Flickr: Random FactorSam Stein from Huffington Post got one last night to President Obama's first press conference. I could definitely have done better than Michael Fletcher from the Washington Post...who asked the President about A-Rod. Nonetheless, some journalists veered from questions on the financial crisis to ask Obama about foreign policy. The crib notes:
On Iran: We love the people of Iran but their government has been doing some bad things (financial terrorist organizations, using unsavory language, and pursuing nuclear weapons). My national security team is looking for new opportunities for engagement, which might mean a face-to-face meeting in the next few months. I've sent some good signals with the appointment of George Mitchell and my interview with al-Arabiya. Ball's in Tehran's court.
On Iraq and Afghanistan: Due to the good work of our military and Amb. Crocker, a relatively peaceful election just occurred in Iraq, signally a somewhat functioning political system. We're not yet there in Afghanistan. The central government seems "very detached" (ouch Karzai), and the bad guys are operating in the border region without a concerted effort to root them out. We're going through a review, and we're hoping for more effective coordination. (UND-In other words, I'm not sure what we're doing yet)
Full transcript of these sections after the jump. (Via CNN)
Flickr: Random FactorSam Stein from Huffington Post got one last night to President Obama's first press conference. I could definitely have done better than Michael Fletcher from the Washington Post...who asked the President about A-Rod. Nonetheless, some journalists veered from questions on the financial crisis to ask Obama about foreign policy. The crib notes:
On Iran: We love the people of Iran but their government has been doing some bad things (financial terrorist organizations, using unsavory language, and pursuing nuclear weapons). My national security team is looking for new opportunities for engagement, which might mean a face-to-face meeting in the next few months. I've sent some good signals with the appointment of George Mitchell and my interview with al-Arabiya. Ball's in Tehran's court.
On Iraq and Afghanistan: Due to the good work of our military and Amb. Crocker, a relatively peaceful election just occurred in Iraq, signally a somewhat functioning political system. We're not yet there in Afghanistan. The central government seems "very detached" (ouch Karzai), and the bad guys are operating in the border region without a concerted effort to root them out. We're going through a review, and we're hoping for more effective coordination. (UND-In other words, I'm not sure what we're doing yet)
Full transcript of these sections after the jump. (Via CNN)
With Radovan Karadzic, the indicted political mastermind of the Serbian wars of the 1990s, sipping sodas behind bars in The Hague, Ratko Mladic, the military leader accused of carrying out Karadzic's notorious orders of ethnic cleansing and genocide, remains the most wanted criminal from Yugoslavia's destructive Milosevic era. For over a dozen years, Mladic has been believed to be still living in Serbia, at times openly, confident in his protection by the Serbian government. With the precedent of Karadzic's capture, though, and Serbia's growing interest in strengthening ties with the European Union, a stepped-up search for Mladic appears to be underway.
At least according to the information divulged on wire reports, though, it doesn't seem to have taken much to increase the lackluster efforts at apprehension that had characterized the Serbian government's history of inaction. In operations that "went smoothly," EU peacekeepers this morning searched the houses of Mladic's family members, which, while certainly proactive, seems like a step that should have been taken long ago. Yet, coupled with the confiscation of certain items for investigation, the searches, according to BBC reporter Helen Fawkes, represent a sign for optimism:
She says the last time EU peacekeepers mounted an operation like this was six months ago, when they raided the family home of the former Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic.Mladic, for various reasons, may be harder to find than Karadzic was, but his arrest is sought perhaps even more urgently by many victims' families. While Mladic likely has not adopted as bizarre a disguise as the "poet-intellectual" Karadzic, rejuvenating the search with EU, NATO, and Serbian cooperation is an encouraging development for both the long-standing International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the prospect of achieving justice for the horrific crimes committed there. (image from flickr user Bogomir Doringer under a Creative Commons license)
This seems like a good idea.
While skeptics might characterize this step as "fluffy" -- and there's no expectation that a "peace club" will end the violence in Darfur -- the reality is that thousands of children have now grown up in sprawling displaced persons camps, relying on international humanitarian aid and unable to venture far out of the camps. And as the tumultuous case of the Kalma camp demonstrates, radicalism thrives where disillusioned and displaced young people have been clustered for years. So rather than nurse resentment, Darfuris now have an opportunity to talk about peace in an open way. It won't quell the very real dangers that a reconstituted Darfuri society will face, but at least it's a start.
And even though the club has been organized by UNAMID, it seems to me a little self-indulgent that the first meetings featured a quiz game "in which the students showed off their knowledge of UNAMID and its activities in Darfur."
(image from flickr user Samuel Stroube under a Creative Commons license)
A club for youth to exchange ideas on peace, to be established in all schools of secondary and above levels in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, was launched this weekend, the African Union-United Nations joint peacekeeping operation there (UNAMID) said today. Over 100 new members attended the opening of the first UNAMID Peace Club, sponsored by UNAMID’s Community Outreach Unit, at the Model Secondary School for Girls in El Fasher – the headquarters city for the mission.
While skeptics might characterize this step as "fluffy" -- and there's no expectation that a "peace club" will end the violence in Darfur -- the reality is that thousands of children have now grown up in sprawling displaced persons camps, relying on international humanitarian aid and unable to venture far out of the camps. And as the tumultuous case of the Kalma camp demonstrates, radicalism thrives where disillusioned and displaced young people have been clustered for years. So rather than nurse resentment, Darfuris now have an opportunity to talk about peace in an open way. It won't quell the very real dangers that a reconstituted Darfuri society will face, but at least it's a start.
And even though the club has been organized by UNAMID, it seems to me a little self-indulgent that the first meetings featured a quiz game "in which the students showed off their knowledge of UNAMID and its activities in Darfur."
(image from flickr user Samuel Stroube under a Creative Commons license)...try providing the telecommunications infrastructure on which these humanitarian relief organizations rely, under the imperative of immediate deployment, and all while facing the same privations, complications, and dangers of operating in a conflict zone.
Here at UN Dispatch, we've provided consistent coverage of the violence and displacement stemming from conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. We've also from time to time featured the under-heralded work of Telecoms sans Frontieres (TSF), the bold organization that fills the gaping telecommunications hole in societies, like many in eastern Congo, scrambling to recuperate from violent conflict.
The resources that TSF provides for displaced persons -- an ability to talk with worried family members, to communicate their location and maintain contact -- are as uplifting as the food, water, and shelter provided by other humanitarian organizations. What's more, though, is that these aid workers themselves rely on the technology that TSF rapidly deploys. And as this email from a TSF employee makes clear, the mandate to fulfill these crucial tasks does not free them from the harsh conditions under which humanitarian organizations must operate in places like eastern Congo:
Another photo below the jump, and check out this neat "humanitarian snapshot" of eastern DR Congo.
In the Haut-Uélé [a district in northeastern Congo, on the Sudanese border, where TSF is deployed] alone, there are 135,000 displaced which are regularly facing LRA rebel attacks. In Dungu [TSF headquarters in the region], there are no landlines and the only GSM operator available in the area is not reliable due to regular power failure. There is no electricity so all aid agencies rely on generators. The working conditions are really tough. There is little food including for those working to help the population due to limited supplies linked to the security conditions.
Another photo below the jump, and check out this neat "humanitarian snapshot" of eastern DR Congo.
Before Russia and Georgia clashed this past August, the UN had, for over a decade, maintained a small (read: 150-odd unarmed observers) monitoring force in the tense region of Abkhazia. When fighting reached Abkhazia's Upper Kodori Gorge, where the UN personnel were stationed, the mission pulled out. Since October, they've been operating on an awkward, interim basis, whose mandate expires on February 15 and which may be primed for collapse without committed re-evaluation.
Given that Russo-Georgian war not only shook the entire regional geopolitical situation, but inflamed international fears of a "new Cold War," I'd say that is an understatement. With the disbanding last October of the Commonwealth of Independent States cadre of peacekeepers (really just a mix of Russians, Georgians, and locals), which provided UNOMIG's security, the mission is now operating in the area with Russian peacekeepers and the Abkhaz military, relying "on the goodwill of the sides." The gulf between the intense international attention lavished on the region's "hot" conflict last summer and the scant reporting on the current dangerously simmering stalemate is in large part responsible for the world's unpreparedness for the August war. Let's hope more folks are paying attention this time around.Although the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) continues patrolling on both sides of the ceasefire line between the Government and Abkhaz separatists in the country’s north-west, it is in a “precarious” position which could quickly become untenable, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in a new report to the Security Council. Referring to a 1994 pact between the warring sides, Mr. Ban says that “the status of the Moscow Agreement, which provided the basis for its mandate and the ceasefire regime, is, at best, no longer clear.”