Month: August 2006

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2006
08

UN Receives Offers of Thousands of Troops for Lebanon Mission

Bloomberg: "Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal were among nations that offered thousands of troops to a United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon as Israel's military transferred control of 50 percent of the region to the UN. "I think we're in business," UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown said after envoys of almost 50 nations attended a closed meeting of potential troop contributors. The UN wants to deploy about 3,500 troops within two weeks and eventually increase to 15,000 the current force of 2,000."

Sudan May Be Gearing Up for Major Offensive in Darfur

"The Sudanese Government seems to be determined to pursue a major military offensive in strife-torn Darfur, building up its armed forces in the region as the situation there deteriorates ... In a closed-door briefing, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi also warned the Security Council that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated his opposition to a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur and vowed that the Sudanese armed forces would fight any UN force dispatched to the region." [More]

Children Slip Through Cracks of AIDS Efforts

AIDS WHO.jpg NYT: "Efforts to greatly expand antiretroviral treatment for AIDS in poor countries are not reaching a vast majority of children who need it, a World Health Organization official said [in Toronto] on Wednesday. The official, Dr. Kevin M. De Cock, who directs the organization's AIDS program, said that an estimated 2.3 million children 15 and under around the world are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and that 800,000 of them needed antiretroviral drugs to stay alive. Of the 800,000, only 60,000 to 100,000 are receiving therapy. While the children account for 14 percent of AIDS deaths, they make up only 6 percent of recipients of antiretroviral drug therapy. Many of the children are orphans.

Blog Roundup #111

Bolton Watch: "Public officials cannot be responsible for the opinions of the people who interview them. But they can be judicious with whom they choose to grant interviews. It is therefore a wonder why Ambassador John Bolton would grant an interview to Pamela Oshry, proprietor of the anti-Muslim hate website "Atlas Shrugs." Glenn Greenwald: "U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, on Saturday, in the middle of the most pressing crisis the U.N. has faced since he was appointed to that position, decided to sit for an hour-long, one-on-one "interview" and chose as his journalistic interrogator . . . LGF commenter Pamela "Atlas" Oshry of the blog AtlasShrugs, whose views are so far outside of what is mainstream, in equal parts inane and despicable, that it would be impossible to describe fully." Think Progress: "'Violence against women in Afghanistan is widespread and mainly happens inside victims' homes,' according to a report from the U.N. Development Fund for Women. 'Acts of violence (against women) are happening with impunity,' the report said."

Congo Donors Fund Elections but Neglect Crisis

Alertnet: "The international community may have funded historic post-war elections in Democratic Republic of Congo but it must do more to counter a humanitarian crisis that kills thousands every week, the U.N. said on Tuesday. Food aid has been cut in half and entire families are dying from preventable diseases as aid workers struggle to tackle an emergency that continues despite the official end to the 1998-2003 war and the elections on July 30."

BBC: UN Aims for Advance Lebanon Force

"The UN is trying to get an advance force of peacekeepers into Lebanon in 10-15 days, a senior official has said. The force would be up to 3,500-strong, to be boosted later to the full 15,000 agreed in the UN ceasefire resolution." [Full story]

Cholera on the Rise in Darfur

"We're concerned because diarrhoeal diseases are a major killer of children," Edward Carwardine, UNICEF senior communications officer, said. "Forty percent of the collected stool specimens tested positive for cholera - all the more reason to accelerate our response. "South Darfur has been a particular cause of concern, with five new suspected cases reported on 10 August and 13 on 11 August," he added. Since April, 701 cases had been reported in South Darfur alone." [More]

Awaiting the 15,000

On the Dianne Rehm show, a frequent UN critic, the American Enterprise Institute's Joshua Muravchik, admitted that if the Israeli-Hezbollah cease fire holds, the United Nations will have played a useful role in resolving this conflict. At this point, however, the success of the ceasefire is largely beyond the United Nations' control.

Lebanese Return Home After UN Cease-Fire

Lebanon.jpg "Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. officers met on the border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region, U.N. spokesman Milos Strugar said. The meeting, the first involving a Lebanese army officer and a counterpart from the Israeli army since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, marks the first step in the process of military disengagement as demanded by a U.N. Security Council resolution." [Full story]