Can the World Depend on South Africa to be an Honest Broker at COP 17? (PERSPECTIVE)

By Michelle Pressend

When South Africa hosts the United Nations Climate Change meeting, COP 17 (17th  Conference of the Parties), it will be make or break for the Kyoto Protocol.

COP 17 is important because the first commitment period that legally bound developed countries to cut their emissions under the Kyoto Protocol comes to an end on 31 December 2012. If the meeting in South Africa does not agree to a second commitment period, COP 17 could be labelled, “the COP that killed the Kyoto Protocol.”

When the Kyoto Protocol was established in 1997 and came into effect on 16 February 2005, theoretically it strengthened the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)  by committing developed countries (Annex 1 Parties) to legally-binding targets to limit or reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases.

Annex 1 countries include the 37 most industrialized nations and the European Community. These countries were to reduce their combined emissions of the six major greenhouse gases over the five year period 2008 - 2012 to below 1990 levels. The European Union and Japan, for example, had to reduce their combined emissions by 8% and 6% of 1990 emission levels, respectively. 

However, these countries have not lived up to their commitments.

In fact, greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere have increased since the establishment of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol. In addition, developed countries that are largely responsible for historical emissions, have contributed very little, financially, to those countries that will be severely affected by climate change.

According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre, since 1751 roughly 315 billion metric tons of carbon has been released into the atmosphere - largely from the burning of fossil fuels - and half of these emissions have occurred since the mid-1970s. 

Clearly ‘burden sharing’ to address climate change is a responsibility that should lie mainly with the global North. But this article is not about a North versus South debate because the power and greed of the capitalist system has no face. Southern elites are just as exploitative as Northern elites as they continue to plunder Earth’s resources for profit.

This article is about questioning whether governments of the world have the will to shift the paradigm and foster a dramatic change in the system to keep Earth’s temperature below 1.5 degrees celsius.

For this to happen, the peoples of the world and nature cannot predominately depend on market mechanisms and the “goodwill” of governments and corporations to make voluntary commitments to reduce their emissions at the national level. It requires a global agreement that will fundamentally shift current unsustainable production and consumption patterns. We also need a set of parameters where those who are historically responsible for climate change pay their dues and support a transition to a low carbon society.

Therefore, solutions to climate change must take into account broader systemic changes to achieve the well-being of everyone in a socially and ecologically just global society. The principles and elements of such a global framework are outlined in theCochabamba People’s Agreement on Climate Change.

However, prospects for achieving such a global agreement to stabilise and reduce emissions look bleak.

Powerful countries like the US are not prepared to cede to the existing global agreement, i.e. the Kyoto Protocol. Instead the US wants to replace the Kyoto Protocol with something worse, the “Copenhagen Accord.” This is the Accord that was initiated in COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark. At COP 15 Brazil, South Africa, India and China (which make up the BASIC  group) were privy to discussions that excluded much of the rest of the world. This is when the BASIC group lent its support to the developed world by agreeing in principle to the content of the Copenhagen Accord.

Key elements of the Copenhagen Accord include shifting away from the legally binding commitments of developed countries to a legal agreement that supports a voluntary “pledge and review” system for all countries that are high emitters. This means that the onus lies on countries to decide their own levels of emissions reduction. It comprises the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which means that those most responsible for the problem should bear the “cost burden” of addressing the problem.

If the recent intergovernmental climate change meeting in Panama is anything to go by, obtaining a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol is looks fragile. 

According to Meena Raman, writing in a Third World Network brief, the US is the elephant in the room that has in no uncertain terms indicated that it wants “a legal agreement that binds all major economies in a symmetrical fashion with respect to their mitigation commitments being unconditional to the provision of finance and a revision of Annex 1 (developed countries), while non-Annex 1 categories (developing countries) are to reflect today’s and tomorrow’s economic realities, and not that of 1992.”

Similarly the European Union is calling for a “comprehensive legally-binding framework, which would engage all parties and especially major economies in taking on necessary commitments and actions. Legal certainty, predictability, reciprocity and comparability must be ensured and a top-down approach essential.”. 

The Africa Group, the group of least developed countries and the ALBA group (a Latin American grouping), on the other hand, state that “Annex I Parties must commit to a second and subsequent commitment periods under the Kyoto Protocol” and “must reduce their emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2017 and 95 per cent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.”

While developing countries are standing firm on a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. It is becoming clear that developed countries want to renege on their responsibilities, both in terms of drastically cutting their emissions and with respect to funding mitigation in developing countries. The US even seems to go as far as holding the world to ransom by threatening to withhold funding if a voluntary pledge and review system under the UNFCCC is not agreed too. 

South Africa, as Chair, is in a tenuous position to facilitate an outcome that will lead to an agreement by developed countries to commit to a second period of targets for emissions reductions following the expiry of the first commitment period.

At the same time, South Africa needs to show the world that it is committed to reducing its own carbon emissions as well as show allegiance to the African continent that will be hardest hit by climate change.

Power and economic interests are clearly playing themselves out in these negotiations. Can the world depend on South Africa to be an “honest broker” or will it surrender to the powers that be?

Pressend coordinates the Trade Strategy Group (TSG) at the Economic Justice Network and Global Network Africa at the Labour Research Services in Cape Town. She is also an independent socio-political analyst. This commentary first appeared on the site of the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS).

Kurdish Rebels Kill 26 Turkish Soldiers (NEWS BRIEF)

(HN, October 19, 2011) The Turkish government has reported that at least 26 Turkish soldiers have been killed in clashes with Kurdish rebels at police and army posts in south-eastern Turkey. 

The attacks, in the mainly Kurdish province of Hakkari, are thought to have inflicted the biggest loss on Turkish security forces in years.

The attacks come a day after a blast in the south-east Bitlis province killed five police officers and three others.

In response, Turkish troops are reported to have crossed into northern Iraq where the rebels are based.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul had recently visited troops in the region in an effort to boost morale in an area that has recently seen an increase in violence by Kurdish rebels.

President Gul has vowed a "great vengeance".

So far, Turkey has responded to this attack with a police crackdown on suspected rebel sympathisers and air strikes on Kurdish sites in northern Iraq.

Rebels are seeking greater autonomy in the country's Kurdish-dominated south-east, and have killed dozens of members of the country's security forces, and at least 17 civilians, since mid-July.

Security sources say Turkish planes are bombing Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, while local news sources say soldiers have also entered the area. 

"No-one should forget that those who make us suffer this pain will be made to suffer even stronger," President Gul told reporters. "They will see that the vengeance for these attacks will be great."

- HUMNEWS Staff

UN Member States 'Hypocrites' in Dealing With Sexual Exploitation & Abuse - Top Jordanian Diplomat (REPORT)

Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan(HN, October 18, 2011) -- In astonishingly undiplomatic and candid language, senior Jordanian diplomat, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, said UN member states shoulder much of the blame for the lack of action on curbing abuses by UN peace keepers.

"To put it bluntly, we are cowardly hypocrites," he said.

Zeid, who has served as his country's ambassador to the US and as Permanent Representative to the UN, said that while the UN leadership often gets targeted for not taking action for abuses by UN peace keepers, UN member states often escape accountability.

Following allegations of widespread abuse being committed by UN peace keepers in the summer of 2004, Zeid was appointed as ‘Advisor to the Secretary-General on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.’ In the spring of 2005, he produced a report on this subject; praised subsequently by international civil society for having been ‘revolutionary’ in its approach. It provided, for the first time, a comprehensive strategy for the elimination of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peace Keeping Operations.

Zeid, who spent three years examining what he described as "every angle" of the topic, said "I know the script all too well" and expressed "intense frustration" when discussing the subject.

"The (UN) Secretariat over the last four or five years, has done as much as it can be expected to do...it's not perfect but has essentially hit a wall.

"It is us, the member states, who have created that wall. To put it bluntly, we are cowardly hypocrites.

Rachel Weisz in the film, The Whistleblower. CREDIT: Andrei Alexandru/Samuel Goldwin Films"We go to the Security Council with our foreign ministers, and we speak of Resolution 1325 (the first resolution ever passed by the Security Council that specifically addresses the impact of war on women, and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace, but at the same time we are instructing our lawyers, who should be negotiating a convention to create a legal regime..to extend jurisdiction extra-territorially to our nationals. We tell our lawyers to basically usurp any result in that regard. 

"And essentially no one holds us to account for it.

Zeid made the riveting comments at a panel convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon following the screening of the film, The Whistleblower, which documents the true story of sexual exploitation and trafficking by UN peace keepers in post-conflict Bosnia (see story below).

"I am very pleased that a movie has been produced. Because unless a movie has been produced, or unless there is press comment on our conduct, we are not reliable, as member states, to do the right thing...all of the governments are responsible. There isn't one quarter or other that is more responsible than the other.

"And this effects the abuses across the board, in every area of illicit activity - by civilians and by military. And in actual fact, the civilians, the quality of their abuse was perhaps ever worse than the militaries."

Zeid referenced research that suggested the existence of an extensive pedophile ring in the eastern Congo. "God only knows how long the ring had been in place for."

Zeid said the UN is not a sovereign body, and hence, is limited in prosecuting staff - even for those commit murder, saying the worst penalty it can dish out is termination of service and revocation of pension contributions. "It is the member states that must exercise jurisdiction."

He complained that his recommendations made in 2005 were all rejected - for example, that court martials could take place in situ (in the country where the crime was committed) and that every peace keeper serving in the field give a sample of DNA for possible future legal action, that an independent investigative body be set up.

"We see a colossal failure of states to do the right thing," Zeid said, adding that even his own peace keepers have been found to have committed abuses.

"It is always very strange how when the UN has to answer to these questions (of abuse), the UN officials concerned has to field these rather testing inquiries..and the ambassador is no where to be found - hiding under that desk. And it's really shameful.

"You, members of the media, and members of the film industry, must keep lighting the fire under us. We are not reliable otherwise. You must do this."

Indeed, in the story portrayed in The Whistleblower, after stonewalling by UN officials, the allegations were taken to the BBC for public airing.

In a closing remark, Zeid said it was difficult for him to speak on the issue, and that he had given up a dinner with his mother-in-law to attend the panel. The Prince's remarks were made after the departure of Ban.

Because the panel was held in the evening and on a Friday, there were apparently few members of the media present.

- HUMNEWS staff

Prodded by Film, UN Makes Rare Admission on Involvement of Peacekeepers in Sex Trafficking (REPORT)

Madeleine Rees (L) and Larysa Kondracki. Credit: UNTV(HN, October 17, 2011) - In a rare move, the United Nations has admitted the involvement of UN professionals in human trafficking and sexual exploitation and has apologized for their acts.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the admission at a panel on human trafficking and sexual exploitation late Friday following the screening of the highly-acclaimed German-Canadian co-production, The Whistleblower.

(HUMNEWS was able to review a transcript of the panel today).

Said Ban: "I was deeply saddened by the involvement of the international community, particularly the United Nations, in the abuses connected in the trafficking of women and their use as sex slaves. This movie tells this ugly story."

Ban viewed the film in August with senior advisors and subsequently wrote to the director Larysa Kondracki and ordered the film to be shown at UN headquarters. Ban said he wanted to act after reading a letter from Kondracki. He said sexual exploitation and human trafficking has taken on "a frightening global dimension."

He added: "In all of our work it is essential to face up to difficult issues. When we fall short we must learn the lessons and to act on them.

The UN mission in Boznia-Herzogovina was the focus of the Canadian-German co-production, and centred around the true story of American whistleblower Kathryn Bolkovac- an American former police investigator from Nebraska, who worked as a UN International Police Force monitor in Bosnia.

Bolkovac was not only shocked to discover the sexual enslavement of young girls in the mission, but that UN peacekeepers and private contractors were major customers. The film documents a disturbing culture at the UN of denial, retribution and cover-up in regards to the abuses at the peace keeping mission. It stars Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, and Vanessa Redgrave.

Referring to the peace keppers' acts portrayed in the film, Ban said: "These acts were in clear breach of UN Peace Keepers code of conduct, and in some cases, were illegal...We all know that what could have been done and should have been done was often not done."

Ban said several steps have been taken by the organization since the revelations have come to light. 

He said the UN now has clear policy shaped by the story in the film. "That policy is no tolerance, none." He added clear policies and codes of conduct are now in place for staff in the field, including curfews and delineation of out-of-bounds areas for UN personnel.

Rachel Weisz stars as Kathryn Bolkovac in Samuel Goldwyn Films' The Whistleblower. Credit: Samuel Goldwyn FilmsBan also said that by 2014, the UN police should consist of about 20 percent.

"The bottom line is that we have made much progress since the dark period portrayed in this film..But we also know that we still have much to do," said Ban.

For her part, Kondracki told the panel that much more needs to be done. "I do worry...but rhetoric only goes so far," she said, adding that sexual exploitation is still continuing.

Kondracki also pointed out that the UN only notified the main protagonist of the film, Bolkovic, was only invited to the panel six days ago.

Bolkovic, she said, has never received a formal apology from the UN, nor was her record ever cleared.

Madeleine Rees, former UN rights lawyer and secretary of the Women’s International League For Peace And Freedom (played in the film by Redgrave), also attended the panel. She said the panel would have never taken place without the appearance of the film.

Rees said she is often asked if there is more she could have done during the difficult time portrayed in the film. "We were blocked every time by the very people we were trying to work with. And I feel guilty for that."

She said that the only time that the trafficking stopped was when the peace keepers went away.

The Whistleblower, Rees added, accurately portrayed the shocking reality on the ground in post-conflict Bosnia: "Everything that happened in the film is true, and I know because I was there...What you saw happened to the girls in that film did happen.

"But we will never know to how many because we weren't able to keep the records."

Rees said that when she first raised concerns about UN peace keepers involvement in sex trafficking, she was met with giggles, boredom and was even told off.

The panel appeared to reveal a split in opinions, with UN officials taking a defensive stance for their actions since the accusations came to light. "In practical terms..we have moved a lot. We have many more instruments than we did 10 years ago," said UN Under-Secretary General Susana Malcorra.

In an email response in HUMNEWS today, Kondracki said she remains cautiously optimistic.

"I hope for more than just rhetoric. The Secretary General was apologetic, he spoke how this film raises the issue about the importance of the single voice, and how we need courageous people to continue to stand up against abuse.

"But Kathy (Bolkovic) still hasn't been recognized for her work. The UN still claims she was fired for time sheet violations - so until at the very least that is corrected, I don't have full faith in the zero tolerance policy he is citing.

"I'm hoping that apology to Kathy and to the thousands of victims of the rape, kidnapping, murder and torture committed not only by peace keepers but then covered up by high-level diplomats, is forthcoming. It would signal to me the start of genuine reforms."

Currently, the UN is sponsoring 18 peace keeping operations and special missions, utilizing 14,000 individuals. They serve between six and 18 months, and are then rotated. "The vast majority of these officers do excellent work, some do not," said Ann-Marie Orler of Sweden, who is the Police Officer in DPKO.

- HUMNEWS staff

Kosovo's Continuing Limbo (REPORT)

By Barnaby Phillips in Europe 

The border between Serbia and Northern Kosovo is a joke. 

The Serbs have erected barricades on the main roads, making it impossible for NATO troops from the Kosovo peacekeeping force (KFOR) to move. 

The Serbs are demanding the withdrawal from the border posts of customs officials belonging to the mainly Albanian Kosovo government in Pristina, whose authority they do not recognise. 

Meanwhile, the Serbs use a series of tortuous mountain tracks to cross back and forth between Southern Serbia and Northern Kosovo.  

KFOR makes a half-hearted effort to control these, whilst issuing rather vague ultimatums to the Serbs for the removal of the barricades. 

Confused? Me too. It is peaceful for now, but trouble has flared up in recent weeks and could do so again at any moment.

Of course the problem is that the Serbs do not consider "the border" to be a border. My impression, after three days in Serb-controlled Northern Kosovo, is that the ties between this region and "Serbia proper" (excuse the ugly phrase) are tighter than ever. Serbian flags fly everywhere. 

The famous bridge in the divided town of Mitrovica is now blocked on the Serbian side by piles of rubble and stones, so that no vehicles can pass from the Albanian side. The (subsidised) train that runs every day between Northern Kosovo and Southern Serbia is packed. 

European politicians are beginning to make noises about the need for Serbia to dismantle "the parallel structures" of government it maintains in Northern Kosovo. 

In Belgrade I asked Oliver Ivanovic, Serbia's secretary of state for Kosovo, whether he had any intention of doing this.

"We don't see these as 'parallel structures', we see these as the only structures, because we do not recognise the independence of Kosovo" was his reply.

It is very difficult to see a solution to this problem. 

Kosovo remains in a kind of limbo, recognised by the big Western powers, and some others, but forever blocked from full statehood by the Russian veto on the UN security council. At the same time, European countries are increasingly exasperated with Serbia.

So what about division? Serbia would get to keep the North of Kosovo, and would perhaps renounce control of the majority of the majority-Albanian Presevo Valley. 

So what does Ivanovic have to say about this? "Not something we would consider", was his reply. 

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing

US Broadcasters Honour Industry Giants (NEWS BRIEF)

Christiane Amanpour of ABC News with Library of American Broadcasting Foundation head Don West. CREDIT: Saarah Al-Mahdi (HN, October 14, 2011) - Renowned television journalist Christian Amanpour is among recipients of an annual US broadcasting awards ceremony held today in New York City.

Lauded as a leader of a new generation of TV correspondents, Amanpour was described by the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation as being fearless and passionate in her reporting.

"In a time when many critics say Americans don't care enough about foreign news and news organizations are castigated for not covering stories far from our shores, Christiane Amanpour has been working hard for almost 30 years to bring home just those kind of stories," the organization said at today's Giants of Broadcasting event.

In a passionate acceptance speech, Amanpour, a former CNN chief international correspondent who jumped to ABC News in 2010 to anchor This Week With Christian Amanpour and provide other network coverage and analysis, said she would like to see more women in journalism - including in top TV network management. "I'd also like to see a female president," she said.

Also awarded for journalistic excellence was NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who inherited the anchor chair in 2004 from Tom Brokaw at just age 43, and is known for cutting edge coverage of the Katrina crisis in New Orleans and the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The organization said of Williams, a former volunteer firefighter: "Being a broadcast network news anchor is to join a select club. And being able to balance the gravitas and earnestness necessary to report on horrific natural disasters and wars, while maintaining a widely appreciated sense of humour, is rarer still. Brian Williams is in a class almost by himself."

In February 2011, when he reported on the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt, his Nightly News broadcast enjoyed its highest ratings in six years.

Williams, true to form, accepted the award with an off-the-cuff speech that suggested he reached the prized anchor chair almost by chance - pointing out, for example, that he is a college drop-out who started his career in media by answering telephones.

Speakers at the foundation event acknowledged rapid technological change and shifting audience habits as challenges to the industry, but added that core journalistic values will remain.

Also honoured today were: CBS Sunday Morning and Brian Lamb, the founder of C-SPAN.

- HUMNEWS staff

International Day for Disaster Reduction - Why Youth Key to Reducing the Impacts (PERSPECTIVE)

By Bekele Geleta

(HN, October 13, 2011) - This year alone, we have witnessed disasters on an unprecedented scale - the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, devastating floods in Pakistan and Australia, and the serious food crisis in the Horn of Africa to name just a few. But we must also remember the hundreds of smaller disasters which have caused enormous damage and upheaval to the lives of millions around the world.

Young people are often seriously affected when disasters strikes and can face severe difficulties in coping with unexpected and traumatic interruptions to their lives. But despite this, the world’s youth are also the very people who can teach their communities - and the wider world - how to reduce the risks and impact of disasters. Young people are unmatched by any other demographic group in their ability to bring about meaningful change in social behaviour and attitudes. We must not underestimate their potential to make a real difference in the time of disasters.

This is why children and young people are central to Red Cross Red Crescent disaster risk reduction efforts. Globally, around half of the 13 million Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers are young people. Not only do we pay special attention to their needs when disasters strike, but we also engage them in the design and implementation of disaster risk reduction programmes. We recognise their unique role and the value they can provide as innovators, inter-cultural ambassadors, peer-to-peer facilitators, community mobilizers, and advocates for vulnerable people.

In June 2009, young people from 150 countries, representing the millions of young Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers committed themselves to working on disaster preparedness, response and recovery, including innovative solutions in areas such as psychosocial support, advocacy for climate change adaptation, food security, and access to safe and clean water.

Since then, youth led programming has proven to be effective even in the most challenging of environments, such as the Kwale communities in drought stricken Kenya. The award winning Kenya Red Cross Kwale communities project raised awareness amongst children and young people about the problems caused by climate change, provided them with necessary training, and mobilized them as  agents of change in building the resilience of the communites to recurring drought and famine.

The young people involved in the project worked with Kwale communities to raise their awareness on causes and effects of climate change and ways in which they could adapt. With the help of the young Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers, communities improved their early warning and preparedness systems, updated the community disaster response plan and strengthened food security through promotion of modern farming methods. Through the project, the young volunteers also contributed to environmental conservation, improvement and better access to clean, safe and affordable water. For the Kwale communities, the result is that they have been able to withstand the Horn of Africa crisis better than many others. They also have the opportunity to teach others about the vital role young people can play in disaster risk reduction.

Tangible results have also emerged from Red Cross Red Crescent youth-led disaster risk reduction programmes in other countries including Bangladesh, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Kenya, Niger, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, Togo, and Uganda.

These are just some examples of what can be achieved when children and young people  become aware of their responsibilities and  potential to take an active part in the global efforts to resolve serious problems faced by humanity.

The International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies is calling on decision makers at all levels to recognize the vital role young people can and should play in reducing the risks associated with disasters. Specifically, we are calling on those who influence the funding, programme development and implementation of disaster risk reduction activities to recognize young people as powerful agents of change; encourage their unique abilities and skills such as intercultural communication and innovation in technology and thought; engage them in public awareness and education; involve them in decision making and planning at all levels; push hard for young people to have a stronger role in programme development and implementation in their own communities; and educate, elevate and empower young people by sharing responsibility and decision making in a genuine partnership.

These actions will undoubtedly help young people to do more, do better, and reach further in reducing disaster risks. Despite many challenges ahead of us, by working closely with children and young people, we can make communities all over the world safer and more resilient to disasters and their consequences. After all, the future is theirs.

Geleta is Secretary-General International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

What was really in Tymoshenko’s 2009 gas agreement with Russia? (PERSPECTIVE)

By Derek Fraser

Yulia Tymoshenko, the principal rival of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, has been convicted in a political trial in Ukraine of having exceeded her authority as prime minister in concluding a gas agreement with Russia in 2009 that was unfavorable to Ukrainian interests. For this she has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment and fined $200 million.Yulia Tymoshenko with her daughter as the sentence is read out in a Kyiv court room Monday. Credit: Юлія Тимошенко

It is worth recalling the circumstances in which she had to negotiate.

The negotiations of 2008 came at the end of the second of two gas wars in three years between Russia and Ukraine, wars that led to Russian gas supplies being twice cut to Ukraine and Western Europe.

Russia’s gas sales to Ukraine have been repeatedly been used by Russia as an instrument for bringing Ukraine to heel.

When Russia first turned off the gas supply to Ukraine and Europe at the end of 2005, a year after the Orange Revolution, it was preceded by Russia tearing up a multi-year gas supply contract it had concluded in 2004 with the more pro-Russian government of President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Statements made Russians at the time make it clear that the main aims of the Russian action were political. One purpose was to create difficulties for Yushchenko and Prime Minister Tymoshenko in forthcoming parliamentary elections. Another was to take over the Ukrainian gas transit pipeline.

The EU had to intervene to put an end to that dispute.

In the gas war of 2008-2009, Russian motives were also not purely commercial. At the time Russia’s relations with Ukraine were especially tense because of Ukraine’s campaign to join NATO, its support for Georgia in its war with Russia, and Ukraine’s refusal to renew the lease on the Russian naval base on Sevastopol in the Crimea, which was to expire in 2017.

The Russians were also likely angry at the inability of the Ukrainians to pay a contested amount for past gas deliveries and the tough, dilatory and contradictory Ukrainian negotiating positions.

The Russians warned the Ukrainians that they would cut off the gas if the pricing issues were not solved by Dec. 31, 2008. On that day, the Russians proposed a gas price of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters. On the next day, Jan. 1, Yushchenko agreed to $250, but sought an increase in transit fees on Russian gas being shipped to Western Europe.

In response, Putin accused Yushchenko of breaking off negotiations, insisted on $450 and halted gas deliveries intended for Ukraine.

A few days later, Putin accused the Ukrainians of taking gas intended for Western Europe. In reprisal, he halted all shipments to Western Europe. He called for an international consortium to take over the Ukrainian transit system.

After the European Union observers had established that there was no evidence that Ukraine had cut shipments to Western Europe or siphoned off gas for its own use, Russia agreed to resume shipments to Western Europe, but only of a small amount, and that by a circuitous route that would have forced Ukraine to deprive much of the south of the country of gas. 

It was apparently only after the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Putin that he and Tymoshenko finally reached an agreement on gas and transit costs. The Western Europeans also put considerable pressure on both Russia and Ukraine to put an end to the gas war.

The new contract was based on the generally accepted formula used throughout Europe at the time that linked the price of gas to the price of diesel fuel plus transportation costs. Ukraine received a 20 percent discount on this price for 2009. Russia received a discounted price on transit fees for the same period. The agreement also did away with an intermediary the gas trade, RosUkrEnergo, which had been allegedly channeling funds to the party of Yanukovych as well as to associates of Yushchenko.

The facts therefore suggest that the gas agreement concluded by Tymoshenko was likely the best she could have achieved under the circumstances. The elimination of RosUkrEnergo, in addition, removed an apparent source of corruption.

Derek Fraser was Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine from 1998-2001. Fraser is a senior fellow for the Centre for Global Studies and an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Victoria.

The trial of Yulia Tymoshenko - a mini documentary

Asia's Rice Bowl Inundated by Historic Floods (NEWS BRIEF)

Farmer Sai-ngern Inthawong on the Bueng That Luang wetland in Laos during dryer times. CREDIT: Mekong River Commission(HN, October 11, 2011) - Amid a global food crisis that has seen the price of staple items soar in countries as diverse as Somalia, Pakistan and Laos, historic floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have damaged tens of thousands of hectares of rice paddies in South-east Asia.

Worst hit is Thailand - the world's Number One exporter of rice. However, smaller and poorer countries such as Laos and Cambodia are fearing extensive crop damage.

More rains are forecast in an unusual monsoon season that has already devastated some 1.5 million hectares of prime agricultural land. Vietnam, the world's Number Two rice exporter, has also suffered extensive crop damage.

In Thailand, where flooding has been mostly limited to rural areas, the capital Bangkok is bracing itself for a deluge. More than 230 people have already died in Thailand. 

Laos, among the poorest countries in the world, has been struggling to recover from severe tropical storms that struck in June. The Vientiane Times reports that some 64,000 hectares of rice land has been damaged by flooding this wet season.

More than 429,900 people in 1,790 villages of 96 districts across 12 provinces have been affected by floods and landslides triggered by tropical storms Haima and Nock-Ten, the newspaper reported.

"The whole region will now suffer from rising food prices as potential harvests have now been devastated," said Margareta Wahlstrom, the United Nations chief of disaster reduction. "The damage is very serious this year and it will be some time before people can resume normal lives."

The Mekong River, which cuts through all the countries, is rising in some parts. According to the Bangkok-based Mekong River Commission "all stations along the Mekong River mainstream were recording levels that are above the long-term average for this time of year."

- HUMNEWS staff, UN, agencies

Liberians Vote in Second Post-War Election (NEWS BRIEF)

Liberia's National Elections Commission staff loading voting materials on UN helicopters for distribution ahead of the 11 October 2011 elections (PHOTO: UN NEWS CENTER)(HN, October 11, 2011) Liberians lined up to vote on Tuesday in national elections. Today’s polls are the second democratic elections since the end of the decade-long conflict that killed nearly 150,000 people and sent 850,000 others fleeing to neighboring countries.

United Nations peacekeepers remained on standby to help local and law enforcement maintain security during polling

“This is the first time that Liberians are running their own elections,” said Yasmina Bouziane, spokesperson for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The previous elections in 2005 were managed by the UN, but this year's polls have been organized by the country's national electoral commission.

“We will be here to assist the Liberian national police who are the first and frontline for response to any incidents,” Bouzaine said in an interview with UN Radio yesterday.

Sixteen candidates, including the incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are vying for the presidency and many voters arrived at polling stations overnight to be among the first to cast their ballots in closely-fought presidential poll.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is facing tough competition for a second term, with her stiffest competition coming from a ticket that includes football (soccer) star George Weah.

Weah came in second in 2005, and is currently running for vice president alongside Winston Tubman, who, like Sirleaf, is a Harvard graduate.

President Sirleaf, who just days ago received the Nobel Peace Prize, is charged, by the opposition as having failed to repair the ravages of war or bring down high levels of poverty and unemployment.

Her supporters say she has been successful in maintaining peace and erased billions of dollars in foreign debt.  

Opponents also criticize Sirleaf for her support of warlord and former President Charles Taylor during Liberia’s civil war.

Sirleaf has come under fire for ignoring last year’s recommendations by Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that she should be banned from public office for 30 years for her support of Taylor. The Liberian leader has acknowledged financing to Taylor and says she ceased when she became aware of his brutal tactics.

Liberia’s election commission says it will begin releasing initial results on Wednesday, and has plans to announce the final results on October 26. A run-off will be held if no candidate wins an outright majority vote.

- HUMNews Staff 

Frustrations Fizzle in Swaziland (NEWS BRIEF)

By Tania Page in Africa 

We were in Swaziland unofficially because we had been warned by other journalists and our contacts in the country that the government can be unfriendly to foreign journalists. 

This put the team a little on-edge. We hoped nobody would ask too many questions.

We met Mario Masuku, a prominent opposition leader whose party has been banned by the country’s absolute ruler, King Mswati, at a secret location. Afterwards, cameraman Chris and producer Gladys left me at our hotel while they drove him to another safe location.

We were all nervous after encountering several police roadblocks during the day, so when a sharp knock came on the door and Chris urgently told me to pack my bags as we had to leave immediately, my head (and heart) went into overdrive. Then came Gladys’ unmistakable giggle - the best pranks are always the most believable.

We were not laughing quite so hard two days later when we met one of the king’s advisors. He rules with emergency powers the opposition leader we had met vehemently opposes.

But Prince Mangaliso Logcogco was sceptical about protests this year calling for the king to relinquish some of his powers, suggesting they were fuelled by social media and exaggerated in the outside world.

The king had effectively turned Swaziland into a welfare state, he said. “What are you going to eat?” if there is democracy he wondered. “You’ll be a hungry slave”.

While protests in Swaziland have been large, they have hardly been on the scale of those seen during theArab Spring.

Masuku, who spent four years in prison accused of sedition and terrorism believes that is only because nearly a whole generation under the age of 40 has been depoliticised, believing they have no say in the political process.

Still, he remains convinced change in Swaziland is possible in his lifetime.

But while monarchies elsewhere in the world have changed with the times, it does not appear as if King Mswati is prepared to take a back seat just yet.

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing

Almost 200 Children Killed in Syria Uprising - UN (NEWS BRIEF)

A man at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York holding up a t-shirt photo of Syrian President Basah al-Assad. Credit: HUMNEWS(HN, October 8, 2011) - Almost 200 children have been killed in the uprising in Syria and their rights have been seriously abused, according to the respected UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The killings were recorded since Syria launched a brutal crackdown on protesters calling for President Bashar al-Assad's to step down.

The CRC expressed "its deepest concern over credible, corroborated and consistent reports of gross violations of children's rights which are being committed since the start of the uprising in March 2011."

These included "arbitrary arrests and detentions, killings of children during demonstrations, torture and ill treatment."

The CRC is a body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State parties. It also monitors implementation of two optional protocols to the Convention, on involvement of children in armed conflict and on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

CRC chief Jean Zermatten says it has seen a list of at least 187 child deaths with statistics provided by UN bodies and non-governmental organisations.

It asked Damascus to take "immediate measures to stop the use of excessive and lethal force against civilians and to prevent further violence against children, including killings and injuring."

In June, UNICEF said it had disturbing evidence suggesting that children in Syria are being tortured or otherwise mistreated by authorities. "We are particularly disturbed by the recent video images of children who were arbitrarily detained and suffered torture or ill-treatment during their detention, leading in some cases to their death," the agency said in a statement.

Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the total number of people killed in the uprising has passed 2,900, “according to the list of individual names we have been compiling.” Previous estimates had placed the toll at about 2,700.

On Tuesday, the Security Council did not adopt a draft resolution that strongly condemned Syrian authorities for their crackdown after Russia and China exercised their vetoes.

Last month in New York, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "crimes against humanity" were being committed in Syria.

- HUMNEWS staff, agencies

Africa Must Lead: COP 17 Must Deliver Climate Justice to Developing Nations (PERSPECTIVE)

By Glenn Ashton

Artist: Rose Fyson/ Photo Credit: Piotr Fajfer-Oxfam International Climate change predominantly impacts those who have benefited least from fossil fuelled industrialisation. The poor have less social, economic and political capacity to adapt to climate change than the rich. The arrival of the global climate negotiating lobby on African shores must focus the minds of the world on how climate change impacts developing nations and how we propose to solve this problem.

When the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets in Durban in late November this year it is important to raise global awareness of the implications for the global South – the poor and developing nations of the world. The matter of climate justice is central to any fair and binding solution.

The UN climate change framework arose from agreements made during the first earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which destabilise global climatic systems. The best-known outcome from the many subsequent meetings was the agreement made in 1997 at COP 3 in Kyoto, Japan, with the so-called Kyoto protocol to reduce CO2 emissions.

This was the first time any sort of international accord was reached to address and reduce the threat of human induced (anthropogenic) climate change. The Kyoto Protocol will expire at the end of 2012 and it is critical that the Durban COP 17 meeting cements further agreement on frameworks to prevent runaway climate change this century. Time is not on our side.

The Kyoto protocol had extremely limited goals, far below what is now recognised as necessary. Importantly it was not ratified by the world’s biggest polluter, the United States, which rendered its outcomes largely academic.

It is known that human induced climate change is no longer theoretical – the impacts are real and appear to be both more serious and rapid than the rather conservative scientific opinions expressed by the International Panel on Climate Change. These changes will predominantly affect those in the South who lack sufficient resilience to meet these multifaceted challenges.

Regions, like Pakistan and the Sahel in Africa, wedged between tropics and deserts, are far more sensitive to climatic disturbances than more temperate climates. Over the past two years Pakistan has experienced unprecedented monsoon flooding pushing this already marginal economy to the brink. The climate induced social and political consequences are profound.

The Sahel has experienced fairly regular drought cycles over the past millennium, influenced by various climatic cycles. However seriously disruptive droughts in that region between the 1960’s and ‘80’s are now known to be linked to fossil fuel related aerosols and particulates.

These influences, compounded by global warming, have worsened these drought cycles across the region, causing protracted hunger and social dislocation. It is notable that as cleaner fuels and improved emission standards have reduced the levels of man-made particles in the atmosphere, the severity of the Sahel droughts have diminished.

Those who deny the influence of human activity on the global climate are either incapable of internalising the realities or repudiate them in order to continue business as normal. This powerful lobby which continues to benefit from cheap access to fossil fuel technology has actively undermined meaningful political negotiations toward a meaningful resolution to the real problem – increasing emissions of greenhouse gases.

This self-indulgence perpetuates the historical economic inequality visited upon the global South by the developed North. This exposes the failure to achieve any sort of meaningful, ambitious and binding climate change treaty. The most powerful vested interests – the G8, the OECD, the developed North – are so profoundly politically compromised that they cannot see their way clear to make the needed changes. These dominant powers have more than hinted that there is little chance that agreement will be reached in Durban. Self interest remains writ large.

Besides the Kyoto Framework the next ‘best’ outcome that has emerged from these expensive and time consuming conferences is the so-called REDD+ framework. REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation and is a trading mechanism, which proposes to keep global forests intact in order that climate change is mitigated and hopefully reduced.

REDD is controversial for many reasons, but primarily because of a failure to agree on the definition of a forest. This may appear obvious, but is a forest is a virgin natural resource, or a man made plantation which is harvested and hence has economic value? Because of this sort of intentional ambiguity inherent in “solutions” like REDD, strong opposition has arisen amongst indigenous and environmental groups who are profoundly uneasy with these sorts of agreements.

REDD and other economic carbon trading schemes are essentially devices which enable powerful, vested interests to exploit both the climate change negotiations and its proposed outcomes to ensure the continuation of business as usual. Perpetuating the interests of the privileged is no longer an option. In an increasingly connected world the exploited have gradually evolved a far more coherent position. REDD, like carbon trading, does nothing whatsoever to address the real problem - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are just REDD herrings.

Dealing with solutions to climate change involves more than the authentic threats to the ecological stability of the planet. At its core, climate change involves dealing with issues of social and climate justice. Those who have benefited from decades of exploitation of fossil fuels must make amends. Those who remain excluded from these benefits, be they in Somalia or Pakistan, or in tropical jungles or low lying atolls, cannot be expected to continue to bear these punitive costs of climatic instability on top of their already impossible burdens. Perpetuating this inequity flies in the face of a just outcome to the climate negotiations.

The evolving power of blocs like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) has begun to provide some counterbalance against the old guard of developed nations. These shifts of economic and political power enable a change in the dynamic of negotiations.

This has become evident in how the South has refused the ratification of inherently unfair instruments like the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round, which would have perpetuated unfairness in global trade. Equally, in climate negotiations there needs to be far more negotiating parity between North and South, between rich and poor, between developing and developed, in order that just outcomes become possible.

The fact remains that we cannot continue the historical polarisation and deadlock that have dogged critical negotiations like the UN climate change accords. The Durban COP 17 meeting needs flexible leadership. It requires humility from the powerful to recognise that it is their world, which is under equal threat. Above all cohesion amongst the global South is paramount in order that the vested interests of the wealthy cannot undermine a united message of climate justice for all.

In a globalised world we are increasingly interdependent and connected - the failure of even one nation inevitably creates further instability. It is not an option to have weak leadership by the hosts or to allow ourselves to be pushed around. As Nelson Mandela memorably told Bill Clinton when he visited South Africa in 1998, we must tell the powerful to “jump in a big pool” if they are out of line.

We cannot allow another negotiation failure at our collective expense. We need to wisely and firmly guide our leadership. We must harness creative ways to make the North listen. Civil society must repeat successful campaigns like the Right to Know campaign which has had perceptible political impacts in South Africa.

The mobilisation of the “Climate Justice Now!” network in South Africa hopes to provide one such platform towards achieving a beneficial outcome. We certainly cannot abandon negotiating governments to be bamboozled by the none too tender mercies of the diplomatic and lobbying interests of conservative and corporate stakeholders.

We need a fair, ambitious and binding agreement which does not paper over the cracks. There can be no perpetuation of business as usual with the false promises of carbon trading, where the rich offset their impacts onto the poor, or REDD, where forests are stripped and replaced with monoculture plantations. What is urgently needed is an agreement that goes past symptomatic relief and cuts to the core issue - the introduction of across the board reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate justice is about cutting a deal at the COP meeting that provides just that – climate justice for all, not justice for the rich. It is time to show that Africa can lead. In doing so we, the people of Africa, must collectively hold our leaders responsible.

- Ashton is a writer and researcher working in civil society. Some of his work can be viewed at www.ekogaia.org.

Originally published by The South African Civil Society Information Service (www.sacsis.org.za)

Bono Horn of Africa Campaign: "Famine is the Obscenity" (NEWS BRIEF/VIDEO)

(HN, October 6, 2011) - The Irish singer, musician and humanitarian, Bono, has launched a new, high energy campaign to bring renewed attention to the Horn of Africa famine, which is now impacting more than 13 million people in several countries.

Through his One International organization, and a video called  “The F Word: Famine is the Real Obscenity”, Bono has recruited several high profile artists and actors to suggest that famine is an obscene a word as the for-letter expletive starting with the letter 'f.'

Said Bono in a personalized mass email campaign: I’ve been known to drop the occasional expletive, but the most offensive F word to me is not the one that goes f***.  It’s F***** - the famine happening in the Horn of Africa, mainly Somalia.

The video and online campaign is supplemented by a petition to world leaders, timed to appear ahead of next month's Group of 20 Summit in France. It urges them to live up to promises already made to invest in the things proven to work, including: early warning systems, irrigation, drought resistant seeds, and peace and security.

It contends that the famine in Somalia could kill 750,000 in the coming months, and tens of thousands have already died.

Says the petition:

"When you meet at the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit in November, you have the opportunity to break the cycle of famine and ensure people are hungry no more. Lives are in your hands. Please keep the promises you have made to the 2 billion poor people who depend on farming for their livelihoods.

"The reasons for the famine in the Horn of Africa are complex and solutions are difficult, especially in Somalia, but we can’t lose sight of some simple facts:

1. 30,000 children have died in just 3 months.  Thirty thousand.  With over 12 million people at risk.

2. Famine is not a natural catastrophe – drought doesn’t have to lead to famine.  It can be prevented, as we have seen in much of Kenya and Ethiopia.  

"In the 21st century, it’s an obscenity that people are dying because they can’t get enough food to eat.  Every one of those 30,000 children is part of a family – a son, a daughter, sister or brother.  We can’t imagine what it must be like to starve to death, but most of us know what it’s like to lose someone we love."

Bono has a long record going back to the 1980s of intervening in humanitarian disasters, especially in Africa.

His U2 band performed in the Band Aid and Live Aid projects, organised by Bob Geldof. In 1984, Bono sang on the Band Aid single "Do They Know it's Christmas?/Feed the World." Geldof and Bono later collaborated to organise the 2005 Live 8 project, where U2 also performed.

ONE describes itself as a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, including Warren Buffett and African telecommunications tycoon Mo Ibrahim, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policy makers.

- HUMNEWS staff

Rights Group: Syrian Expats Bullied by Mukhabarat (NEWS BRIEF)

By D. Parvaz in the Middle East 

Amnesty International has just released a report on how Syrian security forces are targeting expat Syrians who have spoken out against the Syrian government, in hopes of silencing them.

The report, titled "Mukhabaraat: Violence and harassment against Syrians abroad and their relatives back home" details just how far reaching the tentacles of the regime are.

Even the parents of expat activists aren't spared. The report details how the parents of one activist [his father is 73 years old, his mother 66] were beaten, left bloody and bruised in Homs because he attended a pro-reform demonstration in front of the White House.

The rights group details the Mukhabarat's activities in North America, Europe and Latin America, documenting over 30 cases of expats being targeted by Syrian security forces, who employ surveillance and open threats in an effort to maintain control over anti-government activists living overseas:

Many have been filmed and orally intimidated while taking part in protests outside Syrian embassies, while some have been threatened, including with death threats, or physically attacked by individuals believed to be connected with the Syrian regime.

The report includes a couple of cases from Canada, where Syrian expats have been quite active in trying to mobilise n their own community as well as spurring the Canadian government into taking diplomatic action against Syria.

I reported on their activities in August, when several activists told me of being threatened, filmed, photographed and intimidated by the Syrian government.  In fact, the Syrian government even sought informants before the uprising. One expat, who went by Saleem, told me:

Two years ago, before the revolution, his friend was contacted by someone from the Syrian embassy in Canada, who, he said, approached 'as a friend.' But it was immediately clear that the embassy representative wanted to pressure his friend to inform on other Syrian nationals.

'It's the way they do it. They Syrian embassy gets every one of us to spy on each other. This way, we don't trust each other and we live in fear,' he said.

One activists even told me that there were Lebanese nationals in Canada co-operating with the Syrian government in collecting information on activists in Syria, and that the expat community there was creating a "shame list" of these informants.

You can read Amnesty International's full report here.

Originally published by Al Jazeera under Creative Commons Licensing  

Follow D. Parvaz on Twitter: @DParvaz