Free Republic

What did you do in the war, UNIFIL? You broadcast Israeli troop movements. by Lori Lowenthal Marcus 09/04/2006, Volume 011, Issue 47 DURING THE RECENT month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel , U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon . UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon , a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all...

Italy Weighs the Risks of Leading UN Mission Tony Barber in Rome Updated: 10:41 p.m. ET Aug. 24, 2006 With 8,600 soldiers deployed in 28 security and peacekeeping operations around the world, Italy will have a wealth of experience to call upon, should it be asked to lead a United Nations mission in Lebanon.But the closer that Italy's centre-left government gets to committing itself in Lebanon, the more opposition politicians – and some army generals, too – are warning that it may be a step fraught with dangerous consequences. The concerns centre on whether Italian troops will find themselves caught...

Like W S Gilbert's cowardly policemen in The Pirates of Penzance, Europe's prospective peacekeepers have decided that "a policeman's lot is not a happy one". Europe's serious exercise in peacekeeping led to the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica, when Dutch soldiers turned over Muslims in their charge to Serb death squads. France offers no more than 200 engineers to join the peacekeeping force that the United Nations Security Council has mandated as a buffer on the Israeli-Lebanese border. The last time French peacekeepers ventured into Lebanon, a Hezbollah suicide bomber killed 58 paratroopers. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has...

EDITORIAL: Is Ottawa losing its global voice? Jul. 27, 2006. 09:17 AM Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative party urged voters to Stand up for Canada in last January's federal election. His platform promised "to ensure that Canada's foreign policy reflects true Canadian values and advocates Canada's national interests." Yet six months later, Harper and the Conservatives appear to be more interested in currying favour with U.S. President George Bush's Republican administration, which is deeply unpopular on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, than with carving out a truly meaningful and independent role for Canada on the international scene....

UN peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited local women and girls in Liberia and more accusations are expected, a UN spokesman said Friday. Stephane Dujarric said a preliminary investigation by the UN mission in Liberia indicated that some allegations against its personnel could be substantiated, while others could not. "The allegations range from the exchange of goods, money or services for sex to the sexual exploitation of minors. The peacekeeping department here in New York as well as the mission on the ground are taking appropriate follow-up action," he said. A UN official speaking on condition of anonymity said the number...

A Senate measure that would cut by millions the United States' share of U.N. peacekeeping costs is a step in the right direction. But it doesn't go far enough. Amid widespread charges of rape, child abuse and assorted sexual perversions by U.N. peacekeepers, the world body needs its feet held to the fire. Continuing the funding stream, albeit at a lower percentage, isn't going to do it.

The United Nations says it is looking into allegations that a UN document contained false information that caused instability in war-torn central Africa. A former UN employee, the American intelligence analyst William Church, told the BBC the details were added to a public UN report by other UN staff. The report stated Rwanda mounted a military incursion against neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo last year. This false allegation endangered the peace process in DR Congo, he says. 'Serious allegations' The stakes could not be higher. The war in DR Congo, which has spread throughout central Africa, is one of the...

The United Nations has fired one employee and suspended six without pay over allegations of sexual misconduct in the peacekeeping mission in Congo, the U.N. spokesman said Thursday. The allegations of sex abuse in Congo and several other peacekeeping missions by both soldiers and civilian employees have severely tarnished the United Nations' reputation, and led to promises of reform and swift justice. While the United Nations has taken measures to try to stop the abuse, the U.N. watchdog agency said in January that abuse by peacekeepers continued. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said action had been taken against 17 civilians so...

The above headline refers to a U.N. battle in Congo, but would be splashed over newspapers and televisions for several days if it involved U.S. soldiers in Iraq or elsewhere. Thanks to The American Thinker for the article link. United Nations peacekeepers have gone on the offensive against a militia group in Congo, deploying helicopters and killing nearly 60 people in the biggest battle fought by the world body in more than a decade. But criticism of the operation was mounting yesterday when it emerged that up to a third of the dead could have been civilians used as human...

The United States has proposed a 10,000 strong U.N. peacekeeping force for southern Sudan to help enforce a January cease-fire agreement that ended two decades of civil war. The draft Security Council resolution circulated Monday also imposes sanctions on those responsible for the violence in Sudan's western Darfur region. It would widen an arms embargo to include the government and also demand Khartoum stop offensive military flights over Darfur. The draft avoids the contentious issue of where to try those accused of war crimes committed in Darfur, simply calling for those suspected of atrocities to be brought to justice. Most...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council on Wednesday to add at least 100 military police to a Congo peacekeeping mission to help prevent sex abuse of women by the U.N. forces. In a letter to the 15 council members, Annan reiterated his "personal outrage" at the allegations of sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13 by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo. He said the United Nations is actively working to root out the problem, which has tarnished the reputation of the world body and the nearly 65,000 peacekeepers serving in 16 global hotspots. "I reiterate...

A milestone that was important in a number of ways was passed Thursday in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Made up of Muslims, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, the country was torn by war for three years from 1992 to 1995 as part of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Over the course of a war that took an estimated 200,000 lives and displaced many more, the Muslims and Croats first fought the Serbs and then each other as well. The whole bloody mess was brought to an end in late 1995 by the Dayton Accords, negotiated by the leaders...

In places like Congo and Kosovo, peacekeepers have been accused of abusing the people they're protecting. By Michael J. Jordan | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor PRISTINA, KOSOVO – It's nighttime in this trendy neighborhood, and the three-story villa sits serenely behind an iron gate and tall bushes. Half a block away, almost undetected, a man in a parked car keeps watch. As this reporter approaches, the man radios ahead. 04/22/04 Quickly emerging from the doorway is the middle-aged boss, dressed in a Miami Vice get-up, with stringy, combed-over hair and capped teeth. He and a young lieutenant hustle...

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on Monday. The accusations include pedophilia, rape and prostitution, said Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary-general in the peacekeeping department. Lute, an American, said there was photographic and video evidence for some of the allegations and most of the charges came to light since the spring. "We are shining a light on this problem in order to determine its scope, and we will...

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Monday to transfer peacekeeping duties in Bosnia from the NATO-led force to the European Union next month and called for all war crimes suspects to surrender. The transfer will mean the withdrawal of more than 1,000 American troops serving in Bosnia as part of the NATO force. They will be replaced by EU personnel, with the biggest contingent coming from Finland. British Maj. Gen. David Leakey, who will command the new European Union Force, known as EUFOR, said the Europeans will take over on Dec. 2. More than 60,000 NATO-led troops...

CHINA deployed riot police to Haiti yesterday, marking the first time that Beijing has sanctioned the participation of its Armed Forces in peacekeeping duties in the Western hemisphere.The deployment is seen as a major step in China’s efforts to enhance its global role. The country, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has been criticised for not shouldering its share of the burden of peacekeeping duties. More recently, however, it has cultivated a higher profile in international affairs, playing host to six-party talks aimed at resolving a crisis over the nuclear ambitions of North Korea. The contingent of...

President Leonid Kuchma has received a letter from Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, in which he expressed gratitude for the contribution of Ukrainian troops to ensuring the peace and security of the Iraqi people. The letter also contains a request for Ukraine to maintain the number of its peacekeepers at the current level. [The National Security and Defence Council has supported a Defence Ministry proposal to gradually reduce the size of Ukraine's 1,600-strong peacekeeping contingent in Iraq - see Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1354 gmt 28 Sep 04.]

The Canadian military may be forced to mothball all of it's remaining destroyers and ground up to a quarter of its front-line fighter jets in order to fulfill a Liberal election promise to create a new, 5,000-strong "peacekeeping brigade." Bil Graham, the Defense Minister, is to present options on the proposed new brigade to Cabinet by the end of the month, but Defense sources have told the National Post the military has been told to prepare drastic measures to pay for the idea. In an article posted yesterday on the Web site of Jane's Defence Weekly, the London-based defence publishing...

SARAJEVO, Aug 18 (KUNA) -- Bosnia will send a peacekeeping group of 36 military men to Iraq to work with the US forces on removing land mines and to conduct other rescue operations, said a statement issued by the Bosnian presidency today. The statement of which Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) received a copy said that the Bosnian Presidential Council understands the opposition's demands regarding canceling the decision of sending a force to Iraq, however the council believes that the force will be involved in "non-combatant" missions as it will work on removing land mines and detonating booby traps. The Bosnian...

ADVERTISEMENT UNITED NATIONS (AP) Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he hopes the United States will not withdraw from peacekeeping operations after its failure to win an exemption from international prosecution for war crimes.