The kernel of the future – the projected five world leaders – are in trouble. With the US and China in a tiff because of Taiwan (arm sales by US manufacturers) and Tibet (a visit with the Dalai Lama), now South Africa, one of the three IBSAs that met with the G2 in Copenhagen, shows sings of 21st century immaturity. You just cannot go on living by Zulu rules if you want to lead your people out of poverty. Tiger Woods learned that very very fast that the limelight of world media will do you in, and even oil rich monarchs do not father now 20 children anymore. The stories about Zuma’s ascent in South Africa were plenty and his people we know told us so when it was rumored that he is in line to take over his country’s helm. It seems that Mandela’s South Africa deserves better – so does the 15 States group of Southern Africa { http://www.sadc.int }, and black Sub-Sahara Africa at large. We said before, South Africa is the third IBSA not alone, but as the symbol of all that immense Sub-Sahara black chunk of resources rich land and its one billion people that have the potential of evolving into next great consumers market to drive their own economy and the world economy. To this mass of people, the South African President must be an example and our prejudice that we knowingly attempt to show by this posting, calls for an exemplary leader for South Africa – someone fit to try on Mandela’s shoes.

This week the African Union rejected the attempt of Libya’s rambling Gaddafi to hold on to the chairmanship of Africa for another year, and voted instead to give the position to Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika. We attach the story about that event at the end of this posting, as we focus on the further ramblings by a Libyan-sponsored group of African traditional leaders from an unnamed French speaking African country, who crowned Qaddafi “King of Kings.” Africa seems to react indeed with understanding to the fact that the world is changing into a 7 to 10 countries structure and that Africa wants one of its own, and that means not Qaddafi, to be part of this structure – a modern man rather then a traditional chieftain – neither do they think anymore that the position of leader in Addis Ababa belongs to a Mediterranean North African settler. They want a black leader – but hiding under a Zulu mantle, and invoking rules of the desert, simply  can not do anymore.

——————–
South Africa’s President Sows (Another) Sex Scandal.

Theunis Bates
 http://abbaymedia.com/News/?p=3699
By JASON McLURE

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, delivered a rambling rebuke of fellow African heads of state Sunday after they chose to replace him as chairman of the African Union and failed to endorse his push for the creation of a United States of Africa.

“I do not believe we can achieve something concrete in the coming future,” said Colonel Qaddafi, before introducing President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi as his successor at the African Union’s annual summit meeting, held in Addis Ababa. “The political elite of our continent lacks political awareness and political determination. The world is changing into 7 or 10 countries, and we are not even aware of it.”

South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria were among the countries opposing Colonel Qaddafi’s attempts to form a continental government, which many view as impractical given the political and economic disparities in Africa.

Colonel Qaddafi argued that individual African states are too weak to negotiate with major powers like the European Union, the United States and China. His efforts to become the first African leader to win another one-year term as chairman of the African Union were thwarted by a push for Mr. Mutharika, 75, by the 15-member Southern African Development Community.

The Libyan leader also complained that such summit meetings were boring, that his colleagues were too long-winded and that he often was not informed of African Union decisions.

Colonel Qaddafi did not leave the lectern before giving the microphone to an unnamed representative of a Libyan-sponsored group of African traditional leaders who had crowned him “King of Kings” in a ceremony in 2008.

The representative, bearing a golden scepter and trailed by an aide fanning him with a large feather, spent much of his address praising Colonel Qaddafi.

“You have the African people with you,” said the man, who spoke in French and did not identify himself. “This is what is important, not politicking. It is politicians who have destroyed us.”

On November 1, 2005, SIXTY YEARS SINCE THE END OF WORLD WAR II, THE LIBERATION OF THE AUSCHWITZ EXTERMINATION CAMP BY THE SOVIET ARMY, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UN, finally, the UN that in major part came about because of the fact that the world realized that walking in the ashes caused by anti-Semitism and other isms, is not the will of the human race; the UN was created to learn from that experience – but did it? It took 60 years, the creation of the State of Israel, the travails of Zionism is Racism abomination, and one strong Ambassador of humanity to the organization – US Professor/ Senator/Ambassador Moynihan, to start to beat the anti-Semitic UN steel into compliance.

—————

UN Designates International Holocaust day
November 1, 2005, release:

The UN General Assembly has decided by acclaim to designate January 27 as international Holocaust Day.

This is the first time ever that a resolution introduced by Israel has been adopted by the UN General Assembly. Some not inconsiderable distance has been traveled from the infamous “Zionism is Racism” resolution to this resolution. At least, the world can be united in condemning genocide, even if “Zionists” propose the initiative. The vision of Austria and Germany co-sponsoring and approving of such a resolution is certainly heartening to the surviving victims of Nazi persecution, to the Jews, gypsies and others whose families died in the Holocaust and to the state of Israel.

Unfortunately, it is not at all certain how some countries will mark this day. Some of the rhetoric of the UN discussion is ominous: Several Muslim and Arab governments expressed “reservations.” Some countries believe that the Holocaust, in which a state turned against noncombatant civilians, was the same as bombing the cities of enemy countries at war. In many of the countries that approved of this resolution and even among those whose representatives spoke kind words about humanitarianism, Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are best sellers. Some of those countries have been accessories after the fact to genocide, or committed it themselves. In those countries, every day is Holocaust day. From the remarks of the Ukrainian representative, you would not know that the Jews of the Ukraine were rounded up by Ukrainian SS, or that the gas chambers at Auschwitz were run by a Ukrainian nicknamed “Ivan the terrible.”

What public activities will mark Holocaust day in Iran, where President Ahmedinejad has called for a world without Zionism and America? In Syria, a book about the Blood Libel (the accusation that Jews kill Christian children in order to use their blood for baking Matzot) was written by the former minister of Defense. Syria also made notable contributions to the history of racial persecution in its treatment of the Kurds. Will Syria mark this day in sympathy with the victims, or will they celebrate it by showing, perhaps, a screening of Lenni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will? Will this day become an occasion for so-called “anti-Zionists” to trot out Holocaust denial and accusations that Israel is committing a Holocaust against the Palestinians, or that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis?

Will the world again stand aside at the next genocide, as it did in Rwanda, and as it did for a very long time in Darfur, and as it continues to do in Tibet? In the discussion, each state was quick to accuse others of genocide, but unwilling to accept responsibility for crimes of their own states and governments. The Venezuelans spoke about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Chinese alluded to Japanese crimes. The Ukrainians alluded to Soviet crimes. The discussion would have more meaning if the Americans had spoken about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Chinese had spoken about their activities in Tibet, the Japanese had spoken the rape of Mongolia and the Turks had spoken of the Armenian genocide.

The implementation of the resolution will be of more consequence than the paper or the words themselves,  and the reality of the actions of states will be more important than either.

The proliferation of vile Web sites and articles about the “Holocaust Myth,” claiming the Holocaust never happened and is yet another Jewish plot, points up the urgent need for this day of remembrance.

Alert readers of what was said that say will note some bitter ironies in the remarks of representatives of some states, whose people and governments were active collaborators or passive accessories in the crime of the Holocaust.

The date – January 27 – was picked as that was the date the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination machine was closed by the Soviet army. http://www.zionism-israel.com/news/holocaust_day.htm

The first commemoration was held at the UN in 2006 and this year we have thus the fifth such event – or actually a series of events, that traditionally start on the Saturday before the actual date with a ceremony at the Park East Synagogue located on Manhattan’s East Side – Midtown.

The list of this year’s events at the UN, as provided to parties outside the UN – and published on our website is:
 http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2010/01…

But besides the UN itself, the fact that the UN has thrown the light upon the Holocaust atrocities, and the world’s need to remember these atrocities by having an International day of Remembrance, it is now that even in unexpected places in the civilized world, we find events being organized for the purpose of remembering and of learning from that experience. We thought thus to mention here one such event in a place we hardly expected to find it – the main Carnival city of the North-East of Brazil – Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
 http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2010/01…

We will be reporting on this year’s week-long series in several postings that will involve also other related events – for now we will put up the clear Jewish angle to the comemoration – as it reflected in the Park East Sybagogue events and in the political official presentation at the UN main event of January 27, 2010

REMARKS AT PARK EAST SYNAGOGUE IN MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST

by H.E. Srgjan Kerim President of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Park East Synagogue
New York, 26 January 2008

Rabbi Schneier,
Excellencies,
Members of Park East Synagogue,
Dear Friends,

I am very grateful to Rabbi Schneier for inviting me to the Park East
Synagogue – a historic architectural treasure in the heart of
Manhattan.

I am sure that you are all very proud of Rabbi Schneier for his
commitment and spiritual leadership that has brought this synagogue
international recognition.

It was only five years ago that I had my first opportunity to attend
and participate in a Jewish ceremony, here at the Park East Synagogue.
The experience inspired me to write a poem entitled ‘Temple’. I would
like to share a short extract with you today. I hope you will
appreciate it;

Nowhere in the world is it possible
To find such a grandiose temple
That would keep for ages
The layers of human sin
And all our shame.

I’ve always believed
There’s nothing greater in a temple
Than the final sounds melting
In the concluding Amin
Until I heard the word
Of a great friend of mine
Who walked in the steps of Moses
And is called a Rabbin.

Park East Beit Knesset,

I wish there would not have been such an occasion for me to address
you today. However, as we all know the Holocaust happened. It is
definitely one of the darkest pages in the history of mankind.

Unfortunately, we are still facing some lonely, desperate attempts to
blur the horrifying dimensions of the Holocaust.

We gather here today to remember and pay homage to those who lost
their lives in the Holocaust; the atrocities that they were subjected
to can never be forgotten.
The perpetrators of the Holocaust fed man’s ego with delusions of
supremacy and tried to erase the bonds that all human beings share.

The liberation of the Nazi concentration camps over 60 years ago
revealed one of the most evil crimes against humanity. The
consequences still reverberate in the present.

Elie Wiesel – Nobel Laureate, a Holocaust survivor and champion of
moral responsibility – has best put this into perspective:

“Let us remember, let us remember the heroes of Warsaw, the martyrs of
Treblinka, the children of Auschwitz. They fought alone, they suffered
alone, they lived alone, but they did not die alone, for something in
all of us died with them.”

We must also remember to pay tribute to those who survived and bravely
carried on with their lives – and in doing so inspired others. I would
like to salute the strength and perseverance of all Holocaust
survivors and their families.

I know that some of you are with us today.

Not only have you survived, but you have rebuilt communities all over
the world, become stronger, and enabled future generations to thrive.
You just have to look around at all the people gathered here today to
recognize this fact.

The recognition of this day of Holocaust remembrance by the
international community heralded a change of tide at the United
Nations; and, a step forward in the collective memory and conscience
of our world.

Dear Friends,
Remembrance of the Holocaust is more than the recognition of a tragic
past – or the darker side of human nature.

Remembering is an ethical act; it has ethical value in itself.

Remembrance is also a means through which we can understand ourselves:
an engine for change that should enable us to create and sustain a
better, more just future.

I am reminded of my father and his family. During the Second World War
he bravely helped to save and protect the family of Isac Sion – his
school friend – amidst the terror of occupation.

At the age of twenty my father and Isac subsequently joined the
National Liberation Movement of Macedonia to fight for freedom,
against the Nazi dictatorship, alongside the Allies.

Isac Sion subsequently went on to become Vice-governor of the Central
Bank of the Former Yugoslavia and following this was appointed as
Yugoslavia’s trade representative to the United Kingdom.

My father and many others like him served the Jewish people in their
hour of need. Their actions epitomize the practical meaning of
something profound that the famous Irish politician and philosopher
Edmund Burke once said, and I quote;

“All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

When I had my first opportunity, in some small way, to redress the
atrocities committed during the Holocaust – as foreign Minister of
Macedonia – in 2000, I appointed Elie Wiesel as our first Special
Envoy and Goodwill Ambassador. He then became the United Nations
Messenger of Peace for Human Rights and the Holocaust.

And, in honour of the Jewish community, my country will soon complete
the construction of a Holocaust Memorial Centre. This is a symbolic
gesture to bring back the memory of the victims from Treblinka to
Skopje.

Looking back at the turbulent history of the Balkan region there are
some bitter lessons that we must learn: war begins when the perception
of the pain of others ends. We can also turn this around to say that
when the perception of the pain of others begins there is no room for
war.

We must remember that every religion and culture must be tolerant of
the legitimate right for others to assert their difference in freedom.

Furthermore, intolerance of other religions or cultures is often a
sign of the degree of intolerance within a particular religion or
culture.

Dear Friends and members of Park East Beit Knesset,

The United Nations was founded on the ashes of the Holocaust, when the
world was in need of hope for a better future.
It was created to embody that hope as a promise to humanity. However,
most disturbingly, since the Holocaust there have been genocides and
serious crimes against humanity in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Yugoslavia.

That these atrocities occurred is not necessarily the failure of the
United Nations as an organization; but rather, represents the lack of
collective will of its Member States to take the decision to act or
intervene.

Even while we gather here, there are places – like Darfur – where
people suffer from the very crimes, which, time and time again, we
have vowed would never again happen.

For the dignity of all humanity, we must strengthen our ability – our
collective resolve – to prevent such atrocities, whenever and wherever
they might occur.

Indeed, terrorism, violence, rape, murder, poverty and discrimination
on the grounds of race or religion continue to be part of the everyday
lives of many people. This fact alone should jar us with indignation.

Despite the tragic failures of the international community to prevent
crimes against humanity since the founding of the United Nations,
there is hope – failure is not an option.

In 2005, the General Assembly passed a resolution that included the
‘Responsibility to Protect’. In doing so, all nations signaled their
commitment to take action – to hold themselves accountable – to
recognize that with sovereign rights come responsibilities to their
peoples.

In fact all of us here today can add our voice, with the United
Nations, to ensure that this new paradigm within international
relations comes to life.

Rabbi Schneier offers us an example of what we can do. He has been a
great advocate for human rights, and the promotion of religious and
ethnic tolerance. He has worked tirelessly to strengthen ties with
communities from different faiths and backgrounds through his good
works and publications.

In 2003 we jointly organized the first ever South East European
regional conference on ‘Dialogue among Civilizations’, at Lake Ohrid
in Macedonia.

In this spirit, and as we have just celebrated the life of the great
Martin Luther King Jr., I think it is fitting that I should recount
something he once said. It captures the same call to action that needs
to be instilled in the world today if we are to prevent a repeat of
the Holocaust;

“injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere….. Whatever
affects one directly, affects all directly.”

Dear Friends,

On the occasion of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of
the victims of the Holocaust, as well as of the 60th Anniversary of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let us embrace our
diversity, and honor our interdependence, as the only path to peace
and justice.

Together, it is our common challenge to eliminate all distorted
notions that deepen barriers and widen divides: for they all originate
in the discriminatory practices of the mind.

We can achieve this by promoting intercultural dialogue and
cooperation for peace as a means to replace misunderstanding with
mutual respect and acceptance.

But we must also move from words to action, from principled intentions
to deeds that promote human security, human rights, the responsibility
to protect and sustainable development. For herein lies the hope of a
new culture of international relations with the United Nations as its
centerpiece.

Members of Park East Beit Knesset,
And, all those gathered here today,

Let me wish all of you and the wider community peace, health and prosperity.

Let all our thoughts honour the victims of the Holocaust, and let us
spare no effort to ensure that we never again witness such evil. We
may not be able to change the past, but we must have the courage and
vision to change the future.

In order to do so, it is not enough to reiterate solemn gestures; we
must do everything possible to transform our attitudes to have full
regard for the dignity of all individuals, communities and nations.

Thank you. Shalom.

————–

But that was the last President of the UN General Assembly to be welcome

to speak before a Jewish Audience – in those 5 years. Before him were: Mr. Jan Eliasson of Sweden #60,

and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of  Bahrain #61.

Now it is UNGA’s 64th session: On 10 June 2009, Ali Abdussalam Treki

of Libya was elected by acclamation at a plenary meeting of the

192-member body of the United Nations General Assembly.

Treki assumed office as president of the 64th session on 15 September 2009,
succeeding General Assembly president, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of
Nicaragua who was 63rd President of the UNGA. Both these gentlemen
have made anti-Israeli statements and were also mentioned in this
context as plain anti-Semites, thus making it impossible to listen to
their linguistic expressions when it comes to the commemoration of the
liberation of Auschwitz. Thus, these last two years, the presentations
at the UN, it was Vice Presidents of the UNGA that spoke in their
place, and the UN General Assembly as such was not represented at the
Saturday pre-commemoration service at the Park East Synagogue.

But in 2009, The Park East Congregation had the honor to host the UN
Secretary General.

—————-
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
24 January 2009

Remarks at Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Park East Synagogue:

Thank you very much, Rabbi [Arthur] Schneier, for that kind introduction.

I especially appreciate you for calling me a mensch. With apologies to
those of you who do not speak Yiddish, I have to say: thank goodness
he didn’t call me meshugenah.

To all, I wish you Shabat Shalom.

Excellencies, distinguished Ambassadors to the United Nations,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we mark the International Day of Commemoration honoring victims
of the Holocaust. This is a most important and solemn occasion.

As you know, my friend, the late Tom Lantos, died shortly after last
year’s observance. Some of you may have met him when he came to this
Synagogue. He was dear to me, as he was to you. He made an
extraordinary journey from a Nazi labor camp to the halls of Congress.
He became a leading champion of truth and justice. Like those of you
who also lived through the Holocaust, he was never defeated by the
unspeakable horrors that he survived.

I can only imagine what he endured. Yet I, too, have witnessed man’s
inhumanity to man. I have seen it as Secretary-General, traveling in
places torn by war. And I saw it as a six-year old boy fleeing to the
mountains to escape fighting in my own country.

The UN helped South Korea to recover. Like Tom Lantos, like many of
you, I came to believe in the transformative power of the United
Nations.

Today, the UN is on the cusp of a great transition. Never have global
challenges been so large. Climate change, terrorism, the global
financial crisis – these troubles transcend borders. They affect all
countries, rich and poor. They will be overcome only when all
countries come together in response. That’s why we have a United
Nations.

Yes, the UN has its imperfections. It’s not perfect. Because of this,
from day one since I took office, I have pushed to change it. I have
insisted on a new culture of transparency and accountability. I have
worked to make the UN more efficient, effective, modern. In short, we
have tried to make it a better instrument to serve mankind.

We are here to mark the Holocaust. Like you, the United Nations is
determined to tell its timeless lessons.

Precisely two years ago, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution
condemning, without reservation, any denial of the Holocaust. I quote:
“Ignoring the historical fact of those terrible events increases the
risk they will be repeated.”

With you, I stand in saying: never again. Never. When I paid tribute
to Holocaust victims at Yad Vashem, I wrote in the book there, “Never
again. Never.”

Memory speaks. That is why it must be preserved and passed to future
generations.

Our Holocaust Outreach Program sponsors exhibits, workshops and panel
discussions. The aim: to confront deniers, or those who would minimize
the importance of the Holocaust.

When President Ahmadinejad of Iran declared that Israel should
“disappear,” or be “wiped off the map,” I strongly condemned his
remarks – twice.

We at the United Nations stand for human rights.

We stand for democracy and the rule of law. By working for economic
and social development, we build the foundations for peace.

We have a new instrument in our hands. It is called the Responsibility
to Protect – the idea that every nation has a legal obligation to
protect its people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and
crimes against humanity. Where nations fall short, the international
community has the right to take collective action.

Yes, it is difficult in practice. But I assure you. This is a major
advance in safeguarding mankind from crimes against humanity.

My friends,

Today is not simply a time for remembering. The Holocaust has lessons
for us, here and now. Let us heed them.

My job can sometimes be terribly painful. I see unbelievable hardship,
the worst human suffering. You are familiar with the grim catalogue of
names and places: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur,
Somalia and, of course, the Middle East.

I am just back from the region. I went to push for a cease-fire. More,
I went in search of a lasting peace.

The recurring violence between Palestinians and Israelis is a mark of
collective political failure – by both sides and by the international
community.

I saw first-hand what most people saw on television. I met a child and
his parents in Sderot, southern Israel, traumatized by falling
rockets. Never for one moment have I forgotten that a million people
in southern Israel live in a daily state of terror and fear.

In Gaza, I saw the most appalling devastation. I saw the UN compound,
still burning.

I said to all I met, on both sides: This must stop.

I left the region more determined than ever to work toward a world
where two States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace and
security. War can never be an answer. We need to strengthen the forces
of peaceful coexistence and dialogue.

No one sees this more clearly than your own Rabbi Schneier. He has
devoted his life to overcoming hatred and intolerance.

You all know him as the founder and president of the Appeal for
Conscience Foundation. What you may not know, and what I am very
grateful to him for, is his pioneering work for the UN’s Alliance of
Civilizations.

He knows first-hand that no one man or nation has all the answers. He
knows the sacred value of tolerance. He has survived the greatest
trials that life can hurl at a man or a woman and emerged not only
with his humanity and spirit intact but stronger. He survived the
Holocaust. Like others among you, he never lost sight of man’s
essential humanity, our capacity for good, our inherent dignity.

So, let us be frank. We must recognize the limits of power and
goodwill. We here know that we can never entirely rid the world of its
tyrants and its intolerance. We cannot turn all extremists to the path
of reason and light. We can only stand against them and raise our
voices in the name of our common humanity.

Tom Lantos was fond of saying that even the littlest actions, the
smallest of our daily deeds, can do much to leave this earth better,
less evil, less selfish, less monstrous than we found it. And he
stressed that doing these things, even in a modest way, gives you the
energy to keep moving forward. On this day of days, that seems to me
to be good advice.

As we remember the victims of the Holocaust, let us reaffirm our faith
in the dignity of humankind and our extraordinary resilience – our
moral strength – even amid history’s darkest chapters.

Thank you very much.

—————–

On January 23, 2010, before a full house at Park East Synagogue, the
main speaker for Saturday Pre-Commemoration of the International
Holocaust Remembrance Day was  Ambassador Susan Rice of the USA, and
at the actual ceremony at the UN General Assembly Hall was German
Ambassador to the UN H.E. Peter Wittig.

The remarks were:
 http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statement…

 http://www.newyorkun.diplo.de/Vertretung…

At the Park East Service this year, a further Honored Guest was Rabbi Ricardo Di Segni, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, who has been visited at his Synagogue by the Pope, also as part of this year’s Holocaust Remembrance.

Also present were Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting of Austria, Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany, Ambassador Gerard Araud of France, Ambassador Anastassis Mitsialis of Greece, Ambassador Marta Horvathne Fekzi of Hungary, H.E. Most Reverend Celestino Migliore the Permanent Representative of the Vatican, Ambassador Yukio Takasu of Japan, Ambassador Cesare Maria Ragaglini of Italy, Ambassador Mohamed Loulichki of Morocco, Ambassador Jim McLay of New Zealand, Ambassador Andrzey Towpik of Poland, Ambassador Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo of Spain, Ambassador Rayko S. Raytchev of Bulgaria, Ambassador Kim Won-soo, from the UN Secretary General’s Office, and about further twenty top Diplomatic Representatives. But I must remark that from all the Islamic and African Countries only Morocco was present – and from the newly emerging States only Brazil and China were present.

www.SustainabiliTank.info has backed this concept from its start. We
also believe that joint activities at this scale could help bring
about peace on the circumference of the Mediterranean, and show how
intelligent interdependency based on reliably renewable sustainable
resources could help people live friendlier to each other. This was
not the case when the relationship is based on selling and buying
depletable oil that only fuels corruption in the home of the seller.

————

Solar Maghreb

Developing large scale North African solar markets

Algiers, Algeria:  11—12, May 2010

The conference will be simultaneously translated in English and French

Introduction:

This event will bring together key players from the region – with particular focus on Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania – with global industry experts.  This event forms part of the Solar Global Series which is now in its 3rd year and has been attended by over 1200 high calibre delegates to date.

The Maghreb region contains vast solar energy resources and the exploitation of these will be a critical factor in helping accelerate the region’s economic development. The Maghreb countries have realized that tremendous opportunities exist and are beginning to diversify their energy markets away from an over reliance on oil and gas.

The recent announcement of the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative to develop a reliable, sustainable and climate friendly energy supply from the deserts in the Middle East and North Africa highlights the potential of the region.  Solar in North Africa can become both a clean domestic energy source and also a new clean energy export product.

With high solar generation potential Algeria is a key driver for the region in the development of solar markets.  The Energy Minister, Dr. Chakib Khelil has bolstered the sector with the introduction of a solar thermal plant feed in tariff and signed a series of MoUs and bilateral agreements aimed at expanding the country’s solar energy production and export capabilities.  In Morocco, the Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra has launched a $9 bn scheme to produce 38% of their electricity needs from solar by 2020.  In Libya a newly designated authority, REAOL has been tasked with developing the Libyan sustainable energy strategy.  In Tunisia international companies are carrying out feasibility studies for large scale CSP plants and the Ministry of Industry has set a target of 500,000sqm of panels installed by 2010.

Despite all these developments the region still faces many challenges in order to fully realize extensive domestic solar industries and the necessary infrastructure for clean electricity exports. Attend Solar Maghreb 10 to understand the many issues and network with the key players as the region develops its renewable energy strategies and develops profitable partnerships with leading innovators from the international solar market place.

Confirmed speakers include:

Silvia Pariente-David, Senior Energy Specialist, World Bank, Tunisia

Dr. Pedro Banda, Director General,
ISFOC, Spain

Dr Mahieddine Emziane, Faculty Member,
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology,
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Prof. Ibrahim Mohamed Saleh,
Electrical Engineering Department, Al-Fateh University, Libya

Key reasons to attend:

• Gain an in depth understanding of the potential scale of the solar market in this region
• Understand the policy support and stage of development in each country
• Identify investment opportunities in the region
• Participate in a series of interactive panel discussions and help shape this fast moving market
• Benefit from first class networking opportunities though our online networking tool prior to, during and after the event

Who will you meet?

Agenda outline:

Day One – 11 May 2010:

Solar Energy for Sustainable Economic Development

Keynote Session – Building the Solar Energy Future in the Maghreb Region

The keynote session will review how solar markets are developing across the world, how the market can develop in the region and what forms of solar – thermal, PV and at what scale – residential, industrial and utility will evolve.   Key visionaries will also share their views and thoughts on how solar energy will produce sustainable development and act as a key driver for economic development.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Regulation and Government Support
This session will review what governments are currently doing to stimulate the development of solar markets in the region and what they are planning moving forward.  It will also discuss key learning’s from other markets and look at the role of feed in tariffs and other incentives.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Solar Finance, Investment & Economics
This session will look at the challenges of raising finance in the current economic conditions and what new forms of financing are emerging.  Different finance models are required for large scale solar projects and these will also be reviewed.  The speakers will also look at the economics surrounding solar power, looking at the true costs of solar and the levelised costs of solar energy.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Panel Discussion – Solar & Hydrocarbons Panel
- How can leading regional oil and gas companies harness solar?
- How can hybrid solar and gas power stations be developed?

Solar Business Models

Solar technologies work from small scale residential through to larger scale industrial units and utility scale projects. This session will review which innovative business models and applications are suitable for the Maghreb region.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Close of day one & networking drinks

Day Two – 12 May 2010:

Solar Energy Technologies & Innovation

Technology & Innovation – CSP, Silicon PV, Thin Film PV & CPV

In this session a series of key speakers will provide the latest updates on their rapidly developing technologies and innovation paths.  What have they learnt from previous implementations and what needs to be applied to the development of the solar market in this region.  Matching the correct technology with each project, a combination of solutions will apply across the region.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Large Scale Project Case Studies
This session will showcase a series of practical and real life deployments from early adopters in the region as well as showcasing some key learning’s from previous deployments in other regions.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Developing Solar Supply Chains and Domestic Solar Industries
This session will discuss how a domestic solar industry could be developed.  It will review the key success factors for developing solar manufacturing plants and also the prospects for the local supply of components.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Key Solar Building Blocks
The final session will review the additional building blocks that are needed to drive the market forward in the region such as testing and applicability issues for different solar technologies, the role of local research and development resources and how local expertise can be developed.

Interactive discussion session with speakers

Close of conference

Speaking opportunities:

If you are interested in speaking at this event please submit a speaking proposal (presentation title, 4-5 bullet points and brief synopsis) to Rebecca Jackson
Email:
rebecca.jackson@greenpowerconferences.com

Sponsorship & exhibition opportunities:

Sponsor Solar Maghreb and benefit from:

• 1st class lead generation: meet companies actively working in the solar industry
• Enhanced brand profile: pre-event promotional campaign plus extensive on site branding
• Excellent publicity: gain an incredible amount of presence from on site promotion
• A cost effective marketing solution: our development team will be happy to customize a package and develop a cost effective marketing channel to generate new sales leads

Sponsorship options offering varying levels of branding and exposure are available to suit budgets and marketing aims.

Contact
William Todd for further details:
Office: +9714 813 5211 l Fax: +44 207 900 1853
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Venue:

TBC

From the latest news coming from Washington – “Under the new airport
rules, all citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen must receive a pat
down and an extra check of their carry-on bags before boarding a plane
bound for the United States, officials said. Citizens of Cuba, Iran,
Sudan and Syria — nations considered ’state sponsors of terrorism’ —
face the same requirement.”

That means Cuba and thirteen Muslim states: Afghanistan, Algeria,
Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia,
Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

These news caused a lot of comments, but we think the wrong comments.

We assume obviously that Washington is ready finally to address the
terrorism issue. Airplane terrorism, as we learned on 9/11, is not
about transport of weapons but about terrorists – to be specific since
9/11 – we speak here about Islamic terrorists. If you want to catch
terrorists you must look for terrorists. Looking for baby formula is
not the answer – but looking for those passengers whose profiles are
suspicious might be a better bet. Sure, obviously, not all Muslims are
terrorists, and profiling is terrible – even illegal, but if you want
to catch terrorists you start with the profile that most fits Islamic
terrorists, and you bet – they are Muslims of any color. Even though
they may be traveling with documents issued by non-Islamic States,
i.e. the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Switzerland, or even the
US.

So, it is not easy to define exactly what papers are carried by the
terrorists, but you can have some guidelines to increase your chance
of catching them. looking for a profile of an Asian or African Muslim.
Then, learn from the Israelis how to talk to them – you may even find
out that they are so convinced that their cause is the right one, that
they will lower their guard and just plainly disclose that what you
see is all they got.

There may be a Jamaican convert to Islam who preached terrorism in the UK
and resides now in Kenya – a case in point. Kenya does want him either and
he will be sent back to Jamaica a second time. yes, this is a problem if you
are American and Jamaica does not cooperate – but he is a Muslim and no
Anti-Defamation league is enrtitled to tell you Mr. President that he should
not be stripped and searched if he wants to travel via the US to Jamaica.
This is simple.

But what about Cuba? Fidel Castro is more atheist then Catholic, surely
no Muslim. Whatever went on in the past is history to me and I do not believe
prologue to Mr. Castro. So why mix him and his country up with 13 Islamic
States involved in Islamic Terrorism? That is unless someone in the US longs
to see him give cover to such terrorists in the future so they get new reasons
to be after him? If the Jamaica case has anything to teach us – it is that the
US is better off reinsuring its rear parts from anger caused by mistreatment
and friendship is not achieved by mulling over past grief. Specially, as several
hundred former sugar baron families living in Florida should not be allowed to
hold hostage the US when it comes to real US interests.

Mr. President, I watched Bolivia and Venezuela leaders speak in Copenhagen,
they fumed and brimmed with words – no stones or missiles. Their ALBA is,
I think, the natural ally of a US that manages to disengage from the Islamic
world of oil. So, it is the US self interest that calls for you, Mr. President, to
invite Fidel Castro to Washington for a tete-a-tete and start on a way that
eventually will give the US the wall of safety it needs when addressing the 21st
Century centers of terror – the Islamists’ terror cancer that will continue to ooze
as long as we use oil.

Please start by taking him of that list!

The thirteen on that list include the obvious Iran – Syria – Lebanon
trio of the Shii’a Islam, it includes the Afghanistan/Pakistan US
theater of operations and Iraq, as well as the other US theater Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan that misses Egypt and the Gaza strip. A
fourth historic region includes Libya and Algeria, then with Nigeria,
these are newer sources of oil for the US, and as such clear potential
sources of unhappy Islamists who complain about the changes in their
countries as fueled by oil money. In very few countries terrorism
against the US was actually started by rulers decree. Libya, Iran,
Syria, Sudan, Somalia may be the exceptions, but Saudi Arabia and
Yemen may have seen rulers who deflected anger against themselves into
anger against foreigners. In the majority of cases the terrorist is a
person of convictions and the situation could have been avoided had
the US and the rest of the Western World, tried to be less squanderous
with the oil we got addicted to.

Having said the above – let us get now to the point – MR PRESIDENT -
PLEASE – TAKE CUBA OFF THAT LIST BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BELONG ON THAT
LIST IN 2010.

* * * *

Please look – I am posting here four reference – links to news
articles of today’s New York Times.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/us/05t…

New Air Security Checks From 14 Nations to U.S. Draw Criticism
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/…

In Yemen, U.S. Faces Leader Who Puts Family First
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/…

Behind Afghan Bombing, an Agent With Many Loyalties
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/…

Kenya Seeks to Deport Muslim Cleric to Jamaica

————————

THE UPDATE:

We have received a comment on this post and it presents a very valid point supposedly made at the UN General Assembly by the Foreign Minister of Cuba: “I mean if they were going to include us, then they should have at least thrown in North Korea.”

Even if the e-mail we received from ajay -   akazif at gmail.com  as presented by www. eggplantpost.com in http://eggplantpost.com/2010/01/05/cuba-… were a made up story, the argument holds water nevertheless. DID THE US INCLUDE CUBA ON THAT LIST BECAUSE IT WANTED TO AVOID BEING SEEN AS GOING AFTER A RAG-TAG OF ISLANIC COUNTRIES? Now, we believe that US security should be spoken here – not again US appeasement-for-oil please!

ON THIS DAY – On Dec. 21, 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people; now, 21 years later, remembering what addiction to oil can do to us, the New York Times starts to discern a path to a better future for the planet.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL OF December 21, 2009
Copenhagen, and Beyond.

The global climate negotiations in Copenhagen produced neither a grand success nor the complete meltdown that seemed almost certain as late as Friday afternoon. Despite two years of advance work, the meeting failed to convert a rare gathering of world leaders into an ambitious, legally binding action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It produced instead a softer interim accord that, at least in principle, would curb greenhouses gases, provide ways to verify countries’ emissions, save rain forests, shield vulnerable nations from the impacts of climate change, and share the costs.

The hard work has only begun, in Washington and elsewhere. But Copenhagen’s achievements are not trivial, given the complexity of the issue and the differences among rich and poor countries. President Obama deserves much of the credit. He arrived as the talks were collapsing, spent 13 hours in nonstop negotiations and played hardball with the Chinese. With time running out — and with the help of China, India, Brazil and South Africa — he forged an agreement that all but a handful of the 193 nations on hand accepted.

Mr. Obama aside, there were two keys to the deal. One was a dramatic offer of $100 billion in aid from the industrialized nations to poorer countries to help them move to less-polluting sources of energy and to deal with drought and other consequences of warming. The offer had an instant soothing effect on many poorer nations that had been threatening to walk out all week.

The other was China’s willingness to submit to a verification system under which all countries would agree to report on their actions and — assuming details could be worked out — open their books to inspection. Transparency is a huge issue in Congress, and Mr. Obama made clear in his opening remarks on Friday that he would not agree to a deal unless China gave ground.

An enormous amount of work lies ahead, both for the president and for the other signatories to what is now being called the Copenhagen Accord. In order to deliver on his promises to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 and provide a chunk of that $100 billion in aid, Mr. Obama must persuade the Senate to approve a cap-and-trade bill — a huge task.

Meanwhile, there can be no letup by the rest of the world’s negotiators, no matter how tired and beat up they may be. These talks have been so chaotic and contentious that some people believe the United Nations machinery has outlived its usefulness, and real progress will henceforth be made in smaller gatherings of the big players.

There may be some truth to this, but at the moment it is hard to see how many of the arrangements agreed to in principle at Copenhagen — the verification system, for instance — can be made to work without detailed agreements. There must also be some mechanism that holds all countries responsible for doing everything they can to tackle climate change. As it is, the pledges now on the table, from both rich and poor countries, are nowhere near enough to keep atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide from rising above dangerous levels.

But for the moment it is worth savoring the steps forward. China is now a player in the effort to combat climate change in a way it has never been, putting measurable emissions reductions targets on the table and accepting verification. And the United States is very much back in the game too. After eight years of playing the spoiler, it is now a leader with a president who seems to embrace the role.

NEW YORK TIMES RECENT FURTHER ARTICLES ABOUT THE UN FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Mixed Bag for Obama on Climate Change Deal Amid the Recession

By JOHN HARWOOD

A victory for President Obama in Copenhagen will not necessarily help his popularity at home.

December 21, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: FOREIGN AID, GLOBAL WARMING, UNITED STATES ECONOMY, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, PELOSI, NANCY, OBAMA, BARACK, KERRY, JOHN

An Air of Frustration for Europe at Climate Talks

By JAMES KANTER

Caught off guard by the Copenhagen accord, European leaders felt pressure to back it even though they thought it did not go far enough and had a process in which they had little influence.

December 21, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: GLOBAL WARMING, COPENHAGEN (DENMARK),EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Copenhagen’s One Real Accomplishment: Getting Some Money Flowing

By JAMES KANTER

The accord in Copenhagen was “a big step forward” after previous talks offered no financial support mechanisms, Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary general, said.

December 21, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: GLOBAL WARMING, ENERGY AND POWER,COPENHAGEN (DENMARK)

Compromising on 2 Issues, Obama Gets Partial Wins

By PETER BAKER

From Copenhagen to Capitol Hill, the president determined the outer limits of what he could accomplish on climate change and health care and decided that was enough, for now.

December 20, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: GLOBAL WARMING, HEALTH INSURANCE AND MANAGED CARE, REFORM AND REORGANIZATION, OBAMA, BARACK

A Grudging Accord in Climate Talks

By ANDREW C. REVKIN and JOHN M. BRODER

After delays, theatrics and deal-making, climate talks ended with an agreement to “take note” of a pact shaped by five nations.

December 20, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: GLOBAL WARMING, TREATIES

• Science and Politics of Climate Change
• Who’s at the Climate Talks, and What Do They Seek?
• Climate Change Conversations

U.N. Climate Talks ‘Take Note’ of Accord Backed by U.S.

By ANDREW C. REVKIN and JOHN M. BRODER

The agreement left open the question of whether the accord would gain the full support of the countries involved in the talks on limiting the risks of climate change.

December 20, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: COPENHAGEN (DENMARK)

• Science and Politics of Climate Change
• Who’s at the Climate Talks, and What Do They Seek?
• Climate Change Conversations

———————————————————————————————————-

Off to the Races

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

A competitive Earth Race led by America can be a more self-sustaining way to reduce carbon emissions than a festival of nonbinding commitments at a U.N. conference.

December 20, 2009

MORE ON THE UNFCCC AND: GLOBAL WARMING, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, UNITED STATES, UNITED NATIONS

———————————————————————————————————

Updated Dec. 18, 2009

Representatives of 192 nations gathered in Copenhagen to seek a consensus on an international strategy for fighting global warming, in a series of meetings between Dec. 7 and Dec. 18, 2009.

Leaders concluded a climate change deal the Obama administration called “meaningful” but which fell short of even the modest expectations for the summit. The maneuvering that characterized the final week of the talks was a sign of their seriousness; never before have global leaders come so close to a significant agreement to reduce the greenhouse gases linked to warming the planet.

President Obama injected himself into a multilayered negotiation that was far more chaotic and contentious than anticipated – frozen by longstanding divisions between rich and poor nations and a legacy of mistrust of the United States, which has long refused to accept any binding limits on its greenhouse gas emissions.

The accord drops what had been the expected goal of concluding a binding international treaty by the end of 2010, which leaves the implementation of its provisions uncertain. It is likely to undergo many months, perhaps years, of additional negotiation before it emerges in any internationally enforceable form.

Read More…

Libya’s Mercurial Leader Keeps U.N. Guessing.
by Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 (IPS) – Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, who will be making his maiden appearance before the United Nations this week, has been described as a gadfly with a penchant for stirring up controversies. Even before he addresses a daylong summit meeting of the Security Council on Sep. 24, chaired by U.S. President Barack Obama, the garrulous Arab leader has been politely advised to stick to the day’s agenda and a time frame of five minutes for his speech. The subject of the meeting: nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.

“So, it would be out of order and inappropriate for any head of state to address topics unrelated to that,” says U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice. But will the mercurial Qaddafi, who recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of a bloodless military coup that catapulted him to power after the ouster of the strongly pro-U.S. King Idris, defy U.N. protocol?

“Assuming Qaddafi does raise the matter of Israel’s nuclear arsenal – which despite all the hysteria about Iran is the only one that actually exists in the Middle East – it will be interesting to see how the United States and the European Union (EU) states react,” Mouin Rabbani, contributing editor to the Washington-based Middle East Report, told IPS.

One assumes they will find a way to smite it off the agenda on procedural grounds, he added.

Rabbani said it was somewhat difficult to comment in advance on Qaddafi: “He’s typically characterised as ‘mercurial’, and that is putting it rather mildly.”

Essentially, anything he might do, as well as its polar opposite (or for that matter anything and its polar opposite), would conform to his pattern of conduct, said Rabbani, a highly-respected Middle East political analyst.

At a press conference in early September, Rice told reporters: “As president of the Council, we are mindful of the very tight time frame that is available for this session.”

“We want to be respectful of the heads of state in attendance. And we have asked, and we expect, and have been assured, by most delegations, that their heads of state will keep their remarks to five minutes or less,” she said.

Rice said she “expect[s] no less” from the Libyan leader, “should he come”.

The Security Council summit is expected to be attended by heads of state from 15 members states, including the five permanent members of the Council, namely the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.

The 10 non-permanent members in the Security Council, whose heads of state have been invited to participate, include Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya, Vietnam, Austria, Mexico, Japan, Turkey and Uganda.

A similar session of the Security Council – on the maintenance of international peace and security – was held in January 1992 presided over by then British Prime Minister John Major.

But next week’s session will be only the fifth occasion in U.N. history for a meeting of the Security Council at the summit level.

It will also be the first time a U.S. president will chair such a meeting.

Until recently, Libya was one of the countries designated by the U.S. State Department as a “terrorist state” – along with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba.

Qaddafi incurred the wrath of the United States for his military and financial support to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Irish Republican Army (RA), the Moro National Liberation Front in the Philippines, Bader-Meinhoff in former West Germany, the Red Army in Japann and the Dhofar rebels in Oman.

However, he has now severed links with virtually all of these organisations and is playing the role of an elder statesman in Africa and the Middle East. But his past keeps shadowing him.

Qaddafi’s decision to give up his nuclear weapons programmes back in December 2003 and his initiative to renounce terrorism gave him international legitimacy in the eyes of the Western world.

In January 2004, the United States helped airlift out of Libya components of the nuclear weapons programme that the country abandoned.

After the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which claimed 270 lives, and in which Libya was implicated, Qaddafi agreed to pay some 2.7 billion dollars in compensation to families of the victims.

The only person convicted in that bombing was Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, who was released recently on compassionate grounds, triggering outrage in the Western world.

But there have been reports that he was released on condition he dropped his appeal for a re-trial, which could have implicated others or the real architects of the bombing.

Rice said “it goes without saying that virtually every American has been offended by the reception accorded to Mr. Megrahi in Libya upon his return from the U.K.”

“This is a very raw and sensitive subject for all Americans, having lost 270 of our compatriots in a terrorist act,” she said.

“And how President Qaddafi chooses to comport himself, when he attends the General Assembly and the Security Council in New York, has the potential either to further aggravate those feelings and emotions or not,” Rice added. “So we are certainly hoping that this will be an opportunity for a constructive General Assembly session and a constructive meeting of the Security Council.”

Rabbani told IPS it was somewhat ironic that Qaddafi will address the world body as a Security Council member on the pretext of addressing the issue of nuclear non-proliferation.

Libya’s own nuclear programme was – much like that of Iraq at the time – essentially non-existent, and largely invented in the aftermath of the 2003 Anglo-U.S. invasion of Iraq to demonstrate that the war produced genuine disarmament benefits.

For U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, it helped divert attention from the spurious pretexts invoked to invade and occupy Iraq in violation of the UN Charter, he noted.

“And for Qaddafi, it formed his entry ticket into what is termed ‘the civilised world’ – a grotesque colonial term suggesting the Libyan leader was well on his way to achieving the status of an honorary white,” Rabbani said.

The above notwithstanding, he added, “I suspect Qaddafi may well use his U.N. platform to once again argue that Libya – and more specifically former Libyan intelligence operative Megrahi – is innocent of involvement in the Lockerbie attack.”

And while on the subject of nuclear proliferation, he will probably make some pointed references to Israel’s U.S. and European-endorsed nuclear arsenal, in addition to some provocative remarks about Iran’s nuclear programme.

In this context it is a real pity that Megrahi withdrew the appeal to his conviction on the eve of his release from prison, said Rabbani.

Given that withdrawing the appeal was not a requirement for release on compassionate grounds, it seems indubitable that a political deal was struck in this regard.

“That’s about all one can say with any confidence about Qaddafi’s UN statement,” he said,

“But will he also invite Americans to restore the U.S. to its rightful owner, with African-Americans returning to the African continent and the rest embracing Islam and spending the rest of their days memorising the Green Book (which contains his political philosophy?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him…”

I am now in Austria and the KRONNEN ZEITUNG just wrote: “GADAFI-MANN PRÄDIDIER GENERALVERSAMLUNG – DIE UNO SCHMÜKT SICH NUN MIT LIBYSCHER NARRENKAPPE.” That means that the UN did put on a Libyan fool’s cap.

Gadafi will speak right after Obama – but the City did not allow the set up of a Libyan tent for Gadafi – thank you Mayor Bloomberg – you showed there is still some sense on the UN’s periphery.

The Austrian paper also knows to tell that Gadafi’s Libya is diverting much oil-money to Austria. The Libya government investment arm called LIB, that accounts for over € 45 Billion bought 10%, to be increased to 15%, of Wienerberger AG – the largest brick manufacturer. They also invest heavily in Italy their former colonial power in such institutions as Unit Credit, FIAT, Soccer Club Juventus, Turin, Finemechanica.

Libya having made up with Scotland and the UK, and Bulgaria, at this time is boiling the Swiss waters.

———————-

Now the official UN release:

NEW GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT OPENS SESSION WITH CALL FOR UN REFORM.

The General Assembly opened its 64th annual session today with its new President, Ali Treki of Libya, calling for reform of the United Nations with an expanded Security Council representing full geographic diversity and an Assembly that has the ability to implement its resolutions.

Currently only resolutions of the 15-member Council, and not those of the 192-member Assembly, are legally binding.

“The General Assembly, which represents the entire world, has been hampered by the obstacles in its path,” Dr. Treki said in his opening speech. “It has been unable to implement or enforce its resolutions. The General Assembly must be reformed to regain its international legitimacy by ensuring that its voice is heard and respected and its resolutions implemented.”

Turning to the Security Council, he noted that Africa comprises 53 States, none of which is a permanent member – a position held only by China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States. Such is the case, too, of Latin America and the Forum of Small States, which account for over half of the world’s inhabitants.

“It is vital to reform the Security Council and to revitalize the General Assembly so that they can comprehensively fulfil their roles,” he declared.

Turning to world affairs, Dr. Treki called for dialogue and mutual understanding to resolve problems, not embargos and blockades which he called fruitless and serving to exacerbate antagonism and rebellion. He also noted that the gap between rich and poor has been growing steadily wider. “In an unequal world, we cannot hope for peace and security to prevail,” he said.

Condemning terrorism, he urged that close attention be paid to its roots, causes and contributing factors. “This is true of terrorism carried out by individuals, groups and States; State terrorism is the harshest form of terrorism,” he added.

Discussing the Middle East, he said “the Palestinian people’s aspirations towards independence and its right to return to its land in accordance with United Nations resolutions are two fundamental conditions for the swift realization of peace and security in that sensitive part of the world.”

Without mentioning Israel by name, he added: “There must be an end to settlement activities, which have been condemned by the entire international community. The removal of illegal and illegitimate settlements would help to achieve security and a just peace in accordance with the resolutions with which we must comply.”

Dr. Treki also called for progress at the Climate Change summit convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon next Tuesday to produce recommendations for the conference on the issue to be held in Copenhagen in December

And he urged additional efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that aim to slash a host of social ills by 2015, and steps towards non-proliferation and the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

——————–

YES; WE THINK THAT THE UN AND THE SECURITY COUNCIL SHOULD BE REFORMED – BUT AS LONG AS THE UN BODY CHOOSES TO PUT ON A LIBYAN HEAD JUST BEST FORGET ABOUT REFORM. PEOPLE GO, AND WILL GO, TO THE UN HOLDING THEIR NOSES WITH THEIR HANDS. SO MUCH FOR NEXT WEEK’S SHOW AS WELL.

HOLLYWOOD BACKS UN CAMPAIGN IN PUSH FOR WORLD LEADERS TO SIGN CLIMATE CHANGE PACT

A major Hollywood actor and director take starring roles in a United Nations public service announcement campaign launched today, aimed at compelling world leaders to “seal the deal” on a greenhouse gas emissions treaty at a climate change conference later this year.

Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, co-writer of the apocalyptic science-fiction blockbuster film – “The Day After Tomorrow” – which depicts catastrophic effects of global warming, the series of videos urge viewers to sign the online Climate Petition .

The announcements were shot in six locations across four continents and feature Don Cheadle, the star of Hotel Rwanda, a film based on the true story of a man who saved hundreds of lives during the 1994 genocide in the African country.

“The series is aimed at promoting public awareness and catalyzing action at the highest and humblest level to boost the prospects for a wide-ranging and transformative agreement at a crucial UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark in less than 80 days,” said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The conference in December brings together world leaders in a bid to agree an ambitious and far-reaching successor pact to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty setting greenhouse gas emission limits.

Also included in the announcements is world class violinist and UN Messenger of Peace Midori Goto, who said she was happy to lend her voice to those concerned about climate change.

Ms. Goto spotlighted the newly-appointed Prime Minister of Japan’ commitment to make substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

“We can act together to bring meaningful changes to our lives and to our environment,” she said. “Let’s sign the climate petition and let our voices be heard.”

Other videos in the series – released at the start of Global Climate Week, 21 to 25 September – are presented by President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives; Nobel Laureate for Peace Wangari Maathai; Animal Planet presenter and environmentalist Phillipe Cousteau; and wildlife film maker Saba Douglas-Hamilton.

* * *

VOTING FOR NEXT CHIEF OF UNESCO MOVES INTO THIRD ROUND

A third round of voting will be held tomorrow to try to select the next Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) after none of the nine candidates for the post were able to obtain a majority of ballots in the first two rounds.

The third round is scheduled to start about 3:30 p.m. tomorrow in Paris, where UNESCO’s Executive Board is conducting its latest session, the agency said on its website.

Earlier this week the 58-member Executive Board interviewed all nine candidates and then discussed those interviews in a private meeting. Voting is by secret ballot and a winner is chosen by a simple majority of the board. The first round was held yesterday and the second round was conducted this evening, but neither round produced a winner.

The nine candidates are comprised of five men and four women. They include Lithuania’s Ambassador to UNESCO, Ina Marciulionyte; Bulgarian former foreign minister Irina Gueorguieva Bokova; Ivonne Juez de A. Baki of Ecuador; and European Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Austria).

The other candidates are: Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny; Tanzania’s Sospeter Mwijarubi Muhongo; Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko; Algeria’s Mohammed Bedjaoui; and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO’s Africa department, Nouréini Tidjani-Serpos of Benin. The person chosen by the board will serve a four-year term. The term of Koïchiro Matsuura, the current Director-General, ends this November. Having served two terms, he is not eligible for another stint.

————————————————-

FUNDING SHORTAGE MAY FORCE UN AGENCY TO REDUCE FOOD AID TO KENYANS

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that a shortage of donations will soon force it to reduce monthly rations to millions of Kenyans in need of urgent assistance due to a combination of drought and high food prices.

“The funding shortfall is so severe that we will have to start reducing the size of rations early next month – the hardship people are facing is going from bad to worse,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.

WFP is currently distributing 2.6 million drought-affected Kenyans with food aid and hopes to increase that number by 1.2 million.

In parts of central Kenya, 50 per cent of shallow wells, boreholes and other water sources have dried up, and people walk up to 30 kilometres in search of water, according to the agency.

“Drought has left farmers with empty fields and the carcasses of dead cattle litter the land in some of the worst affected areas,” said Ms. Sheeran.

“Malnutrition rates are rising beyond emergency levels. And staple food prices – 100 per cent above normal – are beyond the reach of the hungriest people who are trying to feed their families.”

The agency said it has only received 8 per cent – $24 million – of the $301 million needed to feed 3.8 million people over the next six months.

* * *

MORE MUST BE DONE TO REFORM GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM TO FIGHT CRISIS, SAYS UN EXPERT

Investing in agriculture alone will not solve the food crisis, a United Nations independent expert said today, calling for stepped-up political will to address structural flaws in global food production, which is at the crux of the current emergency.

“The right to food is not the right to be fed,” Olivier De Schutter told reporters today in Geneva after briefing the Human Rights Council. “It is the right to access the means to produce food or to obtain an income that enables the purchase of adequate food.”

World leaders pledged $20 billion in agriculture in poor countries in July at the meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) industrialized countries in L’Aquila, Italy, but he called for a more ambitious policy.

“For one billion hungry people to escape poverty, the initiative announced at L’Aquila can only be a first step,” said Mr. De Schutter, who serves as the Special Rapporteur on the right to food. “It cannot be the last.”

Increased investment in agriculture is only a slice of the solution, he noted, calling for action to stabilize international food markets, which could face further disruption due to climate change.

Small farmers, he said, need access to land, credit, storage sites and support for cooperatives, among others, with measures necessary to alleviate hunger and malnutrition and boost the resilience of the most vulnerable people.

“As in the case of the financial system, it is the responsibility of policy-makers to take the decisions needed to ensure real change,” the expert stressed. “Political will is needed to tackle structural flaws in the global food system.”

Earlier this week, the head of the UN World Food Programme issued an urgent plea to ensure that those hardest hit by the financial crisis – considered by many to have started one year ago this week – are not forgotten.

There are more hungry people in the world and less food aid than ever before, while the flow of food aid is at its lowest in two decades, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.

“For the world’s most vulnerable, the perfect storm is hitting with a vengeance,” she said.

* * *

NO END IN SIGHT TO ECONOMIC CRISIS FOR HARD-HIT DEVELOPING WORLD – UN REPORT

The global economic crisis continues to push millions of the world’s most vulnerable people into poverty, hunger and early death, a new United Nations report warns, stressing that “green shoots” of recovery are not being felt by the poor in the developing world.

Estimates suggest that the worldwide recession has pushed 100 million more people below the poverty line and 61 million people have been added to the number of jobless over the last two years, according to the report.

“The ‘near poor’ are becoming the ‘new poor,’” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters in New York at the launch of the Voices of the Vulnerable: the Economic Crisis from the Ground Up report.

“Workers in both the formal and informal sectors are being badly hit, particularly in manufacturing, commerce and construction,” said Ms. Migiro, before quoting one construction worker who said that the “monster” economic crisis is “devouring the poor.”

She added that migrants are finding their situation increasingly precarious, with forecasts predicting that remittances to developing countries will be reduced by over seven per cent this year.

“Youth unemployment is dramatically increasing,” Ms. Migiro stressed. “The number of unemployed youth has increased by as many as 18.2 million over the last year.”

In addition, the report – part of a new UN initiative to monitor and draw attention to emerging crises – notes that an increase of 100 million people suffer from hunger and infant mortality rates are set to rise by an additional 200,000 to 400,000 deaths each year from now to 2015, if the crisis persists.

“Many of the poor and vulnerable are running out of coping strategies,” said Ms. Migiro. “They are being exhausted by crisis after crisis,” including the global food and fuel price hike crises that struck last year, on top of local floods, droughts and conflicts.

The crises may have long-term consequences, with tens of millions of children suffering from cognitive and physical injury caused by malnutrition as a result of the food and economic crises.

Ms. Migiro warned that the spread of the H1N1 influenza pandemic to countries already devastated by the economic crisis, or the onset of new natural disasters, are among the last straws that may “break the back of overstretched populations and governments.”

The report is part of larger UN initiative called the Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System (GIVAS), developed to provide early, real-time data to the international community on how external shocks, such as the economic crisis, are affecting the welfare of the vulnerable and poor.

The Secretary-General is slated to present the report to the annual high-level debate at the General Assembly in New York next week, which takes place ahead of the summit in Pittsburgh, United States, for the Group of 20 (G20) leading economic nations.

Both forums will address the impact of the ongoing economic crisis, with the report underscoring the need to protect not only the poor and vulnerable but also the increasing number of middle class families slipping into poverty.

* * *

BAN PRESSES G20 LEADERS TO MAINTAIN COMMITMENT TO HELP WORLD’S MOST VULNERABLE

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has written to the leaders of the so-called Group of 20 (G20) industrialized nations to cement their commitment to help the world’s most vulnerable who are bearing the brunt of the global economic turmoil.

In his letter to the leaders ahead of their gathering next week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, Mr. Ban exhorted them to deliver on the $1.1 trillion pledge – especially the $50 million earmarked for the poorest nations – made in London earlier this year

He also called on them to honour their official development assistance (ODA) commitments made in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005, of $155 billion by next year, with over one-third of that allotted for Africa.

Action must be accelerated to achieve the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said the letter. While strides have been made in areas where global investments have been scaled up, including AIDS and tuberculosis, progress is lagging in education, maternal health, smallholder agriculture and basic infrastructure.

The Secretary-General also urged progress on the fight against climate change through the setting up of a fair financing mechanism to provide $250 billion annually by 2020, in addition to ODA.

Investment in green technologies is vital in pulling the world out of the economic crisis, he stressed, as is governance to manage this new finance stream which must be directed to adaptation and mitigations at the national level.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the Secretary-General said that despite talk of recovery from the international financial crisis which has marked its first anniversary, “we are still not out of the deep woods – and this crisis is layered upon the food crisis and the pandemic crisis.”

With over 100 million people expected to drop below the poverty line this year, he emphasized that we “simply must amplify the voices of the vulnerable and ensure that the world follows up on its pledges.”

In Pittsburgh, Mr. Ban will update the G20 leaders on the UN’s new Global Impact and Vulnerability System (GIVAS), which will deliver real-time data on the impacts of the economic turmoil on the world’s poor.

“To make the right policy responses, we must know, in real time, what is happening on the ground,” he said.

—————————————————

UPCOMING MEETINGS CAN RALLY SUPPORT FOR UN-BACKED NUCLEAR TREATY, SAYS OFFICIAL

A set of meetings to be held next week at United Nations Headquarters could have a significant impact on efforts to bring the treaty banning nuclear testing worldwide into force, a senior official leading those efforts said today.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has been signed by 181 countries and ratified by 149. However, it needs to be ratified by nine others – China, Egypt, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States – before it can enter into force.

Tibor Tóth, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the CTBT Organization (CTBTO), highlighted the conference to promote the treaty and its entry into force, which will take place on 24 and 25 September in New York.

In addition, US President Barack Obama is scheduled to chair a meeting of the Security Council on 24 September focusing on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, including the CTBT.

Mr. Tóth welcomed what he described as a “stronger interest” by the US on these matters. “I see an attention which is underpinning the preparations for the ratification discussion in the [US] Senate.”

He also noted that the National Academy of Sciences was requested to prepare a study which will provide the necessary information to the Senate and to those who will have to review the ratification.

There is also movement from other quarters, he added, including an indication by Indonesia that it will ratify the treaty. All in all, he said he is “very much optimistic” about the political momentum that has been building over the past two and a half years.

“The climate is much better now,” said Mr. Tóth. “We have sunny political weather.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also highlighted the “crucial window of opportunity” currently available regarding nuclear disarmament.

“More leaders are speaking out. The wind is at our back,” he said yesterday at his monthly news conference. “With a strong push by the right leaders, we can bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty into force.”

* * *

NEW GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT CALLS FOR STRENGTHENING OF 192-MEMBER BODY

The new General Assembly President, Ali Treki of Libya, today reiterated his call for the revitalization of the 192-member body, saying its decisions should be respected. At present only the decisions of the 15-member Security Council are binding.

“The majority of countries are in favour asserting the authority of the General Assembly, which represents the world as a whole,” he told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York.

Dr. Treki made a similar call for UN reform when he opened the Assembly’s 64th session on Tuesday, and he reiterated today the need to enlarge the Security Council to give it greater world representation.

Asked about his priorities, Dr. Treki cited a long list, beginning with the strengthening of international peace and security, disarmament, human rights, the environment, and climate change.

He also included combating extreme poverty; infectious diseases such as AIDS; achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to slash a host of social ills by 2015; the economic, financial, food and energy crises; and the question of Palestine.

In addition, Dr. Treki called for greater investment in Africa, which he described as “a very rich continent. It doesn’t need really money, men and help but it needs investment.”

* * *

from The Times of London, August 24, 2009.

Gordon Brown believes the early release of the the Lockerbie bomber is too sensitive to comment on, Downing Street said today.

The Prime Minister is under growing pressure to say whether he agreed with the release of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, amid accusations that he is ducking a subject of national importance while offering his views on the Ashes.

Defending the Prime Minister’s silence, Mr Brown’s spokesman said: “Clearly, the Prime Minister recognises this was a very difficult decision and was clearly an extremely sensitive one and there will be very strong feelings from the families of those people who were victims of this terrorist attack.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6807889.ece

==============

Ahmadinejad Nominee Is Wanted in ‘94 Bombing
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Iran’s defense minister nominee is wanted in the bombing of
a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, confronting Iran with
another challenge to its reputation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/world/middleeast/22iran.html?th&emc=th

………………

New Questions in Lockerbie Bomber’s Release
By JOHN F. BURNS
Questions intensified in Britain as to whether lucrative
Libyan oil contracts were as much a factor as compassion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/world/europe/22lockerbie.html?th&emc=th

===========

And From The SanFrancisco Sentinel:

IRANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER NOMINEE AHMAD VAHIDI WANTED IN ARGENTINE JEWISH CENTER
BOMBING – 85 DEAD, 200 WOUNDED [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102678762925&s=1352&e=001XDcn8XF13paAYRAi58_aIfDRofW90X8RZEOwm4ofjr12F-Z7oAbnpvOZPENUMWLxLcUmL2q0MQtE5xbzMY_oXqkWo4ZvopyKWPu2ppeA1LmbLp3zolU838T1iiPzUYKcQuqqTL0ZSkBabP7GxUBAbA==]

U.S. BLASTS LIBYA HERO WELCOME FOR LOCKERBIE BOMBER [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102678762925&s=1352&e=001XDcn8XF13pZgGUwyLy_VHH93w_Y3jGwKsPI_W2gJtczQcrYRCjXpb3pXj0wv-b1TnCZwJiWmBuzxyxf3T-gXFHvz2Fx7ILonhu-7y0qUhYWozQ83A7z2kay-R7Mc4zeVCQw2Sy7zCcEgqw_q-dRtdQ==]

CLOWN MUAMMAR GADDAFI NEEDS THE WEST MORE THAN THE WEST NEEDS HIM [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102678762925&s=1352&e=001XDcn8XF13pZ-O40VKaHpztQrxYXtmU9YRvL7pXKkQslq8vSLxckyxVL_-K5kUnMz6l5DUPPKq1nxx42UwZG6a634j3h-dj63OrSKPpJk-sJvkT0vR8LsXKQtH_rHJpGaQKZMeY9T-cSSlb3NtoNwKg==]

If President Obama wanted to show Africa that he appreciates those states that made democracy a way of governing, he had just two choices before him – these were Ghana and Botswana.

His clear intent was to go to Sub-Sahara, or black Africa, as this is the area from which people were brought to America as slaves, but these people contributed immensely to the powerhouse America has   become – so, stopping for 21 hours in Accra, with his wife, children and mother in law – descendants of slaves – he also spoke to America – see that is part of our roots – no less then Europe!

His previous trip to the African continent was to Cairo – but that was clearly a trip to the Arab world – Egypt and Saharan Africa are part of that world and not part of black Africa, even though in L’Aquila he had to shake the hand of Libya’s Muamar Gaddafi whom the States of all Africa appointed as the head of the African Union. Clearly that meeting had nothing to do with democracy nor with roots of America – even though it had one moment of grace – Libya, for whatever reasons, like South Africa and Brazil, are states that could have developed nuclear arms, but withdrew from doing so.

The stopover in Accra was, we think so, the only one positive event of this week-long Presidential trip overseas. This was a redeeming grace for the week and highlighted the statement that the President will in the future look forward to a decrease in large Summits that are too big to produce any good. From our point of view in effect counterproductive and just an increase of unjustifiable CO2 emissions.

We wonder even if the increase in the figure of an additional $5 Billion earmarked for Africa by the donors of the OECD could not have have been achieved in phone calls or by e-mails to Canada and the EU.

————-

Obama Wins More Food Aid but Presses African Nations on Corruption

Jason Reed/Reuters
President Obama and the first lady greeted President John Atta Mills of Ghana and his wife, Ernestina Naadu Mills, left, in the capital, Accra, on Friday.

EUROPE »
Obama Wins More Food Aid but Presses African Nations on Corruption
 Group of 8 powers meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, for larger donations to the aid effort, citing his own family’s experiences in Kenya. As a result, the initiative grew from $15 billion over three years, which was pledged coming into the summit meeting, to $20 billion.

At a news conference afterward, Mr. Obama said that when his father came to the United States, his home country of Kenya had an economy as large as that of South Korea per capita. Today, he noted, Kenya remains impoverished and politically unstable, while South Korea has become an economic powerhouse.

“There had been some talk about the legacies of colonialism and other policies by wealthier nations,” he said, “and without in any way diminishing that history, the point I made was that the South Korean government, working with the private sector and civil society, was able to create a set of institutions that provided transparency and accountability and efficiency that allowed for extraordinary economic progress, and that there was no reason why African countries could not do the same.”

He also criticized the culture of corruption in some African countries, saying that those who wanted to start a business or get a job there “still have to pay a bribe.” While wealthy nations must help, he said, poorer countries “have an obligation” to reform themselves.

Mr. Obama said his thinking had been affected in part by conversations with his relatives who still lived in Kenya. “They themselves are not going hungry, but live in villages where hunger is real,” he said. “And so this is something that I understand in very personal terms.”

Other American presidents have called on African countries to take more responsibility for their countries’ problems and have pressed them to fight corruption, but none with Mr. Obama’s background. Just one generation removed from Africa himself, he occupies a powerful place in the African consciousness.

- QUOTATION OF THE DAY -

“No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.”
- PRESIDENT OBAMA,     on the need for reform in Africa.

————————————–

Obama Delivers Call for Change to a Rapt Africa
By PETER BAKER

Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Obama addressed the Ghanaian Parliament at the Accra International Conference Center on Saturday.
President Obama traveled in Africa as a potent symbol of a new era but also as a messenger with a theme of responsibility.

Text of Obama’s Speech in Ghana

Obama in Africa: Welcome Back, Son. Now Don’t Forget Us.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/11/world/AP-AF-Obama-Text.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/weekinreview/12gettleman.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/world/africa/12prexy.html?em

———–

Qaddafi met Mr. Brown dressed in White silk suit and wearing knee high boots, and surrounded female bodyguards that wore a blue uniform with gold epaulettes. Quite the showman he is thanks to his sitting on marketable barrels of oil.

In the photos we saw, his outfit when meeting other leaders, including President Obama, was more African-desert like.

———-

From The London Times, July 10, 2009

Gordon Brown asks for help from Colonel Gaddafi

Philip Webster, Political Editor, in L’Aquila
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo…

Gordon Brown today asked Muammar Gaddafi to intervene in the case of a British child abducted by her Libyan father as the Libyan leader was finally brought in from the cold by the world’s richest nations.

Britain is seeking the repatriation from Libya of six-year-old Nadia Fawzi, who was taken from her mother Sarah Taylor, of Wigan, in 2007.

Mr Brown raised her case when the two leaders met at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, today and told Colonel Gaddafi that it remained the case that Britain wanted Nadia to be reunited with her mother.

Col Gaddafi, who as usual brought a Bedouin style tent and a contingent of female bodyguards with him for his visit, undertook to look into the case and see what he could do as soon as possible, said a Downing Street spokesman.

Mr Brown and Col Gaddafi met ahead of talks between the G8 states – Britain, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia – and African leaders on measures to improve food security in the world’s poorest countries. Col Gaddafi is present as chairman of the African Union.

Today’s meeting is the first time Mr Brown has met Col Gaddafi, who was an international pariah for years following the Lockerbie bombing, for which Libya was blamed.

His predecessor Tony Blair famously flew to Libya in 2004 to meet Col Gaddafi in his desert tent after he gave up his weapons of mass destruction capability and accepted responsibility for the attack.

Mr Brown reiterated his “admiration and gratitude” for Col Gaddafi’s “brave” decision to scrap the WMD programmes.

The meeting took place in a small room in the financial police barracks where the summit is being held. Col Gaddafii spoke in Arabic and Mr Brown in English. Each had three aides with them and there was some banter when Col Gaddafi realised that Simon McDonald, Mr Brown’s foreign affairs chief and a slightly rusty Arabic speaker, was picking up on everything that he was saying.

Col Gaddafi wore a shiny white silk suit with a black undershirt, a black cape and scarf and knee high boots. His bodyguards wore a blue uniform with gold epaulettes. Behind the leaders was a Union Flag and a plain green Libyan flag.

In an apparent reference to Iran and North Korea, Mr Brown said that, following the decision to hold a nuclear non-proliferation summit next spring, it would be necessary to try to persuade other countries to follow Libya’s example.

During their 40-minute discussion, the two leaders talked about the current volatility in oil prices – which recently hit $75 a barrel.

They agreed on the need to maintain close dialogue between the major oil-consuming countries and producers like Libya, as well as the need for greater transparency in the oil markets.

Col Gaddafi raised the case of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who is appealing against his conviction and seeking return to Libya, but Mr Brown said that it was a matter for the Scottish Government.

Mr Brown also raised the case of Wpc Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in 1984. No one has been convicted for her murder, though the Libyan government has accepted that its agents were responsible.

Mr Brown and Col Gaddafi had a long discussion on Africa and their “strongly shared view” that the continent needs better representation in international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, said Downing Street.

The Prime Minister made the point that Africa was not responsible for the current global recession and should be protected from its consequences.

This was not the time for rich nations to retreat from their commitments to assist the poorest, said Mr Brown.

He offered British help in developing Libya’s healthcare system, which Col Gaddafi accepted.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “Throughout the conversation, there was agreement that the relationship between the UK and Libya was a strong relationship and had grown significantly since 2003 and that it would grow stronger still in the years to come.”

Col Gaddafi met Barack Obama last night and enjoyed his first handshake with a US president since his long years of isolation.

Mr Brown has already pledged to devote $1.8 billion dollars of Britain’s international aid to agriculture and hopes other G8 leaders will make similar promises today as part of a drive to make Africa self-sufficient in food.

The global downturn has led to a sharp increase in food shortages, with the numbers of chronically hungry estimated to be growing at a rate of around 275,000 a day throughout 2008.

Reform in Gaddafi’s Libya is still shrouded in ambiguity
By Heba Saleh in Tripoli
Published: The Financial Times of London, April 28 2009 03:00

The western part of the waterfront in downtown Tripoli looks like a massive construction site. Cranes tower over the landscape, while armies of labourers, many of them migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, scurry around doing the heavy menial work.

Some 20 major building projects, including international luxury hotels and swish office blocks, are to be completed in the area in the next few years transforming the appearance of the city and confirming Libya’s emergence from four decades of isolation.

Residents say the scale of the new construction is a response to soaring demand for office space, hotel rooms and housing as more foreign companies turn their attention to opportunities in the oil rich North African state.

The demand increased after the last remaining problems between Washington and Tripoli were resolved in November.

No longer an international pariah, Libya has been knitting closer ties with the outside world, but there is still uncertainty about how much real change will be allowed internally.

“In the last few years there have been more foreign companies coming and more Libyans travelling, creating a slow change,” said a western diplomat. “There will be no going back, because people see the benefits that resulted from opening up the economy and from opening up to the west.”

But shaped by the views and whims of Muammar Gaddafi, its maverick leader for the last 39 years, Libya remains a quasi-socialist state where political parties are banned and no dissent is tolerated.

Libya’s heavily centralised economy remains dominated by the public sector, even if in recent years foreign banks have been allowed into the country and the private sector has been given a bigger role. Mr Gaddafi is understood to be wary of businessmen becoming influential enough to pose a challenge to his rule.

Now, however, Farhat Bengdara, governor of the central bank, says: “We will start working on preparing a comprehensive reform programme, aiming at reforming the economy, from a state-controlled economy to a more private and co-operative sector economy.”

But in a sign of the ambiguity that still surrounds reform, he cautions that privatisation in Libya may not follow the same models as elsewhere. Libya, he explains, wants “people’s capitalism” which means “you don’t have a few tycoons and the rest of the people are just poor”. His expectation is that limits would be placed on how many shares an individual could own in a company.

Political reform, too, appears to be off the agenda despite plans to introduce a constitution – an initiative of Seif al-Islam, the son of the leader who played an instrumental role in improving Libya’s relations with the west and in pushing for greater participation by the private sector.

Like much else in Libyan politics, Seif al-Islam’s role remains shrouded in opacity. He does not have an official position, yet he has been able to wield enormous influence over sensitive issues. Many believed he was being groomed to succeed his father but, in a surprise move last year, he announced he was stepping back from politics.

“The struggle is between opening up and conservatism,” said another Tripoli-based diplomat. “I think Seif went too far for his father’s taste in terms of political rights, freedoms and human rights. The leader thinks there are enough economic problems now that they can’t address political ones too.”

The diplomat argues that a plan last year by Mr Gaddafi to abolish ministries and distribute the oil proceeds directly to the people was meant to address popular resentment over the widening income gap in society. But while some Libyans have benefited from the increased presence of foreign companies, the majority have seen their incomes eroded because of inflation.

The foreign influx has brought good jobs to a narrow class of well-educated Libyans. It has also benefited the politically connected who acquired land in the suburbs and built houses, renting them out to the expanding expatriate community.

Inequalities are rising, says the diplomat, even if there are still few public signs of wealthy lifestyles.

“Consumption is not conspicuous yet,” he said. “Here you don’t want to appear too much. You are in limbo still. People are getting their BMW’s, but the revolutionary committees still exist. As a Libyan you want to keep a low profile.”

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) is holding a press briefing this morning 4 March 2009 at 10:00 a.m. promptly in Room 226 at the United Nations Secretariat in New York in response to the upcoming International Criminal Court Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision concerning the Prosecutor’s 14 July 2008 application for the issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir.  

The Coalition’s briefing will be streamed live and archived via the UN Webcast website at http://www.un.org/webcast/

The Coalition’s briefing will follow the Court’s press conference scheduled earlier today, 4 March, at 2 p.m. in The Hague (or 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) at the seat of the Court during which the Chamber’s decision with regard to the issuance of a warrant of arrest against President Al-Bashir will be announced.

Coalition briefing panelists include Richard Dicker, the director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program, Niemat Ahmadi, the Darfuri Liaison Officer at the Save Darfur Coalition and Tanya Karanasios, the director of programs at the Coalition who will act as moderator. Brief remarks will be followed by Q&A.

Please note that later today, the Coalition will distribute to this list its press release on the Chamber’s decision as well as a list of experts from international and Sudanese human rights organizations for comment and background on the decision. Our website, www.iccnow.org , will be continually updated with member statements, Question and Answer documents, etc. as they are made available on or around 4 March.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact directly    tenenbaum at iccnow.org copying my colleague in The Hague,  maillet at iccnow.org

——————-

Sasha Tenenbaum
Communications Officer
Coalition for the International Criminal Court
708 Third Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Tel.:       +1 (646) 465-8524
Fax:       +1 (212) 599-1332
 tenenbaum at iccnow.org

—————-
Together for Justice: Civil society in 150 countries advocating for a fair, effective and independent ICC.

For more information, visit the new website at www.iccnow.org or www.togetherforjustice.org and participate in their blog, In Situ: See Justice through the Eyes of Civil Society, at www.iccnow.org

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

LIBYAN PRESIDENCY OF UN COUNCIL TO FOCUS ON PEACEKEEPING POLICY, SUDAN .

(THIS AS PER THE OFFICIAL UN NEWS RELEASE)

Peacekeeping policy and the repercussions of a possible indictment of the Sudanese President by the International Criminal Court (ICC) are among top concerns of the Security Council this month, according to the Charge d’affaires of Libya, the body’s March president.

There is nothing scheduled by the Council as an immediate reaction to tomorrow’s expected decision on an indictment of President Omar Al-Bashir for war crimes in violence-torn Darfur, Ibrahim Dabbashi said. (The Libyan President of the UNSG – for March 2009)
However, he added, there were ongoing consultations with Council Members on a possible decision under article 16 of the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, which could defer investigations connected with an indictment for 12 months.

“We hope the situation will not deteriorate in Sudan. We feel it is very important that the Security Council look into this matter in light of the decisions taken by the Regional Organizations, especially the African Union and the League of Arab States,” he said.

There was as yet no consensus on the matter, he said, and the Council would continue its consultations and closely watch the situation on the ground in the meantime, he added.

An estimated 300,000 people have died, either through direct combat or because of disease, malnutrition or reduced life expectancy over the past five years in Darfur, where rebels have been fighting Government forces and allied Arab militias.

Yesterday, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alan Le Roy, said that the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) would continue to perform its duties to protect civilians no matter what decision the ICC takes.

Also unrelated to the decision, a briefing by the Council Committee that oversees an arms embargo and related sanctions in Sudan is scheduled for 10 March.

In regard to peacekeeping policy, Mr. Dabbashi said that on 18 March an open debate is planned on the report of the AU-UN Panel on joint peacekeeping operations, chaired by Libya’s Minister for African Affairs.

A retreat on peacekeeping for Council Members will take place from the 20th to the 23rd of the month, and a Council mission to Haiti is planned for 11-14 March.

A debate is also scheduled on piracy and the peace process in Somalia on 20 March as a follow-up to the two resolutions on the subject that were adopted by the Council in December 2008.

In addition to the regular monthly briefing on the Middle East, discussions and actions are also slotted on the UN missions in Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), Kosovo (UNMIK), Afghanistan (UNAMA) and elsewhere, Mr. Dabbashi said.

———–===========————

See also from this UN News Press Release:

SECURITY SITUATION CALM IN DARFUR, UN-AFRICAN UNION BLUE HELMETS REPORT

The United Nations-Africa Union (AU) hybrid peacekeeping operation in Darfur known as UNAMID today reported that the security situation in war-ravaged Sudanese region is calm.

Forces with the mission are operating as normal, conducting patrols and closely monitoring the state of affairs throughout the area.

The pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will announce tomorrow whether it will issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir on charges of war crimes.

Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said yesterday that regardless of what the ICC decides, UNAMID will continue to protect the local Darfurian population.

“The Government would assume its full duty of protecting UN missions in Sudan against any negative impact that may result from ICC possible decision against the Sudanese political leadership,” he told reporters in New York yesterday.

UNAMID was set up by the Security Council to protect civilians in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million have been forced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2003, pitting rebels against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen.

One year from the transfer of responsibility to UNAMID from the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), over 60 per cent of the 19,555 military personnel authorized by the Security Council are now in place.

Meanwhile, regarding a shooting incident in a market in El Fasher where one person was killed and six others injured, UNAMID received information that armed militiamen were attempting to loot shops, allegedly due to their anger over not having received salaries.

* * *

BAN, FORMER US PRESIDENT CLINTON TO JOIN FORCES TO HELP HAITI

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited former United States President Bill Clinton to join him on an upcoming trip to Haiti to raise awareness of efforts to help the Caribbean nation’s people and government bolster their economic security.

According to a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban’s decision was spurred by the former American leader’s attention to Haiti while in office, his work as a United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and his September 2008 call to help Haiti as part of his Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

Next week’s visit builds on Mr. Ban’s continuing work with Haitian President René Préval to find a way to create jobs and improve food security, reforestation and the provision of basic services, including health care.

“The presence of the Secretary-General and President Clinton will bring a strong message of hope that Haiti is still ‘winnable,’” the statement noted.

“The trip will help to focus attention on the importance for new partnerships and new efforts to assist the people and government of Haiti as they continue to ‘build back better’ from recent storm damage and create a more stable and prosperous future for the children of Haiti.”

Yesterday, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy – who visited the country in January – told reporters of the “allure of hope” in the impoverished country.

* * *

GAZA: AFTER DONOR CONFERENCE, AID INFLOW STILL RESTRICTED, UN SAYS

Despite calls at yesterday’s donor conference for the unfettered import of aid and reconstruction supplies to the combat-battered Gaza strip, Israeli authorities continue to block crucial supplies, the United Nations said today.

Key crossings remain closed or partially closed, reconstruction materials are still prohibited, and restrictions on food types, clothing and schoolbooks have been maintained, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on the situation in Gaza today.

“More than 80 percent of all goods currently allowed into Gaza are basic foods,” OCHA said, adding that materials for home rebuilding and repair of water, sanitation and power infrastructure were urgently needed.

As of 2 March, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), Gaza’s water utility, reported that 50,000 people still do not have access to piped water and an additional 100,000 receive water approximately every 7-10 days.

According to GEDCO, Gaza’s power utility, the power deficit throughout the Gaza Strip as of yesterday remained at 19 per cent, with 90 per cent of the Gaza population receiving intermittent electricity and 10 per cent completely off the grid.

Those conditions will not improve until the necessary pipes, generators and other basic supplies are allowed into Gaza, OCHA said.

At yesterday’s donor conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the situation at border crossings “intolerable,” stressing that opening them was the first priority for aid and reconstruction efforts.

Israel launched a three-week offensive in Gaza on 27 December 2008 with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks by Hamas and other groups. At least 1,300 Palestinians were killed and some 5,300 were injured in the heavy bombardment and fighting in densely populated areas, which reduced homes, schools, hospitals and marketplaces to rubble.

In its update today, OCHA said that violent incidents in and around Gaza have continued in the period since 24 February, with seven rockets fired toward Israel and missiles fired by Israeli aircraft at tunnels at the Gaza-Egypt border, causing three Palestinian casualties.

(The above just makes no notice of the fact that money by the donors will not be fothcoming as long as Hamas does not change its skin – so what sense to just complain that money is not forthcoming?)

++++++++++++=============================+++++++++++++

ICC: Bashir Warrant Is Warning to Abusive Leaders
Move to Seek Arrest of Sudanese President a Victory for Darfur’s Victims.

(New York, March 4, 2009) – The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan signals that even those at the top may be held to account for mass murder, rape and torture, Human Rights Watch said today. ICC judges granted the warrant for Bashir, its first for a sitting head of state, on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in orchestrating Sudan’s abusive counterinsurgency campaign in Darfur.

“With this arrest warrant, the International Criminal Court has made Omar al-Bashir a wanted man,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “Not even presidents are guaranteed a free pass for horrific crimes. By ruling there is a case for President al-Bashir to answer for the horrors of Darfur, the warrant breaks through Khartoum’s repeated denials of his responsibility.”

The court did not confirm the three counts of genocide that were requested by the ICC prosecutor. Genocide requires evidence that the crimes were committed specifically “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part,” a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group solely on the basis of its identity.

“Proving genocide charges is always extremely difficult,” said Dicker. “President Bashir is hardly off the hook, as he is sought for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including widespread rape, murder, and torture committed as part of a government plan.”

“The Sudanese government is obliged to maintain security in the country and the Security Council should act decisively to hold them to it,” said Dicker. “Khartoum should not be allowed to use the arrest warrant as a pretext for stepping up its obstructionist policies that have hobbled peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts in Darfur.”

The government of Sudan is required by a Security Council resolution to facilitate the deployment of the African Union/UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and to cooperate with the ICC. Under international law, Sudan remains obligated to protect its own civilians and to provide full, safe, and unhindered access by relief personnel to those in need in Darfur. The arrest warrant does not change these obligations, nor does it have any impact on Khartoum’s obligations to carry out the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the government of Southern Sudan.

“The Security Council and concerned governments should impose targeted sanctions against Sudanese officials responsible for any retaliatory violence, and consider other measures such as further banking restrictions or a widening of the arms embargo,” said Dicker.

“Khartoum is required to cooperate with the court,” said Dicker. “Because the ICC has no police force of its own, it needs strong support from governments to ensure that all those charged with crimes are arrested.”

Background

In a March 31, 2005 resolution, the Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC prosecutor for investigation and prosecution. The decision was based on the recommendation of an international commission of inquiry, which found that violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law were continuing in Darfur and that the Sudanese justice system was unwilling and unable to address the crimes. Darfur is the first situation referred by the Security Council to the ICC.

For a Q&A on the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue a warrant for al-Bashir, please visit:
 http://www.hrw.org/node/81223

Human Rights Watch has available a clip reel of footage, including:

·             Interviews with Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, and Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, on the warrant for the arrest of al-Bashir;

·             B-roll from Darfur in 2005, showing Sudanese refugees; burned villages and victims; dead bodies; Human Rights Watch investigators speaking with witnesses and survivors of Janjaweed attacks; groups of militia members; and children and women gathering water.

To download the above-mentioned clip reel of footage, please contact:
In New York, Brian Griffey or Conor Fortune: +1-212-216-1832; or  hrwpress at hrw.org

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on the crisis in Darfur, please visit:
 http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/f…

For more of Human Rights Watch’s work on the International Criminal Court, please visit:
 http://www.hrw.org/en/category/topic/int…

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Richard Dicker (English): +1-212-216-1248; or +1-917-747-6731 (mobile)
In New York, Georgette Gagnon (English): +1-212-216-1223; or +1-917-535-0375 (mobile)
In New York, Sara Darehshori (English): +1-212-216-1262; or +1-646-342-1749 (mobile)
In London, Selena Brewer (English): +44-20-7713-2778; or +44-79-2973-1851 (mobile)
In London, Tom Porteous (English): +44-20-7713-2766; or +44-79-8398-4982 (mobile)
In Johannesburg, Tiseke Kasambala (English): +27-11-484-2640; or +27-79-220-5254 (mobile)
In Brussels, Elizabeth Evenson (English): +32-2-737-1486; or +32-498-298504 (mobile)
In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish): +32-2-737-1482; or +32-475-681708 (mobile)
In Paris, Jean-Marie Fardeau (French, Portuguese): +33-143-59-55-31; or +33-6-45-85-24-87 (mobile)
In Berlin, Marianne Heuwagen (German): +49-30-259-30612; or +49-173-354-8202 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Abderrahim Sabir (Arabic): +1-202-612-4342; +1-202-701-7654 (mobile)

Hi,
Some readers asked me to send them the text of my answer to
Muammar Qaddafi’s article in the International Herald
Tribune. So I send it to all of you.
Qaddafi’s article supports the so-called One-State
Solution. My answer was published in the IHT (February 6)
as a letter that took up the entire space of the letter
column. However, it had to be shortened. I attach the full
text, with the omitted passages in brackets.
Salamaat, Shalom,
uri

Uri Avnery
28.1.09

The one-state illusion

It is always pleasing to hear Muammar Qaddafi coming forward with a new idea. He is the joker in the pack of Middle Eastern leaders, appearing in the most unexpected places. He looks at things with fresh eyes. Unfortunately, his ideas are not always the most practical.

Now he is putting forward the idea that Jews and Arabs in our country should live together in one joint state, to be called Isratine (IHT Jan. 23, Muammar Qaddafi, “The one-state solution”.)

That is a fetching, if not altogether original idea. Qaddafi has always been a great unifier. In 1972, early in his 40-year rule, he initiated the union of Libya, Egypt and Syria in one state. Then, In 1974, he started work towards a union of Libya and Tunisia. He also proposed the creation of a big Saharan Islamic State. (I wonder if he himself remembers all these projects. Very few others do.)

After these failures, one would have to be a very determined optimist to believe in the union of Israel and Palestine. After all, the peoples of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia are very closely related, profess the same religion, speak the same language and share the same social mores, while Israelis and Palestinians are not related, speak different languages, have different beliefs and are both fiercely nationalistic.

(Since Qaddafi assumed power in Libya, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and then Serbia, as well as Czechoslovakia and Cyprus have broken up, Belgium is teetering on the brink of a split and the joint state of Bosnia is a fiction. The United States and Canada, two good neighbors mostly speaking the same language, would not dream of uniting in one single state, nor would Germany and France, who have become friendly partners in the EU. We don’t see Ireland rushing to rejoin the United Kingdom. On the contrary, many Scots want out.)

(The conflict in our country has been going on for 120 years, since the first Zionist settlers reached the shores of Palestine. A fifth generation has already been born into this conflict, a generation whose entire mental world, like that of their parents, has been shaped by the war.)

It takes quite a stretch of the imagination to believe that under the benevolent guidance of Qaddafi Israelis and Palestinians will come together tomorrow, serve in the same army, enact the same laws in a joint Parliament and pay the same taxes. One wonders how such a state would function.

Israelis might misunderstand the intentions of our Libyan friend and think that he is asking them to dismantle their state, take in six million Palestinian refugees and resign themselves to live as a minority in an Arab-majority Isratine. They will be tempted to answer: Thanks, but no thanks. If there is one point on which 99% of Israelis are in agreement, it is their desire to live in a Hebrew-speaking state of their own, (in which they are masters of their fate.)

Palestinians might react quite similarly. After enduring the Zionist onslaught for so long, they also want to be masters of their fate, in a state of their own, under their own flag. They might not take kindly to Qaddafi’s contention that their brutal oppression and exploitation by fanatical Jewish settlers in the West Bank constitutes a “successful assimilation” and that in 1948 “Jews did not forcibly expel Palestinians.” As a soldier in that war, this comes as quite a surprise to me, too.

At the end of that terrible war, my friends and I proposed the Two-State Solution. Not a hundred people around the globe accepted that. Now there is a world-wide consensus. The great majority of both Israelis and Palestinian, as well as the members of the Arab League and all the great powers, are convinced that this is the only viable way to achieve a lasting peace.

Qaddafi is quite right about the shortcomings of this solution and the difficulties in achieving it, including those created by successive Israeli governments which have paid lip-service to it while doing everything in their power to obstruct it. But all these obstacles are nothing compared to those lying on the road to a One-State Illusion, which is no solution at all. (Those adopting this dream out of despair resemble a boxer who was unable to defeat a light-weight opponent, and therefore decides to take on a heavy-weight champion.)

(We Israelis have a lot to do to mend our state. We must turn it into a truly democratic, progressive and secular society, with full equality for all its citizens. We must put an end to the occupation, make peace with the Palestinian people, return to the 1967 borders (perhaps with some mutually agreed minor swaps of territory), dismantle the settlements and hold out our hands to the State of Palestinian with its capital in East Jerusalem. We must find a practical, decent solution to the refugee problem, based on mutual agreement. All that is difficult but possible.)

The Two-State Solution is achievable right now, in 2009, if President Barack Obama is determined to implement it “aggressively”, as he says. He will find many allies in Israel.

Uri Avnery, a former Member of the Knesset, is a leader of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc.
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“Other News” is a personal initiative seeking to provide information that should be in the media but is not, because of commercial criteria. It welcomes contributions from everybody. Work areas include information on global issues, north-south relations, governance of globalization. The “Other News” motto is a phrase which appeared on the wall of Barcelona’s old Customs Office, at the beginning of 2003: “What walls utter, media keeps silent”. Roberto Savio
_________________________________________________
Reflections of a Troubled Israeli.

Comment By Naomi Chazan *

February 5, 2009 . These are bleak days for progressive Israelis. The offensive on Gaza, which should never have been launched, has left a trail of death, trauma, destruction and despondency. The after-effects of those horrible three weeks are most obvious in Gaza, where the monumental task of emotional and physical rehabilitation is an Israeli as well as a global responsibility. They are also evident within Israel, where bravado and intolerance threaten to eat away at the country’s democratic core and consume its internal moral compass.

When my phone started ringing on December 27 with the news that Israel was bombarding Gaza, I was shocked but far from surprised. I had opposed the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005 because I feared that a pullback without an agreement on the transfer of authority would breed political anarchy. And indeed, the ascendance of Hamas and its takeover of Gaza immediately afterward verified the foolishness of the unilateral approach. The Israeli siege on Gaza, accompanied by rocket attacks on Sderot and targeted killings by Israeli forces, fueled an escalation of violence that transformed Gaza into an enormous, impoverished, dangerously armed cage governed by religious extremists. Its continuous victimization, far from exposing Hamas, has sustained its dominance.

The failure of the six-month truce, brought about by the continuous smuggling of arms into Gaza and Israel’s violation of its commitment to open the crossings, was predictable. Sadly and inexcusably, so too was the timing of Israel’s assault: during the last days of the Bush administration and on the eve of yet another general election in Israel. Under immense public pressure to “do something,” which saw Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soar in the polls, the Olmert-Livni-Barak governing trio banded together to salvage their reputations and perhaps their careers under the guise of protecting Israel and reasserting its deterrent capacity.

All these thoughts and more raced through my mind in those first hours as I watched Israeli fighter planes surgically pulverizing buildings and their occupants on Israeli television. I rebelled, almost instinctively, against the resort to massive force. Regardless of the immense provocation rendered by the rockets showered on the Negev, Israel had done little to exhaust other options. The post-Annapolis talks during the preceding year were marred by the fundamental asymmetry between Palestinians and Israelis and Israel’s unwillingness to address the roots of the conflict. And the shortsightedness of the military initiative was infuriating; too many people believed that what couldn’t be achieved in the past through diplomacy and coercion in the West Bank and Gaza could be accomplished through the application of more force.
That very evening I helped to draft the first of several antiwar appeals, signed on to others and found myself, once again, in the street protesting what shouldn’t be and what it would unleash. I had no inkling that the next twenty-one days would prove so emotionally hellish, intellectually discombobulating, politically stultifying and socially polarizing.
The first hint came in a closed discussion in an avowedly leftist forum. I was taken aback at the extent to which some of my companions justified the attack in light of the ongoing Hamas rockets. The counterargument–that no amount of missiles could excuse the severity of Israel’s assault, which would yield countless civilian casualties–fell on deaf ears. The widespread sense that there was “no choice” has permeated and deeply divided the Israeli peace camp ever since.

No less disturbing were some of the other discussions I had with fellow antiwar activists during those early days. Outraged by the disproportionate Israeli action, they refused to acknowledge that the totally unequal confrontation did not exonerate Hamas from meeting the same human rights standards expected of Israel.

The uneasiness I experienced in those first hours intensified as the fighting progressed and its horrors unfolded. Many Israeli human rights groups with which I am proudly associated as president of the board of the New Israel Fund courageously spoke out against gross infringements of international law. Simultaneously, social change and social justice organizations with which I am identified in the same capacity worked overtime to offer assistance to the over 1 million Israelis repeatedly traumatized by the missile bombardments.

But the media blackout from Gaza ensured that our public was exposed only to lengthy reports of the damage in Israel. They rarely got a glimpse of the terrible human cost of Israel’s action, nor were they allowed to hear the dissenting opinion of those who questioned its prudence. What is truly alarming is that to this very day, the legitimacy of such discussion is debated.

During the three weeks of the war, those few Jewish Israelis brave enough to decry what was happening were vilified or ignored. The human rights community, which coalesced to protest civilian casualties and deplore IDF tactics, saw their petitions denied by the High Court, and endured public reactions ranging from indifference to concerted efforts to discredit their loyalty as well as their evidence. Arab citizens of Israel were harassed and, in some cases, prevented from exercising their elementary right of dissent. As a shamefully jingoistic solidarity set in, they were subjected to unabashedly racist attacks spearheaded by the far right. Israel’s heterogeneous, fractious, argumentative society was muted.

Tragically, voices from abroad made matters worse by magnifying polarization within the country. Israeli progressives have been caught in a tightening vise. On the one hand, the knee-jerk support for government policy expressed by the American Jewish establishment is as distasteful as it is bewildering. It bolsters the militaristic image of the country and opposes the values of peace, pluralism and social justice which underlie the Jewish tradition and universal rights. On the other hand, the viciousness of the criticism of Israel has all too often crossed the thin line between condemning its actions and questioning its existence. I, along with most Israelis, refuse to accede to the demand for my own demise. Together with many others, I had hoped that there would be more backing for the development of a humane Israel free of conflict and occupation. That, I strongly believe, is what being truly pro-Israel is about.

The Gaza offensive has made fulfilling this vision considerably more difficult. But I don’t think that it is hopeless. The Israeli left has emerged from this battle weakened and perhaps dispirited, but hardly irrelevant. The bedrock of a change-oriented and open civil society exists. As President Obama might be the first to point out, real democratic change is cultivated at the grassroots–in neighborhoods and communities that strive for equality and justice and constantly craft ways to realize these goals. I am comforted by the hundreds of forward-looking organizations and their enduring commitment to making a better environment for all Israelis. I am humbled by the impact that human rights and social justice groups have on shaping discourse and policy. And while I am fearful of their ability to survive and prosper with dwindling resources, I am gratified by their resilience and persistence.

For these reasons, despite my rejection of the recent actions of the Israeli government–and my sad understanding of those who condoned it and are distressed by the results–I am convinced that it is vital to try again. I know that the aggressive pursuit of an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in particular and the Arab-Israeli conflict in general depends on the active engagement of the international community and its determination to bring an end to the occupation. I continue to believe that the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians who yearn for a decent life can treat each other with mutual respect and human dignity. If we allow hatred and extremism, injustice and inhumanity, to win, it will not just be our loss; it will affect all freedom-seeking peoples throughout the world.

*Naomi Chazan became president of the New Israel Fund in June 2008. She is best known for her eleven years in the Knesset as one of the Meretz Party’s most effective legislators and for her service as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset.

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This and all “other news” issues can be found at http://www.other-net.info/index.php

THURSDAY, JANUARY 08, 2009

Libyan Draft Resolution Calls for Immediate Ceasefire.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 7 (IPS) – A Libyan sponsored draft resolution, which was in circulation late last night, demands ”an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.” The resolution also calls for ”the cessation of all military activities and violence, including Israeli military operations and the firing of rockets by some Palestinian groups, including Hamas, and the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions held prior to 27 December 2008, and demands full respect of the ceasefire by both parties.” But there was no indication as to when it will go before the Security Council.

Among other things, the draft resolution also:

**Calls for the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip and for the sustained opening of the Gaza Strip’s border crossings for the import and export of goods into and out of the Gaza Strip to address both the humanitarian and economic needs of the civilian population;

**Stresses the need for the full implementation by both parties of the 15 November 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access and the Agreed Principles for the Rafah Crossing to allow for the free movement of the Palestinian civilian population;

**Calls on Israel, the occupying Power, to ensure the unhindered and safe access of humanitarian aid and other essential supplies, including food, medicines and fuel, to the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip, as well as the safe passage of civilian persons and humanitarian personnel into and from the Gaza Strip in accordance with international humanitarian law;

**Calls upon the international community to respond with urgency to the emergency appeals by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to address the critical humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip;

**Calls for the establishment and deployment of an international observer force in the Gaza Strip, to be agreed in accordance with the ongoing diplomatic initiative, in order to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, to ensure the protection and safety of the Palestinian civilian population, to allow secure and unconditional access of humanitarian assistance and free movement of persons and goods, to prevent illicit traffic of arms and to promote restoration of calm in full;

**Emphasizes the importance of continuing all efforts aimed at achieving Palestinian national reconciliation and unity under the auspices of Egypt in accordance with the League of Arab States resolution of 26 November 2008;

**Stresses the need to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East and calls for the resumption of accelerated Palestinian-Israeli negotiations aimed at resolving all outstanding issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including all core issues, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, the Madrid principles, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Road Map for the establishment of the independent State of Palestine living side by side with Israel in peace within secure and recognized borders;

**Requests the Secretary-General, in light of the urgency of the matter, to follow up on the implementation of this resolution and to report to the Council in a timely manner;

**Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Finally, January 7, 2009, all holidays over, serious talking about the latest Middle East shellings has started to take place at the UN Security Council.

THE IMPECCABLE DIPLOMATIC LANGUAGE OF THE BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, Mr. DAVID MILIBAND, MAY CARRY THE DAY.

The analysis of his statement shows the following:

a. He recognizes that the UNSC is wasting much time by centering on the Middle East while NOT talking to the main culprits. So they met three times on the “Middle East” but heard from Presidents Mubarack and Abbas only now.

b. He anoints President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, as President “democratically elected” of all Palestinians, but no mention that it was Hamas that was democratically elected by the Arabs living in the Gaza Strip – the fact that our web recognized as a budding separate state of Hamasstan or Palestine II, albeit just as Palestinian as the Abbas presently ruled West Bank that we called Palestine I.

It is this non-recognition of Hamasstan by those at the UNSC table that encouraged also Israel to not recognize the reality that if it wants peace on the Gaza border it must sit down and talk to Hamas. It is not helpful to call HAMAS a terrorist organization when in effect it is the elected party by the relevant people living in the Gaza Strip. From the Israeli side – it is plainly idiotic to ignore that reality in the Gaza Strip and allow thus the people of Gaza to be presented as innocent bystanders in a fight between a terrorist group (Hamas) and a neighboring State of Israel. The deligitimization of the Hamas has then further led all the doo-gooder , and the international media, to present the women and children of Gaza as by-stander victims rather then as a population that is ripped apart by the acts of their own elected government in a war that was started by their own government’s army – the Hamas – in acts of random shelling of the civilian population in Israel.

We suggest, among other material to be discussed today at the UNSC, they also be shown the one hour program on Fareed Zakharia’s show on CNN, this last Sunday, January 3, 2009, where it was clearly evidenced that children having to live underground because of the shelling from Gaza, means the denial of life, in no way less then the use of children by the Hamas as human shield to their military in their attacks on Israel.

The clear evidence that it is a mistake not having recognized the Palestinian’s free will in voting for Hamas was put before us again, today, when the Oxfam NGO at a UN Press Conference pushed the idea that “a Palestinian faction” lobbed Israeli Settlements across the Border – so it should not justify for collective punishment of the Palestinians. Upon a question on what are Palestinian civilians beyond women and children, the panel of NGOs that lobby for EU trade restrictions against Israel, had just a very mumbled reply. All this would not have been the case had it be made clear that Hamas is the Army of the Gaza Palestine.

c. Egypt is the only other State bordering the Gaza Strip. In effect Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip for 19 years – from 1948 till 1967 – denying independence to the Palestinians. It was the Israeli war against Egypt that liberated the Palestinians of Gaza from the Egyptian supervision. Today Mubarack’s Egypt border with the Gaza Strip covers a network of underground tunnels that are as tight as a sieve when it comes to the flow of military material that supports the Hamas attacks against Israel. It was UN and European funds for the refugees that were behind the Egyptian post-1948 interest in Gaza, and it is now the post-1967 US funds to Egypt that were supposed to lead Egypt to patrol its border with Gaza. Egypt gets those funds but allows the hidden war against Israel to continue, while Israel itself colludes with this situation by being afraid to speak out against this two-faced modern Egyptian sphinx in order to avoid having to point at Egypt for   non-performance according to the agreements it has with the funding US Congress.

Foreign Secretary Miliband is completely right in stressing the need for Egyptian participation in the finding of a solution to Gaza, and the fact that the Arab League must come in as a back-up to Egypt in its coming clean on this issue.

 Without full participation of Egypt, and without OPEN BACKING from the Arab League, there will be no end to the shelling from Hamas, but then without dealing with Hamas itself, there will be no move to a settlement of the Arab/Palestinian dispute with Israel. Hamas is a spun-off from the Islamic movement that originated with the Wahabbi regime in Saudi Arabia because of its duplicity of living from oil-money that helped disintegrate the Islamic mores, and its readiness to provide the needed funds to those that were ready to fight for Islamic mores outside Saudi Arabia.

Now, the reality-search brings us to our own complicity that started with us buying happily the Arab oil. But then, this takes us too close to the real subjects followed in our website, and that is much more then the exchange of bombs and the crawling in tunnels at the borders of the Gaza Strip.

The only further note to the Miliband concise statement is that the present conflict, as discussed at the UNSC, did not start December 28, 2008 as he said – but three years earlier with the firing of the first Hamas “kassams” at Shderot – the clumsy rockets that have no physical aims but only the psychological aim of destabilizing life in Israel. To the Minister’s attention, these were no different then the bombs the Nazis targeted at London – and as historians know, the Nazis were the democratically elected regime in Germany and Austria.We hope this last comment illuminates some further the topic at hand.

————–

Now To The Message From The UK Mission to the UN:

From:  Hazel.Foster at fco.gov.uk
Date: January 6, 2009 7:31:35 PM EST

DAVID MILIBAND, UK FOREIGN SECRETARY, SPEAKS TO THE UN PRESS CORPS ON THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST, 6 JANUARY 2009

We are at the beginning of over 24 hours of very active diplomacy.   I have just come from an extensive meeting with the Arab League and obviously I’ll be meeting with all other delegations here.

I think first of all that the terrible events at the UN School this afternoon in Gaza underline the importance of the discussions that we are going to have here in New York over the next 24 hours.   It’s also significant that within the last half an hour there has been an important statement by President Mubarak and I gather that there are further statements by Prime Minister Olmert and other regional leaders coming up and that underlines the fast-moving nature of the events that are underway.   I think it is very important that the discussions that we have here and any positive developments on the ground in the region are mutually reinforcing.

The position of the United Kingdom has been since Saturday 28 December, since the start of this conflict, to argue for an immediate and durable ceasefire.   We need to get into the details of that in terms of the action to tackle the trafficking of illegal arms and also the issue of opening up the crossings that are so important, not just to relieve the misery and the humanitarian need of the people of Gaza, but also to undermine the smuggling of trade.

I think it is also very significant and I will refer to this in my speech that today is the third Security Council discussion of the Middle East over the last three months, but the first that has been addressed by President Abbas.   And I think that it is very important that we reinforce that President Abbas speaks for all the Palestinian people whether they live in the West Bank or in Gaza or are refugees elsewhere actually.   And that it is vital for the long-term future that the Palestinians are able to speak with one legitimate and democratic voice in discussions that take forward the Resolution 1850 that was passed here just three weeks ago.

So if you’ll excuse me now, I am going to make my statement and to engage in Security Council discussions, but I assure you that we have 24 hours of each other’s company ahead and we also have a binding imperative to address the desperate circumstances that exist in the Gaza Strip at the moment.

Thank you very much indeed.   Thank you.

——————–

The Miliband Statement at the UNSC Table:

STATEMENT BY DAVID MILIBAND, UK FOREIGN SECRETARY, IN SECURITY COUNCIL DEBATE ON THE MIDDLE EAST, 6 JANUARY 2009

There could not be a greater contrast between the daily regime of delicate diplomacy at the United Nations and the day-to-day reality of death and destruction in Gaza.   But the two are linked.

The United Kingdom believes that the crisis, and I use that word advisedly, the crisis in Gaza is an indictment of our collective failure, all of us, over a long period, to bring about the two-state solution that offers the only hope of security and justice for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

The two speeches that we have just heard from President Abbas and Ambassador Shalev define the challenge for this Council.   Both were moving, deeply felt and passionate and I believe that in this debate we cannot simply restate our national positions – we have a wider responsibility to support all efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire and to chart a course back to the common vision set out just three weeks ago in UN Security Council Resolution 1850.

As we meet, lives are at stake and new initiatives are underway, notably from President Mubarak and President Sarkozy to engineer new action for a ceasefire that engages Israel and responds to its security concerns.   The United Kingdom supports these initiatives and we need now in this Council to use our discussions over the next 24 hours to be clear in our principles and practical in our conclusions to reinforce these efforts.

Mr President, the truce of June to December 2008 was in truth less than that.   Rockets were fired into Israel.   Palestinians died in Israeli military action.   And the people of Gaza suffered greater and greater deprivation.

However, the immediate trigger for Israeli military action was the end of the truce: Hamas rejected its extension and fired almost 300 rockets between December 19th and December 27th 2008.   These rockets are not just a danger and a provocation, though they are that – they demonstrate a choice by Hamas, not just to target the people of Israel, but also to target the fragile negotiations for peace sponsored over the last year by the United States.

However, the immediate consequence of Israeli military action over the last ten days is also clear.   600 dead, many of them civilians and children, the horror of war piled upon months of deprivation.   The confirmation just a few hours ago that 30 civilians were killed today in a UN school in Gaza is a devastating reminder of the urgency of our responsibilities.   Early today, the Quartet Envoy called the situation in Gaza ‘hell’.   The shortages of food, fuel and medicine are according to our reports acute.   The scale of the suffering is immense.   The need for humanitarian supplies is urgent and in this context it is right to salute the leadership, not just of the Secretary-General, but of the brave United Nations workers trying to relieve suffering in Gaza.

Mr President,
The United Kingdom stands four-square behind the Security Council statement of 28 December calling for an immediate halt to all violence.   I reiterate today the call of my Prime Minister for an immediate ceasefire.

But we are enjoined to come to the United Nations, not just to make declarations, but to seek common ground and to find common purpose.   So we must focus on the substance and permanence of a ceasefire, as well as its timing.

Mr President,
Israel is right to say that the flow of illegal arms into Gaza is a threat to its citizens and needs to be curbed.   We say that we need to support countries in the region in developing the tools to tackle the trafficking of weapons from land and sea.   This will be a complex and difficult task, but it is essential.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is right to say that it concluded an agreement in 2005 for the opening of crossings for people, goods and aid into Gaza.   We say that we need to open those crossings and re-establish the authority of the Palestinian Authority over them.   This will help the people of Gaza.   It will also undercut the smuggling of trade.

Mr President, the permanence of a ceasefire depends on something else.
President Abbas is a powerful and consistent advocate for the interests of all Palestinians, whether they live in Gaza or the West Bank.   The unity of Palestine is essential to any decent vision of the future.   It is also a precondition of a democratic politics of consent in which there is one legitimate authority and in which every Palestinian has a voice in the only process that counts – the peace process.

Mr President,
The test for us over the next 24 hours is simple.   Do we help bring an end to the current conflict and pave the way back to the vision this Council set out three weeks ago?   Our starting point must be the goals of an immediate ceasefire, an end to arms trafficking and an opening of the crossings.   But we also have a responsibility to keep alive the vision of a peaceful Middle East in which Palestinians have the dignity of statehood and Israelis have recognition and security from their neighbours.   That is the responsibility of this Council, that is our task today and those are responsibilities and tasks that the United Kingdom wants to help resolve.

Thank you very much.

——————–

Hazel Foster (Miss)
Third Secretary Press
United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations
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While more serious efforts are attempted in the capitals of the Middle East, in New York it is just a show. OK, the UN is needed, and if it did not exist we would have to create it – but can it solve anything?

So we see – it is Libya, that beacon of world strength when it comes to terrorism and killing innocent people, that leads the UN Security Council in finding solutions to the stinking brew of the Middle East.

On the other hand, very experienced people – like Jean-Maurice Ripert from France, Alejandro Wolff from the US, or Thomas Mayr-Hartling from Austria, are mentioned in their trying to massage the issue                                                                               according to their own points of view. The Palestinians of the PLO/Fatah are there, Hamas has clearly their own spokespeople – Mr. Fawzi Barhum is mentioned – and the host is UNSG Ban Ki-moon.

Mr. Ripert chairs the event. He Is France Ambassador to the UN, was involved in foreign cooperation since 1983, with Washington since 1996, and with the UN since 1996. He knows the UN inside out and   as a good diplomat knows to make clear the positions favored by his country. He said that the participants at the UNSC table are in strong agreement to make their position clear – so what is the position of   this great majority that he supervises?

Mr. Alejandro Wolff Made it clear that it is a shame for the UNSC to come up with a resolution that no-one will follow. He is quite right on this and put his finger on the UN bankruptcy – but then though correctly saying that Israel is a member of the UN, and cannot be put under the same conditions as a terror-organization (that is Hamas), he obviously does not recognize that it is the people of Gaza that made this terror organization their legal representative by voting for them in what looked as if it were democratic elections. Had the US accepted that Hamas is the military of a Gaza breakaway state, then one could indeed talk to them and relegate the Palestinian delegation to be part of the Arab League represented at the table – and the body that called for the UNSC involvement. With Hamas at the table they could be held responsible for their positions, but keeping them out creates the ridiculous scene that Libya speaks for an entity that is as bystander as they are – that is the Abbas regime of what our website calls Palestine I, and nobody speaks for the people of Gaza that we correctly call Palestine II or Hamasstan.

Der Standard obviously takes keen interest in what goes on at the Security Council, as Austria, starting January 1, 2009, became a member for the years 2009-2010 of this UNSC club and Austrians will thus care for what their representatives do on that Council. That Is also why Austria sent to New York Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Hartling, the former head of the political department of the Foreign Ministry, as the replacement to the up-for-retirement former representative to the UN, Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter, who very skillfully directed the long election campaign that put Austria on the UNSC (the second time in UN history). Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Hartling said to the Der Standard that it is important the UNSC comes to some conclusion on the subject – this in order not to lose its credibility all-together. But then he did not say either what that resolution should be.

Our conclusion, the only chain of events that could save the UN in the ME matter would be for the people on the ground to come up with a solution that leads to a ceasefire involving the Hamas also, the closing of those tunnels by Egypt, and a clear backing of the agreement by the Arab League – which is then put on the table by Libya for blessing by all. In the mean-time we still expect the UN General Assembly to get involved, to hear Malaysia, Cuba, Iran, Egypt etc. make rebel rousing statements – this before the quiet actions behind closed doors provide that needed out-of-town agreement.