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Iraqi Governing Council Launches Own Oil-For-Food Probe

Mar 24: In addition to the U.N.-backed investigation into allegations that Saddam Hussein and his associates misused funds through the U.N.-sponsored oil-for-food program, the Iraqi Governing Council has decided to launch its own investigation, Reuters reported yesterday.

"Saddam Hussein was able to loot billions of (dollars of) Iraqi people's money under the supervision of the United Nations," said Intifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for the head of the council's finance committee, Ahmad Chalabi. He added that the council would employ international accountancy and legal firms to help investigate bribery suspects in connection with the program.

The oil-for-food program, designed to ease the effects of trade sanctions imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, allowed Iraq to choose oil companies to put money into a U.N. third party account from which civilian goods suppliers received payment. The French bank BNP-Paribas handled the U.N. account. The program handled more than $65 billion in funds for food and other goods, including medicine.

Reports in the media have linked a senior U.N. official, Benon Sevan, as well as government officials and foreign companies with the scandal. Sevan, who denied allegations of corruption, ran the oil-for-food program, which started in December 1996 and lasted until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year (Reuters/Al-Jazeera, March 23).

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the Governing Council for assistance in an investigation of the charges, and is still awaiting a response. The U.N. Office for Internal Oversight Services wrote to the council on February 6 and March 11 seeking cooperation, Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard said (U.N. release, March 23).

Meanwhile, the United States said yesterday it supports a U.N. investigation of the program, while France and Russia voiced reservations about a probe.

According to Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada, which in January published a list of 270 officials, activists and journalists suspected of profiting from the oil sales, most bribes went to Russian firms as Hussein tried to curry favor with Moscow.

Anonymous U.N. sources say some Security Council members have expressed concern about such a probe, so Annan decided not to seek a council resolution backing the investigation (Nick Wadhams, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, March 23).

Eckhard said yesterday a statement or letter would suffice.

"The whole point of this consultation with council members over the last two weeks was to convince them of the need for such an independent investigation in the hopes that he would get their support," Eckhard said. "Without government support this investigation is not going to go very far, so he is hoping for some kind of signal from the council that they support this effort" (U.N. release).

John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said yesterday that the United States completely supported the U.N.-led investigation.

"We have already communicated to the secretary general that we're prepared to cooperate in every possible way," Negroponte said. "I think he's responding to some of the criticism and allegations that have been made and I think he is taking a very constructive approach," he said (Wadhams, AP/Yahoo! News).

Vitamin, Mineral Deficiency Affects One-Third Of World's People

Mar 24: Unless governments and the food industry work to improve vitamin and mineral consumption among the developing countries' children, the world will not achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality by 2015, says a new report released yesterday by UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative, adding that vitamin and mineral deficiency affects one-third of the world's population.

According to the report, launched during the annual meeting of the U.N. Standing Committee on Nutrition, the effects of vitamin and mineral deficiency cause diseases that include anemia, cretinism and blindness. Vitamin A deficiency, for instance, affects the immune systems of around 40 percent of children under age 5 in developing countries, causing the deaths of 1 million children each year.

"Resources and technology to bring vitamin and mineral deficiencies under control exist," said Micronutrient Initiative President Venkatesh Mannar. "What we need is the will, the effort and the action to fix this problem."

The report says the problem could be solved with food fortification and supplementation, which are inexpensive, for children and pregnant women. The report also calls for the food industry to improve production and distribution of fortified food products and supplements and for governments to increase efforts in educating their people about the advantages of vitamin and mineral consumption.

"All children have the right to a good start in life," said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kul Gautam. "With nearly a third of the planet affected in some way by a problem for which a clear solution exists, anything less than rapid progress is unconscionable" (UNICEF release, March 23).

Also yesterday, the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group released a report on lack of zinc in many people's diet, saying that as many as one in five people worldwide suffer from zinc deficiency.

The report, produced in collaboration with U.N. University and the International Union of Nutrition Sciences, also said that poverty increases the problem because of the relatively high price of zinc-rich foods such as red meat and shellfish.

Countries cited as being at high-risk for zinc deficiency are mostly in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America and the Andean region.

According to Ken Brown, a professor of international nutrition at the University of California-Davis, zinc consumption reduces incidence of diarrhea and respiratory infections, while its deficiency cause higher mortality rates among poor children.

"There is also some evidence that infants of mothers who receive zinc supplements during pregnancy have less diarrhea during the first months of post-natal life," Brown said.

The report calls on the implementation of programs that increase people's access to zinc through cheaper supplements and public awareness (International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group release, March 23).

WHO Says DOTS Initiative For TB Control Spreading Worldwide

Mar 24: The number of people diagnosed and treated for tuberculosis under the DOTS (directly observed treatment, short-course) method is rising around the world, especially in countries with high rates of TB, according to a World Health Organization report released today at a forum in New Delhi on containing the epidemic.

According to the 2004 Global Tuberculosis Control report, DOTS programs are currently treating 3 million TB patients yearly, an increase of more than 1 million patients since 2002. Overall, there are around 8.8 million new cases of TB each year, of which 3.9 million are infectious.

DOTS is considered crucial to halting the spread of TB because it is inexpensive and its short duration all but guarantees treatment compliance, thereby preventing the development of drug-resistant strains.

Of the 210 countries that have reported TB cases in 2002, 180 are now implementing DOTS and providing access to services for around 70 percent of the population. The increase in DOTS programs has been mostly detected in India, with more than a quarter of all additional DOTS cases being implemented there.

Following India are South Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, all countries with high TB rates.

"DOTS expansion is one of the major public health success stories of the past decade, one that is saving thousands more lives every day," said WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook. "But to reach the 2005 targets for detection and treatment, the challenge now is to add another 1 million TB patients to DOTS programs each year."

Global 2005 targets for TB control are to detect 70 percent of all the cases and cure 85 percent of them. Currently, case detection rate is 37 percent and cure rate is 82 percent. If 2005 targets are met, WHO says, there is a chance the world will achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving TB cases by 2015.

According to the report, the number of new TB cases is increasing more rapidly in Eastern Europe, mostly in countries of the former Soviet Union that are only starting to implement DOTS (WHO release, March 23).

Eastern Europe and Central Asia are reporting fast growth of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, with rates 10 times higher than in other regions, according to another WHO report released last week.

In order to treat MDR-TB, which often occurs through poor drug management by those infected by TB, WHO has created the DOTS Plus initiative (U.N. Wire, March 16).

African countries are also reporting an increase in TB cases, a phenomenon WHO said is related to high HIV prevalence.

"HIV/AIDS is driving the TB epidemic in southern and eastern Africa and will worsen the situation in Eastern Europe, India and China in years ahead," said WHO Assistant Director General for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Jack Chow. "We cannot control one without controlling the other, and must begin rapidly scaling up TB/HIV collaborative activities to provide a synergy of prevention, treatment and care for co-infected patients" (WHO release).

Yesterday the Pan American Health Organization released new TB numbers for the Americas. An estimated 220,000 new cases of TB are recorded in the region per year, while more than 50,000 people die from the disease.

The disease "does not recognize age, sex, race or status, but it is associated with poverty, since the most disadvantaged people are more vulnerable," said Pilar Ramon, who heads PAHO's TB program(PAHO release, March 23).

Campaign In Arab World Aims To Stop Violence Against Women

Mar 24: Jordanian Queen Rania on Monday helped launch an Amnesty International campaign to end violence against women in the Arab world, where the group says incidents of violence remain "rampant and severe."

One in three women around the world suffers from rape, attack or assault during her lifetime, according to Amnesty, which rolled out the new campaign as part of a global initiative begun earlier this month.

"We seek change, and we ask everyone to join in, and say: 'no to violence against women,'" organization head Irene Kahn told Jordan's queen and about 200 activists at the launch. "The real test is in political resolve and commitment. We hope to see this starting in Jordan ... as a regional model."

Amnesty, which is based in London, is pressing for the abolition of laws that discriminate against women and perpetuate violence. As of last year, 54 countries had laws discriminating against women, 79 had no laws against domestic violence and 127 lacked laws prohibiting sexual harassment.

The launch in Jordan's capital, Amman, comes weeks after the United States announced it would pursue reform in the region through the Greater Middle East Initiative. The Beirut Daily Star reports that at least one local organization, the Jordanian Women's Union, boycotted the ceremony because it did not want to be viewed as endorsing foreign interference in local issues.

"We support AI's [Amnesty International's] efforts on violence and on human rights," said Amneh Zobi, head of the group, which runs Jordan's only temporary women's shelter and hotlines for victims of abuse. "But the start of the campaign from Jordan ... could complicate the efforts of all local women NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], many of whom have been working in this field for over 50 years."

"We do not want to be seen as if we are implementing the agenda of AI [Amnesty International] and of America," she continued.

Conference participants said that progress was being made toward improving the lives of women, particularly as women were more able to talk openly about the problem of violence, but that programs needed to be sensitive to Arab societies if they were to succeed.

"The episode of violence against women is continuing, but the wall of silence over it is also lifting by the day, and talk about it is no longer confirmed to the rooms of the house," said Momen Hadidi, who heads Jordan's National Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Amnesty's Khan made similar observations. "There has been some progress, thanks to change from within, as women are breaking taboos and speaking out. But the region still has a long way to go," she said.

Half of Arab women are illiterate and only 6 percent of parliamentary seats in the Arab world are held by women, far below the international average of 16 percent (Rana Sabbagh-Gargour, Beirut Daily Star, March 23).

Groups Still Recruiting Child Soldiers In Burundi, Amnesty Warns

Mar 24: The recruitment and use of child soldiers continues in Burundi despite a peace accord designed to end the country's decade-long civil conflict, Amnesty International said today in a report.

According to Burundi: Child Soldiers — the Challenge of Demobilization, the country's fragile peace could shatter unless children who have been used as porters, informants, "wives" and fighters are demobilized.

Burundi's main rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, has signed a peace agreement with the government, but smaller groups are recruiting children as a way to increase their bargaining power in case of potential peace talks or as fighters if another conflict breaks out, the London Guardian reports.

"The prospects for a lasting peace will be seriously threatened as those who have known only violence are re-recruited ... or turn to violent crime," said the report (Rory Caroll, London Guardian, March 24).

UNICEF estimates that up to 7,000 children, many of whom have suffered trauma, humiliation, mistreatment and brutal punishment, need to be demobilized and reintegrated into society.

Amnesty urged both the government of Burundi and the international community to "commit to providing long-term support to facilitating reintegration and offering alternative opportunities to former child soldiers." Unless children receive sustained support, they could return to the army or other armed groups, the London-based organization said.

"The international community should sustain interest and engagement in the process and monitor progress of the program as well as in-country developments, to avoid manipulation of the demobilization project by military leaders or others," Amnesty said. "Any new recruitment and continued evidence of the use of child soldiers must be strongly and publicly condemned" (Amnesty International release, March 24).

13 Countries To Seek Methyl Bromide Exemption

Mar 24: As a three-day U.N. Environment Program meeting for the signatories of a global treaty curbing ozone-depleting substances opens today in Montreal, 13 developed countries are preparing to seek exemptions from a ban on methyl bromide, a pesticide that has harmful effects on humans, animals and the ozone layer (U.N. release, March 23).

Under the terms of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, an international agreement adopted in 1987, methyl bromide is to be phased out by developed nations by Jan. 1, 2005. The treaty has curbed use of the fumigant; the levels of methyl bromide used by the United States, Japan, and the European Union are currently 30 percent of 1991 levels.

Now, however, the United States wants to increase methyl bromide use to 37 percent more than previous levels over the next two years and by an unspecified amount during the following year (Timothy Gardner, Reuters/Environmental News Network, March 24).

The United States is not alone in wanting to increase the amount of methyl bromide used beyond the level set by the Montreal Protocol agreement. Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom are also seeking exemptions.

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said that giving these countries exemptions to use the chemical for "certain critical uses" would allow for a smooth transition to environmentally friendly material in a time frame that would be more economically feasible for farmers and other methyl bromide users (U.N. release).

Yet the Environmental Investigation Agency, a watchdog organization that monitors the illegal international trade of substances harmful to the ozone layer, says that the U.S. administration seeks more methyl bromide exemptions than the rest of the countries combined. Mostly for the benefit of strawberry and tomato growers in California and Florida, the United States is requesting further use of 9,920 metric tons of methyl bromide, despite Environmental Protection Agency congressional testimony that the United States had a similar amount stockpiled in 2002, EIA said yesterday. The EIA also warns of indicators showing the illegal stockpiling of the substance in the United States and the smuggling of it around the world (EIA release, March 23).

U.S. farmers have expressed concern about the Montreal Protocol's allowance of an extra 10 years for developing nations to phase out methyl bromide use, arguing that it puts the United States at an unfair disadvantage economically in the world trade system.

"The 50-acre grower in California may be competing with a multinational corporation based in China who gets to use the product 10 year longer," said Rodger Wasson, president of the California Strawberry Commission.

The Dow Chemical Company's subsidiary, Dow AgroSciences, makes alternative pesticides that reportedly do not harm the ozone layer. Some suggest that tomato and strawberry growers use these substances, such as Telone and ProFume, rather than methyl bromide (Gardner, Reuters/Environmental News Network).

The EIA said methyl bromide usage has been linked to respiratory failure, prostate cancer and death (EIA release). Other dangers include skin cancer from increased exposure to UV rays, weakened immune systems and an increase in eye cataracts. The chemical is also hazardous to plant and animal life, and its usage results in harm to ocean ecosystems, reduced fishing and plant yields and damage to plastics (U.N. release).

Caribbean Countries Meet In Miami To Discuss Marine Protection

Mar 24: Representatives of 31 countries are meeting in Miami this week to discuss balancing economic growth with protecting the marine and coastal environments of the Caribbean.

According to Veerle Vandeweerd, director of regional seas and Global Program of Action for the U.N. Environment Program, people are unaware of some of the major causes of pollution and the connection between land and sea. Some 80 percent of marine pollution can be directly traced to land use, yet "people don't seem to realize that water is flowing from the tops of hills to the ocean," she said.

To help boost environmental awareness, UNEP and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration signed an agreement Monday under which NOAA will demonstrate how to reduce pollution and provide technical support to countries (Curtis Morgan, Miami Herald, March 23).

Under the initiative, an office will be established in NOAA's National Ocean Service to provide information on marine ecosystem management, answer questions and, "as resources allow," provide technical assistance in the form of training or on-site expert assistance, NOAA announced. The project will begin this year and run at least through the end of 2007. It will include liaison with Washington-based development agencies including the Global Environment Facility, World Bank, Organization of American States and Inter-American Development Bank (NOAA release, March 22).

Also on Monday, the Gillette Company, The Nature Conservancy and the United Nations Foundation announced a $750,000 project to restore wetlands in Mexico's Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve south of Cancun in the Yucatan Peninsula, a UNESCO World Heritage site. According to Associated Press, the project is the first for the new International Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, which aims to restore wetlands and other aquatic habitats around the world (AP, March 22).

Cuba, the largest and most populated Caribbean island, complained in a letter to Nelson Andrade, director of the U.N. Caribbean environmental project, that the United States had prevented it from attending the meeting. Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment called the U.S. action "arbitrary" and said it sets "a negative precedent" for international efforts to address environmental issues.

U.S. State Department Undersecretary of Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky said visa restrictions barred Cuban representatives. Andrade said a Swedish representative will represent Cuban interests at the conference. "Cuba will fully participate in this initiative," Andrade said (Morgan, Miami Herald).

Civil Air Crashes Killed Fewer Passengers In 2003, ICAO Says

Mar 24: Civil aviation crashes killed less than 700 passengers last year compared with around 1,000 in 2002, according to new figures from the International Civil Aviation Organization released yesterday.

The number of major airline crashes also dropped, from 13 in 2002 to six last year, ICAO said. That figure is the lowest since 1945, although numbers before 1986 did not include crashes in the Soviet Union because the figures were not available, according to Agence France-Presse.

Last year, 334 passengers died on scheduled airline flights, compared with 791 the year before, and 362 people died on charter flights or trips that were not regularly scheduled.

Another 20 people were killed in 34 aviation-related criminal incidents in 2003, including three hijackings (AFP, March 23).

Regional Trade Deals Good For Nations If Well Done, Study Says

Mar 24: Regional trade agreements can increase development and reduce poverty in developing countries as long as the parties use the accords to foster competition in domestic markets, improve the credibility of their own economic reforms and facilitate access to rich-country markets, says a new study released yesterday by the World Bank during the Future of Trade Liberalization in the Americas conference in Santiago.

According to Regional Integration and Development, two-thirds of world trade currently takes place within regional agreements, and almost every country takes part in at least one regional accord. When orchestrated properly, those agreements can lower market protection and increase trade liberalization worldwide, the report says.

The report also gives specific rules that will ensure that regional agreements are effective. For instance, it says, developing countries should try to make integration agreements with more developed countries, since they are likely to increase domestic competition and offer the exchange of more advanced technology and services. It also says countries should not depend on the World Trade Organization to monitor the agreements, except for nations that are not participating in the accords but are being negatively affected by them.

The World Bank, however, warns that regional integration agreements should not replace world trade agreements because regionalism tends to isolate too many countries. Because of that, the study urges members of the RIAs not to discriminate against non-members.

"This discrimination is real, and can cause significant trade diversion," said co-author Maurice Schiff. "Trade diversion is mainly a cost to the partners who pay more for their imports, but it can also be costly to the excluded countries that lose exports" (World Bank release, March 23).

Last month, WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi criticized countries for seeking regional and bilateral trade agreements, saying WTO members should be focusing on negotiations of the Doha round, frozen during WTO's ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last year.

"While we are intensively involving ourselves with the endgame of this negotiation in the Doha Round, we need all hands on deck," Supachai said. "We need all resources we can mobilize, so that we can concentrate fully on the solution-seeking exercise of key areas in agriculture and manufacturing and other areas that would be very hard to crack" (U.N. Wire, Feb. 27).

Funding Shortfall Threatens WFP Food Aid For Angola

Mar 24: Having received less than a quarter of the $143 million in donor funds requested for 2004, the World Food Program is facing a funding shortfall that could jeopardize emergency food aid for almost 2 million Angolans in need, the organization has warned.

"We need other donors to come on board at this very critical moment. If there are no new contributions, particularly in cash, we will have to reduce rations to stretch our resources a little bit more," said Oscar Sarroca, the acting WFP head in Angola.

The announcement by the Angolan government last week that it was considering banning genetically modified organisms further complicated the problem since much of the aid WFP receives for the country comes in the form of in-kind contributions from the United States, where GMOs are not banned.

Lack of funds could also threaten WFP's plans to start implementing development-style programs instead of just handing out food aid.

"We wanted to start school feeding and food-for-work programs. But, given our shortage of resources, we won't be able to develop that as much, or shift from relief to recovery in our operations," Sarroca said (Integrated Regional Information Networks, March 23).

U.N. Envoy Departs Haiti As Team Wraps Up Assessment