United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon flew to Burma on Thursday to press the ruling generals to allow a full-blown international aid effort for 2,4-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis. The government’s official toll is 77 738 people killed and 55 917 missing, and it also estimates the damage to the economy at -billion.
A leading human rights group accused the international community on Monday of not doing enough to deter Sudan from new attacks in Darfur, where it cited a return to ”scorched-earth” policies. Human Rights Watch said the United Nations Security Council should impose sanctions on Sudanese officials behind attacks on civilians in Darfur in February.
The United Nations food agency suspended aid flights to cyclone-struck Burma on Friday after the military government seized two deliveries at Rangoon airport, apparently determined to distribute supplies on its own. Governments around the world have been pressing Burma’s ruling generals to open the country’s borders to desperately needed assistance.
Iran will not give up its rights in the face of Western pressure, its supreme leader said on Sunday, two days after major powers said they would make a new offer to convince Tehran to halt its nuclear plans. Ayatollah Ali Khomenei did not explicitly mention Iran’s nuclear activities, which Western powers suspect are aimed at making bombs.
A top cleric on Friday vowed that Iran would deal a knock-out blow to what he called maniacs in the United States and Israel if they ever attacked the Islamic republic. ”If maniacs in Washington or Tel Aviv seek to take action, the Iranian nation will slap them so hard they will not get off the floor,” hard-line cleric Ahmad Khatami said.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe’s presidential election, winning 47% of the vote against the president’s 43%, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing senior government sources. One source, declining to be named, told Reuters a run-off would be needed because Tsvangirai did not win enough votes for an outright victory.
Robert Kagan, author, essayist, former diplomat, pre-eminent thinker of what is called ”neoconservatism” — and now foreign policy adviser to Republican presidential nominee John McCain — would like it to be known that there are many things that he is not.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will present a set of proposals to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on how the government can resolve Zimbabwe’s electoral crisis, the party said on Friday. The proposals include the possible suspension of Zimbabwe from the African Union, arms embargoes and the severing of diplomatic ties.
As many as 300Â 000 people may have died in the five-year conflict in Darfur, a dramatic increase over earlier estimates of 200Â 000, a top United Nations official said on Tuesday. Sudan’s UN ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, said the figure was grossly exaggerated.
President Thabo Mbeki must be relieved of his duties as mediator in the current impasse in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in Johannesburg on Thursday. ”We want to thank President Mbeki for all of his efforts, but President Mbeki needs to be relieved of his duties,” he told reporters.
President Robert Mugabe’s security forces clamped down hard on unrest during a general strike in Zimbabwe, arresting dozens of opposition supporters before the stoppage fizzled out on Wednesday. The security forces scaled back their presence in the capital as it became clear that the call for people to remain off work had failed.
South African President Thabo Mbeki had intended to lead a summit on Wednesday at the United Nations in New York that would focus on the increasing peacekeeping chores of African Union troops. But on Tuesday, it became clear that Mbeki would not be able to dodge the ongoing election crisis in Zimbabwe.
Pirates off the coast of Somalia released 30 hostages seized aboard a French yacht a week ago following negotiations that ended the stand-off peacefully, French officials said. The hostages, including 22 French crew aboard Le Ponant, were freed ”without incident”, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement, without providing details.
South Africa should use its powerful position on the United Nations Security Council to put the Zimbabwean election saga on the international body’s agenda, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Wednesday. Zille, who is currently in New York, said in a statement she would meet South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations.
South Africa said on Wednesday it plans to use its presidency of the United Nations Security Council in April to enhance security cooperation between the world body and the African Union on the continent. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said that South Africa would call a summit this month at the UN to discuss conflict resolution in Africa.
The new United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, arrived in Kabul on Friday with a pledge to improve coordination with President Hamid Karzai’s government. ”The Afghan government has asked for that for a very long time and we have to respond in a better way than we have managed so far,” said Eide.
Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, has won more than half the vote in Saturday’s election, the party said, auguring improved ties with diplomatic rival China. Ma had won more than seven million votes, the party said, more than half the total 13-million people who cast their ballot.
United Nations peacekeeping troops are heading for ”Iraq-style disaster” in Darfur as long as talks between the government and rebel groups remain stalled and the United States maintains its hostile stance, Sudanese officials and regional experts warned on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe’s crackdown on political dissent may need to be discussed by the United Nations Security Council, a prominent Southern African human rights activist declared this week. Opponents of President Robert Mugabe have reported large-scale harassment and intimidation in the tense period leading to elections due later this month.
Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was taken to a state guest house in the former capital on Monday for her second meeting in two days with visiting United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari. UN officials gave no details of Gambari’s planned discussions with the Nobel laureate.
Israel was facing widespread international condemnation on Sunday for its onslaught in Gaza, as the United Nations and European Union demanded an end to a ”disproportionate” response to Palestinian rocket attacks, which were also denounced.
Israel killed 52 Palestinians on Saturday in its deadliest and deepest incursion into the Gaza Strip since pulling out in 2005, stoking fears of a broader conflict that could derail renewed United States-backed peace talks. At least 29 of the dead were civilians, among them women and children, said Palestinian doctors who were working round the clock.
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/ 29 February 2008
Buyers of minerals from rebel areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should be punished under a United Nations arms embargo, a group of experts has told the Security Council. A five-year war in the country has left much of DRC’s eastern borderlands a volatile patchwork of rebel fiefdoms and militia-controlled zones.
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/ 29 February 2008
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Friday for Sudan to speed up the deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur and to end aerial bombing in the troubled region’s western districts. Miliband said the international community is united in the need for a hybrid United Nations-African Union force, but the effort is stalled by a lack of necessary support from Khartoum.
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/ 28 February 2008
South Africa said on Thursday that a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency showed ”increasing confidence” that Iran did not intend to use its nuclear programme for military purposes. But it added that further oversight was needed to verify that Tehran was not building atomic weapons.
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/ 28 February 2008
Mediator Kofi Annan launched a new bid on Thursday for a political compromise to end Kenya’s post-election crisis, bringing the country’s feuding leaders to the same table for the first time in a month. The opposition had threatened to hold mass street protests on Thursday, but called them off after meeting Annan.
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/ 27 February 2008
Chad’s foreign minister said the government is holding secret discussions with rebel groups who support peace and national reconciliation following a coup attempt earlier this month. But Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-Mi said on Tuesday that the government is not negotiating with any of the rebel leaders who attacked and destroyed much of the capital Ndjamena.
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/ 26 February 2008
Two months of violence in Kenya have split the country along ethnic lines and there is a risk of further clashes if the political crisis is not resolved quickly, a top United Nations official said on Monday. Exhausted by a post-election crisis that has killed more than 1Â 000 people, most of the 36-million Kenyans want a quick political deal.
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/ 24 February 2008
Nine months after the first arrest warrants were issued for those suspected of being behind atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, the chief international prosecutor believes he has the masterminds in his sights. International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has vowed to target the most senior people behind the violence.
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/ 22 February 2008
Tamil Tiger rebels said Sri Lankan government fighter jets killed five civilians in an air raid on their northern stronghold on Friday. Fighting between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.
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/ 21 February 2008
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Sudanese government and all rebel groups to agree to a ceasefire in Darfur, saying deteriorating security is undermining efforts to help thousands of civilians caught in an upsurge in fighting.
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/ 21 February 2008
South Africa criticised the United Nations on Wednesday for lack of action to support the peace process in Somalia even though the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of an African peacekeeping mission there for another six months.