tagged w/ U.N. Security Council
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UNITED NATIONS — Moving swiftly in response to a request by Arab nations, the U.N. Security Council on Thursday paved the way for international air strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's forces, voting to authorize military action to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
The council acted five days after the Arab League urged the U.N.'s most powerful body to try to halt Gadhafi's advancing military and reverse the realities on the ground, where rebels and their civilian supporters are in danger of being crushed by pro-government forces using rockets, artillery, tanks and warplanes.
The vote was 10-0 with five countries abstaining including Russia and China, which have veto power in the council, along with India, Germany and Brazil. Russia and China expressed concern about the United Nations and other outside powers using force against Gadhafi, and Germany expressed fear that military action would lead to more casualties.
The United States – which in a dramatic reversal joined the resolution's initial supporters Britain, France and Lebanon – not only helped push for a quick vote but pressed for action beyond creation of a no-fly zone to protect civilians from air, land and sea attacks by Gadhafi's fighters.
"This council moved with remarkable speed in response to the great urgency of the situation on the ground," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said. "This resolution should send a strong message to Colonel Gadhafi and his regime that the violence must stop, the killing must stop, and the people of Libya must be protected and have the opportunity to express themselves freely."
The resolution bans all flights in Libya's airspace to help protect civilians. It also authorizes U.N. member states to take "all necessary measures ... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory."
U.S. officials said the resolution provides a strong legal base for enforcing the no-fly zone and for countries to carry out air and sea strikes against Gadhafi's forces.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Tunisia on Thursday that a U.N. no-fly zone over Libya would require action to protect the planes and pilots, "including bombing targets like the Libyan defense systems."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the three criteria for taking action – a demonstrated need, clear legal basis and broad regional support – all have been fulfilled.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/libya-no-fly-zone-un-united-nations_n_837378.htmlUNITED NATIONS — Moving swiftly in response to a request by Arab nations, the... more
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Source: Military attacks military camps in eastern Libya
By the CNN Wire Staff
March 2, 2011 4:38 a.m. EST
U.S. Navy moves closer to Libya
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Military camps on the outskirts of Ajdabiya were bombed by military airplanes Wednesday, a tribal leader said, as pro-government forces moved in to a town that has been controlled by the opposition.
The tribal leader, who did not want to be identified for safety reasons, said youth in Ajdabiya were amassing and heading toward the conflict area to defend the town, which has been in the control of opposition forces in recent days. Some military bases in eastern Libya have fallen into the hands of protesters as more members of the military have abandoned longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi's regime and joined demonstrations.
Meanwhile, a witness reported heavily-armed soldiers in pickup trucks have taken over the main checkpoint in the eastern town of al-Brega, home to a small airport and an oil refinery facility.
They're the latest developments in a weeks-long conflict between Libya's government, led by Gadhafi, and opposition forces who demand an end to his regime of four decades.
The capital city of Tripoli has remained under the control of Gadhafi's regime, though opposition forces have taken control of the eastern city of Benghazi and other cities amid the deadly unrest.
Meanwhile, international efforts to persuade Gadhafi to step down have ratcheted up. World leaders moving against him on financial and political fronts strengthened their rhetoric and moved military might into the region.
The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday to suspend Libya from its seat on the 47-member chamber Human Rights Council. It was the first time the assembly had suspended a member of the council.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly that he welcomed the decision and urged the international community to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Libya. "The world has spoken with one voice," he said. "We demand an immediate end to the violence toward civilians and full respect for their fundamental human rights, including those of peaceful assembly and free speech."
He added that reports from the ground "are sobering," with deaths and ongoing repression.
"Arms depots and arsenals have reportedly been opened to gangs who terrorize communities. There are reports that government forces have fired indiscriminately on peaceful protesters and bombed the military bases in the east of the country," Ban said.
"The death toll from nearly two weeks of violence is unknown, but likely to exceed 1,000," with thousands more wounded, he added, using the same fatality figure he had used Friday.
Libya's ambassador to the United States estimated Monday that the death toll was about 2,000.
In western Libya, Ban said Tuesday, there were reports of ongoing clashes between government forces and armed opponents.
He noted "allegations of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture."
Though more members of the military have reportedly sided with the opposition, Gadhafi's supporters "appear to be holding a tight grip on western parts of the country, chiefly Tripoli," he said.
He warned of "serious indications" that the numbers of refugees and displaced persons were reaching crisis proportions and worried that the violence could disrupt distribution networks and lead to food shortages.
Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the leader's 38-year-old son who has spoken on behalf of the regime during the protests, told CNN his talks with the opposition are in "chaos" because the opposition is divided, with no clear leaders.
U.S. officials made similar comments about the opposition forces. A U.S. official who wished to remain anonymous because the official was not authorized to speak on the record said it's "unclear who the leaders in the opposition are and that makes it difficult" for the U.S. to provide assistance.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "Gadhafi must go."
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is considering whether it should cut diplomatic ties with Libya, a senior U.S. official told CNN. "Whether to maintain relations or sever them is under review," the official said.
The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge and the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce were to be repositioned in the Mediterranean to "provide us a capability for both emergency evacuations and also for humanitarian relief," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters. But, he noted, the U.N. Security Council has not authorized the use of armed force.
The government of Canada has frozen $2.3 billion in assets tied to the Libyan government; the assets were frozen after Canada enacted sanctions over the weekend, Canadian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Lynn Meahan said Tuesday. A number of other countries, including the United States, have ordered an asset freeze.
Though some witnesses have accused pro-Gadhafi forces of firing on civilians from the air, Gates and Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they could not confirm the reports.
Clinton said imposition of a no-fly zone is under consideration, but Mullen said doing so would be "an extraordinarily complex operation."
U.S. Central Command leader Gen. James Mattis told the Senate Armed Services committee Tuesday that any effort to establish a no-fly zone over Libya would include eliminating Libya's air defenses.
The U.N. refugee agency reported that nearly 150,000 people had crossed Libya's borders into Egypt and Tunisia, and thousands more were arriving hourly at the borders.
Ban called for immediate action by the international community.
"Time is of the essence," he said. "Thousands of lives are at stake."
CNN's Ben Wedeman, Salma Abdelaziz, Arwa Damon, Nic Robertson, Ivan Watson, Eve Bower, Jim Boulden, Frederik Pleitgen, Richard Roth, Jack Maddox, Whitney Hurst and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this reportSource: Military attacks military camps in eastern Libya
By the CNN Wire Staff
March... more
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The Tehran government confirmed on Tuesday that it has invited world powers and its allies in the Arab and developing world to tour Iranian nuclear sites before a high-profile meeting late January on its disputed nuclear program....
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/International/75521The Tehran government confirmed on Tuesday that it has invited world powers and its... more
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- CNN Breaking News...
Report: Iran now nuclear self-sufficient
Report: Iran now able to process its own raw uranium
December 5th, 2010
04:56 AM ET
Iran now produces everything it needs for the nuclear fuel cycle, making its nuclear program self-sufficient, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization told state media Sunday.
The Islamic republic has begun producing yellowcake, Ali Akbar Salehi told Press TV.
Yellowcake is an intermediate stage in producing uranium ores, Press TV said.
The United States and its allies fear that Iran is trying to produce a nuclear bomb, but Iran has denied the allegations.- CNN Breaking News...
Report: Iran now nuclear self-sufficient
Report: Iran now... more
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Iran's first nuclear plant begins fueling
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 21, 2010 5:07 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Iran began fueling its first nuclear energy plant in the southern city of Bushehr on Saturday, the nation's state media reported.
The effort will help the country create nuclear-generated electricity, Press TV said.
The transfer of nuclear fuel was being watched by the International Atomic Energy Agency and senior officials from Iran and Russia, Press TV said.
Some Western nations have questioned whether the nuclear fuel will be used solely for electricity or would Iran eventually try to enrich uranium on its own, providing material for nuclear weapons.
It will take about two months for the reactor to begin generating electricity, state media has reported. Russia's nuclear agency says it will take longer.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, recently asserted Iran's right to establish nuclear plants.
Sergei Kiriyenko, general director of Rosatom, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation said Saturday's arrival of nuclear fuel marks "an event of crucial importance" that proves that "Russia always fulfills its international obligations."
Spent nuclear fuel from the plant will be sent back to Russia.
The opening of the plant prompted the White House to question Iran continuing to enrich uranium within its borders.
"Russia is providing the fuel, and taking the fuel back out," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier this month.
"It, quite clearly, I think, underscores that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions, as it states, are for a peaceful nuclear program," he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking to Russian reporters in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Wednesday, brushed off Western concerns about the Bushehr facility, calling it "the most important anchor holding Iran to the nonproliferation regime," according to the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.
The Bushehr facility was originally scheduled to start operations in 2007, but the date for commissioning the plant has been postponed a number of times due to various technical, financial and political factors.Iran's first nuclear plant begins fueling
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 21,... more
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Iran agrees to send uranium to Turkey, report says
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 17, 2010 2:04 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Iran has agreed to ship its low-enriched uranium to Turkey, state media said Monday.
Western nations had been asking Iran to send the low-level uranium out of the country to be enriched elsewhere, but the country had resisted until now.
On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he was heading to Iran to join nuclear talks in Tehran involving Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The meeting in Tehran sought to reach a breakthrough in the showdown over Iran's nuclear program, according to Erdogan.
The last-minute trip followed a "signal" from the talks, which are intended to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear energy program, Erdogan told reporters before departing. Erdogan indicated the signal involved Iran's agreement to swap its low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, CNN Turk reported.
Erdogan said he hoped an agreement in Tehran would stop the U.N. Security Council from its negotiations on tougher sanctions on Iran.
"The Security Council was contemplating a step in the direction of sanctions as of yesterday," Erdogan said. "As a part of our talks, this has been postponed. Now with this step we are going to take, I hope that we will have the opportunity to overcome these problems."
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency made no mention of the nuclear issue in reporting earlier that Lula was sitting down with Ahmadinejad. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia both have said they back Lula's efforts to resolve the long-running, high-stakes stalemate.
"This could be the last chance before the U.N. Security Council makes the already known decisions," Medvedev said, referring to the U.N. decision on imposing sanctions against Iran.
Sarkozy said earlier that he had spoken with Lula by phone to assure him that Paris supports his efforts to resolve the impasse.
The United States and many other countries believe that Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu left for Tehran to join the Iran-Brazil talks. Erdogan said Sunday the anticipated signal from Iran was received and he was changing his schedule to travel to Tehran, postponing a planned visit to Azerbaijan.
Erdogan's statement indicated an agreement in which Iran would send most of its low-enriched uranium to be turned into fuel rods suitable for Turkey's nuclear power reactor that makes medical isotopes.
"After our high-level meeting in Tehran, I believe we will have the opportunity to start the process regarding the swap," Erdogan said. "We said that we will go to Tehran if the swap takes place in Turkey, and we received news that the text includes a reference to this. That's why we are going. Otherwise we wouldn't have gone."
Turkey and Brazil have been working on a joint offer based on the nuclear swap deal offered previously to Tehran. Both countries are temporary members of the U.N. Security Council and have been working toward a diplomatic solution that does not involve sanctions.
Lula is in Iran ahead of the Group of 15 developing nations meeting in Tehran. The group actually has 17 members -- Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Lula also met separately with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on his trip, according to Iranian media reports. State-run Press TV reported Khameini emphasized to Lula the need for relations between independent states such as Brazil and Iran in order to reduce the influence of superpowers such as the United States.
"The only way to change the oppressive relations in the world today is through the formation of closer ties between independent states," Khameini said, according to Press TV. "Superpowers have defined vertical relations in the world which places a superpower at the top. These relations must be changed and their change is possible."
PHOTO CAPTION: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva review an honor guard in Tehran.Iran agrees to send uranium to Turkey, report says
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 17,... more
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This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler's armies marched across Europe - a war that has not ended. But is also the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace. In the TV series Lost, a group of plane crash survivors believe they are stranded alone on a desert island, until one day they discover a dense metal cable leading out into the ocean and the world beyond. The Democratic Republic of Congo is full of those cables, mysterious connections that show how a seemingly isolated tribal war is in reality something very different.
This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed more than five million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's. No, this is not only a story about them. This - the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded - is a story about you.
Barack Obama spoke often and passionately about Darfur while campaigning. But the African holocaust that will confront him first is the ongoing slaughter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 5 million have died in that conflict since 1996, and there’s no sign of a letup. As rebels commanded by Laurent Nkunda, a renegade Congolese Army general, closed in on the city of Goma in recent weeks, the United Nations’ 17,000 troops-- its largest peacekeeping force in the world--proved too weak to stop the push or to prevent a rampage of rape and looting by government forces who were there to defend the city. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last week to send in 3,100 more troops, but “you would need a minimum of 100,000 soldiers to have a credible peacekeeping force in Congo,” says Knox Chitiyo, an Africa expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank. Chitiyo thinks only an envoy of Obama’s stature might be able to impose a settlement.
Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson arrives in Congo and, trying to calculate the number of deaths over the past decade, writes, “We know that the events are approaching a holocaust scale when the margin of error is measured in millions.” Looking forward, he writes that “Security in eastern Congo is the prerequisite for political progress.” He sees one solution: “a capable, hard-hitting European military force, supported by the United States, which would stabilize the situation, give the [U.N.] peacekeeping force some breathing room and put a limit on [rebel leader] Nkunda’s ambitions.” Sadly, such a step seems “unlikely.” Britain and Germany in particular have opposed the deployment of such a force.This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler's armies marched across... more
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* http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/:
Secretary-General’s Special Representative Alan Doss has asked for additional peacekeepers beyond the nearly 19,000 uniformed personnel already there to prevent the vast country from slipping back into “horrendous” conflict.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The top U.N. envoy to Congo warned Friday that renewed fighting in eastern Congo has heightened ethnic tensions and could lead to the renewal of a wider conflict in central Africa.
Alan Doss urged all militias in the country's hilly eastern border area — the scene of the worst fighting and a humanitarian crisis in Congo — to support a U.N. disengagement plan to bring peace to the conflict-wracked region.
He expressed dismay at reports this week that a key rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, who initially said he would discuss the plan, was now reported to be backtracking and "walking out of any effort to move the peace process forward."
Nkunda launched a low-level rebellion several years ago claiming Congo's transition to democracy had excluded the country's minority Tutsi ethnic group, which is being targeted by ethnic Hutus from Congo as well as Rwanda.
The U.N. estimates there are about 20,000 militia fighters in the east, belonging to a number of different groups.
Among them are members of an extremist ethnic Hutu militia accused of orchestrating the 1994 genocide of 500,000 ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda. The group and others are accused of razing villages, terrorizing the local population and perpetrating rapes.
Doss told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council he was deeply concerned about renewed fighting that began at the end of August in eastern Congo, especially in North Kivu, and has continued intermittently since then.
"We believe we need to go ahead as quickly as possible with the disengagement plan to reduce the risk of those hostilities spreading and spilling over," Doss said. "Ethnic tensions have risen in North Kivu and that is very dangerous — no doubt about it."
He warned that "tensions are rising and we do not want to see the Congo plunged back in to the conflict which spilled over and involved neighbors. That conflict lasted for many years with horrendous consequences."
Back-to-back wars in Congo spilled into half a dozen neighboring countries and destroyed much of Congo itself by 2002.
Doss said the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, whose main role is protecting civilians caught in fighting, is trying to bring the situation under control through a proposed comprehensive disengagement plan.
He said a "modest" increase in the force is sought to help implement the disengagement plan, which includes a cease-fire, separation of forces, demobilization, disarmament and the reintegration of militia fighters.
"The disengagement plan was presented to the government and it has accepted it," Doss said, "and it was presented to some of the armed groups. They have accepted it."
The U.N., is looking for support for the plan from the Security Council, countries that contribute troops to the force, and all militias, he said.
* http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/:
Secretary-General’s Special... more
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"The UN Security Council has voted unanimously in favour of a resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war. The document describes the deliberate use of rape as a tactic in war and a threat to international security. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said violence against women had reached "unspeakable proportions" in some societies recovering from conflict.
The UN is also setting up an inquiry to report next June on how widespread the practice is and how to tackle it. Human-rights group hailed the resolution as historic.
The BBC's Laura Trevelyan said China, Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam had all expressed reservations during the negotiations, asking whether rape was really a matter for the UN security council. But the US-sponsored resolution was adopted unanimously by the 15-member council.
It described sexual violence as "a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group". The document said that the violence "can significantly exacerbate situations of armed conflict and may impede the restoration of international peace and security".
During the debate in the council, Mr Ban said: "Responding to this silent war against women and girls requires leadership at the national level. National authorities need to take the initiative to build comprehensive strategies while the UN needs to help build capacity and support national authorities and civil societies," he added.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the world now recognised that sexual violence profoundly affected not only the health and safety of women, but the economic and social stability of their nations. Other speakers identified the former Yugoslavia, Sudan's Darfur region, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Liberia as regions where deliberate sexual violence had occurred on a mass scale.
The former commander of the UN peacekeeping force in eastern Congo, Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert, told the BBC he personally witnessed its impact.
"It's a very effective weapon, because the communities are totally destroyed," he said. "You destroy communities. You punish the men, and you punish the women, doing it in front of the men."
In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, some 40 women are raped every day, our correspondent says. Sometimes women are even raped by peacekeepers who are supposed to be protecting them, she adds.
The question is whether those in conflict zones who use rape in war will be at all deterred by the new measures, she says." "The UN Security Council has voted unanimously in favour of a resolution... more
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The U.N. Security Council on Thursday welcomed a Lebanese peace deal brokered by Qatar, an agreement that may have averted a new civil war in the Middle East.
The council said it "welcomes and strongly supports the agreement reached in Doha ... which constitutes an essential step towards the resolution of the current crisis, the return to normal functioning of Lebanese democratic institutions, the complete restoration of Lebanon's unity and stability."
In the non-binding statement, the council also urged the parties to implement all aspects of the agreement. Lebanon has generally been a divisive issue for the Security Council, but the statement was agreed unanimously by the 15-member body.
Rival Lebanese leaders signed the deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political conflict that had threatened to push the country into a new civil war.
The agreement, which was reached after six days of Arab-mediated talks, also paved the way for the election of a new president.The U.N. Security Council on Thursday welcomed a Lebanese peace deal brokered by... more
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Demonstrating to mature gent sown the driving range why he should wear his cap a more modern way.Demonstrating to mature gent sown the driving range why he should wear his cap a more... more
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The world vowed "never again" after the genocide in Rwanda and the atrocities in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Then came Darfur. Over the past four years, at least 200,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million driven from their homes, and mass rapes have been used as a weapon in a brutal campaign - supported by the Sudanese government - against civilians in Darfur. In On Our Watch, FRONTLINE asks why the United Nations and its members once again failed to stop the slaughter.
The world vowed "never again" after the genocide in Rwanda and the... more
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