The violent upheaval in Ivory Coast provides opportunity for infectious diseases to flourish and, at worst, establish long-term footholds in populations. We have to consider that possibility when contemplating an intervention in Ivory Coast.
There has been a surge in attacks against UN peacekeepers in Cote D'Ivoire in the past two days. Why the international community should be very worried.
A special guest post from Peter Yeo, Director of the Better World Campaign, on how UN Peacekeepers are helping to prevent the slide into civil war in Ivory Coast.
UNMIS can help facilitate the implementation of these new agreements. But peacekeepers cannot be expected to prevent the outbreak of conflict between two countries that are determined to go to war.
Despite the continued need for civilian protection, the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is actually in the process of shutting down.
The big news out the UN today is that top UN Human rights official Navi Pillay announced she will delay the release of a controversial report about Rwanda's actions in the Congo (then Zaire) from 1993 to 2003. The so-called Mapping Report is an attempt to document alleged atrocities that occurred during the DRC's long civil war, of which DRC's neighbors played a lead role.
Over at Passport, David Kenner argues that the tree-shooting incident shows that UNIFIL is a failure. I fear, though, that Kenner undermines his argument with this concluding statement.
When he was in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq Ad Melkert stopped by the UN Foundation's Better World Campaign to discuss some of the challenges that his mission faces. Here's the video.
