the former Northern Alliance, which helped topple the Taliban in 2001 and is dominated by Tajiks, remain hostile to any moves to bring more senior Taliban commanders into power in Kabul.
Ordinary Afghans are desperate for an end to a wave of violence that has surged to new heights - more than 5,000 deaths in 2007, many of them civilians - but terrified of a return to the medieval punishments and harsh repression that characterised the Taliban government.
The UN supports the Taliban contacts, saying reports from political officers in the provinces indicate that many commanders are looking for a "way out". The UN believes it is possible to separate the hardcore leadership linked to al-Qaida from less ideological commanders driven by money, nationalism or disaffection with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.
"We know the Taliban are not a homogenous group. Some have been coerced into fighting, others have been paid," said UN spokesman Aleem Siddique. "The important thing is to focus on those people who can be brought under the big tent of the government of Afghanistan to support the peace process."
Some analysts say talks will only undermine the fragile national parliament elected in 2005 and human rights groups worry that they could bring notorious rights abusers back into power. "There is an urgent need for greater clarity in who we should be talking to, when and why," admitted one western official in Kabul.
Karzai himself has repeatedly offered to open direct talks with the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. But he is reportedly angry with British efforts to pursue talks without his knowledge.
In such a fluid and complex situation first-hand local knowledge is vital - which is what the EU's Semple and the UN's Patterson were trying to obtain this week, friends and colleagues said yesterday. Some were confident they will shortly be able to return to Kabul, terming the controversy a "hiccup". But for now their services are no longer available.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Al Gore, UN panel share Nobel for Peace
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071012/ap_on_re_eu/nobel_peace
Al Gore, UN panel share Nobel for Peace
By DOUG MELLGREN and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers
10-12-7
Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.
Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," had been widely tipped to win the prize.
He said that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.
"We face a true planetary emergency. ... It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," he said. "It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."
The win is also likely add further fuel to a burgeoning movement in the United States for Gore to run for president in 2008, which he has so far said he does not plan to do.
Kenneth Sherrill, a political scientist at Hunter College in New York said Gore probably enjoys being a public person more than an elected official.
"He seems happier and liberated in the years since his loss in 2000. Perhaps winning the Nobel and being viewed as a prophet in his own time will be sufficient," says Sherrill.
Two Gore advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to share his thinking, said the award will not make it more likely that he will seek the presidency. If anything, the Peace Prize makes the rough-and-tumble of a presidential race less appealing to Gore, they said, because now he has a huge, international platform to fight global warming and may not want to do anything to diminish it.
One of the advisers said that while Gore is unlikely to rule out a bid in the coming days, the prospects of the former vice president entering the fray in 2008 are "extremely remote."
In its citation, the committed lauded Gore's "strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out the Bush administration for criticism.
"A peace prize is never a criticism of anything. A peace prize is a positive message and support to all those champions of peace in the world."
Bush abandoned the Kyoto Protocol because he said it would harm the U.S. economy and because it did not require immediate cuts by countries like China and India. The treaty aimed to put the biggest burden on the richest nations that contributed the most carbon emissions.
The U.S. Senate voted against mandatory carbon reductions before the Kyoto negotiations were completed. The treaty was never presented to the Senate for ratification by the Clinton Administration.
"Al Gore has fought the environment battle even as vice president," Mjoes said. "Many did not listen ... but he carried on."
Gore supporters have been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for petition drives and advertising in an effort to lure him into the Democratic presidential primaries. One group, Draftgore.com, ran a full-page open letter to Gore in Wednesday's New York Times, imploring him to get into the race.
Gore, 59, has been coy, saying repeatedly he's not running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, without ever closing that door completely.
He was the Democratic nominee in 2000 and won the general election popular vote. However, Gore lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush after a legal challenge to the Florida result that was decided by the Supreme Court.
Gore called the award meaningful because of his co-winner, calling the IPCC the "world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis."
Gore said he planned to donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan nonprofit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
The last American to win the prize, or share it, was former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who won it 2002.
The committee cited the IPCC for its two decades of scientific reports that have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming."
It went on to say that because of the panel's efforts, global warming has been increasingly recognized. In the 1980s it "seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent."
"It was a surprise," said Carola Traverso Saibante, spokeswoman for the IPCC. "We would have been happy even if (Gore) had received it alone because it is a recognition of the importance of this issue."
But some questioned the prize decision.
"Awarding it to Al Gore cannot be seen as anything other than a political statement. Awarding it to the IPCC is well-founded," said Bjorn Lomborg, author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist."
He criticized Gore's film as having "some very obvious mistakes, like the argument that we're going to see six meters of sea-level rise," he said.
"They (Nobel committee) have a unique platform in getting people's attention on this issue, and I regret they have used it to make a political statement."
This year, climate change has been at the top of the world agenda. The U.N. climate panel has been releasing its reports; talks on a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate are set to resume; and on Europe's northern fringe, where the awards committee works, concern about the melting Arctic has been underscored by this being the International Polar Year.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said the prize would help to continue the globally growing awareness of climate change.
"Their contributions to the prevention of climate change have raised awareness all over the world. Their work has been an inspiration for politicians and citizens alike," he said in a statement.
In recent years, the Norwegian committee has broadened its interpretation of peacemaking and disarmament efforts outlined by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in creating the prize with his 1895 will. The prize now often also recognizes human rights, democracy, elimination of poverty, sharing resources and the environment.
"We believe that the Nobel Committee has shown great courage by so clearly connecting the climate problems with peace," said Truls Gulowsen, head of environmental group Greenpeace Norway.
The Nobel Prizes each bestow a gold medal, a diploma and a $1.5 million cash prize on the winner.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/
Al Gore, UN panel share Nobel for Peace
By DOUG MELLGREN and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers
10-12-7
Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.
Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," had been widely tipped to win the prize.
He said that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.
"We face a true planetary emergency. ... It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," he said. "It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."
The win is also likely add further fuel to a burgeoning movement in the United States for Gore to run for president in 2008, which he has so far said he does not plan to do.
Kenneth Sherrill, a political scientist at Hunter College in New York said Gore probably enjoys being a public person more than an elected official.
"He seems happier and liberated in the years since his loss in 2000. Perhaps winning the Nobel and being viewed as a prophet in his own time will be sufficient," says Sherrill.
Two Gore advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to share his thinking, said the award will not make it more likely that he will seek the presidency. If anything, the Peace Prize makes the rough-and-tumble of a presidential race less appealing to Gore, they said, because now he has a huge, international platform to fight global warming and may not want to do anything to diminish it.
One of the advisers said that while Gore is unlikely to rule out a bid in the coming days, the prospects of the former vice president entering the fray in 2008 are "extremely remote."
In its citation, the committed lauded Gore's "strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out the Bush administration for criticism.
"A peace prize is never a criticism of anything. A peace prize is a positive message and support to all those champions of peace in the world."
Bush abandoned the Kyoto Protocol because he said it would harm the U.S. economy and because it did not require immediate cuts by countries like China and India. The treaty aimed to put the biggest burden on the richest nations that contributed the most carbon emissions.
The U.S. Senate voted against mandatory carbon reductions before the Kyoto negotiations were completed. The treaty was never presented to the Senate for ratification by the Clinton Administration.
"Al Gore has fought the environment battle even as vice president," Mjoes said. "Many did not listen ... but he carried on."
Gore supporters have been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for petition drives and advertising in an effort to lure him into the Democratic presidential primaries. One group, Draftgore.com, ran a full-page open letter to Gore in Wednesday's New York Times, imploring him to get into the race.
Gore, 59, has been coy, saying repeatedly he's not running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, without ever closing that door completely.
He was the Democratic nominee in 2000 and won the general election popular vote. However, Gore lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush after a legal challenge to the Florida result that was decided by the Supreme Court.
Gore called the award meaningful because of his co-winner, calling the IPCC the "world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis."
Gore said he planned to donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan nonprofit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
The last American to win the prize, or share it, was former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who won it 2002.
The committee cited the IPCC for its two decades of scientific reports that have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming."
It went on to say that because of the panel's efforts, global warming has been increasingly recognized. In the 1980s it "seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent."
"It was a surprise," said Carola Traverso Saibante, spokeswoman for the IPCC. "We would have been happy even if (Gore) had received it alone because it is a recognition of the importance of this issue."
But some questioned the prize decision.
"Awarding it to Al Gore cannot be seen as anything other than a political statement. Awarding it to the IPCC is well-founded," said Bjorn Lomborg, author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist."
He criticized Gore's film as having "some very obvious mistakes, like the argument that we're going to see six meters of sea-level rise," he said.
"They (Nobel committee) have a unique platform in getting people's attention on this issue, and I regret they have used it to make a political statement."
This year, climate change has been at the top of the world agenda. The U.N. climate panel has been releasing its reports; talks on a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate are set to resume; and on Europe's northern fringe, where the awards committee works, concern about the melting Arctic has been underscored by this being the International Polar Year.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said the prize would help to continue the globally growing awareness of climate change.
"Their contributions to the prevention of climate change have raised awareness all over the world. Their work has been an inspiration for politicians and citizens alike," he said in a statement.
In recent years, the Norwegian committee has broadened its interpretation of peacemaking and disarmament efforts outlined by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in creating the prize with his 1895 will. The prize now often also recognizes human rights, democracy, elimination of poverty, sharing resources and the environment.
"We believe that the Nobel Committee has shown great courage by so clearly connecting the climate problems with peace," said Truls Gulowsen, head of environmental group Greenpeace Norway.
The Nobel Prizes each bestow a gold medal, a diploma and a $1.5 million cash prize on the winner.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
