UN hosts key conference on Iraq
Envoys from nearly 100 countries are gathering in Sweden for a UN forum on economic and political reform in Iraq.
The UN called the conference outside Stockholm to review a five-year package it brokered last year, called the International Compact with Iraq.
Iraq is expected to push for debt relief, while the US has urged Iraq's friends to stay the course.
However, correspondents say progress on security, the economy and political reform in Iraq remains fragile.
On the eve of the forum the largest Sunni Muslim bloc suspended talks on rejoining Iraq's Shia-led government.
(Click the title to read full article.)
Can't you just imagine this news being delivered by a Brit with a delightful accent and cheerful attitude? Full of hope and peace and cheeriness, only seeing a sea of good in the UN & in the good peoples of the Civilized World? With that "neo-colonialist" desire to dole out rations in conflict zones and manage the peoples and resources without the messy formality of actually taking the country over?
But really, before getting into this any further, what is the UN really doing here? This is what is what: Flying a bunch of ppl to Sweden to meet for a while and possibly pass a verbose resolution that indicates that something maybe should be done at some point about Iraq. And then... everyone gets to go skiing! After that there will be cigars, expensive Scotch, smoking jackets, carousing, and making jokes about how the wives aren't allowed to come to these UN Forums.
Seriously, this isn't the UN's problem, foremost, and apparently no one (namely, the US) cares what they say or do anyway. Before the war, the UN passed a resolution against a conflict in Iraq, resolved that there were no WMD, and for the most part declined desire to get involved. The US then began withholding their dues until they could gain votes, withdrawing troops from UN missions commitments, and finally just overriding the Security Council without caring. The UN Security Council finally got done pouting and went back to what they do best: looking like they're working and passing resolutions, including about Iraq. Needless to say, John McCain and certainly Bush aren't about to start caring what resolutions are being passed by the rest of the world. In fact, the Bush/McCain policy caters to ultra-conservative Americans, a group that has no real counterpart anywhere else on earth.
Despite being inept on dealing with issues such as global warming and Iraq, the UN does have many peacekeeping missions, and apparently they aren't all that peaceful: Allegations of child abuse and sex abuse keep coming up more and more frequently, particularly in Latin America and in Africa.
A new harrowing tale just broke at the BBC, and this time things are so heinous that I am actually shocked (click the link for full story):
Abuse victims suffer in silence
Twelve-year-old Elizabeth - not her real name - was walking in fields with her brother, following an aunt who had gone ahead to work on the family's plot of land near the town of Man in north-western Ivory Coast, when they were approached by "les casques bleues", as UN peacekeepers are known.
She said: "They grabbed me and threw me to the ground and they forced themselves on me... I tried to escape but there were 10 of them and I could do nothing... I was terrified.Her village elders say they tried to take the case to UN officials at the camp nearby. But Domade Jean-Baptiste, one of the village chiefs, said they were made to wait for ages and then sent away.
Elizabeth's brutal rape is one of an unknown number of sexual assaults carried out by peacekeepers and aid workers, the very people who are brought in to post-conflict areas around the world to protect the vulnerable.
The USA needs some internal peacekeeping!
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