Russia backs Aleppo UN truce
Russia agrees to a UN-backed 48-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo to allow aid deliveries, but security guarantees are awaited from other parties on the ground. UN spokesperson:
We have…agreement now from the Russian Federation for the 48-hour pause, we’re waiting (for) it from the other actors on the ground. That has taken more time frankly than I thought was needed.
US State Dept spokesperson:
If the U.N. says they need 48 hours, of course we support the U.N. But … our focus is on a nationwide sustainable cessation of hostilities.
Denounces gays in UN address
Mugabe rejects extending rights to gay people in Zimbabwe during a speech at the UN General Assembly.
We reject attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. We are not gays.
He also criticized US and EU sanctions:
We have peace in Zimbabwe just now. We don’t want war. We don’t want interference. We don’t want to hear of regime change at all.
Addresses United Nations
President Obama addresses the General Assembly of the United Nations. He calls President Assad of Syria is a “tyrant” and urges the international community to work together to defeat ISIS, and that he is prepared to work with Russia and Iran to resolve the conflict.
By [Russia’s] logic we should support tyrants like Bashar al Assad…because the alternative is surely worse….When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people it’s not a matter of one nation’s internal affairs…There is no room for accommodating an apocalyptic cult like ISIL..We must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo.
On the Iran nuclear deal:
For two years, the United States and our partners including Russia, including China…stuck together…That is the strength of the international system when it works the way it should.
Addresses United Nations
Francis addresses the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He talks about the “grave offense” of economic and social exclusion:
A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged.
He calls on government leaders to ensure their people enjoy the minimum material means needed to live.
In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labor, and land.
He also urges leaders to fight human trafficking and ban nuclear arms, and work on environmental issues.
UN to examine chemical weapons attacks
The UN adopts a resolution aimed at identifying those behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Ban and the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will be asked to prepare a plan for an inquiry. US ambassador to the UN, Power:
Today’s resolution has been adopted with the council’s unanimous support. This sends a clear and powerful message to all those involved in chemical weapons attacks in Syria. The joint investigative mechanism will identify you if you gas people. It bears repeating as well that we need to bring the same unity that we have shown today to urgently find a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
The resolution follows months of negotiations between the US and Russia. Syria’s ambassador to the UN denies his government was behind the attacks, claiming the Islamic State (IS) group and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front are to blame. Under the terms of the agreement, a team of expert inspectors will be given full access where possible to all locations in Syria and be allowed to collect materials and interview witnesses. Churkin, the UN’s Russian representative, says he hopes that the joint investigative body will work
impartially, objectively and professionally.
The resolution calls for Ban and the OPCW to recommend a team of investigators within 20 days.
UN envoy meets over security situation
In a meeting with Rwandan President Kagame, Bathily, Special Representative and Head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa, reiterates the UN Secretary-General’s condemnation of the current violence in Burundi. Bathily will continue to hold consultations with political parties, civil society and religious organizations, government officials and the diplomatic community, with the view to reconvene the political dialogue as soon as possible. Bathily:
[The situation in Burundi is accumulating] the well-known and visible marks of a society which previously suffered divisions leading to grave violence. Currently the humanitarian crisis caused by the escalating political tensions in Burundi has worsened, and uptick in the number of refugees seeking asylum and a deterioration in health conditions at refugee camps receiving them.
Backs oil clean up plan
Buhari says he’s accelerating plans for one of the world’s largest oil cleanups following 50 years of spillage at operations in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. He approves the composition of a governing council and board of trustees to oversee the restoration plan. A group of ‘stakeholders’ will release as much as $10 million within 30 days of formally creating a trust fund to manage financial contributions, according to an e-mailed statement from the office of the presidency. The UN says the recovery would be the world’s ‘most wide-ranging and long-term oil cleanup’ lasting three decades and it will take an initial capital injection of $1 billion. The two organizations that will oversee the oil clean up will have representatives from the petroleum and environment ministries, the United Nations and the state-run oil company, according to the statement from Buhari’s office.
Iran to present Syria peace plan to UN
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Abdollahian announces that Tehran will present an updated version of its plan to the UN to settle the crisis in Syria.
The plan will be declared and presented to the UN secretary general after precise consultations between Tehran and Damascus.
Schools reopen
Schools in Nepal re-open after approximately ninety percent of nepalese schools were destroyed. Many schools are built out of temporary materials such as bamboo and tarpaulin, and are to be replaced with new, permanent buildings within the next two years. The United Nations sends educational relief packages with the intent of assisting students psychologically after the earthquake. School days are being shortened and focusing more on cultural activities in order to further assist with the aim of helping children recover from this disastrous earthquake.
The children are very happy here to engage themselves with different kinds of playing materials, recreational materials.
Aid, bribes may be going to ISIS
Food, medical supplies, and other aid provided by USAID, European donors, and the UN may be being channeled to ISIS, along with money paid to bribe the group to allow convoys through. Unnamed aid coordinator:
The convoys have to be approved by ISIS and you have to pay them: the bribes are disguised and itemized as transportation costs.
The person says the kickbacks are either paid by foreign or local non-governmental organizations that distribute the aid, or by the Turkish or Syrian transportation companies contracted to deliver it. Jonathan Schanzer with the D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies:
I am alarmed that we are providing support for ISIS governance. By doing so we are indemnifying the militants by satisfying the core demands of local people, who could turn on ISIS if they got frustrated.
Addresses Islamic terror at UN
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, speaks at the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, addressing the Islamic terror threat. The half hour speech compares ISIS, Iran and Hamas as a whole in regards to Islamic militancy being a threat to democracy and the world. Netanyahu:
Last week, many countries here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS. And yet weeks before, some of these same countries, that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control. Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. It’s designed for one purpose and for one purpose only: to lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.
United Nations: Combat Ebola Mission
For the first time, the UN opens a health mission headquarters. UNMEER, or United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, provides coordinating international efforts to combat the Ebola virus. Team lead Anthony Banbury with crew members arrive on Monday in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Speaking to the Security Council, Ki-Moon:
This international mission, to be known as the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, will have five priorities: stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks. Under the leadership of a Special Representative of the Secretary-General, the Mission will bring together the full range of UN actors and expertise in support of national efforts. Our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance.
Syrian airstrikes ‘may be illegal’
Officials in the House of Commons Library warn that airstrikes against ISIS in Syria may be difficult to justify under international law, despite Cameron’s view that the Assad regime is illegitimate and does not need to give permission for military operations. A briefing paper prepared for Members of Parliament:
Action in Syria will be difficult to justify legally without a request for assistance from the Assad government, and it is unlikely that the West could be seen to be responding to such a request. The British Government has said that any action in Syria will comply with international law, and the most likely way to achieve this would be to claim that military action is for humanitarian purposes, using the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. This remains controversial, however, without a United Nations Security Council resolution to authorise it.
Releases Fijian peacekeepers
Al-Nusra Front militants release all 45 of the Fijian UN Disengagement Observer Forces they have been holding captive after abducting them from the Syrian Golan Heights two weeks earlier. UN statement:
at 1430lcl 45 Fiji @UNPeacekeeping were released & handed over 2 UNDOF at pos 80. All r in good condition. More details later.
— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) September 11, 2014
Protect vulnerable from ISIS
The UN’s new High Commissioner for Human Rights says in his first speech in the role that ISIS is seeking to build a bloody legacy, and protecting women and children from the group must be a priority. Prince Zeid of Jordan:
Do they believe they are acting courageously? Barbarically slaughtering captives? … They reveal only what a Takfiri state would look like, should this movement actually try to govern in the future. It would be a harsh, mean-spirited, house of blood, where no shade would be offered, nor shelter given, to any non-Takfiri in their midst.
He calls on Iraq’s new government and prime minister to consider joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure accountability for crimes committed in the country:
In particular, dedicated efforts are urgently needed to protect religious and ethnic groups, children – who are at risk of forcible recruitment and sexual violence – and women, who have been the targets of severe restrictions.
Threatens ‘Shariah trial’ for peacekeepers
Al-Nusra Front threatens to try 45 captured UN Disengagement Observer Force peacekeepers from Fiji in a Shariah court over alleged UN crimes. It accuses the UNDOF of doing nothing to help the Syrian people since the uprising against the Assad regime began in March 2011 and says the Fijians were seized in retaliation for the UN ignoring ‘the daily shedding of the Muslims’ blood in Syria. It contends that the UNDOF has colluded to allow Assad’s army access via the Golan Heights…
…to facilitate its movement to strike the vulnerable Muslims.
Urges quick formation of government
The United Nations urges Iraqi political parties to cooperate to quickly form the new government. Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Nickolay Mladenov:
I encourage the Iraqi political leaders to finalise the government formation process within the constitutional timeline, and to ensure a fair representation of women and minority communities in the new government. Forming a new and inclusive government that has wide national support is critical to the future of the country. Today the world is watching Iraq and stands ready to extend immediate support to the new government in its efforts to address the challenges ahead
Issues demands for captured troops
Fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front issue demands for the release of the 45 Fijian UN peacekeepers that they are holding hostage. The group has asked to be taken off the UN terrorist list, for delivery of humanitarian aid to parts of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and for payment for three of its fighters it says were killed in a shootout with UN officers. Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga, in Suva:
Negotiations have moved up to another level with the professional negotiators now in place
Cold threatens Iraq refugees
The UN High Commission on Refugees says the upcoming winter threatens to worsen conditions for around half a million displaced Iraqis receiving UN aid in August. A statement:
Time is now of the essence in providing support to Iraq’s displaced. Winter is approaching fast, with snow, rain and muddy conditions. In less than three months from now, daily temperatures will average less than ten degrees Celsius, and the rains will begin.
The agency says it has provided more than 100,000 mattresses, 10,000 family tents, and 40,000 jerry cans for water as well as tens of thousands of other essential items for some of the estimated 850,000 people who have fled into the northern Kurdistan region. It will send another 10 aid flights into Erbil over the next few days to supply 40,000 blankets, 10,000 kitchen sets, and almost 18,000 plastic tarpaulins. However the accommodation situation remains acute and the agency needs extra financial support:
UNHCR, as a part of the UN humanitarian relief effort, will be launching an appeal for an additional US$350 million to help meet these needs. The main focus will be on providing life-saving protection services and assistance to respond to the most urgent basic needs of displaced Iraqis, including winterization support.
1,420 deaths in August
The UN reports that at least 1,420 people died in the violence in Iraq in August. The death toll – mostly civilians – compares with 1,737 deaths in July, and 2,400 in June and could rise much higher if the UN independently confirms hundreds of reported deaths in areas under ISIS control. U.N. representative Nickolay Mladenov:
Thousands continue to be targeted and killed by ISIL (Islamic State) and associated armed groups simply on account of their ethnic or religious background. The true cost of this human tragedy is staggering