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Tag: Peacekeeping forces

  • UN urges revival of negotiations on disputed Western Sahara

    UN urges revival of negotiations on disputed Western Sahara

    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council called for a revival of U.N-led negotiations on the disputed Western Sahara in a resolution adopted Thursday that expressed “deep concern” at the breakdown of the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front whose decades-old dispute shows no sign of ending.

    The vote was 13-0 with Russia and Kenya abstaining.

    Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony believed to have considerable offshore oil deposits and mineral resources, in 1975, sparking a conflict with the Polisario Front. The United Nations brokered the 1991 cease-fire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future that has never taken place because of disagreements on who is eligible to vote.

    Morocco has proposed wide-ranging autonomy for Western Sahara. But the Polisario Front insists the local population, which it estimates at 350,000 to 500,000, has the right to a referendum.

    The U.S.-drafted resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission charged with carrying out the referendum, known as MINURSO, until Oct. 31, 2023.

    The resolution calls on the parties to resume U.N.-led negotiations without preconditions, “taking into account the efforts made since 2006 and subsequent developments with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”

    It says this should be done “in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and noting the role and the responsibilities of the parties in this respect.”

    Kenya’s U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani said his government voted for the resolution last year in hopes that the U.N. mission would return “to its core objective of implementing a referendum for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

    But he said progress has been limited and the resolution adopted Thursday “continues a gradual but noticeable shift away from the mandate and will not assist the parties to achieve a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution as originally intended.”

    U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis welcomed the council’s support, saying the Biden administration continues “to view Morocco’s autonomy plan as serious, credible, and realistic.”

    He called a political solution “vital to promoting a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Western Sahara and the region.”

    But the Polisario Front ended the cease-fire in November 2020 and resumed its armed struggle following a border confrontation with Morocco which continues today, and in comments after the vote the two sides remained at odds about the future.

    The resolution calls on the parties to “to demonstrate political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to advance negotiations.” It expresses “strong support” for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, and “strongly encourages” Morocco, the Polisario Front and neighboring countries Algeria and Mauritania to engage with him.

    Two round-table meetings of the four parties in December 2018 and March 2019 failed to make any headway on the key issue of how to provide for self-determination.

    But Morocco’s U.N. Ambassador Omar Hilale said after Thursday’s vote that they were “very fruitful and positive and substantial” because “we had very deep discussion on autonomy, on the guarantees, on the need for Polisario to design and to accept autonomy, and also on the elections.”

    He expressed hope that de Mistura “will succeed in calling for another round-table,” lamenting that a year has been lost because Algeria, which backs the Polisario, has said it will not attend.

    “Let’s hope that the wisdom will prevail in Algeria, and we can come back to the round-table because there will be no solution without discussion all together and having compromise” on Morocco’s autonomy proposal, Hilale said.

    He claimed that the resolution adopted Thursday “irreversibly consecrates, like the resolutions of the council since 2007, the pre-eminence, credibility and seriousness of the Moroccan autonomy initiative as the sole and only solution to this regional dispute.”

    The Polisario Front’s U.N. representative, Sidi Omar, strongly disagreed.

    He said the Security Council resolution refers to the referendum but again fails to empower MINURSO with “practical and concrete measures” to implement its mandate and carry out a referendum.

    The Saharwi people “will continue using all legitimate means, including the armed struggle, to defend our inalienable and individual rights to self-determination, independence, and to restore the sovereignty over the entire territory of the Saharwi, our democratic republic,” Omar said.

    He said the Polisario Front will only participate in direct negotiations with Morocco under the auspices of the U.N. and the African Union to enable the Saharwi people to exercise their free and democratic right to self-determination.

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  • Thousands protest in Haiti as UN to discuss troop request

    Thousands protest in Haiti as UN to discuss troop request

    UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Mexico said Monday they are preparing a U.N. resolution that would authorize “an international assistance mission” to help improve security in crisis-wracked Haiti so desperately needed humanitarian aid can be delivered to millions in need.

    U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council as thousands across Haiti organized protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The demonstrations came on the day the country commemorated the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a slave who became the leader of the world’s first Black republic.

    The U.S. ambassador said the proposed “non-U.N.” mission would be limited in time and scope and be led by “a partner country” that was not named “with the deep, necessary experience required for such an effort to be effective.” It would have a mandate to use military force if necessary.

    She said the resolution being worked is a “direct response” to a request on Oct. 7 by prime minister Henry and the Haitian Council of Ministers for international assistance to help restore security and alleviate the humanitarian crisis. It reflects one option in a letter from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the council on Oct. 9 that called for deployment of a rapid action force by one or several U.N. member states to help Haiti’s National Police.

    Haiti has been gripped by inflation, causing rising food and fuel prices, and exacerbating protests that have brought society to the breaking point. Daily life in Haiti began to spin out of control last month just hours after the prime minister said fuel subsidies would be eliminated, causing prices to double. Gangs blocked the entrance to the Varreux fuel terminal, leading to a severe shortage of fuel at a time that rising prices have put food and fuel out of reach of many Haitians, clean water is scarce, and the country is trying to deal with a cholera outbreak.

    Political instability in Latin America’s poorest country has simmered ever since last year’s still-unsolved assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse, who had faced opposition protests calling for his resignation over corruption charges and claims that his five-year term had ended. Moïse had dissolved the majority of Parliament in January 2020 after failing to hold legislative elections in 2019 amid political gridlock.

    Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution authorizing the security mission is coupled with a resolution obtained by The Associated Press last week that would impose an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on influential Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbeque.” It also would target other Haitian individuals and groups who engage in actions that threaten the peace, security or stability of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, according to the text obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

    The U.S. ambassador stressed that the United States is “keenly aware of the history of international intervention in Haiti, and specifically of concerns about the council authorizing a response that could lead to an open-ended peacekeeping role.”

    The Security Council and the international community must seek “a different course” to respond to the security and dire humanitarian crises in Haiti, which require “targeted international assistance” that must be coupled with “support for political dialogue and backed by sustained international pressure on the actors supporting gang activity.”

    Reflecting opposition to foreign interference in Haiti, Marco Duvivier, a 35-year-old auto parts store manager, who joined Monday’s protest in Port-au-Prince said: “The U.S. needs Haiti to make its own decisions and not interfere in Haiti’s business.”

    “Life is not going to get better with an international force,” he said.

    Since the gang led by “Barbeque” surrounded the fuel terminal, the distribution of more than 10 million gallons of gasoline and fuel and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene stored on site have been blocked.

    Gas stations remain shuttered, hospitals have slashed services and businesses including banks and grocery stores have cut their hours as everyone across the country runs out of fuel.

    The situation has worsened a recent cholera outbreak, with hundreds hospitalized and dozens dead amid a scarcity of potable water and other basic supplies.

    Haiti’s last cholera outbreak was a result of U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal introducing the bacteria into the country’s largest river by sewage. Nearly 10,000 people died and more than 850,000 were sickened.

    “We don’t need a foreign force. It’s not going to solve anything,” Jean Venel said.

    Helen La Lime, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, told the Security Council in a video briefing from the capital Port-au-Prince that “a humanitarian emergency is now at our doorstep” with disruptions to hospital operations and water supplies impacting the response to the cholera outbreak.

    She said appeal by diplomats, the U.N. and others to establish a humanitarian corridor have gone unheeded, and insecurity is rife, with nearly a thousand kidnappings reported in 2022 and millions of children prevented from attending school.

    Over the weekend, the U.S. and Canada flew equipment including armored vehicles that the Haitian government had bought for its police officers to help strengthen a department that has long been understaffed and under-resourced. It has struggled to fight gangs blamed for some 1,000 kidnappings so far this year and the killings of dozens of men, women and children as they fight over territory and become more powerful after the July 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moïse.

    ———

    Lederer reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.

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  • Today in History: October 13, Chilean miners rescued

    Today in History: October 13, Chilean miners rescued

    Today in History

    Today is Thursday, Oct. 13, the 286th day of 2022. There are 79 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Oct. 13, 2010, rescuers in Chile using a missile-like escape capsule pulled 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed mine a half-mile underground.

    On this date:

    In 1775, the United States Navy had its origins as the Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.

    In 1792, the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid by President George Washington during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

    In 1932, President Herbert Hoover and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington.

    In 1943, Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis partner.

    In 1960, the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees in Game 7, 10-9, with a home run hit by Bill Mazeroski.

    In 1972, a Uruguayan chartered flight carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes; survivors resorted to feeding off the remains of some of the dead in order to stay alive until they were rescued more than two months later.

    In 1974, longtime television host Ed Sullivan died in New York City at age 73.

    In 1999, in Boulder, Colorado, the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months of work with prosecutors saying there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old beauty queen’s slaying.

    In 2003, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution expanding the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

    In 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after meeting with human-rights activists in Moscow, told reporters the Russian government under Vladimir Putin had amassed so much central authority that the power-grab could undermine its commitment to democracy.

    In 2011, Raj Rajaratnam (rahj rah-juh-RUHT’-nuhm), the hedge fund billionaire at the center of one of the biggest insider-trading cases in U.S. history, was sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 11 years behind bars.

    In 2016, Bob Dylan was named winner of the Nobel prize in literature.

    Ten years ago: Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan rallied college students in all corners of all-important Ohio and hammered at President Barack Obama for going easy on China over unfair trade practices; Obama took precious time off the campaign trail to practice for the next debate against his GOP rival. Actor and TV host Gary Collins, 74, died in Biloxi, Mississippi.

    Five years ago: President Donald Trump accused Iran of violating the 2015 nuclear accord, but did not pull the U.S. out of the deal or re-impose nuclear sanctions. (Trump would pull the U.S. out of the deal the following May and restore harsh sanctions.) Attorneys general in nearly 20 states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the decision to end a federal subsidy under the Affordable Care Act that lowered out-of-pocket medical costs for consumers with modest incomes.

    One year ago: U.S. officials said they would reopen land borders to nonessential travel starting in November, ending a 19-month freeze. The government reported that another jump in consumer prices in September sent inflation up 5.4% from where it was a year earlier, as tangled global supply lines continue to create havoc. At the age of 90, actor William Shatner – best known as Captain Kirk on “Star Trek” – rode into space and back aboard a ship built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company, becoming the oldest person to travel in space.

    Today’s Birthdays: Gospel singer Shirley Caesar is 85. Actor Melinda Dillon is 83. Singer-musician Paul Simon is 81. Musician Robert Lamm (Chicago) is 78. Country singer Lacy J. Dalton is 76. Actor Demond Wilson is 76. Singer-musician Sammy Hagar is 75. Pop singer John Ford Coley is 74. Actor John Lone is 70. Model Beverly Johnson is 70. Producer-writer Chris Carter is 66. Actor and former NBA star Reggie Theus (THEE’-us) is 65. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is 64. R&B singer Cherrelle is 63. Singer/TV personality Marie Osmond is 63. Rock singer Joey Belladonna is 62. NBA coach Doc Rivers is 61. Actor T’Keyah Crystal Keymah (tuh-KEE’-ah KRYS’-tal kee-MAH’) is 60. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice is 60. Actor Christopher Judge is 58. Actor Matt Walsh is 58. Actor Reginald Ballard is 57. Actor Kate Walsh is 55. R&B musician Jeff Allen (Mint Condition) is 54. Actor Tisha Campbell-Martin is 54. Olympic silver medal figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is 53. Country singer Rhett Akins is 53. Classical crossover singer Paul Potts is 52. TV personality Billy Bush is 51. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen is 51. R&B singers Brandon and Brian Casey (Jagged Edge) are 47. Actor Kiele Sanchez is 46. Former NBA All-Star Paul Pierce is 45. DJ Vice is 44. Singer Ashanti (ah-SHAHN’-tee) is 42. R&B singer Lumidee is 42. Christian rock singer Jon Micah Sumrall (Kutless) is 42. Olympic gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe is 40. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is 33. Actor Caleb McLaughlin (TV: “Stranger Things”) is 21.

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  • EXPLAINER: Haiti’s troubled history of foreign interventions

    EXPLAINER: Haiti’s troubled history of foreign interventions

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 members of his cabinet have requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops in response to gangs and protesters who have paralyzed the country.

    Fuel, water and other basic supplies have dwindled nearly a month after one of Haiti‘s most powerful gangs blocked access to a main fuel terminal in Port-au-Prince where more than 10 million gallons of gasoline and diesel are stored, along with more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene. In addition, demonstrators have blocked roads in the capital and other main cities to demand Henry’s resignation and protest rising fuel prices after the prime minister announced in early September that his administration could no longer afford to subsidize fuel.

    Gas stations and schools remain shuttered. Banks and grocery stores are operating on a limited schedule.

    The United Nations secretary-general has offered the Security Council various options, including the immediate deployment of a rapid action force.

    Opponents claim Henry hopes to use foreign troops to keep himself in power – a leadership he assumed last year after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and that many consider illegitimate because he was never elected nor formally confirmed in the post by the legislature. He has failed to set a date for elections, which have not been held since November 2016, but has pledged to do so once the violence is quelled.

    Here is a look at previous foreign military interventions in Haiti and the impact they’ve had on the country of more than 11 million people:

    HOW MANY FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTIONS HAVE THERE BEEN IN HAITI?

    Since the early 1900s, there have been at least three major foreign military interventions in Haiti led by the United States and the United Nations.

    The U.S. first occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

    Nearly 60 years later, the U.N. launched a peacekeeping mission in 1993, followed by the arrival of U.S. troops in 1994. Another intervention occurred in 2004. The first of those was to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. The second followed a rebellion that removed him again.

    WHAT LED TO THE INTERVENTIONS?

    The interventions came at moments of great political instability.

    Seven Haitian presidents were ousted or killed from 1911 to 1915, prompting U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to send U.S marines to Haiti in 1914. The U.S. removed half a million dollars from the Haitian National Bank for alleged safekeeping in New York. A formal U.S. occupation began in July 1915 and lasted until August 1934.

    In September 1994, the U.S. sent more than 20,000 troops and two aircraft carriers to Haiti as part of an operation dubbed “Restore Democracy” under President Bill Clinton. The aim was to restore to power Aristide, who had been ousted in a 1991 military coup. Aristide had become Haiti’s first democratically elected president the year before. A smaller contingent of U.S. troops remained in Haiti until early 2000, often under U.N. auspices.

    A parallel United Nations peacekeeping effort was launched in September 1993 and ran until 2000.

    Aristide was overthrown again in February 2004 in a rebellion originally launched by a street gang. The U.S., which had pushed him to resign, flew Aristide out of the country and sent troops — as did Canada, France and Chile. They were soon replaced by troops of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which stayed until 2017.

    WHAT IMPACT HAVE FOREIGN INTERVENTIONS HAD ON HAITI?

    Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said that overall, “The occupations didn’t really improve anything in Haiti.”

    He said the 1915-1934 occupation created a unified Haitian military, which was the country’s dominant force until the dictatorial regime of François Duvalier and later his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, from 1957 to 1986.

    The occupation also established a type of unpaid forced labor known as “corvée” in which U.S. officials used Haitian peasants to build roads, railroads and other infrastructure.

    “The occupation was very coercive,” Fatton said. “It was also very centralizing and … very racist.”

    He said the second intervention in 1994 was more popular because it helped restore the charismatic Aristide, a former priest who once served poor communities.

    The invasion led to the creation of Haiti’s National Police, which effectively replaced the Haitian Army that was disbanded in 1995, though many police officers were former soldiers.

    However, there were two failed couple attempts during that occupation and deepening political chaos.

    The U.N.’s 2004-2017 peacekeeping mission was marred by allegations of sexual assault by its troops and staffers and the fact that peacekeepers from Nepal were blamed for introducing cholera into Haiti’s largest river in October 2010 by sewage runoff from their base. The U.N. has since acknowledged it played a role in the epidemic and that it had not done enough to help fight it, but it has not specifically acknowledged it introduced the disease.

    Fatton said that while the U.N. mission “established a modicum of order,” in Haiti, it was a “very repressive organization.”

    “To destroy gangs, they used forceful means. That left a very bad taste with poor Haitians,” he said, noting that they live side-by-side with gangs in slums. “Whether you’re with the gangs or not, you suffered the consequences.”

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  • UN says it’s ready to work with Congo on peacekeeper pullout

    UN says it’s ready to work with Congo on peacekeeper pullout

    UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, which was the target of deadly protests during the summer, said the United Nations is “ready and willing” to work closely with the government to step up the pace of withdrawal of the U.N. force that has over 14,000 troops and police.

    Bintou Keita told the Security Council on Friday that in the wake of the resurgence of the M23 rebel group in recent months, the “crisis of confidence” that had already affected the U.N. mission and the people in eastern Congo had worsened. This provided “fertile ground” for stigmatization of the force and the sowing of disinformation about the mission, known as MONUSCO.

    “That has led to new violent protests and serious incidents claiming the lives of some dozens of protesters and of four mission personnel,” she said.

    Congo’s mineral-rich east is home to myriad rebel groups. Security has worsened there despite a year of emergency operations by the armies of Congo and Uganda. Civilians in the east have faced violence from jihadi rebels linked to the Islamic State group. Fighting has also escalated between Congolese troops and the M23 rebels, forcing nearly 200,000 people to flee their homes.

    MONUSCO’s mission is to protect civilians, deter armed groups, and build the capacity of state institutions and services. But protesters said armed groups were still roaming the east and the U.N. force wasn’t protecting them. The peacekeepers were also accused of retaliating against the protesters, sometimes with force.

    Keita reiterated her “deepest condolences” to families of the victims and deep regret at the violence. Congo’s government said in early August that at least 36 people were killed and more than 170 others injured in the protests.

    She condemned “in the strongest terms incitement to hatred, hostility and violence” and welcomed a statement by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi at last week’s annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly “against tribalism and hate speech.” She also welcomed efforts by Congolese authorities, civil society, and influential community figures “that have called for calm and restraint in an incredibly difficult security context.”

    Keita, who is also the U.N. special envoy, said the United Nations is supporting government efforts to thwart “inter-communal tensions” in eastern Congo, and she encouraged the government to adopt a draft law in parliament against tribalism, racism and xenophobia.

    After the anti-U.N. protests, Tshisekedi called a meeting to reassess MONUSCO’s presence. Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula later mentioned 2024 as the goal for withdrawal of the force. It took over from an earlier peacekeeping operation in 2010.

    Noting the president’s instruction to the government “to reevaluate the transition plan, in order to step up the pace of Moscow’s withdrawal,” Keita said, “We are ready and willing to work closely with the government to this end.”

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