tasrit

What about the guys? This is cheap talk!

"West Africa scandal points to need for humanitarian watchdog By Asmita Naik The humanitarian world was rocked in 2002 by a UNHCR/Save the Children study which revealed a disturbing pattern of sexual exploitation of refugee children by aid workers and peacekeepers in West Africa. This article argues that the gaps in accountability revealed by the scandal point to the need for a humanitarian watchdog. In October 2001, a UNHCR/Save the Children assessment team visiting Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone unexpectedly came across allegations of abuse by humanitarian workers during the course of a broader sociological study on sexual violence and exploitation of refugee children. The study, begun with no intention of investigating aid workers, found these claims repeated in focus groups and interviews in all three countries, in camps hundreds of miles apart. The team confidentially noted allegations concerning 67 perpetrators, 42 agencies, 40 child victims, and 80 separate sources, plus additional cases involving unnamed peacekeepers. Young girls reported exchanging sex for desperately-needed humanitarian assistance – biscuits, soap, medicines – or meagre sums of money. The response of the humanitarian community The report prompted an international outcry and a frenzy of media attention when it hit the headlines in February 2002. A record 30 delegations took the floor at a subsequent UNHCR Executive Committee meeting; some called the situation an ‘indictment of UNHCR’s protection regime’. After the initial furore, a mixed response emerged. On the one hand, the humanitarian world rallied to address the issues raised by the report. Working groups were set up, including the Inter-agency Standing Committee Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises, chaired by UNICEF and OCHA. Meetings were held; missions conducted; and plans of action agreed. Reports from UNICEF/Caritas Makeni, Interaction, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and others affirmed the reality of the problem. Donor governments set up an informal working group under the UNHCR Executive Committee to monitor progress. Victims’ voices: testimonies of abuse from West Africa ‘I leave my child with my little sister, who is ten years old, and I dress good and I go where the NGO workers drink or live and one of them will ask me for sex, sometimes they give me things like food, oil, soap and I will sell them and get money’. Refugee child ‘When ma asked me to go to the stream to wash plates, a peacekeeper asked me to take my clothes off so that he can take a picture. When I asked him to give me money he told me, no money for children only biscuit’. Refugee child ‘They change girls so much and none of them marry the girls and if she becomes pregnant she is abandoned, with no support for herself and the child. Most of us used to just look at them and wonder. Our brothers, they have a problem’. Aid worker At the same time, there were also attempts to deny the validity of the claims of abuse. The UN discredited the report’s methodology and dismissed its findings. In a CNN interview in May 2002, Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stated that ‘we hardly find concrete evidence. It’s very scarce’, and doubted that the cases described in the report constituted exploitation at all: ‘(the) mother is only happy when it happens, because it is one person less to feed’; ‘mothers are just delighted when [their daughters] can find a husband’. The interviewer replied, ‘There’s no talk from the girls or UNHCR’s own report of anything even remotely approaching romance’. UNHCR staff were also dismayed; a memo to Lubbers from UNHCR’s staff association complained that his remarks ‘appeared to imply’ that ‘exploitation and abuse of power is culturally relative’, that ‘allegations of sexual exploitation are unfounded’ and that ‘the women and girls concerned are not to be believed’. In October 2002, the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) released a report which claimed that its follow-up investigation had found ‘no widespread abuse by aid workers’. This prompted criticisms that the UN was trying to play down the matter, and raised questions about the adequacy of its follow-up. Save the Children UK, a partner in the original study, responded that ‘Nothing that the UN has found makes us think that we were wrong’. The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) stated that the ‘objective of the UN inquiry was too limited’, and Human Rights Watch remarked that OIOS ‘was widely criticized as downplaying the problem’. An unnamed UN official working to combat the problem told a women’s magazine: ‘the UN is not taking the problem seriously enough … the response has been a shrug, as if sex with kids by peacekeepers was a perk of the trade. We’re fighting a culture of sexism that exists even at UN headquarters’. By this time, government outrage had all but dissipated and, despite serious concerns, few were willing to challenge the findings of the OIOS investigation. Australia, Canada and New Zealand were among the few countries prepared to pose searching questions; in a joint statement to the General Assembly in March 2003, these governments asked: ‘Was the investigative lens too narrow? Is there any way to know if the findings would have been different if they were less narrow? … Was the necessary gender and children’s rights expertise participating? What arrangements were made for the confidentiality and protection of potential complainants?’. Very few news outlets covered the UN’s findings, and those that did appeared to accept the official line. Outcomes 1. Very few perpetrators were disciplined The OIOS documented 43 new allegations, and deemed that ten of these met the high burden of proof required to take action. Little action has been taken even on these 10 cases. According to one UNHCR official: ‘It has been very difficult to obtain the dismissal of the ten aid workers involved in sexual exploitation or crimes from their respective employers in West Africa … The experience in West Africa and elsewhere suggests that several refugee aid organizations are still very reluctant to discipline their staff and tend to downplay the seriousness of some acts of misconduct. These remarks also apply to UNHCR’. OIOS reported action on two cases: a UN worker had his contract terminated, and a UN peacekeeper was sent home (it is unknown if he was disciplined or charged). Save the Children took action against three workers. The victims of more than 67 alleged perpetrators were left without any redress, as the OIOS claimed that it could not substantiate any of the allegations in the original assessment. 2. No perpetrators were criminally prosecuted 3. It is unknown whether victims and witnesses were adequately protected or compensated 4. No senior managers were held accountable for failing to respond to earlier reports Sexual exploitation by aid workers had been brought to the attention of senior UNHCR managers in several reports, dating back to 1997. 5. No senior managers were held accountable for their handling of the allegations submitted by the assessment team There is no indication that senior managers were held accountable for the way the allegations were dealt with, for instance as regards the quality of decision-making and levels of efficiency or commitment, or made answerable for diminishing the claims of abuse. 6. Some preventive measures are in place There have been some new initiatives, for instance coordination measures, training and information campaigns, and sexual and gender-based violence programming. Some agencies adopted codes of conduct, though it is unclear whether these are legally binding or stringent enough, or whether they will actually be implemented. Several agencies still do not have codes, and rules for refugee workers have not been established in many camps. Some aid agencies continue to believe that the private lives of their employees are their own business; according to a UNHCR official, the ‘principal gap’ remains the lack of ‘effective complaints mechanisms’. 7. There have been some improvements in beneficiary protection The scandal had wider implications beyond sexual exploitation, and beyond West Africa. New scandals in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nepal resulted in swifter disciplinary action against perpetrators and managers, though some controversy surrounds these cases too. An investigations unit has been established at UNHCR covering all forms of staff misconduct. The number of complaints has increased, indicating a greater awareness of issues of professional integrity. Insiders report an energetic pursuit of cases by the investigations unit, as well as a new and welcome transparency in the approach of some managers. These encouraging changes should not be reasons for complacency, nor should they be assumed to represent deep institutional change. As one UNHCR official noted, ‘The limited progress achieved in some countries should not conceal the considerable challenges ahead’; significant gaps remain between rhetoric and reality; ‘between awareness at headquarters and in the field; and between the achievements that agencies report, and what has really been achieved for beneficiaries and victims.’ An independent humanitarian watchdog Existing mechanisms clearly did not ensure accountability to the victims of this scandal. The efforts made at the policy level did not translate into satisfactory outcomes for victims on the ground. Much focus was placed on discussing important preventive and remedial measures, but not enough was done to challenge attempts to deny the claims of abuse. Statements undermining the victims sent the wrong political message and must inevitably be partly to blame for the poor outcome. The failure of governments and human rights and humanitarian organisations to check these denials did a disservice to the victims, and in the end undermined these organisations’ own positive work. Humanitarian actors did not do more because it was not in their interest to do so – other political or institutional interests took precedence over defending the interests of the victims. Some stakeholders in host countries may have lacked the power and capacity to call international bodies to account. Other stakeholders in donor countries (parliaments, pressure groups, regulatory bodies) may have lacked interest, or lacked the information they needed to act. A lacuna in humanitarian accountability emerges when one compares similar cases in developed countries. Victims in such situations have greater recourse in the law. By contrast, the weakened legal systems in war-torn countries mean de facto immunity from criminal and negligence liability, both for individuals and for employers. The UN and its staff have the added protection of diplomatic immunity. Western aid agencies are obviously less accountable when working in developing countries than would be the case for programmes at home, where the media, parliament, advocacy groups and the law provide greater scrutiny. Accountability is an issue in all operations. The absence of a global independent structure to take up complaints means that they emerge in an ad hoc, tortuous way, usually resulting in little redress for the victims and harsh retribution for the complainants. In November 2002, an employment tribunal found that a whistleblower in a trafficking scandal implicating international personnel in Bosnia suffered ‘extraordinarily callous, spiteful and vindictive’ treatment at the hands of her employer, Dyncorp. In another case, complainants who disseminated information about the infiltration by paedophiles of the Ethiopian programme of Swiss children’s charity Terre des Hommes (TdH) face a defamation suit brought by the charity in the Ethiopian courts. Since the shortcomings of humanitarian action in Rwanda in the mid-1990s, the humanitarian community has recognised the need for a more systematic approach. Measures such as the Sphere project, People in Aid, ALNAP and HAP address important elements of accountability, namely the provision of technical support, standards, training, and regulation. However, earlier discussions concerning the establishment of a humanitarian ombudsman mechanism have not come to fruition. There is a need for an independent humanitarian watchdog. Such a body could monitor developments; carry out its own investigations on the ground; lobby governments, parliaments, agencies and the media; and generally be a voice for the beneficiaries of aid, and the taxpayers that fund it. The absence of a transparent and public account of what actually happened in the West African camps, and the lack of independent verification of changes on the ground, mean that a full and objective overview is not available. Progress towards setting up complaints mechanisms is slow. Inevitably, even when these are established there will be question-marks over the independence of bodies set up by aid agencies themselves. A humanitarian watchdog would bring the sector into line with other areas of public life which already have government and corporate monitors. The dust may have settled on the West Africa scandal, but it has left a disquieting aftertaste that justice was not done. Few governments or organisations spoke as stridently as the victims themselves would have done had they been given a platform to do so. The need remains for a truly independent body to hold all humanitarian actors to account."

Madonna mixes messages with show By Peter Bowes BBC correspondent in Los Angeles Madonna has launched her world tour in Los Angeles with a politically-charged and highly energetic show. A capacity crowd turned out to see the pop icon take to the stage at The Forum in the LA suburb of Inglewood. Looking more toned than ever, the 45-year old performer belted out a string of her greatest hits including Into the Groove, Holiday, Vogue and Material Girl. Like A Prayer was a given a gospel treatment while Papa Don't Preach was reinvented with a Scottish lilt - complete with bagpipes and Madonna decked out in a swirling plaid kilt. "It was fun, I loved it, it was awesome," said Oro Cro, a Madonna fan who travelled to LA from Mexico for the concert. "I love Madonna, anywhere she goes, I'll go." "She's in great shape, it was a great concert," added Kira Carstensen, from Los Angeles. Re-invention Madonna has toned down her sexually provocative performances of previous tours. There were no conical bra outfits or overt expressions of sexuality. In fact, much to the disappointment of many fans she did not perform one of the best-known songs, Like a Virgin. Madonna has attempted to reinvent herself into a sober, thoughtful singer who takes time out during the frantic performance to strum a guitar and act all grown up. "We are so disappointed - what happened to the cool energetic Madonna?' asked Meda Namdar, a fan from Orange County in California. "I mean come on dude, get out there, start dancing," she urged Madonna. Politically, the concert hit a number of raw nerves with the audience. Madonna's use of video images of war - bombs being dropped and injured children - distracted the eye from the singer's own performance. The powerful footage dominated long sections of the show - including during Madonna's cover of John Lennon's Imagine. When Lennon's photo was flashed on the screen, the audience erupted. At times the political imagery prompted the audience to the raise the roof, but afterwards many expressed doubts and disappointment about the anti-war message. "Nobody cares about her political views," said Ms Namdar. "Who is Madonna to be offering her political views - she's just an entertainer. It's like the Pope starting a rock band." 'Not the arena' Other audience members said they felt the political theme was inappropriate for the times. "There are political leaders that make political decisions and there are entertainers that should entertain," said Vahid Berdjis, a physician originally from Iran who now works and lives in LA. "I can understand that both can be intermixed and intertwined but this is not the arena," he explained. "Especially in the state of emergency that this world is in where for just for one time we wanted to get out and have a good time and clear our minds." "She's going into a different era with her music - she's trying to become very political and she's trying to appeal to the gentle side of people," suggested another fan - James McKowen from Liverpool, now living in LA. Others took the evening less seriously. In the car park after the event, one fan was boasting that he had managed to catch a sweaty T-shirt discarded into the crowd by Madonna. "We'll be on eBay tomorrow, look for us,' he screamed at fellow fans. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/music/3745329.stm Published: 2004/05/25 11:17:23 GMT © BBC MMIV

Shock over 'French Taleban' case By Roger Hardy BBC Middle-East analyst A Paris court has sentenced a French convert to Islam to four years in jail for his association with a militant Islamic network. Prosecutors had alleged that David Courtailler was linked to a group of Moroccans suspected of involvement in the Madrid bombings which killed 191 people in March. Just as Americans were shocked by the case of John Walker Lindh - the young American who joined the Taleban - and Britons by that of "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, many in France find it hard it believe that the son of a butcher in Bonneville, a sleepy town in the French Alps could get drawn into the shadowy world of militant Islam. To his lawyer, Courtailler is a naive young man who stumbled into a nest of extremists but never became one himself. But to those who track the networks of al-Qaeda and its allies in Europe and North Africa, his story is an example of how cleverly these groups recruit young Muslims - including converts - whose backgrounds, passports and language skills are potentially of great use to them. Murky Courtailler's odyssey begins, incongruously, in the British seaside resort of Brighton, where in 1997 he became a Muslim while trying to kick a drug habit. It moves to Afghanistan, where he underwent military training, and then shifts to Spain and Morocco. There he seems to have befriended a group of Moroccans who are thought to be implicated in the Casablanca bombings last year - and the more recent bombings in Madrid. His brother Jerome - also a convert to Islam - was arrested in Rotterdam just two days after the 11 September attacks in America, but subsequently acquitted of involvement in a plot to blow up the US embassy in Paris. As with other such cases, there is much that remains unexplained about the tale of the two brothers from Bonneville. But what worries politicians and security services throughout Western Europe - especially in the wake of the Madrid bombings - is the thought that, for the last decade, militant Muslim groups have built up networks which criss-cross the continent and are proving hard to unravel. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/3747861.stm Published: 2004/05/25 18:53:33 GMT © BBC MMIV

Caribbean storm death toll rises Rescue teams are searching for hundreds of people reported missing in parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti hit by torrential rains. At least 250 people have been killed in floods, officials say. Heavy rains have been falling for more than two weeks and more storms are expected. The border areas of the two states on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola are among the worst affected. US and Canadian peacekeepers posted in Haiti joined the relief effort. They have been using helicopters to carry supplies to the worst-hit regions, a spokesman for the US-led 3,600-strong force said. They found my daughter - now I have to see if I have any family left Flood victim Many roads remain impassable after weeks of rain. At least 110 people have been found dead in the western Dominican town of Jimani, where two rivers overflowed their banks. One resident was reported to have been swept along by the raging torrent, only surviving by catching on to the branch of a tree. Many missing Frantic relatives have been digging through mud for loved ones, as a makeshift morgue at the town hospital filled with dozens of corpses. "They found my daughter," a distraught woman standing outside the morgue told AP news agency. "Now I have to see if I have any family left." More than 200 people in the Jimani region are missing and thousands have been made homeless. Cut off Air force and army teams have been searching for survivors. The government has sent emergency teams, including hundreds of extra troops, from the capital, Santo Domingo. "We are co-ordinating urgent measures to rescue survivors and evacuate people who are in danger," said National Emergency Commission (NEC) chief Radhames Lora Salcedo. In Haiti, at least 140 people have been reported killed, according to local radio stations. The dead were mostly from towns in the south-east of the country, near the Dominican border and Jimani. It is feared that dozens still lie buried under the mud and wreckage. Damage to both countries' crops and infrastructure is being estimated at many millions of dollars. In the neighbouring US territory of Puerto Rico, at least one man was missing and some 100 people had to flee their houses because of flooding. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3746619.stm Published: 2004/05/25 21:35:11 GMT © BBC MMIV

'Breakthrough' at Sudan talks Delegates at talks to end Sudan's 21-year civil war are said to have resolved key remaining thorny issues holding up a final peace deal. The government and southern rebels have agreed on the status of three disputed areas - including oil-rich Abyei - and on how to share power, officials say. Three protocols are due to be signed on Wednesday in Kenya, paving the way for a permanent end to hostilities. The talks do not cover the conflict in the western region of Darfur. The two-decade old war pitting the Muslim-led government against Christian and animist rebels from the south has cost more than two million lives. Until now the talks have stalled on how power would be shared in a transitional administration, on whether the capital, Khartoum, is governed under Islamic law and how Abyei, the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile regions will be administered. Deal "The protocols represent a major step towards the achievement of a final comprehensive settlement to the conflict," said a statement from Kenya's foreign ministry. THREE PROTOCOLS Power-sharing, Sharia in Khartoum Status of Abyei Status of Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile The two sides have already established that the south should be autonomous for six years, culminating in a referendum on the key issue of independence, with Sharia remaining in the north. Protocols have also been signed on how to share out oil revenues, the establishment of separate monetary systems in the north and south and security arrangements involving the two armies. It is hoped that a final peace treaty between the government and the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) could be signed as early as next month. The United States has been pushing for both parties to finalise the deal after 22 months of negotiations. From Ethiopia, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Reuters news agency he understood an agreement had been reached. "Tomorrow will be the final day and they will sign the final agreement on the three outstanding issues... which opens the door for the preparation of the final text of the agreement," he said. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3746077.stm Published: 2004/05/25 12:05:59 GMT © BBC MMIV

......and that is.....

which civilized world?

Oh..I thought they just want to help these Iraqi's

Maybe he was in shock. Maybe that's the reason why he looked "relax"

Why get people shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake? Racism and discrimination exist, so why is Cosby playing that down?

Iran isn't an arab country

This article is very simple: using populist words like dangerous, anti-American radicals, traitors, doing more damage to this country than the Sept. 11 suicide attackers did, enemy. Is that all that he can say? You can't take an article like this serious: it's a lot blabla, but in reality he's saying nothing.

Maybe it's the truth. It's sad that you (and your "friends") glorify the acts of Hitler.

I love the Klitschko brothers!

go play with your little willie

You wrote this on another topic: "Originally Posted by dnice35 Hiler should have gone after those filthy muslims instead of the jews, at least jews are productive members of society, what have those filthy muslims ever done besides kill in the name of "allah"." you're right, your not a racist, but a nazi

how noble

Is that all you can say? please..grow up!

You really think that, truromeo? It's not realistic what you're saying. I hope not that this is the general view the soldiers over there have. Because with those kind of thoughts people can do strange things. It's normal that people are defending their country. I don't understand why people like you are denying it by saying they are terrorist. If the US soldiers think they're fighting for a good cause, that's fine, but they also must understand that there will be Iraqi's who are also thinking fighting for a good cause. Instead of labeling them as terrorist, it's better to understand why they're fighting and doing something with that knowledge. "defending their murder"?--> In a war people die! It's just a shame, so many young people who are dying right now.

Can Bush wait with his invasion, I want to go on a holiday to Cuba

You can't mark people who are defending their country as terrorist.

really?

It's well-known that the majority of the Iraqi people don't support Al-Sadr. The problem is that the US-army obvious doesn't know this and that they use violence against the Iraqi's that is out of all proportion: the Iraqi's have to choose between to evils now. I don't know what's going on, but at this moment I find the Army Council of the US pretty stupid

You're really pathetic.