UN development chief: Myanmar, Thailand challenges
By Ian Timberlake (AFP) – Jun 15, 2010
HANOI — Myanmar faces a tough task to eradicate extreme poverty and meet other global development goals, while political instability is holding back Thailand's progress, the UN development chief says.
In an interview with AFP, Helen Clark also said Vietnam had "a pretty good story to tell" about its efforts to achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals, but faces a major challenge from climate change and rising sea levels.
Clark said military-ruled Myanmar, with "huge poverty", will find it difficult to meet any of the eight development goals by the 2015 global target.
"It would be tough," Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said Tuesday on the sidelines of a conference.
The former New Zealand prime minister said Myanmar has the lowest foreign aid per capita of any developing country, and "political factors" restrict what the UNDP can do in Myanmar, "so it's not so easy to make progress there at this time."
Myanmar, which has detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi for most of the past two decades, is under European Union and United States sanctions.
Neighbouring Thailand has made reasonable progress in tackling poverty, Clark said, but further development is being hindered by political tensions.
Outbreaks of violence in Bangkok during two months of anti-government protests from March until May killed 90 people, wounded nearly 1,900, and left the country deeply divided.
"Clearly, instability holds back a country's development progress, and you end up punching below your weight when you could be punching to, or above, your weight," she said.
The unrest followed more than three years of political instability after the army seized power from then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 bloodless coup.
"Things haven't been stable since and I think what's really needed is a national dialogue on how to move to elections which are seen as free and fair and people will accept the result," said Clark, who assumed her post in April last year.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called a September summit in New York to accelerate efforts toward reaching the 2015 development goals deadline.
Clark said Vietnam will be able to report good progress towards the goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, and reducing child and maternal mortality.
The country has work to do to combat HIV/AIDS and add to the existing progress on access to water and basic sanitation, she said, while the environmental cost of old-style industrialisation also needs to be addressed.
But fast-growing Vietnam, which this year is set to attain "middle-income" status, faces a "huge challenge" from climate change, Clark said.
"And I believe that the government is acutely aware of this, aware now that Vietnam is one of the most exposed countries in the world to rising sea levels, intensity and frequency... of adverse weather events like typhoons," she said.
Vietnam is planning for a one-metre (3.3 feet) rise in sea levels by 2100, which would inundate about 31,000 square kilometres (12,400 square miles) of land -- an area about the size of Belgium -- unless dykes and drainage systems are strengthened, a UN discussion paper said in December.
It said the inundation threat is greatest in the Mekong Delta, the country's main rice production area. Vietnam is the world's second-biggest rice exporter.
If that land becomes unusable there are "serious implications" for the region, Clark said.
She spoke on the sidelines of a conference to review a pilot programme that aims to improve the coherence and effectiveness of UN assistance. Vietnam and Pakistan are among eight countries worldwide participating in the pilot which, the UN says, has hastened achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Friday, 25 June 2010
Russia opposes UN Panel on Sri Lanka
Concerning UN Secretary General’s Decision to Appoint a UN Panel of Experts for Sri Lanka
863-24-06-2010
Moscow has taken note of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s decision to appoint a UN panel of experts to investigate war crimes during the period of the campaign against the Tamil Tigers. As follows from UN sources, this panel is not a fact finding or investigation mechanism, but is designed solely to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.
In doing so, the UN Secretary-General as chief administrative officer of the United Nations should apparently have asked the opinion of the Security Council or the General Assembly on this matter. But this has not happened. What also makes us cautious is the fact that this decision was taken without regard to the position of a sovereign state and a member of the UN – Sri Lanka. As is known, they in Sri Lanka have already begun their own investigation process at national level (the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation with a mandate to review all aspects of the conflict). As follows from the statement made on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka by the External Affairs Ministry of that country, and the statement of its Minister of Information, Sri Lanka “regards the appointment of the Sri Lanka Panel of Experts as unwarranted and unnecessary and contrary to the position of a UN member state.” Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who visited Sri Lanka a few days ago, as we understand, was aware of this position of Colombo.
We believe that the primary responsibility for investigating the events that occurred in the past in Sri Lanka lies with its Government and that the newly appointed UN panel of experts, which, as follows from UN Secretariat statements, does not intend to visit Sri Lanka, will not take any steps that would complicate the investigation being conducted by the authorities of Colombo.
863-24-06-2010
Moscow has taken note of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s decision to appoint a UN panel of experts to investigate war crimes during the period of the campaign against the Tamil Tigers. As follows from UN sources, this panel is not a fact finding or investigation mechanism, but is designed solely to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.
In doing so, the UN Secretary-General as chief administrative officer of the United Nations should apparently have asked the opinion of the Security Council or the General Assembly on this matter. But this has not happened. What also makes us cautious is the fact that this decision was taken without regard to the position of a sovereign state and a member of the UN – Sri Lanka. As is known, they in Sri Lanka have already begun their own investigation process at national level (the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation with a mandate to review all aspects of the conflict). As follows from the statement made on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka by the External Affairs Ministry of that country, and the statement of its Minister of Information, Sri Lanka “regards the appointment of the Sri Lanka Panel of Experts as unwarranted and unnecessary and contrary to the position of a UN member state.” Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who visited Sri Lanka a few days ago, as we understand, was aware of this position of Colombo.
We believe that the primary responsibility for investigating the events that occurred in the past in Sri Lanka lies with its Government and that the newly appointed UN panel of experts, which, as follows from UN Secretariat statements, does not intend to visit Sri Lanka, will not take any steps that would complicate the investigation being conducted by the authorities of Colombo.
Friday, 18 June 2010
Sri Lankan president cautions against 'sympathy for terrorism'
Colombo - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Friday marked the first anniversary of the end of a thee-decade civil war by warning countries not to show sympathy for terrorism and separatism, while international pressure grows over alleged war crimes.
Rajapaksa said in an address to the nation that it was a "grave error of judgment" to oppose terrorism that targets you but to believe it is good if it does not target you.
He presided over a "Victory Day" celebration in Colombo, one year after government troops defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who fought for a separate state for the Tamil minority.
"The world has so far trod on this wrong path," Rajapaksa said. "Terrorism remains unvanquished because of this incorrect thinking. I must state that the countries that show sympathy towards terrorism and separatism will be the victims of terrorism. This is the lesson of history."
The LTTE was defeated in May 2009, but the celebrations were postponed due to flooding last month.
Some 80,000 people were killed in the 26-year conflict. Sri Lanka faces growing criticism over alleged abuses, committed by both sides during the last phase of the war, in which 7,000 civilians were killed according to UN figures.
Rights groups accused government troops of shelling civilian areas, while the LTTE was accused of killing fleeing civilians and using them as human shields.
Rajapaksa said Friday that the offensives were aimed against terrorists and that the army did not shoot at civilians.
The UN plans to set up a panel of experts to look into possible human rights issues. Sri Lanka has appointed a commission to investigate alleged abuses, but refuses to establish an international tribunal.
Some 9,000 soldiers, most of whom participated in the final phase of the military operations in rebel territory in northern Sri Lanka, took part in the parade.
However, General Sarath Fonseka, the army chief who led the military operations, remains in military custody on allegations of conspiracy against the government and fraud.
The ex-army commander, who fell out with Rajapaksa after the end of the war, later entered politics and unsuccessfully contested the presidential elections in January. He later was elected a member of parliament and attends parliamentary sessions while in custody
Rajapaksa said in an address to the nation that it was a "grave error of judgment" to oppose terrorism that targets you but to believe it is good if it does not target you.
He presided over a "Victory Day" celebration in Colombo, one year after government troops defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who fought for a separate state for the Tamil minority.
"The world has so far trod on this wrong path," Rajapaksa said. "Terrorism remains unvanquished because of this incorrect thinking. I must state that the countries that show sympathy towards terrorism and separatism will be the victims of terrorism. This is the lesson of history."
The LTTE was defeated in May 2009, but the celebrations were postponed due to flooding last month.
Some 80,000 people were killed in the 26-year conflict. Sri Lanka faces growing criticism over alleged abuses, committed by both sides during the last phase of the war, in which 7,000 civilians were killed according to UN figures.
Rights groups accused government troops of shelling civilian areas, while the LTTE was accused of killing fleeing civilians and using them as human shields.
Rajapaksa said Friday that the offensives were aimed against terrorists and that the army did not shoot at civilians.
The UN plans to set up a panel of experts to look into possible human rights issues. Sri Lanka has appointed a commission to investigate alleged abuses, but refuses to establish an international tribunal.
Some 9,000 soldiers, most of whom participated in the final phase of the military operations in rebel territory in northern Sri Lanka, took part in the parade.
However, General Sarath Fonseka, the army chief who led the military operations, remains in military custody on allegations of conspiracy against the government and fraud.
The ex-army commander, who fell out with Rajapaksa after the end of the war, later entered politics and unsuccessfully contested the presidential elections in January. He later was elected a member of parliament and attends parliamentary sessions while in custody
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