Media Monitoring - OSESG-GL, 22 April 2015

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U.N. Helpless as Crises Rage in 10 Critical Hot Spots

Source: IPS News

21 April 2015 - The United Nations is fighting a losing battle against a rash of political and humanitarian crises in 10 of the world’s critical “hot spots.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says even the U.N.’s 193 member states cannot, by themselves, help resolve these widespread conflicts.

Not a single country, however powerful or resourceful as it may be, including the United States, can do it,” he warned last week.

The world’s current political hotspots include Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic – not forgetting West Africa which is battling the spread of the deadly disease Ebola.

Historically, the United Nations has grappled with one or two crises at any given time. But handling 10 such crises at one and the same time, said Ban, was rare and unprecedented in the 70-year history of the United Nations.

Although the international community looks to the world body to resolve these problems, “the United Nations cannot handle it alone. We need collective power and solidarity, otherwise, our world will get more and more troubles,” Ban said.

But that collective power is conspicuous by its absence.

Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America’s humanitarian policy manager, told IPS the situation is serious and Oxfam is very concerned. At the end of 2013, she said, violent conflict and human rights violations had displaced 51 million people, the highest number ever recorded.

In 2014, the U.N. appealed for assistance for 81 million people, including displaced persons and others affected by protracted situations of conflict and natural disaster.

Right now, the humanitarian system is responding to four emergencies – those the U.N. considers the most severe and large-scale – which are Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, and Syria.

These crises alone have left 20 million people vulnerable to malnutrition, illness, violence, and death, and in need of aid and protection, she added.

Then you have the crises in Yemen, where two out of three people need humanitarian assistance; West Africa, with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea asking for eight billion dollars to recover from Ebola; in Somalia, remittance flows that amount to 1.3 billion dollars annually, and are a lifeline to millions who are in need of humanitarian assistance, have been cut or driven underground due to banking restrictions; and then there is the migration and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, where almost 1,000 people have died trying to escape horrible situations in their home countries, Scribner said.

The United Nations says it needs about 16 billion dollars to meet humanitarian needs, including food, shelter and medicine, for over 55 million refugees worldwide.

But U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday virtually all of the U.N.’s emergency operations are “underfunded”.

Last month, a U.N. pledging conference on humanitarian aid to Syria, hosted by the government of Kuwait, raised over 3.8 billion dollars.

But the United Nations is appealing for more funds to reach its eventual target of 8.4 billion dollars for aid to Syria by the end of 2015.

“We need more support and more financial help,” said Dujarric. “But, most importantly, we need political solutions.”

But most conflicts have remained unresolved or stalemated primarily due to sharp divisions in the Security Council, the U.N.’s only political body armed with powers to resolve military conflicts.

Asked if the international community is doing enough, Scribner told IPS there is no silver bullet for dealing with these crises around the world because there are so many problems causing them: poverty, bad governance, proxy wars, geopolitical interests playing out; war economies being strengthened through the shipment of arms and weapons; ethnic tensions, etc.

The humanitarian system is not built for responding to the crises in the 21st century.

She said Oxfam is calling for three things: 1) More effective humanitarian response by providing funding early on and investing more in local leadership; 2) More emphasis on working towards political solutions and diplomatic action; and 3) Oxfam encourages the international community to use the sustainable development goals to lift more people out of poverty and address inequality that exists around the globe today.

Scribner said the combined wealth of the world’s richest 1 percent will overtake that of everyone else by next year given the current trend of rising inequality.

The conflicts in the world’s hot spots have also resulted in two adverse consequences: people caught in the crossfire are fleeing war-torn countries to safe havens in Europe while, at the same time, there is an increase in the number of killings of aid workers and U.N. staffers engaged in humanitarian work.

Over the weekend, hundreds of refugees and migrant workers from war-devastated Libya died in the high seas as a result of a ship wreck in the Mediterranean Sea. The estimated death toll is over 900.

On Monday, four staff members of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF were reportedly killed in an attack on a vehicle in which they were riding in Somalia, while four others were injured and remain in serious condition.

Ian Richards, president of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS: “We’re appalled at the loss of our colleagues in Garowe, Somalia and are very concerned for those injured. They truly were heroes doing great work in one of the world’s most dangerous locations.”

He said the United Nations has been clear that it will continue to operate in Somalia and “our work is needed there.”

“We support the work of our colleagues in these difficult circumstances,” he said.

At the same time, Richards told IPS, “We should not lose sight of a context in which U.N. staff and, in the case of local staff, their families, are increasingly targeted for their work.”

It is therefore important, he said, that the secretary-eneral and the General Assembly fully review the protection the U.N. provides to staff in locations where their lives are at risk, so that they may continue to provide much-needed assistance in such locations.

Oxfam’s Scribner told IPS attacks on aid workers have steadily risen over the years – from 90 violent attacks in 2001 to 308 incidents in 2011 – with the majority of attacks aimed at local aid workers. They often face more danger because they can get closer to the crisis to help others.

Because local aid workers are familiar with the landscape, speak the local language, and understand the local culture, and this also puts them more at risk, she said.

“That is why it is not a surprise that local aid workers make up nearly 80 percent of fatalities, on average, since 2001,” Scribner added.

Last year on World Humanitarian Day, the New York Times reported that the number of attacks on aid workers in 2013 set an annual record at 460, the most since the group began compiling its database, which goes back to 1997.

“These courageous men and women aren’t pulling out because they live in the very countries where they are trying to make a difference. And as such, they should be supported much more by the international community,” Scribner declared.

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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Ex-DR Congo rebels of M23 reject deportation option

Source: Xinhua

22 April 2015 - Members of the former Congolese rebel group M23 should not be sent back from Rwanda until the Kinshasa government honors the terms of a peace deal signed in 2013 for their repatriation, a former rebel leader Jean Marie Runiga said Tuesday.

Runiga said Kinshasa government violated the Nairobi protocol that granted amnesty to the rebels.

Hundreds of M23 rebels fled to Rwanda and Uganda late in 2013 following a UN-backed Congolese military operation in eastern Congo, which dislodged the rebels from once controlled vast territory.

The DR Congo government and the rebels inked a peace agreement in December 2013 under which the repatriation of all fighters was to be done by the end of 2014.

Runiga insisted Tuesday the Nairobi peace agreement has been violated by arresting, mistreating and jailing those who repatriated.

He also said the conditions are not right for their return with Rwandan FDLR rebels and other armed groups yet to be disarmed.

“FDLR is not being disarmed, our property and land was taken over by the FDLR,” Runiga said, stressing that the Rwandan rebels should be uprooted before they repatriate.

He was speaking to Rwanda government and Congolese officials who visited their camp in Ngoma district in eastern Rwanda.

The Congolese officials led by Leon Kalima have been in Rwanda to discuss the repatriation of the former fighters.

Parfait Gahamanyi, the director general in Rwanda’s foreign ministry said Rwanda will continue to facilitate the discussions.

It was announced that the Congolese deputy minister of defense Rene Nsibu is due in Rwanda on Wednesday for more discussions with the former rebels.

Appeal over murder of DR Congo rights activist Chebeya resumes

Source: AFP

21 April 2015 - A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday resumed an appeal hearing in the murder of leading human rights activist Floribert Chebeya after a break of almost two years.

The renowned founder of the association Voice of the Voiceless (VSV), Chebeya was found dead in his car on the outskirts of Kinshasa on June 2, 2010, a day after he was driven to police headquarters for an appointment with the chief of police, General John Numbi.

The trial opened at the high military court sitting in Kinshasa's Makala prison. It was attended by five of the initial eight defendants, all police officers.

"This is a continuation of the process to have the truth shine out," Jean-Joseph Mukendi, a lawyer for Chebeya's family, told AFP.

Numbi denied having had any meeting with the head of the non-governmental organisation, but he was suspended from duty over the affair, which rocked the highest circles of power.

A military court in 2011 convicted the deputy chief of police special services, Colonel Daniel Mukalay, of murder and sentenced him to death, together with three other officers. A fifth policeman was jailed for life, but three of the convicted men are on the run.

Chebeya's chauffeur, Fidele Bazana, also vanished and his body has never been found. During the first trial, the court concluded that Bazana had also been murdered.

The appeal sought by both the defence and the prosecution began in June 2012, but was suspended 11 months later. Civil parties in the case made a vain bid to the Supreme Court to ensure that any final verdict in the murder trial could not be overruled.

Mukulay was present for Tuesday's appeal, along with the police lieutenant who was jailed for life for being an accomplice to murder, and three officers released during the first court hearing.

That initial hearing followed an investigation considered botched by civil parties, rights groups and several Western governments.

Civil parties are seeking to have Numbi himself probed further and prosecuted. The former police chief only testified as a witness during the first trial.

In 2012, one of the men who was sentenced to death and fled to Senegal directly implicated Numbi in the murders of Chebeya and Bazana, but his evidence was disallowed in court.

VSV director Dolly Ibefo said the association was "very sceptical" that the truth about Chebeya's murder would ever come to light, athough President Joseph Kabila's regime gave him a national funeral.

RDC: vifs échanges à la reprise du procès en appel des meurtriers de Chebeya

Source: AFP/Libération

20 Avril 2015 - Le procès en appel des assassins présumés du défenseur des droits de l’Homme congolais Floribert Chebeya et de son chauffeur a repris mardi à Kinshasa, après près de deux ans d’interruption, alors que de nombreuses zones d’ombre subsistent sur cette affaire qui empoisonne jusqu’au sommet de l’État.

L’audience, qui a duré trois heures, a donné lieu à de vifs échanges entre les parties civiles et le parquet. Le ministère public a proposé que, «pour gagner du temps», la Cour juge uniquement les accusés présents en opérant «une disjonction des poursuites» entre eux et les accusés en fuite.

Cette option, appuyée par la défense, a été pourfendue par les parties civiles. Selon elles, cela fausserait le procès en ne permettant pas d’entendre le témoignage d’un des policiers en fuite, qui a mis en cause l’ancien chef de la police, le général John Numbi.

La Haute Cour a renvoyé l’audience au 30 avril et promis de faire savoir alors sa décision sur ce point.

Cinq des huit accusés étaient présents à l’audience devant la Haute Cour militaire congolaise, réunie dans l’enceinte de la prison de Makala, dans la capitale de la République démocratique du Congo : le colonel Daniel Mukalay, ex-numéro 2 des services spéciaux de la police, condamné à mort en première instance pour avoir orchestré l’élimination de Chebeya, un lieutenant de police condamné à la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité pour complicité d’assassinat, et trois policiers relaxés lors du premier procès.

Trois autres agents de la police, condamnés à mort en 2011, sont en fuite.

Fondateur de l’ONG La voix des sans-voix, Floribert Chebeya avait été retrouvé mort dans sa voiture en périphérie de Kinshasa le 2 juin 2010. La veille, il s’était rendu à l’inspection générale de la police pour y rencontrer le général Numbi. Son chauffeur, Fidèle Bazana, qui l’avait conduit à la police, est porté disparu depuis ce soir-là. La justice a conclu en premier instance qu’il avait lui aussi été assassiné.

L’enquête ayant précédé le jugement de la cour militaire de Kin