The Free Republic, in its traditionally understated way, highlights an Investors Business Daily editorial excoriating Ban Ki-moon for making the connection between climate change and the Darfur conflict. "The new U.N. secretary general invokes a Twinkie defense," says the editorial. "Excusing Islamofascist genocide in Darfur by blaming it on global warming. Forget the Chinese weapons. According to Ban Ki-moon, your SUV is responsible."
The Atlantic Monthly ran an excellent feature on this topic two months ago. Darfur, which is composed of the three provinces in Sudan's west, enjoys little natural wealth. It is a vast, unforgiving, and arid place. But it was not always as arid as it is today. As the Atlantic Monthly piece by Stephan Faris explains, southward expansion of the Sahara desert toward Darfur is a relatively recent phenomenon.
The desertification of Darfur has pit traditionally agrarian "black African" tribes in competition for arable land with nomadic tribes of ethnic-Arab herders. Of course, that alone is not sufficient to explain the accusations of genocide. Rather, when ethnic Darfuri tribes launched a rebellion against the central government in Khartoum in 2003, the government recruited and armed militias drawn from ethnic-Arab tribes, with promises that the land would be theirs. The fact that the two groups competed for natural resources in ways they had not in previous generations made the government's strategy to recruit militias that much easier.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Washington, DC yesterday in an effort to seek support for reducing the U.S. deficit in peacekeeping dues.
"He's meeting with congressional leaders, mostly talking about peacekeeping funding," said Deborah DeYoung, information officer for the United Nations Information Centre in Washington. "He's been here twice before this year, and probably be coming back and forth a good bit. It's a new era, and he's keen to get to know people and keen to let them know his priorities."The timing of Ban's trip coincided with the Better World Campaign--which gave the House of Representatives a petition on Tuesday signed by 32,000 people from all 50 states urging Congress to pay off $569 million in arrears. More
Today, June 20, is United Nations World Refugee Day. And for the first time since 2002, the number of refugees and displaced persons around the world is actually increasing. According to a new report (pdf) by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, the number now approaches 10 million people, a 14 percent rise in the over last year's figures. Sadly, the dramatic increase is largely due to the war in Iraq, where an estimated 1.5 million people have been forced to find refuge in neighboring Jordan and Syria.
Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has has condemned the murder of Iraqi journalist Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari. This death follows the murder of two female Afghan journalists in recent weeks.
"In only a few days, three women journalists have been brutally murdered...These pioneering women were targeted because they devoted their energy and courage to help bring about democratic change in their societies...I trust these particularly heinous crimes will not go unpunished."
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports taht at least 106 journalists and 39 media workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
More
UN Dispatch: As the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, why have you chosen to focus on malaria?
Cluster bombs are bad news. Small bomblets packed into artillery shells explode over a target, spewing golf-ball sized mini bombs far and wide. The problem is, not all of the bomblets explode on impact. Some are duds. And much like landmines, the unexploded sub-munitions lay dormant until disturbed. If a child, for example, picks up an unexploded bomblet it may blow up in her face. Like landmines, cluster bombs continue to kill and maim long after hostilities have ended.
So far, efforts to control the use of cluster bombs have been disregarded by the United States, which argues for their military utility. But the United States government may have just had a change of heart. The Associated Press reports today that the American delegate to the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons, which is meeting in Geneva this week, has agreed to participate in negotiations on cluster bombs. American officials have said they are not seeking an outright ban, but are open to regulating the use and manufacture of cluster bombs. This, at least, is an improvement over a previous policy of simply ignoring international efforts on cluster bombs.
A new study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) reports that pervasive sex discrimination is impeding African women's success in business.
The study, entitled "Lessons from Success Stories of African Women Entrepreneurs," called for initiatives beyond microcredit schemes while pointing out that women continue manage businesses which generate employment and tax revenue despite limited government support, negative social environments, institutional discrimination and lasting gender inequalities.The study is based on the experiences of women entrepreneurs in Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. More