India calls for gender parity in basic education Country Paper presented at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Meet
Oct 29: India has called upon the Commonwealth nations to evolve a joint strategy for achieving gender parity in basic education. Empowerment of women is the most critical pre-condition for participation of the girls and women in education in the commonwealth community. In a Country Paper presented at the Commonwealth Education Ministers Conference currently in session in Edinburgh, the Minister of Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi said that taking this into consideration, India adopted the National Policy on Empowerment of Women in 2001 to effectively address gender disparity especially in education.
A host of proactive initiatives have been launched over the years to close the gap in gender disparity in literacy. For this, special incentives are being provided to ensure girls participation in basic education. These have resulted in a considerable drop in gender disparity in education over the years.
In the last decade female literacy increased by 14.8 per cent i.e. from 39.3 to 54.16 per cent, higher than the increase in male literacy rate. Gender equity and women's empowerment is also visible, as about 60 per cent of the participants and beneficiaries are women. Fifteen years of free schooling i.e. upto the graduation level is provided to the girls and the early childhood care and education programme is being further strengthened to enable them to attend school. The Mahila Samakhaya Programme of India (awareness creation) was awarded the Noma Literacy prize of UNESCO for 2001.
The Paper points out that the future challenges include, most importantly - reaching out to children in difficult circumstances. These children do not participate in schooling due to a variety of reasons, both economic and social. A key strategy for achieving the goal of "Education for All", is to provide an alternative system of education to those children belonging to deprived and disadvantaged sections of the society.
Speaking about strengthening of education of minorities, the Country Paper notes that education forms an important component to ensure equality and social justice to the minorities as guaranteed in the Constitution. Under the Area Intensive Programme for Educationally Backward Minorities, the central government provides 100 per cent financial assistance for their education. The programme currently covers over 325 community development blocks spread across 15 states and two union territories. In the Tenth Plan, two schemes of Area Intensive Programmes for these minorities are envisaged and modernisation of Madarasas will be merged with it for focussed attention.
The flagship programme "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" launched in 2000, aims at completion of five years of primary education to all children by 2007; completion of eight years of education to all children by 2010; provision of elementary education of satisfactory quality by 2010; bridging the gender and social gaps at the primary stage by 2007 and elementary stage by 2010 and universal retention by 2010. To achieve these objectives, highest priority has been given in the Tenth Plan for the development of Education, the Paper adds. -Keralamonitor.com
UN News
World Bank To Underwrite Trans-Caucasus Oil Pipeline
Oct 29: According to a leaked document, the World Bank is set to approve a $250 million loan to build an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, despite considerable opposition from activists.
The 1,000-mile underground pipeline, supported by oil giant BP, would link Baku, Azerbaijan, on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, via Georgia. The U.S. government has backed the plan as a way to reduce its dependency on Middle Eastern oil.
But opponents, led by United Kingdom-based groups, warn that the project will cause environmental damage and inflame ethnic tensions. A 220-page report compiled by the protesters says the World Bank would be violating its lending guidelines by backing the plan, the London Guardian reports.
According to the leaked document, officials at the International Finance Corporation - an arm of the World Bank - will recommend to their board tomorrow that the IFC approve the loan.
Anders Lustgarten, a spokesman for Baku Ceyhan Campaign, which obtained the leaked document, harshly criticized the Bank's decision. "This report makes it quite clear that the IFC's main intent is to make life easier for the oil companies."
"As the Iraq reconstruction is already leading to aid budgets being cut elsewhere, why should we be obliged to pay yet more to subsidize oil companies and U.S. political interests in the Caspian Sea?" he added.
The document, however, suggests that the "prudent use of these revenues ... represents a major opportunity to translate oil revenues into poverty reduction." It also commends the transparent way in which the project has been carried out, "in accordance with environmental and social safeguards and policies" (Evans/Bowcott, London Guardian, Oct. 29).
Palestinian Militants Agree To Truce Talks, Prime Minister Says
Oct 29: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said militant groups have agreed to resume talks on ending attacks on Israelis, although no date has been set, Reuters reports."I have made an offer to all Palestinian groups, those within the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group, for talks over a cease-fire. They welcomed it," Qureia said.
A Hamas official confirmed the truce talks offer, Reuters says (Mohammed Assadi, Reuters, Oct. 29).
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has launched a diplomatic offensive to discourage foreign support for the Geneva Initiative, a proposal that would have the Palestinians renounce the right of refugees to return to their former homes in Israel and almost all Jewish settlements on the West Bank beyond what Israel defines as Jerusalem. Supporters of the initiative say it has exposed the bankruptcy of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies, the London Guardian reports.
Former Israeli Cabinet Minister Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a close ally of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, negotiated secretly for two years on the initiative, which was made public two weeks ago by left-wing Israeli politicians and a group of Palestinian leaders.
Originators of the initiative hope foreign governments and wealthy individual donors will help provide approximately $1 million to print and distribute copies of their draft agreement to every household in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Sharon has dismissed the plan as illegitimate and close to treason, and says it undermines the road map to peace, sponsored by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
"Israel supports the road map and [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush's vision. That is the only plan that has gained international legitimacy and that is acceptable to the parties," said Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Yoav Biran. "There is no place for alternative initiatives" (Chris McGreal, London Guardian, Oct. 29).
Former Palestinian Authority official Sari Nusseibeh and former head of Israeli internal security services Ami Ayalon went to the United Nations yesterday to present their own peace plan to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, saying 100,000 Israelis and 60,000 Palestinian Arabs had signed their petition outlining peace terms.
The Nusseibeh-Ayalon plan attempts to define the end result of the path to peace.
"If a captain doesn't know where he sails, there is no wind that will bring him there," said Ayalon, who was once the commander of the Israeli navy ( Benny Avni, New York Sun, Oct. 29).
In other news, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man and wounded another today after the pair crossed into a restricted area around the fence that separates Gaza from Israel, Associated Press reports (Ravi Nessman, AP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 29).
Afghanistan World Leader In Opium Production, Report Says
Oct 29: The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the Afghan government today released a report confirming Afghanistan's rank as the world leader in opium production, responsible for 75 percent of the world's output. According to The Afghanistan Opium Survey for 2003, opium poppy cultivation is increasing dramatically, returning to levels seen before the Taliban government's ban on production in 2001 severely curtailed output.
In 2000, while still under Taliban rule, Afghanistan produced 3,276 metric tons of opium. Under the 2001 ban, cultivation plummeted to 185 metric tons, but it rebounded dramatically in 2002 and this year reached 3,600 metric tons.
The report says that despite falling prices due to the surge in production, the $1 billion narcotics trade represents 23 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
It also represents a serious threat to the rule of law. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has introduced measures to combat the industry, but it continues to thrive.
"The country is clearly at a crossroads: either major surgical drug-control measures are taken now, or the drug cancer in Afghanistan will keep spreading and metastasize into corruption, violence and terrorism," said Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC's executive director, presenting the report in Moscow.
This year the area under production grew by 8 percent and is widespread; today opium is cultivated in 28 of the country's 32 provinces.
"The Afghanistan opium economy is fuelled by low risk and high profit," Costa said. "This may give birth to narco-cartels and other forms of organized crime that undermine Karzai's effort to promote democracy and rule of law" (U.N. release, Oct. 29).
Two More U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq
Oct 29: Attacks against U.S.-led coalition troops continued in Iraq last night, with two U.S. soldiers reported killed when their battle tank was struck by a land mine or roadside bomb near Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad.A third tank crewman was evacuated to a U.S. hospital in Germany (Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Oct. 29).
Seven Ukrainian peacekeepers were also reported wounded yesterday when militants attacked their patrol in southern Iraq, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
Two armored personnel carriers with 17 Ukrainian peacekeepers on board were ambushed in al-Suwayrah, with three mines exploding under the vehicles followed by a barrage of gunfire on the convoy by militants.
Five of the soldiers were hospitalized in Baghdad and two others suffered only slight injuries. The Ukrainians were part of a 1,650-person unit serving in the Polish-led stabilization force in southern Iraq.
It was the first ambush of a multinational unit in the Polish sector (AP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 29).
U.S. officials also announced that Baghdad Deputy Mayor Faris Abdul Razzaq al-Assam was killed Sunday in a drive-by shooting. The attack on Razzaq al-Assam followed the fatal shooting Sept. 20 of Iraqi Governing Council member Aquila al-Hashimi (Lekic, AP/Yahoo! News).
Despite the increase in attacks, U.S. President George Bush said yesterday that the United States will recruit more Iraqis for intelligence-gathering operations and may also increase security measures to protect troops from suicide bombings and other attacks.
In outlining ways the military was switching tactics to deal with a rise in deadly assaults, Bush said the military would "harden" potential targets of suicide bomb attacks. "We've got to make sure that not only we harden targets, but that we get actionable intelligence to intercept the missions before they begin," Bush said. "That means more Iraqis involved in the intelligence-gathering systems in their country so that they are active participants in securing the country from further harm" (Matt Kelley, AP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 29).
The deaths of the two U.S. soldiers in Iraq yesterday brought to 116 the number of U.S. troops killed in hostile action since President Bush declared the formal end of major combat May 1, surpassing the 115 combat deaths the United States suffered during the war (Reuters, Oct. 29).
A study released by the Project on Defense Alternatives - a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based think tank - says 13,000 Iraqis, including up to 4,300 noncombatants, were killed during the major combat phase of the war. The group said it based its estimate on U.S. combat data, battlefield press reports and Iraqi hospital surveys.
The study also estimates that 3,500 Iraqi civilians and up to 26,000 military personnel died during the 1991 Gulf War (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo! News, Oct. 29).
Powell Urges Red Cross To Stay
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to remain in Iraq, despite a deadly suicide bombing at the agency's Baghdad headquarters Monday.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Powell had telephoned ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger to stress that the United States "would encourage people to stay there and do the important work that they have been doing."The agency said it would decide independently whether it was too dangerous to stay, regardless of pressure from the United States (Naomi Koppel, AP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 28).
40,000 Angolans Repatriated Since June, UNHCR Says
Oct 29: While U.N. repatriation programs have helped return home 40,000 Angolans since June, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is considering scaling back on repatriation efforts as fewer refugees are seeking assistance with the onset of the rainy season, agency spokesman Kris Janowski said yesterday.Janowski noted that the recent return of 125 Angolans helped boost the number of returnees over the 40,000 mark, but that "the pace of returns is slowing down with the arrival of the rainy season in some parts of the country."
"UNHCR offices in Angola, the D.R.C. and Zambia are assessing the feasibility of continuing the repatriation during the rainy season," he said. Nearly half the returnees have come from D.R.C. and 17,000 have come from Zambia (U.N. release, Oct. 28).
Angola's progress toward peace, meanwhile, could be threatened by the widespread availability of small arms in that country. The government has acknowledged the necessity of hastening a new disarmament effort and is planning to enact legislature that would take guns out of circulation, Integrated Regional Information Networks reported yesterday.
A government-sponsored disarmament plan that followed the April 2002 cease-fire, however, brought in only 10 percent of the number of guns believed to be in circulation. Officials estimate that a third of Angolans are armed, IRIN said.
The government should consider offering more incentives and involving local communities in the new disarmament effort, according to experts and advocates.
"The government must recognize that the issue of authoritative messages will not solve the problem," said Matis Capapelo, vice president of the nongovernmental organization Angola 2000. "Police raids on homes does not work and the government knows this. It is important that people will best understand this message if ordinary people within their communities convey this message convincingly," Capapelo added.
The possible cross-border trafficking of weapons has also caused concern. Noel Stott, a researcher at South Africa's Institute for Security Studies, urged Angola to sign the Southern African Development Community protocol on controlling the flow of small arms (IRIN, Oct. 28).
Annan Submits 2004-05 U.N. Budget, Appeals Against Cuts
Oct 29: Speaking yesterday before the U.N. General Assembly's Administrative and Budgetary Committee, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan submitted a 2004-05 budget of $3.058 billion for the organization, representing a 0.5 percent increase over current spending. The additional expenditure would go to programs in Africa, crime prevention and human rights observances. Annan also recommended hiring 117 new, mostly young professionals. The budget has remained unchanged for almost a decade.
"The budget embodies both our great hopes for the organization and our carefully considered decisions of what to do in a world of finite and limited resources," Annan told the committee.
Annan recommended the discontinuation of 900 of the 50,000 projects listed in the budget, but he also appealed to the committee not to reduce the budget as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. The ACABQ suggested a $3.02 billion budget, with cuts in secretarial staff, consultants, general operating expenses, furniture and equipment (U.N. release, Oct. 28).
WHO To Host Global Meeting On Health Investment
Oct 29: Ministers of health, finance and planning from 40 developing countries will convene with development partners at World Health Organization headquarters Oct. 29-30 to discuss the need to significantly increase investments in health around the world.
"This meeting signifies real political commitment from the highest levels of government and donor representatives," said WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook. "Let us capitalize on this unique opportunity to recognize health as a critical investment and together develop a common understanding of how countries and their partners can transform these commitments into immediate actions."
WHO's 2001 Report of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health recommended that donors should increase assistance for health to $27 billion by 2007.
According to WHO, a recent study called Development Assistance for Health: Recent Trends and Resource Allocation, said the total development assistance for health from major selected sources increased from an average of $6.1 billion between 1997 and 1999 to $7.7 billion in 2001, with most of the increase in funding going to tackling HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. These increases, although encouraging, fall short of meeting real needs, WHO says.
"To achieve 'three by five' and other health priorities we need considerably more funds than those currently available," Lee said, referring to his initiative to provide 3 million people with AIDS in developing countries with antiretroviral drugs by 2005. "If we don't increase resources for health and target these resources to activities that will have the greatest impact, we stand to lose millions of men, women and children to disease" (WHO release, Oct. 29).
After Iraq Conference, AIDS Envoy Blasts Funding Priorities
Oct 29: With donations for Iraq's reconstruction standing at $33 billion for the next four years - nearly 10 times the amount pledged to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - AIDS and development officials are worried that donor countries will come up short when it comes to funding the global AIDS budget.
Donors at last week's conference in Madrid shelled out generously to help reconstruct Iraq, an oil-producing, middle-income country of 25 million people. But with at least 42 million people worldwide infected with HIV and more than 20 million dead from AIDS, Stephen Lewis, the U.N. Secretary General's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, called the pledges for Iraq a "weird, discordant upset in the scales of justice."
"I don't deny that Iraqis are under stress and numbers of them are dying tragically," he told the Associated Press. "But I am forced to point out that more than 2 million Africans are dying of AIDS every year, and their poverty is vastly more wretched."
The emphasis on fighting terrorism has led to "a completely unconscionable distortion" of funding priorities, Lewis argued.
In the United States, the White House has asked Congress for $20 billion for Iraq's reconstruction. The administration has allotted $2.1 billion to fight HIV/AIDS overseas - $1 billion less than President George W. Bush asked for in his January State of the Union Address (Barbara Borst, AP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 28).
A U.S. Senate amendment to boost spending to $2.4 billion was to come up for voting yesterday. The New York Times editorial page urged passage of the amendment, which has bipartisan support, arguing that "it is the last chance to bring Washington closer to keeping its promise to the world in 2004" (New York Times, Oct. 28).
Ethiopia To Give Free AIDS Drugs To Poor
Oct 29: The Ethiopian Health Ministry announced yesterday that it planned to distribute free antiretroviral drugs to poor people in the country living with HIV/AIDS, Reuters reported.Of Ethiopia's 70 million people, up to 2.2 million are infected with HIV, and according to UNICEF, an estimated 1 million children under age 14 have been orphaned in Ethiopia by AIDS. Donors last year gave the country about $60 million for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs (Reuters/CNN, Oct. 28).
Many Asian Nations Not Investing In Children, UNICEF Says
Oct 29: Too many Asia-Pacific countries are undermining the region's growth by not investing in early health care, nutrition and schooling for children, a UNICEF official said today, one year after the agency outlined a new global strategy for early childhood development, Reuters reports.
"While great progress has been made in some places, in others the under-5 mortality rate is rising," UNICEF's deputy regional director Richard Bridle said at a three-day conference in Bangkok that is reviewing the region's development efforts.
"Twenty-seven million of our children are still underweight. Every year 40,000 mothers will die as a result of childbirth. Their deaths seriously undermine the prospects of their surviving infants," Bridle said.
UNICEF believes that rather than treating problems in isolation, countries can reduce sickness, mortality rates and boost overall development by integrating their programs, and it argues that for every dollar invested in early child care, a country can save $7 on children less likely to get sick, fail at school or need remedial services.
"Investments are the most cost-effective when they occur during pregnancy and early childhood," Bridle said.
Asia is home to 600 million children, including 150 million under the age of 5, but some countries are reluctant to spend money on childhood investment because their economies are still recovering six years after the Asian financial crisis, Reuters reported (Reuters/AlertNet, Oct. 29).
Children Still Being Abandoned In Romania, UNICEF Says
Oct 29: Efforts to eradicate the practice in Romania of abandoning children have not been entirely successful as the practice continues among Gypsies, which account for about 80 percent of the cases of abandoned children, UNICEF's top representative in Romania, Pierre Poupard, said yesterday in Geneva.
The practice was encouraged under the rule of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, when couples were encouraged to have children whether or not they could afford to have a large family, as the state promised a place in an orphanage if the need arose.
Gypsies, who make up 5 percent of the Romanian population, often leave their children at orphanages for a "provisional" length of time, which often becomes long-term, Poupard said.
With the fall of the communist regime, UNICEF and the European Union helped Bucharest launch an initiative to close the orphanages - where children were kept in pitiful conditions - and return them to their families, put them in foster homes or move them to more humane institutions (Agence France-Presse, Oct. 28).
UNEP Launches Afghan Environment Project
Oct 29: The U.N. Environment Program yesterday launched a $5 million program in Afghanistan geared to help restore the country's war-damaged natural resources and ensure that ecological principles are incorporated into postwar development plans.
During the 30-month project, UNEP will work closely with the Afghan Ministry of Irrigation, Water Resources and Environment to help the government manage its natural resources. The agency will also press the government to prioritize environmental concerns during reconstruction.
A UNEP report released earlier this year found that Afghanistan's environment was so ravaged after two decades of war that it posed a threat to human health (U.N. release, Oct. 28).
European Union Set To Strengthen Chemical Testing
Oct 29: Draft European Commission proposals are set to institute stricter safety controls on 30,000 chemicals, many of which are found in household items, BBC Online reports today. The new regime will significantly alter the way chemicals are controlled in the European Union.
At present, only 10 percent of chemicals are subject to such stringent testing, but with the stricter safety controls each substance will have to be tested before it can be licensed for use.
One of the goals of the program is to eventually phase dangerous chemicals out of use, but critics say the process will only identify and classify them as "substances of very high concern." Any chemicals classified as such will not then automatically face a ban (BBC Online, Oct. 29).
The proposed legislation is not as demanding as originally planned. Industry groups and some of the EU's larger member states ran a successful campaign to dilute many of the provisions, including the exclusion of some less dangerous substances from its provisions.
Due to European Parliament elections in June and the European Commission's scheduled changeover in autumn next year, the law is unlikely to see ratification until late in 2004 (Tobias Buck, Financial Times, Oct. 29).
UNDP Honors Five For Fighting Poverty, AIDS
Oct 29: The U.N. Development Program will award today the 2003 Poverty Eradication Award to five individuals who have dedicated themselves to fighting poverty and have advanced progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. Nane Annan, wife of Secretary General Kofi Annan, and UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown will present the awards in New York at a ceremony concluding the activities of the 2003 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which focused this year on mobilizing communities to achieve the millennium goals.
Helen Ditsebe-Mhone of Botswana will receive the award for her role in founding the Coping Center for People Living with HIV/AIDS. After she learned of her own HIV-positive status, Ditsebe-Mhone created the center to provide services for other HIV/AIDS sufferers, becoming her country's most visible spokesperson for the disease.
Jimmy Bhojedat of Guyana and Indonesia's Achmad Ramadhan will also be presented with UNDP's award for their work to combat HIV/AIDS. When he was just 18, Bhojedat founded Lifeline Counseling Services to help people living with the disease, and the group has expanded from treating 70 people its first year to nearly 40,000 today. Ramadan, an Islamic preacher and founder of the Center for Information and HIV/AIDS Counseling, works with more than 50 Islamic organizations to raise awareness of the disease, campaigns for HIV prevention and against drug abuse and spearheads a volunteer campaign that has indirectly reached more than 100,000 people.
Bulgaria's Lydia Shouleva is to be the fourth recipient of the award, for her founding of the Social Assistance to Employment, which provides provides unemployed Bulgarians with literacy and vocational training, legislative guarantees of workers' insurance and rights, and tax breaks to companies investing in low income regions. The program "has transformed welfare checks into public works paychecks for more than 80,000 previously unemployed Bulgarians," UNDP said in a statement.
Finally, UNDP plans to honor Asma Khader, who established the National Network for Poverty Alleviation in Jordan. She has fostered ties between government ministries, national commissions and nongovernmental organizations in the fight against poverty, making her Jordan's premier advocate of poverty alleviation (UNDP release, Oct. 28).
Poll Finds U.S.-Earned Cash Is Mexico's No. 2 Income Source
Oct 29: Money sent home to relatives from workers in the United States will become Mexico's second-highest source of income this year, reaching an expected $14.5 billion and disproving predictions that the tide of illegal immigration would slow following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Oil remains Mexico's top source of income, but remittances - which outstrip direct foreign investment and tourism - are playing an increasingly significant role in Mexico's economy, according to a poll sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, as families are beginning to invest money sent from relatives in small businesses and higher education instead of using remittances strictly for survival.
"This is not necessarily something to celebrate," said Don Terry of the Multilateral Investment Fund. "It means that the Mexican economy is not expanding and so people have had to leave."
The findings show a significant leap from the $9 billion in remittances reported three years ago and defy expectations that tighter border security post-Sept. 11, coupled with a shrinking U.S. economy, would choke out immigrants. According to Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, about 450,000 people entered the U.S. border illegally from Mexico last year, undeterred by the greater risks now associated with illicit border crossings.
According to the New York Times, institutional changes - two examples are a drop in the fees companies charge for wire transfers and new policy by some U.S. banks allowing illegal immigrants to open accounts so their relatives can withdraw cash from automatic tellers in Mexico - have fed the trend (Ginger Thompson, Oct. 28).
U.N. Rights Envoys Concerned About Crackdown In Azerbaijan
Oct 29: Four U.N. human rights experts yesterday voiced growing concern over allegations of numerous abuses by the government in Azerbaijan following demonstrations over the Oct. 15 national elections, in which the son of the country's longtime leader swept the polls in a contest widely derided as a sham.
Special rapporteur on freedom of opinion Ambeyi Ligabo, special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Asma Jahangir, special rapporteur on torture Theo Van Boven and special representative on human rights defenders Hina Jilani reminded the Azeri government to observe the right to assemble and express opinion as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The four also called on the government to investigate allegations of death, torture or other mistreatment (U.N. release, Oct. 28).
Hundreds of protesters and several high-profile political dissidents were arrested in the days following the overwhelming electoral victory of Ilham Aliyev, son of Azerbaijan's ruler of three decades Heidar Aliyev (U.N. Wire, Oct. 20). A number of journalists, as well as independent election observers who refused to sign off on vote tallies they said were fraudulent, have also reportedly been arrested. At least one person died in the protests and many have been injured (U.N. release).
An editorial appeared Monday in the New York Times criticizing the election and the U.S. and Russian response to it. "Mr. Aliyev's election was rigged from the start," the newspaper's editorial board wrote, adding that in the ensuing protests "hundreds of people were seriously injured and several killed."
"The outside world did nothing to discourage Mr. Aliyev from this raw display of power," the editorial continued, with Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoning to say, "The people of Azerbaijan support your balanced program for developing the country," and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage congratulating Aliyev on his "strong showing." A later statement by a State Department spokesman said the election included some irregularities and called for an investigation.
"But the United States would do better to keep the new president at arm's length and avoid repeating the unfortunate history of supporting autocrats who sit atop oil riches," the Times' editors wrote (New York Times, Oct. 27).
Five Ethnic Albanian Rebels Arrested For Kosovo War Crimes
Oct 29: U.N. police and international peacekeepers in Kosovo arrested five former ethnic Albanian rebels Monday for their alleged involvement in war crimes during the 1998-99 conflict there.
The five, all low-ranking members of the defunct Kosovo Liberation Army, are charged with brutalizing fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serbs during Serbia's crackdown on the province, which sought independence. Four of the five victims died.
The arrests represent the second time a U.N.-administered court in Kosovo has acted against Albanians for alleged atrocities committed during the conflict (Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Oct. 28). On July 16, a U.N. court in Pristina sentenced four ethnic Albanian rebels to prison for torturing and killing suspected collaborators. In that case, too, the victims were ethnic Albanians (U.N. Wire, July 17).
The local U.N.-run courts in Kosovo are distinct from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (U.N. release, Oct. 28).
Bosnian Serb Prison Guard Sentenced To Eight Years In Prison
The ICTY sentenced Predrag Banovic to eight years in prison yesterday for abuses he perpetrated while working as a security guard at the Keraterm detention camp in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. Banovic pleaded guilty in June to one charge of crimes against humanity.
Presiding Judge Patrick Robinson said Banovic displayed "total disregard of human life and dignity" at the camp, where detainees suffered inhumane conditions and physical and psychological trauma.
The 716 days Banovic has already spent in jail awaiting his hearing and sentencing will count toward his term.
In other tribunal-related news, ICTY President Theodor Meron has granted former Bosanski Samac Assembly President Milan Simic's request for an early release from his prison term. He will be released Nov. 3 from his five-year sentence, which was handed down last October, for torture (U.N. release II, Oct. 28). Although it was not clear why Meron granted the request, Simic has been paralyzed since a 1993 attempt on his life, a condition reportedly taken into account during his sentencing last year (U.N. Wire, Oct. 18, 2002).
Meanwhile, the first court appearance by Vladimir Kovacevic, the former Yugoslav army officer nicknamed "Rambo" and implicated in the 1991 siege of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, was postponed Monday because of the defendant's unspecified health problems. Kovacevic faces six counts of war crimes, including murder, cruel treatment and willful damage to historic monuments in the shelling of the walled city (Reuters, Oct. 27).
U.N. Committee Approves Expansion of Arms Register
United Nations Oct 29: The General Assembly's Disarmament Committee yesterday approved a resolution expanding the Register of Conventional Arms to include shoulder-fired missiles, a type of weapon that experts fear is becoming a weapon of choice for terrorists.
Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) have drawn more attention since an attempt earlier this year to shoot down an Israeli commercial airplane with such a weapon in Kenya. The register, which is a compilation of national reports on imports and exports, will have no effect on the MANPADS already in the field, but "there will at least be an increasing transparency" on future transfers, said Ambassador Chris Sanders of the Netherlands.
Not all countries will report to the register so "it will not be 100 percent reliable," he added. "But still it is a very important step on the road to combating the proliferation of these systems, which are tremendously dangerous in view of potential use by terrorists."
The Netherlands has been the primary sponsor of the register since its inception in 1992.
The committee's vote also lowers the threshold of reporting transfers of artillery systems from 100-millimeter caliber to 75-millimeter caliber. By lowering the threshold, the register will now cover 80-millimeter mortars, said Sanders. "This is a very important caliber for mortars, which [were] so far outside the scope of the register," he said.
It is also important because it is a first step in making "a delineation between light weapons and major weapons, since there is still no reliable definition of at which caliber light weapons ends," he added.
The draft was approved 140-0, with 23 abstentions. Most of the abstainers were Arab states that want a more comprehensive register.
The register is an annual compilation of reports from governments concerning their exports and imports of seven categories of weapons. Reporting is voluntary and there is no mechanism to ensure the reports are accurate.
The register is considered a confidence-building, rather than arms-control, measure since nothing about the register's mandate involves curbing exports or destroying stocks of weapons. The goal is openness. Implicit in reporting is the idea that a country is hiding nothing. Conversely, if a country reports a surge in imports or does not report imports, this could be a sign of an offensive buildup.
The register's seven original categories - including combat vehicles, attack helicopters and large-caliber artillery - were selected because they were considered the most likely arms for launching an attack, as opposed to national defense or domestic policing. This is the first time in the history of the register that nations have agreed to add new categories to the register.
Almost since the beginning of the register, there have been calls to expand the register. However, several panels of experts were unable to reach consensus until this summer.
There have been several political currents pulling at the register. Some countries want more of the smaller weapons, such as assault rifles, added, while others, in particular the Arab states, want weapons of mass destruction included. Another demand is that the register include national production as well as imports and exports. Developing countries with a minimal industrial base complain that as importing states, they are at a disadvantage to more industrial states that can manufacture their own weapons.
More than 100 of the 191 members states of the United Nations have in recent years submitted annual reports. These include major exporting states, such as the United States, major importers, such as Pakistan, as well as scores of countries that filed "nil" reports, meaning they did not import or export any of the weapons covered by the register.
By Jim Wurst
U.N. Wire
Colombian Rebels To Release Foreign Tourists, Negotiator Says
Oct 29: Colombia's main rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has agreed to release seven kidnapped foreign tourists starting next week, if one of the ELN 's jailed leaders is allowed to a join a commission of United Nations and Roman Catholic Church representatives that will receive the hostages, a negotiator told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
The United Nations said it "took seriously" the ELN's announcement, and was to respond to the proposal yesterday through a spokesman in the capital, Bogota.
The rebels kidnapped eight people on Sept. 12 from among a group of tourists trekking to the 3,500-year-old ruins of Colombia's Lost City, 950 kilometers north of Bogota, where there is a strong presence of guerrillas and bandits.One of the hostages, 19-year-old Briton Matthew Scott, later escaped and was rescued (AFP/Yahoo! News, Oct. 28).
U.N. Extends Western Sahara Peacekeeping MissionOct 29: The U.N. Security Council decided yesterday to extend the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) through the end of January. Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the council to give Morocco, which has controlled Western Sahara since 1975, more time to consider a peace plan submitted in May by his personal envoy, James Baker, which calls for a referendum on the territory's future (U.N. release, Oct. 28).
Morocco has previously rejected the plan, but Annan told the council that he hopes a solution to the standoff between Morocco and the independence-seeking Polisario Front rebel movement can be achieved by the end of January.
"It is my sincere hope that, by that time, the kingdom of Morocco will be in a position to engage positively in implementing the plan," Annan said in a report to the council. "If not, I will revert to the Security Council in January with my views on the future of the peace process" (News24.com, Oct. 29).
MINURSO was implemented in 1991, following a five-year war between the Polisario Front and Morocco (Reuters/CNN.com, Oct. 28). The mission has already cost more than $500 million, and according to News24.com, some nations want to withdraw their troops from MINURSO.More than 100,000 refugees who fled Western Sahara in 1975 live in camps in Algeria, which backs the Polisario rebels (News24.com).
Algeria yesterday rejected talks with Morocco, saying Rabat should instead accept Annan's plan for Western Sahara (Reuters/CNN.com).
Sudan Commits To Destroy Land Mine Stocks In Four Years
Oct 29: Sudan's ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty earlier this month commits the country to destroy all stockpiled antipersonnel mines in the country within four years and clear all mined areas within 10 years, Integrated Regional Information Networks reported yesterday.
The ratification came following marked progress in peace talks between the Muslim-dominated government, which is based in Khartoum, in the northern part of the country, and the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which is based in southern Sudan.
The ban comes into force April 1, 2004, meaning Sudan will have until April 1, 2008 to destroy its mine stockpile and until 2014 to clear mined areas.
Rae McGrath, the Sudan representative for Land Mine Action, said his group welcomed the move, but added that Sudan needs help from the international community in implementing the ban. "It is quite clear that mines in Sudan have come from the former Soviet Union, China and European countries such as Italy and Belgium, and that they have profited from it. There is a responsibility to support the process so that peace now means peace" (IRIN, Oct. 28).
According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the 1997 treaty banning the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel landmines has been ratified or acceded to by 141 countries. Another nine countries have signed but have not yet completed the ratification process.
Iraq Oil-for-Food Program To End With $1B In Projects Unsettled
United Nations Oct 29: Benon Sevan, the director of the oil-for-food program for Iraq, told the Security Council yesterday that more than $1 billion in contracts and projects will remain incomplete when the United Nations formally hands over control of Iraq's oil wealth to the Coalition Provisional Authority Nov. 21.
As he said in a briefing to the council last month, Sevan repeated yesterday that his staff will have problems turning over the program to the U.S.-led CPA because of the lack of staff in Iraq and the slowness of the CPA in setting up counterparts to work with the United Nations.
"Handing over a multibillion dollar program of such complexity and magnitude … would be extremely difficult even under the best of circumstances," he said. "Doing so under current conditions of insecurity and reduced on-site staffing capacity will require a degree of realism, understanding and pragmatism, as well as flexibility from all parties involved."
Following the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the United Nations severely cut back international staff in the country in all fields, including oil-for-food. Most work on the program is being done in Amman, Jordan; Larnaca, Cyprus; and New York. Without on-the-ground staff, certain aspects of the program, such as taking inventories of warehouses in Iraq and the status of goods in transit, has not been possible, Sevan said, therefore the entire program will have to be turned over to the CPA "as is," with dozens of contracts and projects unsettled.
Sevan said 151 projects totaling $1.85 have been completed in dossiers including agriculture, education, mine action, health, water and sanitation, and resettlement. A further 117 projects worth nearly $600 million are expected to be completed by Nov. 21. Another 159 projects worth $1.1 billion will not be completed by Nov. 21 and will have to be handed over to the CPA unfinished, he added.
Since the program began in December 1996, about $65 billion of oil has been exported by Iraq, and more than $46 billion of that amount has been spent on program operations, Sevan said. Money from the program goes to 24 sectors of civilian needs, such as agriculture and education.
Under the oil-for-food program, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was permitted to sell oil and buy civilian needs. With the fall of Hussein and the control of Iraq falling to the United States and United Kingdom as the occupying powers, the council adopted Resolution 1483 on May 22, calling for the termination of the oil-for-food program by Nov. 21 and the transfer of remaining funds, unfulfilled contracts for oil and imported goods, and other programs to the CPA.
"An urgent review will be undertaken by the United Nations of the contracts which have not been reviewed so far," Sevan said, in order to establish which ones should be given priority. Whatever is not done by Nov. 21 "will be transferred to the CPA for appropriate action," he added.
After the meeting, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said, "Every effort is going to be made to renegotiate every prioritized contract. And certainly I think every effort is going to be made to honor those contracts." As to the contracts that are not considered priorities, he said, "Contracts that have not been reprioritized are still out there, they still exist, but they are going to be a matter for the Iraqi government and for others to address later on. But obviously, they don't have the priority that these other contracts do. But that doesn't mean they just vanish into thin air, they still exist and can be addressed at some point in the future."
By Jim Wurst
U.N. Wire
