UPI's William Reilly speculates that Sunday's car bombing that killed six Spanish UN peacekeepers in Lebanon may harbinger future attacks on the UNIFIL. "The question that immediately arises is whether this attack signals a change in Lebanon's unfortunate legacy of car bombs that have been used in a series of assassinations going back to late 2004, targeting politicians critical of Syria's role in Lebanon. In other words, has the United Nations become a target?"
One of the car bombings to which Reilly refers was the February 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Harriri, who was often critical of Syrian influence in Lebanese politics. The assassination led to great public outcry, and the United Nations conducted an investigation into the circumstances of his death. During the investigation, all roads led to Damascus and the Security Council authorized a special tribunal to prosecute Harriri's alleged assassins and conspirators.
The targets of the prosecution may very well be the same people who orchestrated Sunday's deadly car bombing. If that is the case, blue helmets may find themselves increasingly in the terrorists' cross hairs as the tribunal moves a head. Scary.
This WSJ Op-Ed, "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons," has been labeled as visionary at least a half dozen times by a half dozen different speakers at the Carnegie Conference on Non-Proliferation. It's worth checking out if for no other reason than to see what those in the know in non-proliferation find authoritative.
An expert-group discussion hosted by United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) has concluded that the number of male trainers in gender training for security personnel must be increased.
With special attention given to UN peacekeepers, international gender experts representing academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, security forces and the UN have provided useful recommendations and practical tips on training delivery, for example on how to challenge gender stereotypes.Carmen Moreno, UN-INSTRAW Director, said "Many of the security institutions - military, police, peacekeepers - are dominated by men...Knowing more about how differently men and women experience conflict helps security personnel respond better to gender-based violence and prevent sexual abuse." More
Six Spanish peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were killed over the weekend in an apparent car bombing. These deaths are the first peacekeeper fatalities since UNIFIL expanded its operations in southern Lebanon following last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah forces. The culprits are unknown at this point. Hezbollah has condemned the attacks. But Fatah al-Islam--the militant group battling the Lebanese army forces in a refugee camp near Beirut--has previously accused UNIFIL of attacking the camp, so it would seem they are the target of immediate suspicions.
These fatalities highlight the unique force structure of peacekeeping in Lebanon. UNIFIL does not quite resemble other peacekeeping missions, where soldiers from South Asian countries typically make up the bulk of the forces. UNIFIL, out of design, is predominantly European. As a condition of the August 14, 2006 ceasefire agreement, the Israeli government demanded that countries with sophisticated military capacities help fill the security void once Israel withdrew its own soldiers. Sending American troops there was a non-starter, so France, Spain, Italy and other European countries stepped up. The deaths over the weekend are a sad reminder of Europe's commitment to help keep the peace in the second-most volatile country in the Middle East.
A new report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reports that environmental degradation is among the root causes of decades of conflict in Sudan.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, says the report "has shown clearly that peace and people's livelihoods in Darfur as well as in the rest of Sudan are inextricably linked to the environmental challenge."
"Just as environmental degradation can contribute to the triggering and perpetuation of conflict, the sustainable management of natural resources can provide the basis for long-term stability, sustainable livelihoods, and development."
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Scott Jagow: There's a big conference in Europe today on microfinancing. That's when you give people, usually women, in developing countries very small loans to help them run a business. It might be something as simple as selling crafts on the street. But some of the world's largest banks are attending this conference. They want to get into microfinancing. Michaela Walsh founded Women's World Banking back in 1975. I asked her why the big banks want a piece of this. Michaela Walsh: It can be a very profitable business. It is more labor-intensive than say commercial credit. Our role is to make sure that microfinance doesn't become consumer credit.Is there a possibility that big banks will come in a depersonalize what has been one of the world most successful ways of alleviating poverty and empowering women? Yes:
Michaela Walsh: Personally, I have always had a concern that small loans that are given in a local community, whether it's rural or urban, and when paid back there needs to be some kind of a guarantee that those profits and those benefits are reinvested in that local community and not just computerized and centralized in a capital city or in a global network. Recently Harvard University and two other universities did a study saying that because the large banking institutions have the capacity to get out more loans, that we ought to put more and more money into the big institutions. My concern about that is we need to make sure those loans are not consumer loans and that they are going to be shared with local women's institutions to ensure that woman are making the decisions about how to run microfinance in the most effective way to serve the largest number of clients.The big banks will turn it into a credit issue and then have even more wage slaves, globally too!