UN says 21 peacekeepers detained on Golan Heights

March 07, 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Armed fighters linked to the Syrian opposition detained 21 U.N. peacekeepers from the Philippines on Wednesday in the increasingly volatile zone separating Israeli and Syrian troops on the Golan Heights, a new escalation in the spillover of Syria's civil war.

The U.N. Security Council demanded their immediate and unconditional release. In Manila, Philippine officials that Syrian rebels were holding 21 Filipino peacekeepers "as guests." Early Thursday, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said the U.N. commander on the ground told him that negotiations were progressing. He said he was told "by tomorrow, they expect all of these 21 to be released."

Philippine military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos said the peacekeepers were in a military convoy when they were "suddenly held at one Syrian rebel outpost. They were allowed to go through the first outpost but were stopped at the second outpost."

The troops, part of a Philippine contingent of 300 peacekeepers, were taken to a "safe area" after their vehicles were taken, he said. The capture comes a week after the announcement that a member of the peacekeeping force is missing. The force, known as UNDOF, was established a year after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. It monitors the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces and maintains a cease-fire.

Israeli officials have grown increasingly jittery as the Syrian war moves closer to Israel. There have been several instances in which stray fire has landed in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, and Israel is concerned that Syrian weapons could fall into the hands of hostile groups and be used against Israel.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and Syria wants the land returned in exchange for peace. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current Security Council president, said the capture of the peacekeepers "is particularly unacceptable and bizarre" because the UNDOF peacekeepers are unarmed and their mission has nothing to do with Syria's internal conflict.

"They are there on a completely different mission so there is no reason at all under any circumstances, any kind of sick imagination to try to harm those people," he said. Churkin said U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, who briefed the council behind closed doors, identified the captors as being from a group associated with the Syrian armed opposition.

"There was no fighting, according to his briefing to us," Churkin said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the capture of the 21 peacekeepers, U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.

Del Buey said the U.N. observers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped by about 30 armed fighters near an observation post that was damaged in heavy combat last weekend and had been evacuated.

A video posted online by activists showed a group of armed rebels standing around at least three white U.N. vehicles with the words UNDOF on them, allegedly in the village of Jamlah in Daraa province.

The video, circulated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, accuses the peacekeepers of assisting the Syrian regime to redeploy in an area near the Golan that the fighters had seized a few days ago in battles that left 11 fighters and 19 regime forces dead.

A man identified as Abu Qaed al-Faleh, spokesman for the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigades, announced the group is holding the peacekeepers until Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces withdraw from Jamlah.

"They will not be released until after Bashar Assad's forces withdraw from the village of Jamlah bordering Israel," the man said. Churkin urged countries with influence on the Syrian opposition to use it to help free the peacekeepers. He did not name any countries but Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are known to have been providing military aid to some Syrian rebel groups.

The international community has been divided in its response to Syria's conflict. The United States and other countries have supported Syria's political opposition but have been reluctant to send weapons partly because of fears they may fall into the hands of extremists who have been gaining influence among the rebels. The Obama administration, however, announced last week that it would, for the first time, provide non-lethal aid directly to the rebels.

Russia and China, meanwhile, have continued to back Assad's regime. Human Right Watch, meanwhile, is investigating whether the same rebels linked to seizing the peacekeepers were involved in the executions of captured regime soldiers in another incident around Jamlah several days ago. The rights group began the investigation after receiving one video apparently showing the capture of the Syrian soldiers and a second video showing bodies in the same area, Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said.

"We were just starting to investigate this today ... when we learned about the incident with the UN peacekeepers," he said. Asked about why the rebels might be holding the U.N. peacekeepers, he said: "This seems to be a rather inexperienced group. It shows the desperation that many people, including armed groups, around Syria feel about protecting the civilians in their own villages."

Ban has warned of escalating military activity along the Israeli-Syrian border as a result of the intensifying Syrian conflict, which began in 2011 and has cost more than 70,000 lives. In December, Ban accused the Syrian government of serious violations of the 1974 separation agreement and called on both countries to halt firing across the cease-fire line. He cited numerous clashes between Syrian security forces and opposition fighters in the disengagement zone.

In response, he said, UNDOF has adopted a number of security measures.

Associated Press writers Karin Laub and Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon, and Hrvoje Hranjski and Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines contributed to this report.

Blowing the Whistle on the U.N.'s Big Secret

By Shannon Liao
August 5, 2011

Film shines light on human trafficking.

Sprinkled across war-torn Bosnia are brothels and rape houses poorly disguised as restaurants, clubs, and hotels. Inside, underage Eastern European girls live in torment, forced to do “tricks” to pay off debts they have “incurred.”

Director Larysa Kondracki knew that she wanted her first movie to be about human trafficking, though she didn’t decide on the exact plot for the movie until she came across Kathryn Bolkovac’s story.

Bolkovac was an American police officer who served as a U.N. peacekeeper in Bosnia, where she discovered that 10 percent of her fellow peacekeepers were involved in the sex trafficking of underage Eastern European women.

“I came in as a naïve Midwestern cop wanting to do the right thing, wanting to bring justice to a lawless world, and I found lawlessness within my own ranks … in the end it was a real awakening for me,” said Bolkovac in the press notes for the new film “The Whistleblower.”

Bolkovac wrote in a report published by the Bosnian Institute that she had gone to a decaying nightclub to investigate her suspicions, a scene later recreated in the film.

Bolkovac discovered a significant amount of U.S. currency hidden in a metal gun box. It struck her that something was wrong. The only place to receive U.S. dollars in Bosnia was on American military bases.

The girls she spoke to in the club gave vague descriptions of international police officers, military men, and local police.

When these girls saw the men in blue uniforms from the U.N., they thought, “We have our savior,” only to be taken advantage of by their so-called saviors.

Bolkovac tried to help these girls, but there was only little she could do before the heavy bureaucracy she was up against shut her down. In the end, she was fired and her life was threatened.

“I packed everything I owned, including the evidence I’d collected over the last two years, and next morning I drove nonstop out of the country,” she said in the Bosnian Institute report.

Director Kondracki explained that Bolkovac’s story covered everything—the trafficking industry, what victims felt like, what the U.N. was doing, and how one lone woman made a difference.

Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz, who plays Bolkovac in the film, stated in the press notes that Bolkovac wasn’t thinking about morality when she blew the whistle on one of the biggest cover-ups of the U.N. “I think it’s just purely who she is. She is one of those people who cannot be anything other than who she is.”

Originally, Weisz had rejected the film offer. But years passed, and she remained haunted by the storyline.For her, Bolkovac is an ordinary woman who has done extraordinary things, a theme that Weisz looks for when choosing scripts.

Bolkovac asserted that Weisz was perfect for the role. “I see a lot of thoughtfulness in her, a lot of maturity.”

Filming was done in Bucharest, Romania, in the fall of 2009 with shots of Bosnia taken through the mountains of Transylvania.

Kondracki said in the press notes, “In a story such as this, it’s more about what you don’t see, so you need to create that world.” Filming in Eastern Europe was essential.

Breaking the 'Abstract'

When people hear of human rights abuses and sex trafficking, they form in their minds an abstract idea of what is happening in some far-off country. No more, says Kondracki and co-writer Eilis Kirwan.

To put a face to the name, they’ve created Raya, played by Romanian actress Roxanna Condurache, someone audiences will get to know on a personal level.

Co-writer Kirwan stressed in the press notes that the audience must realize what these girls suffered. “It can’t stay abstract in anyone’s mind anymore.”

Bosnia isn’t the only country where human trafficking occurs.

The U.N. mission to Bosnia ended in 2002. Since then, the U.S. State Department has awarded DynCorp a $22 million dollar contract to police Iraq. DynCorp is the real-life company that contracted Bolkovac and other police into Bosnia. In the film, the name of the company is Democra.

U.N. peacekeepers on missions have reportedly committed sexual assaults and human rights violations in the Congo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Guinea, Nigeria, Liberia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti, Cambodia, Colombia, Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, according to Bolkovac’s report.

“We have a system that works,” sneers the big-shot head of an NGO, Laura Leviani (Monica Bellucci), in the movie. “For who?” Bolkovac (Weisz) shoots back.

Kondracki wants her audience to know that atrocities are being committed.

“It’s actually much worse [than in the film] and it’s continuing to happen. We really need more people like Kathy [Bolkovac].”

“The Whistleblower” stars Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Monica Bellucci, Vanessa Redgrave, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Anna Anissimova, and Roxana Condurache. The film is rated R and runs at 118 minutes. It opens in theaters Friday August 5.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/the-whistleblower-film-shines-light-on-the-uns-big-secret-60002.html.

UN may switch blue helmets to green, then launch climate change peacekeeping wars

Thursday, July 21, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

(NaturalNews) The United Nations may soon announce that merely by changing the color of its soldiers' helmets from blue to green, it can intervene in the business of sovereign nations under the guise of so-called "climate change peacekeeping."

As you consider this, keep in mind that the current bombing of infrastructure in Libya is also brazenly called "peacekeeping." In fact, there's hardly a military campaign that's been conducted in the last hundreds years that wasn't sold to the public as a way to create "peace." Now, the UN is on the verge of "waging peace" wearing green helmets instead of blue helmets. The invocation of all things "green," it seems, provides justification for just about anything these days... including war.

This new "green" UN initiative is due for discussion in a special meeting of the United Nations security council, where the organization will decide whether to expand its "peacekeeping" role to cover everything that happens in a world suffering under climate change. An article in The Guardian explains that this plan involves "...a new environmental peacekeeping force -- green helmets -- which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources."

Justification for UN troops on U.S. soil?
This would give the UN justification to place a "peacekeeping" force on U.S. soil, of course. Virtually the entire U.S. Southeast -- from Texas all the way to D.C. -- is currently sweltering under a severe heat wave combined with a hundred-year drought in many areas. Under the UN's new "climate change peacekeeping" initiatives, if crop failures result in riots, they could drop in a few hundred thousand UN troops -- all wearing GREEN helmets -- and then explain they're here to save us from "conflicts caused by shrinking resources."

Because, you know, GREEN means it's good for us, you see. Perhaps they'll even paint the tips of their bullets green so that when they start firing into the crowds of innocent protestors, they can claim it's not an act of war but rather "green kinetic action." The streets may be red with blood, but the evening news will present it all to you as a new "green initiative" that's good for the environment!

The Guardian goes on to report:

In an official "Concept Note" ahead of the meeting, Germany said the security council needed to draw up scenarios for dealing with the affects of extreme temperatures and rising seas. How would the UN deal with climate refugees?

As you can see from this quote, the UN feels that it must function as the police force of the world, intervening in the affairs of sovereign nations, and even painting their helmets green to make it all acceptable to the masses. If a foreign military force invades the United States of America and puts non-U.S. boots on the ground, that's called a military invasion. But I guess if they paint their helmets green, it's all okay, right?

Hopefully they'll paint their helmets NEON green so they stand out much like the British Empire's redcoat soldiers in 1776 who made easy targets.

Coming soon: Food supply disruptions leading to global riots
One thing the UN is getting right in all this, by the way, is the implied prediction that massive global crop failures are headed our way. Given the current depletion of food production resources (topsoil, fossil water supplies, etc.) a global food crisis is now inevitable. Food prices are already skyrocketing around the world, and the widespread use of GMOs is setting up our civilization for devastating food failures due to DNA contamination of food crops.

Food disruptions will, of course, lead to food riots. And food riots could get pretty ugly in high population areas (cities, namely) where the people import nearly 100 percent of their food. Even in places like New York City, we could see extreme food riots that have never been witnessed before in the history of America. But does this give the UN the right to intervene under the guise of green helmets?

Globalists think it does. The global elite are not merely setting us up for UN occupation under the excuse of "climate change peacekeeping," they're also the ones causing many of the problems in the first place! Who's behind the global GMO invasion? It's the global elite, of course. That's why the U.S. state department was caught on record saying that Spain should be punished for resisting GMOs.

How about global vaccination campaigns that are actually sterilization efforts designed to limit population growth? Then there's the issue of chemtrails, fluoride and all the other chemicals being dumped into the environment, which actually cause environmental problems that then provide justification for the UN to show up and police the world. Wouldn't it make more sense to just stop poisoning the planet with all these synthetic chemicals in the first place?

But no, the more problems there are in our world, the more power security forces are able to exercise over the populations. Conflict enables control. War is power, not peace. Every crisis in an opportunity. "Never waste a good crisis," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously said in a talk about climate change. And that's the whole point, you see: The global elite wish to exploit the very same environmental crises they've caused in order to gain more power over entire nations.

And now with this UN initiative, we're seeing yet another example of how "green" is used as a cover story for military imperialism. The term "climate change peacekeeping" is downright Orwellian in its tone and intention. Hitler fought wars to create "law and order." Stalin's atrocities were done in the name of "peace." The Crusades were mass killing campaigns conducted in the name of "God." Tyrants always have a justification for their wars, it seems. The killing that used to be done in the name of God will soon be conducted in the name of GREEN.

So get ready, America. Your neighborhoods are about to be "peacekept" by UN forces wearing green helmets and claiming to be operating under environmental initiatives that somehow give them the right to occupy your land and order you to obey. Remember, it's all about "Never waste a good crisis," and a global food crisis is headed your way very, very soon.

NaturalNews readers may be interested in protecting themselves from the coming food crisis by taking advantage of our Food Security course that teaches food preparedness, how to build your own water filter, how to create a food "go bag" and much more.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/033076_United_Nations_peacekeeping.html.

DR Congo calls on UN to withdraw peacekeepers

May 18, 2011

UNITED NATIONS — Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday made a new call for UN peacekeepers to withdraw, despite warnings from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that armed groups remain a significant threat there.

DR Congo's international cooperation minister Raymond Tshibanda told the UN Security Council that his government want an "orderly, progressive withdrawal" of UN troops from the giant central African country, where millions are said to have died in conflict in the past two decades.

The resource-rich country is to hold a key presidential election in November, amid fears of unrest.

Tshibanda told a Security Council debate that DR Congo and UN troops were now tackling "the last pockets of resistance from the remaining armed elements" and these are "in a few isolated zones."

"Add to this the normalization of relations with neighboring countries, we can legitimately say that we are out of the phase of reestablishing and maintaining peace," he said.

The minister said the UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, should now concentrate on consolidating peace and reinforcing democracy.

MONUSCO currently has about 20,000 troops and police in the country making it one of the UN's biggest peacekeeping operations.

"The time has come to broach together a phase of transition which will lead to the restructuring of MONUSCO and its mandate with the view to an orderly, progressive withdrawal, without delays, of its military component," he said.

Tshibanda added that President Joseph Kabila's government wants to do nothing to "undermine" the improved security climate.

"We must now ensure that the mandate is adapted to meet the new needs present on the ground," he told the 15-nation council.

"We only ask that we, as responsible adults, be able to shoulder the prerogatives that are part of our regained sovereignty."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did not comment on the withdrawal of MONUSCO forces in his speech to the debate.

But he said that despite military efforts, "foreign and Congolese armed groups continue to pose significant threats. The humanitarian situation remains serious with 1.7 million displaced."

He added that "murders, sexual violence and the looting and burning of villages continue to have large-scale humanitarian consequences."

Ban said that the November 28 presidential and legislative elections "must be timely, transparent, credible, peaceful and secure."

"We must do our utmost to ensure that violence does not break out before, during or after the elections. We have invested much and there is much to lose," he told the Security Council.

The Council said in a statement that security has improved in DR Congo but highlighted the threat from armed groups in the eastern provinces of Nord and Sud Kivu.

It reaffirmed "deep concern about the persistent high levels of violence, especially sexual violence and human rights abuses against civilians."

A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that there are more than 1,100 rapes each day in DR Congo.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Cote d'Ivoire to get more UN troops

UN representative to violence-torn nation says current 8,000-strong force will be increased by a further 2,000 soldiers.

05 Mar 2011

The UN is to send 2,000 more troops to Cote d'Ivoire to reinforce the existing peacekeeping force there, a UN official has said.

Choi Young-jin, the UN special representative for Cote d'Ivoire, said on Saturday that the decision was prompted by a surge in violence in the West African country.

On Thursday, government troops killed at least six women who were protesting against Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to step down as president, three months after the country's disputed election.

"What we are seeing is clearly an escalation of violence," Choi told the Liberation newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. "Since Feb 19, incidents have gotten more serious."

The 8,000-strong UN force is trying to prevent violence between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the election, from tipping into a civil war.

Clashes between factions loyal to each side have grown increasingly violent in the past couple of months.

About 800 peacekeepers are stationed around a hotel in Abidjan, the commercial capital, where Ouattara has been holed up since November.

Ouattara hopes that economic sanctions will eventually weaken Gbagbo's grip on power.

The UN has said at least 365 people have been killed in violence since November 28.

Women shot

Video footage of the all-women protest in the northern Abidjan suburb of Abobo, broadcast on Itele news channel, showed women screaming and at least two bloodied bodies on the road.

An armored vehicle marked "police" was visible in the background.

Choi said he was sending frequent patrols through the Abobo suburb, adding: "We need to do everything we can to stop someone who wants to massacre civilians from making it happen."

As the conflict escalated, Choi said he had not yet called on a French military unit stationed nearby.

"We are waiting on reinforcements of 2,000 blue helmets, and two of the three armed helicopters that we ordered have arrived," he said.

Staying in control of the skies above Abidjan through air power was crucial to ensuring that the fragile situation did not degenerate into bloodshed, he added.

Asked if he thought a political outcome to the crisis was possible, Choi said: "Since the beginning we've noted deep differences between the two parties. It will be very difficult to find common ground between the rivals."

In the northern stronghold of Bouake, power and water service was restored on Saturday, after being cut for a week during clashes, witnesses and residents said.

Gbagbo's government did not officially comment on the power cuts to the north, but his troops seized the electric distribution company last month and a UN source said they had ordered power to be cut to the north during the fighting.

Running water was able to be cut because the pumps are electric.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/03/201135191014782155.html.

UN Mission in Nepal begins withdrawal

Thu, 06 Jan 2011

Kathmandu - The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which is monitoring the country's peace process, began withdrawing Thursday after domestic political squabbling prompted the United Nations to bring it to an end next week.

UN arms monitors and support staff began leaving camps set up for former Maoist guerrillas after the 2006 end of Nepal's decade-long civil war. A minimum amount of staff was left behind to continue to monitor the former combatants, officials said.

"We have started to withdraw some of our arms monitors and other staff starting today," mission spokesman Kosmos Biswokarma said Thursday, "but UNMIN will continue to have its presence in Nepal till its last day, which is January 15."

Seventy-two arms monitors from 18 countries are spread out over seven Maoist camps, home to more than 19,000 former fighters, as well as a weapons storage site in a Nepal Army barracks.

Their mission began its work in 2007. Its mandate had been extended six times, but last year, the Maoists, who joined the political process after laying down their arms, and the Nepalese government began bickering over what the job of the UN Mission should be and whether it should monitor the military as well as the former rebels.

The dispute and the resignation in June of the prime minister of Nepal - which continues today under a caretaker administration because the political parties have failed to agree on a new premier - prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to say in September that the political parties were unable to share power and the peace process had stalled.

He said the UN Mission had been made a "scapegoat" for the failure of the government and Maoist forces to settle their dispute, and as a result, its mandate was not extended.

During a meeting late Wednesday between caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the premier flatly refused Dahal's request to place an official plea for the mission's extension before the UN Security Council.

The Maoists' battle to establish a communist state in the Himalayan nation resulted in the loss of nearly 14,000 lives.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360952,un-mission-nepal-withdrawal.html.

UN forces threatened in Ivory Coast

Mon Jan 3, 2011

The UN peacekeepers operating in Ivory Coast have come under new threats, which indicate the escalating tension in the West African country following the disputed November 28 run-off presidential election.

"UN out!" people yelled honking their horns as the Jordanian UN peacekeepers passed by in their armored vehicle in Abidjan, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.

According to the report, peacekeepers patrolling the streets in Abidjan, the largest city in the country, are coming under increasing threats.

Both incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara have claimed victory in the November 28 run-off presidential election.

Ivory Coast's electoral commission declared Outtara as winner of the vote, while the Constitutional Court announced Gbagbo as the president-elect.

However, most of the international community, major powers, and the African Union have recognized Ouattara as the winner.

Likewise, the UN declared Ouattara the winner of Ivory Coast's long-delayed presidential vote. Gbagbo accuses the world body of failing to remain neutral.

In another act of violence against the UN forces in Abidjan, a soldier was injured with a knife this week when a crowd in a pro-Gbagbo neighborhood attacked a convoy and set the UN vehicle on fire.

The next day, a UN patrol was fired upon from a nearby building as an angry crowd surrounded them. They were forced to fire into the air to disperse the crowd, a UN statement said.

"It is not the role of UN forces to shoot people, nor is it their role to fight a war," Gbagbo said on state-run RTI television a day later, demanding the forces leave the country.

According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about 20,000 Ivorians have fled to neighboring Liberia, fearing the political deadlock in the country might lead to a civil war.

Ouattara has taken refuge in Abidjan's Golf Hotel since the vote. The hotel is currently protected by an 800-strong force of UN peacekeepers.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158397.html.

UN peacekeepers attacked in Ivory Coast

Friday 31 December 2010
Samuel Okocha, AfricaNews reporter in Lagos, Nigeria

The United Nations peacekeepers in the West African country, Ivory Coast, fired at by hidden gunmen when a hostile crowd blocked their vehicles. The peacekeepers reportedly fired warning shots in return to disperse the crowd.

"It was a routine patrol that went to Abobo and was blocked by barricades. The patrol lifted the barricades and continued on its route, but was encircled by a crowd that was growing bigger and bigger," AFP quoted spokesman for the United Nations Operation in Cote d' Ivoire [UNOCI], Hamadoun Toure as saying on Thursday.

"They received shots from a building, and that's when we shot in the air, because there was a sort of mob preventing them from moving. So they shot in the air. We did not shoot into the crowd, just so that is clear."

The state media in Ivory Coast was said to have alleged that civilians were wounded when UN peacekeepers [also called blue helmets in Ivory Coast] fired into a crowd in the Abobo district of the main city of Abidjan.

But UN spokesman Toure said "the patrol did not fire on the crowd."

State television RTI which remains loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo had reportedly showed clips of two young men with fresh wounds, saying they were injured due to gun shot from UN patrol.

The head of UNOCI's human rights department, Simon Munzu, said the incident was under investigation but added he was yet to receive reports of casualties.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/UN_peacekeepers_attacked_in_Ivory_Coast/list_messages/36828.

UN troops in Ivory Coast may use force to defend self, civilians

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

New York - United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast have been authorized to use "all necessary means" to defend themselves and government officials under their protection, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

Ban also warned that any attack against the peacekeepers would be a violation of international law.

Ban said he remained "very concerned" by the deteriorating situation in Ivory Coast, where incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to step down after losing the November 28 presidential runoff elections to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara.

Ban said the UN headquarters at the Golf Hotel in Abidjan has been threatened with attacks from the Young Patriots, a group supporting Gbagbo, starting on the New Year. Ouattara and some government officials have taken refuge in the hotel.

The UN mission in Ivory Coast, known as UNOCI, has about 10,000 military and civilian personnel deployed to provide security to the government and key political stakeholders.

Ban said UNOCI is "authorized to use all necessary means to protect its personnel, as well as the government officials and other civilians at these premises of the hotel."

"The secretary general therefore wishes to warn that any attack against peacekeepers constitutes a crime under international law, for which the perpetrators and those who instigate them will be held accountable," the UN said in a statement.

"Any attack on the Golf Hotel could provoke widespread violence that could reignite civil war," it said. "The secretary general calls on all those who may be contemplating participation in the attack to refrain from such dangerous irresponsible action."

Nepal races to save peacekeeping mission in Sudan

Thu, 30 Dec 2010

Kathmandu - Nepalese UN troops in Darfur, threatened with a forced shut-down of their mission due to lack of military hardware following a major procurement scandal, are to receive the urgently needed equipment from their government, officials confirmed Thursday.

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur plans to repatriate the Nepalese peacekeepers if the government fails to provide the required armed personnel carriers (APCs) and other logistics by January 9, The Kathmandu Post reported.

A Home Ministry official said the Nepalese unit was told to either manage all necessary logistics before a scheduled referendum on independence for Southern Sudan on January 9, or be ready to go home.

"The UNAMID commissioner has reportedly complained that without APCs he could no longer employ non-operational Nepal Police Units to task," a letter sent by Nepal's permanent mission to the UN said.

According to the parliamentary State Affairs Committee, some 300 million rupees (400,000 dollars) were embezzled during the procurement process for the military equipment two years ago.

Among those implicated in the scandal are former home minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, former inspector general of police Om Bikram Rana and former home secretary Umesh Mainali.

The committee Wednesday directed the government to send the supplies to the peacekeepers within 10 days and asked Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to complete the investigation into the alleged corruption case.

Some 150 Nepalese police officers are posted to Darfur.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360123,races-peacekeeping-mission-sudan.html.

EXTRA: UN peacekeepers attacked in Ivory Coast

Tue, 28 Dec 2010

Nairobi/Abidjan - One United Nations peacekeeper was wounded and a vehicle burnt in an attack in Ivory Coast, the UN said Tuesday as efforts to force defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo from power continued.

"A convoy of three vehicles of the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) transporting 22 Blue Helmets was attacked on Tuesday in the Abidjan neighborhood of Yopougon, while returning to the Ivorian economic capital from the interior of the country," UNOCI said in a statement.

"A large crowd encircled the convoy, wounding one soldier with a machete and burning one of the three vehicles."

Gbagbo, who is refusing to cede power to his rival Alassane Ouattara despite huge international pressure, last week ordered the 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission from the West African nation.

After his demand was ignored, the UN has complained its staff have become targets of harassment, intimidation and violence.

Three West African presidents are in Abidjan in the latest attempt to persuade Gbagbo to peacefully hand over power to Alassane Ouattara - the man widely recognized as the winner of last month's presidential elections.

Fears rise of attacks on UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

New York/Abidjan - Fears of attacks against United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, which is in the grip of a violent post-election crisis, were high Wednesday after the UN peacekeeping chief warned his forces were becoming targets.

Strongman leader Laurent Gbagbo is defying massive international pressure - including European Union and United States sanctions - to cling to power, and has ordered UN peacekeepers and supporting French troops out of the country.

"The situation is at a critical stage on the ground," Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said late Tuesday.

Since the UN Security Council ignored Gbagbo's order and extended UNOCI's mandate by six months on Monday, pressure has grown on the peacekeepers - numbering around 10,000.

According to Le Roy, state-controlled television channel RTI has been broadcasting calls for violence against UNOCI personnel, staff have been evicted and suppliers have been forced to stop providing goods to the mission.

"We hear a lot of provocation again from RTI, and we hear reports of people like the Young Patriots (a pro-Gbagbo youth group) being given lots weapons, AK47s, to try to provoke UNOCI," Le Roy told reporters in New York. "We are very concerned."

The UN's headquarters in the economic capital Abidjan came under fire on Friday, although no injuries were reported.

Gbagbo's rival Alassane Ouattara is widely recognized as the rightful winner of last month's presidential elections. The polls were aimed at healing the divisions of a 2002 civil war that split the country into the mainly Muslim north, which backs Ouattara, and Christian south, where Gbagbo holds sway.

According to Ouattara's camp, around 200 people have been killed in the last week as Gbagbo cracks down on opposition, using Liberian and Angolan mercenaries to operate death squads. The UN confirmed the presence of Liberian forces in Ivory Coast.

Tentative UN estimates say there have been 50 deaths, around 200 injuries, 470 arbitrary arrests and many disappearances.

Ouattara is trying to run an alternative government from the UN-protected Golf Hotel in Abidjan, but pro-Gbagbo forces have erected barricades to prevent food and water getting through.

"The intention of Mr Gbagbo and the security forces loyal to him is clearly to strangle the United Nations peacekeeping mission and to suffocate the Government of President-elect Ouattara," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Gbagbo, in a speech broadcast on RTI late Tuesday, said he did not want the country to be "ravaged by war" and told Ouattara he would not be touched if he emerged from the Golf Hotel.

He also said he would consider allowing an "international and independent assessment and monitoring committee" to review the election - an offer immediately dismissed by Ouattara as insincere.

While Gbagbo extended an apparent olive branch, his feared youth leader Charles Ble Goude - who is under UN sanctions for violent acts carried out against peacekeepers in 2006 - has been holding daily rallies, exhorting thousands of young Gbagbo supporters to combat.

"Be ready! I will invite you to start street demonstrations very soon to claim the departure of UN staff and French military forces and to launch the latest assault to free Ivory Coast, our country," he told a televised rally in an Abidjan suburb Tuesday.

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in an emailed statement, specifically mentioned the leader of the Young Patriots in a warning of possible prosecutions.

"For instance, if as a consequence of Mr Charles Ble Goude's speeches, there is massive violence, he could be prosecuted," he said.

UN renews mandate of peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

New York - The UN Security Council on Monday renewed the six-month mandate of its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast in defiance of the incumbent government's demand that the international troops be withdrawn amid a dispute over the presidential elections.

The council said the UN mission in Ivory Coast (UNOCI) will remain until June 30, 2011, and it authorized additional personnel, bringing the total number of military and civilian personnel close to 10,000.

The council also authorized the UN secretary general to redeploy peacekeepers between the missions in Ivory Coast and Liberia.

It said the UNOCI will continue to support the peace process in Ivory Coast, "especially the completion of the unfinished tasks of legislative elections, reunification of the country, the restoration of state authority throughout the country."

Other tasks given to the mission include demobilization and reintegration of former combatants, the dismantling of militias, the strengthening of rule of law institutions, reform of security and promotion of human rights.

Last week, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down after losing the November 28 presidential elections to opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, asked the UN to withdraw its forces. The UN has called on Gbagbo to step down and transfer power to president-elect Ouattara.

Despite fierce international pressure, Gbagbo is relying on military might to cling to power and asked the troops to quit the country amid unrest that has claimed at least 50 lives since Thursday.

The UN mission was deployed in 2002 after a civil war split Ivory Coast into a rebel-held north and government-led south. The UN had hoped that democratic reform and elections would close the gap of differences between the two.

Gbagbo orders UN troops out

Incumbent Cote d'Ivoire president tells UN peacekeepers to leave the country after 'interference' in internal affairs.

18 Dec 2010

The government of Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo has told the United Nations and French peacekeeping missions to leave the country, escalating tensions after last month's disputed presidential polls.

"The government demands the departure of the UNOCI [United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire] and LICORNE [The French military's 'Operation Unicorn'] forces in Ivory Coast and is opposed to any renewal of their mandate," said spokesperson Jacqueline Oble, reading a statement on state television on Saturday.

"UNOCI has interfered seriously in the internal affairs of Ivory Coast," she added.

The UN mission has told Al Jazeera that they are still awaiting receipt of a formal letter regarding this request.

Earlier on Saturday, masked men in military uniforms opened fire on a UN base, after following guards back from a patrol, according to a UN statement. There were no casualties after the attack, in which six armed men in a civilian vehicle shot at the patrol as it entered the UN compound.

The men continued firing along the wall of the compound, and UN guards returned fire, according to the statement.

The UN has 10,000 soldiers and police in the country following the 2002-03 civil war, and former colonial power France's LICORNE force supports the UN mission in the country.

Cote d'Ivoire was thrown into crisis after its November 28 presidential runoff, with both candidates claiming victory. Alassane Ouattara has been recognized by the international community as the winner and has formed a parallel government holed up in an Abidjan hotel.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Patrick Achi, spokesman for Ouattara, said that Gbagbo had no right to ask the UN to leave, as he is no longer President.

"The population is the hostage of someone who lost the election," Achi added.

He asserted that the international community must now step in and turn their words of support into action, as Gbagbo remains in control of the army and the media.

The current UN mandate, however, is limited to protecting civilians, and does not allow peacekeepers to interfere with local politics.

Sylvain Touati, Research Fellow for the Africa Program at the French Institute for International Relations, told Al Jazeera that the UN can choose to ignore the request from Gbagbo, as it no longer recognizes him as head of state.

He added that the UN may be forced to intervene if hostilities escalate, as an armed conflict between the two sides could lead to much bloodshed.

International pressure mounts

The move to eject UN and French peacekeepers comes just a day after Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga called on African nations to oust Gbagbo by force if necessary.

"Mr Gbagbo must be forced even if it means using military means to get rid of him because now he is just relying on military power, not the people's power, to intimidate the people," Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi on Friday.

"The African Union should develop teeth."

France has issued a weekend deadline for Gbagbo to surrender his presidential post or face international sanctions and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has called on the incumbent to step aside for Ouattara.

The United States has said it is ready to impose travel sanctions on Gbagbo, his inner circle and their families within days, while at least one African nation is said to have offered him exile.

"There is at least one African offer of a soft landing, but it is up to him to take it," William Fitzgerald, the state department official in charge of West African affairs, told the Reuters news agency in an interview.

'Little effect'

But Al Jazeera's Ama Boateng, reporting from Abidjan, said that Gbagbo has "heard these threats before".

"We've heard them from the African Union, we've heard them from the United Nations, we've heard them from pretty much every international voice," Boateng said. "And so far, that has had very, very little effect."

A spokesman for Gbagbo told the Reuters news agency that the presidential claimant would not step down after being handed the runoff victory after the constitutional council annulled hundreds of thousands of votes in pro-Ouattara areas.

"President Gbagbo is going nowhere. He was elected for five years and he will only leave power in 2015," Alain Toussaint said in London.

"France, the United States, the EU want to carry out a plot, a constitutional coup d'etat, and we say 'No' ... we can't allow foreign governments to interfere in our affairs."

The election has been followed by violent protests in Abidjan and other cities. Ouattara's camp said 30 people died in clashes on Thursday while Gbagbo's spokeswoman said 20 died, including 10 police officers killed by protesters.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/12/20101218143415519240.html.

Gbagbo moves to eject peacekeepers

Incumbent Cote d'Ivoire President tells UN peacekeepers to leave the country after 'interference' in internal affairs.

18 Dec 2010

The government of Cote d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo has told the United Nations and French peacekeeping missions to leave the country, escalating tensions after last month's disputed presidential polls.

"The government demands the departure of the UNOCI [United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire] and LICORNE [The French military's 'Operation Unicorn'] forces in Ivory Coast and is opposed to any renewal of their mandate," said spokesperson Jacqueline Oble, reading a statement on state television on Saturday.

"UNOCI has interfered seriously in the internal affairs of Ivory Coast," she added.

Earlier on Saturday, masked men in military uniforms opened fire on a UN base, after following guards back from a patrol, according to a UN statement. There were no casualties after the attack, in which six armed men in a civilian vehicle shot at the patrol as it entered the UN compound.

The men continued firing along the wall of the compound, and UN guards returned fire, according to the statement.

The UN has 10,000 soldiers and police in the country following the 2002-03 civil war, and former colonial power France's LICORNE force supports the UN mission in the country.

International pressure mounts

The move to eject UN and French peacekeepers comes just a day after Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga called on African nations to oust Gbagbo by force if necessary.

"Mr Gbagbo must be forced even if it means using military means to get rid of him because now he is just relying on military power, not the people's power, to intimidate the people," Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi on Friday.

"The African Union should develop teeth."

Cote d'Ivoire was thrown into crisis after its November 28 presidential runoff, with both candidates claiming victory. Alassane Ouattara has been recognized by the international community as the winner and has formed a parallel government holed up in an Abidjan hotel.

France has issued a weekend deadline for Gbagbo to surrender his presidential post or face international sanctions and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has called on the incumbent to step aside for Ouattara.

The United States has said it is ready to impose travel sanctions on Gbagbo, his inner circle and their families within days, while at least one African nation is said to have offered him exile.

"There is at least one African offer of a soft landing, but it is up to him to take it," William Fitzgerald, the state department official in charge of West African affairs, told the Reuters news agency in an interview.

'Little effect'

But Al Jazeera's Ama Boateng, reporting from Abidjan, said that Gbagbo has "heard these threats before".

"We've heard them from the African Union, we've heard them from the United Nations, we've heard them from pretty much every international voice," Boateng said. "And so far, that has had very, very little effect."

A spokesman for Gbagbo told the Reuters news agency that the presidential claimant would not step down after being handed the runoff victory after the constitutional council annulled hundreds of thousands of votes in pro-Ouattara areas.

"President Gbagbo is going nowhere. He was elected for five years and he will only leave power in 2015," Alain Toussaint said in London.

"France, the United States, the EU want to carry out a plot, a constitutional coup d'etat, and we say 'No' ... we can't allow foreign governments to interfere in our affairs."

The election has been followed by violent protests in Abidjan and other cities. Ouattara's camp said 30 people died in clashes on Thursday while Gbagbo's spokeswoman said 20 died, including 10 police officers killed by protesters.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/12/20101218143415519240.html.

Lebanese villagers in two assaults on UN patrols - Summary

Thu, 16 Dec 2010

Beirut - French United Nations peacekeepers were assaulted Thursday by villagers in southern Lebanon in two separate incidents, prompting the country's army to intervene, a security official said.

Residents of the Hezbollah-controlled village of Tayri, east of the southern port city of Tyre, assaulted a French UNIFIL patrol, the source said.

The incident began when some of the villagers clashed with the patrol while it was conducting a GPS demarcation and tried to snatch the equipment they were using away from them, the source added.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) came to the scene and resolved the situation by taking the patrol's computer at the request of the villagers.

The Tayri incident came few hours after residents from the southern village of Hariss protest when a French UNIFIL patrol was taking pictures in the area.

UNIFIL's general command alerted the Lebanese Army, which arrived at the scene to handle the incident, he added.

A UN source said the UNIFIL command " was investigating both incidents and they are in contact with the Lebanese army command."

Local residents said the attack against the patrol came as a result of the unit's increasingly "provocative" and "suspicious" behavior, taking what they described as "sensitive photographs."

Similar attacks took place in July between Lebanese villagers and French peacekeepers.

The repeated assaults have prompted a string of meetings in the past months between high-level Lebanese officials and army officers, UNIFIL commanders and the UN Special Envoy to Lebanon Michael Williams.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358564,un-patrols-summary.html.

Six AU peacekeepers arrested in Somalia

Thursday 25 November 2010
Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia has arrested six of its soldiers after two civilians were killed in indiscriminate gunshot in Mogadishu. The incident occurred Tuesday as convoy of heavily armed peacekeepers opened fire on civilians at a road between the international airport and the strategic Km 4 Area in South Mogadishu.

Nearly 10 civilians among them children were also wounded in the accident.

The commander of the peacekeepers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), Major General Nathan Mugisha, has apologized.

Maj. Gen. Mugisha termed the incident unfortunate and shared with the Somali people their grief.

He said that one of the wounded was being treated at an Amisom medical facility, adding that the peacekeepers were ready to medically assist the other injured (that are being treated at Madina Hospital in Mogadishu) if required.

“We are not certain whether the soldiers were responding to a perceived threat,” the African Union force commander, Maj. Gen. Mugisha, said in a statement.

“However, all the soldiers involved have been arrested and taken into a military custody while a full inquiry is launched into the precise circumstances that took place.”

Local human rights and Mogadishu residents have accused Ugandan soldiers of routine firing into the air to disperse crowds.

Civilian casualties are increasingly problematic in Mogadishu, turning residents against the peacekeepers and Somali government.

Many residents are furious at the peacekeepers for shelling into civilian villages, though the peacekeepers say they are simply returning fire from insurgents.

Somalia’s al-Qaeda linked group of Al-Shabaab took credit for a suicide attack that hit Kampala in July that killed more 70 people. The group said it was a revenge for the innocent Somalis killed by Ugandan peacekeepers.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/Six_AU_peacekeepers_arrested_in_Somalia/list_messages/36263.

Somalia: AU troops kill two civilians

Wednesday 24 November 2010 - 14:01
Ismail Hassan Olad, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya

At least two civilians have been killed and more than seven others wounded in Somalia's capital Mogadishu after AU troops are alleged to have deliberately open fire on them, according to Shabelle.net.

Three of the wounded civilians are confirmed dead at the Madina Hospital while the others are in critical conditions.

The commander of the African Union Forces in Somalia Nathan Mugisha has told the media the soldiers who were involved in the incident have been arrested while investigation is ongoing.

Source: AfricaNews.
Link: http://www.africanews.com/site/Somalia_AU_troops_kill_two_civilians/list_messages/36244.

Haiti rioters attack U.N. troops, one protester killed

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Protesters in Haiti, blaming United Nations troops for a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people, attacked U.N. peacekeepers in two cities on Monday.

One protester was shot dead in the clashes and six U.N. peacekeepers were injured.

The U.N. mission blamed the violence in Cap-Haitien and Hinche on political agitators it said were bent on stirring up unrest ahead of presidential and legislative elections set for November 28 in the earthquake-hit Caribbean country.

In Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second city on the north coast, U.N. blue helmets were fired on by armed demonstrators and one demonstrator was killed when a peacekeeper opened fire in self-defense, the U.N. mission (MINUSTAH) said in a statement.

U.N. troops also used tear gas against the protesters.

"MINUSTAH reiterates its firm commitment to support the Haitian national police in maintaining order and security in the country to guarantee the continuation of the electoral process and Haiti's reconstruction," the U.N. statement said.

At Hinche in the central region, U.N. peacekeepers were among several people injured by stone-throwing protesters who attacked Nepalese troops stationed there.

The Nepalese have been the subject of widespread rumors that they brought the cholera bacteria behind the month-long epidemic of the deadly disease in Haiti that has killed more than 900 people and sickened close to 15,000.

The U.N. mission, which is helping the impoverished country rebuild after a devastating earthquake in January, has denied rumors that latrines close to a river at the Nepalese U.N. camp were the cause of the cholera outbreak.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said DNA testing shows the cholera strain in Haiti is most closely related to a strain from South Asia. But it has not pinpointed the source or linked it directly to the Nepalese troops, whom the U.N. says tested negative for the disease.

Officials and residents in Cap-Haitien said earlier on Monday that hundreds of protesters yelling anti-U.N. slogans had set up burning barricades and torched a police station.

"The whole city is blocked, businesses and schools have closed, cars have been burned. It's chaos here," a businessman in Cap-Haitien, Georgesmain Prophete, told Reuters.

The cholera epidemic has inflicted another crisis on the Western Hemisphere's poorest state as it struggles to rebuild from the earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people.

Fear, uncertainty and anger have swept a country already traumatized by the earthquake, which also left 1.5 million people homeless.

SECURITY WORRIES

Haiti's government and the more than 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission have signaled their determination to go ahead with the November 28 elections.

"MINUSTAH urges the population to remain vigilant and not to allow itself to be manipulated by the enemies of stability and democracy in the country," the U.N. mission said.

Nevertheless, the violent incidents raise questions about security for the elections, which will choose a successor to President Rene Preval, a 99-member parliament and 11 members of the 30-seat Senate.

Analysts say the elections could be the most important in Haiti's history but many see the path to the polls threatened by risks of political violence, as well as the huge humanitarian challenges.

Joany Caneus, director of police for the northern region where Cap-Haitien is located, said the anti-U.N. demonstrators there set fire to the Pont Neuf police station.

"You can imagine how difficult it is when we cannot have the usual backup of the U.N. troops because they themselves are in difficulty," Caneus told Reuters, adding that the U.N. peacekeepers in the city had asked for a Haitian police patrol to be posted in front of their headquarters.

"So we don't only have to protect the population, we also have to protect U.N. troops ... We are working on ways to control the situation."

Last month, in the central town of Saint-Marc, at the heart of the cholera outbreak, stone-throwing residents apparently fearing contagion disrupted the setting up of a cholera treatment center, burning several tents.

Experts say Haiti's widespread poverty and poor sanitation have been major factors in the rapid spread of the cholera epidemic, which has affected six of the country's 10 provinces. The last cholera epidemic in Haiti was a century ago.

But the experts say it is difficult to trace the source of the outbreak with certainty or determine how it re-entered the country after such a long absence.

(Writing and additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher in Miami; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Ban urges larger role for China in UN peacekeeping missions

Mon, 01 Nov 2010

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would like to see more Chinese involvement in UN peacekeeping missions, he said on a visit to Beijing Monday.

"The secretary general noted that China could play a greater role in peacekeeping and in the search for political solutions to African crises, including in Somalia and Sudan," Ban's spokesman said in New York after the UN chief met with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Ban did not address the subject of human rights, instead focusing on other issues such as climate change and Millennium Development Goals, the Korean Peninsula and Africa, the spokesman said.

Ban also did not address the imprisonment of dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month.

Hu expressed support for the United Nations, the statement said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351394,eu-membership-president-visits-long-term-signing-midfielder-wilshere-china-un-peacekeeping-missions.html.