UN's Robinson Calls for Suspension of Air Strikes

DUBLIN (Reuters) - United Nations (news - web sites) Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson called on Friday for a suspension of air strikes against Afghanistan (news - web sites) in order to provide aid to civilians before the onset of winter.

Speaking on Irish state radio, she said the situation for civilians in Afghanistan was ``desperate.''

``This is the real wish of the humanitarian agencies...the desperate urgency now is to use this window until about the 15th or 16th of November when the winter snows will prevent access and the people will freeze and starve to death because they will have neither food nor shelter,'' she said.

``We must have a pause in order to enable huge humanitarian access and to allow a number of Afghans to come across the borders,'' she said.

The United States carried out a fifth wave of air strikes overnight in an assault against the hardline Taliban for its refusal to surrender Saudi-born Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Robinson, a former president of Ireland, said there was an opportunity to save many lives, but time was of the essence.

``All I can say is there is a desperate situation for hundreds of thousands -- perhaps up to two million -- of the Afghan civilian population who desperately need food,'' she said.

``It is absolutely wrong that 6,000 people were killed in the terrible events of September 11 but equally we must have regard for the population in Afghanistan,'' she added.

Robinson said it was also important that military attacks be confined to targets that did not put civilians at risk.

Asked whether she was happy that this was the case at present, she said: ``It's very hard to tell, we don't have much access.''

Another Memo to Ms. Robinson:

Well, ya see Ms. Robinson, it's like this. We here in the USA also face a desperate situation. A bunch of religious nuts have decided to kill as many of us as possible. They have already demonstrated a willingness to do this and they've also demonstrated they have weapons of mass destruction and are willing to use them.

Now, as it turns out, these same religious nuts are the ones who created the economic basketcase that is Afghanistan. Seems they're more interested in 70 virgins than feeding their own people.

So, it seems to me we folks in the U.S. and you folks at the U.N. have a common enemy -Osama bin Ladin and the Taliban. What say we solve our joint problem by ESCALATING the raids so as to kill these murderous vermin as quickly as possible, hmm?

I'm available to discuss this option at your convenience.

Hugs and Kisses,

AlguyA.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson called on Friday for a suspension of air strikes against Afghanistan in order to provide aid to civilians before the onset of winter.Speaking on Irish state radio, she said the situation for civilians in Afghanistan was ``desperate.''

I'm sorry... maybe I misread another post here. They're so desperate they burn RICE AND FRUIT in food drops we gave them?

Forgive me if her pleas fall upon deaf ears. (Deaf thanks to the sounds of screaming from my television on Sept. 11th from 5000+ suddenly-souls realizing they could never go HOME again, replaying nightly in my head.)

Mrs Kus

I don't get it! If their own government doesn't care and if THEY themselves don't care enough to rid themselves of this cancarous sore known as the Taliban, why on earth do we need to? There are plenty, but PLENTY, of poor nations that have revolted against abusive governments. If they want help, let's see some action by the majority of the population...then we can go in and help strengthen them AND their efforts. But the dancing and condemnations coming from there are NOT calls for help!

I'd like to get in there and have the ear of a handful of the women for a short time, teach them a few tricks, then let them loose. I bet a good revolt could be started with them leading!

Mary Robinson United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (since 12 September 1997)

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on 9 June 1997 the appointment of Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In that capacity, she will assume principal responsibility for the human rights activities of the Organization, including the tasks of streamlining the human rights machinery throughout the United Nations system and supervising the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

Ms. Robinson, President of Ireland since 1990, has outstanding legal qualifications and has worked in the area of human rights with special expertise in constitutional and European human rights law. She became a member of the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1973. She served as a member of the International Commission of Jurists (1987-1990) and of the Advisory Commission of Inter-Rights (1984-1990).

Among the numerous international activities relating to human rights in which she participated, Ms. Robinson served as Special Rapporteur to the Interregional Meeting organized in 1993 by the Council of Europe on the theme "Human rights at the Dawn of the 21st Century", as part of its preparation for the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. She delivered the keynote address at the Council of Europe preparatory meeting for the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women.

Ms. Robinson was the first Head of State to visit Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide there and made two further visits, the most recent to address the Pan-African Conference on "Peace, Gender and Development". While in Rwanda she met representatives of, and was briefed by, agencies on the ground, as well as by the United Nations Human Rights Monitors. She was also the first Head of State to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, as well as the first Head of State to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992. Ms. Robinson received the Special CARE Humanitarian Award in recognition of her efforts for Somalia.

As Ireland's Head of State, Ms. Robinson represented her country internationally, developing a new sense of Ireland's economic, political and cultural links with other countries and cultures. She placed special emphasis during her Presidency on the needs of developing countries, linking the history of the Great Irish Famine to today's nutrition, poverty and policy issues, thus creating a bridge of partnership between developed and developing countries.

Send e-mail with comments and suggestions to: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.