prevented the rape UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

UN 'was not told about DR Congo mass rapes'

UN troops could not have prevented the rape of more than 150 women and boys by rebels in DR Congo because they did not know it was happening, a UN envoy said.

Peacekeepers passed through the area twice but were told only that rebels were setting up road blocks, he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "outraged" by the attacks and has sent two envoys to investigate.

The UN has called an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss a response to the violence.

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DR Congo: Dreaming of Democracy

Rape dilemma
Rebels Inc: multinational fighters
From rebel-held Congo to beer can
Remembering Congo's rumba king
The rapes happened in Luvungi town and surrounding villages, within miles of a UN peacekeeping base, a US aid worker and a Congolese doctor have said.

Some reports say rebels occupied the area and gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days before leaving.

A UN joint human rights team confirmed allegations of the rape of at least 154 women by fighters from the Rwandan FDLR militia and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels in the village of Bunangiri.

But Roger Meece, a UN official in eastern DR Congo, said that while local people had told the UN patrols about roadblocks, they said nothing about the sexual violence. The UN was only told about it 10 days later by an aid group.

Speaking to journalists by video from Goma, Mr Meece said the villagers may have feared reprisals from the rebels or have been ashamed by the cultural stigma of rape.

But the BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says there was clearly a serious failure in communications, made all the more significant as the peacekeepers work from a small forward operation base established to increase the UN's contact with civilians in the volatile region.

Mr Meece said the UN was now investigating ways of improving communication with local people.

One idea is for villagers to contact the base daily, "with the default being that if the communication is not made, there would be an assumption of a problem and a patrol despatched," he said.

'Must speak out'
DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence and rape is commonly used as a weapon of war.

Haunted by Congo rape dilemma
But even by normal standards, the latest attacks were particularly vicious, says our correspondent.

Mr Ban said he had met victims of "appalling crimes of sexual violence" in DR Congo last year and felt compelled to ask whether more could have been done to protect the latest victims.

"Women and children should not have to live in fear of rape. Communities should not suffer the indignity of knowing that human rights abusers and war criminals can continue to behave with impunity," he said.

"We must speak up and we must act."

The UN has previously described Congo as "the rape capital of the world", with more than 8,000 women raped during fighting in 2009.

A report released in April by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu province had been gang-raped by armed men.

More than than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes, the report said, and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.

Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in 2003.

UN peacekeeping troops have been backing efforts to defeat the FDLR, whose leaders are linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

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Watch Pakistan Taliban planning aid attack, says US official

Pakistan Taliban planning aid attack, says US official


Millions of Pakistanis have been displaced by the floods
The Pakistani Taliban are planning to attack foreigners helping with flood relief efforts in the country, a senior US official has warned.

The official also said "federal and provincial ministers" may be at risk.

Some UN agencies say they are now reviewing their security procedures.

It has now been four weeks since the start of the flooding, described as the region's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN says more than 17 million people have been affected by the floods.

Continue reading the main story
Pakistan's Monsoon Floods

Born amid the floodwaters
Aid effort painfully slow
In pictures: Pakistan's flood crisis
Forgotten humanity
As floods sweep down from the north, they are threatening to breach an embankment in the Kot Almo area in Sindh province, forcing thousands of people in the southern Thatta district to flee from their homes.

Throughout Pakistan, about 1.2 million homes have been destroyed in the monsoon floods, leaving 5 million people homeless.

Aid agencies are focusing on providing emergency relief such as shelter, food and medical care.

'Plans to attack'

The militant group Tehrik-e Taliban "plans to conduct attacks against foreigners participating in the ongoing flood relief operations in Pakistan", a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC.

There have been no such attacks so far, but Tehrik-e Taliban is considered the most radical and violent militant group in Pakistan.

A retired Pakistani general, Talat Masood, told the BBC that the militant group would seek to counter any gains in public support for Western governments helping with relief and aid work.
Protection and security

The warning came hours after a top US general involved in the military relief effort said his men had not encountered any security problems in flying aid to Pakistan.

It has been nearly a month since the flooding began
"We have seen no security threat whatsoever in the three weeks we have been operating here," Brigadier General Michael Nagata was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

He added that the Pakistani military had done a "highly effective job in providing our force protection and security".

Various nations have pledged more than $700m (£552m) for relief efforts in Pakistan.

Workers have begun clearing up as the floods recede in the north and the UN has appealed for more helicopters to reach 800,000 people who are cut off.
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Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish Troops Die in Afghan Shooting

KABUL—An Afghan policeman shot and killed two Spanish soldiers and an international interpreter before security forces shot him dead during an army training exercise in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Afghan and international officials said.

The deaths are the latest in a string of incidents in which Afghan forces have fired on their international mentors during training exercises.

Afghan policemen stand near the skeletal remains of a burnt truck in Badghis province. Afghan police and Spanish troops clashed early Wednesday outside a base in western Afghanistan

Hundreds of Afghans poured into the streets after rumors spread of the death of an Afghan during the exercise, setting fire to government buildings in Badghis province's Qalay-I-Naw district and attacking a nearby military base operated by Spanish troops, local officials said.

The shooting occurred at about 9:20 a.m., officials said. The nationality of the interpreter wasn't known.

In a statement, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the cause of the shooting was still unclear, though it said reports indicate a member of the Afghan national police fired several rounds and NATO forces returned fire.

The Afghan policeman involved in the shooting may have been a Taliban insurgent, said Sharafuddin Mujadidi, a spokesman for the provincial government of Badghis. A spokesman for the Taliban couldn't be reached to comment.

Mr. Mujadidi said hundreds of Afghan civilians, chanting antigovernment and anti-NATO slogan, tried to enter the base after the gunbattle. "Afghan security forces quickly reacted and cordoned the base, dispersing the mob," he said.


Spanish soldiers patrol near a coal mine in Herat province in western Afghanistan in March.

A NATO official said there were still hundreds of Afghans demonstrating around the military base in Badghis province in the afternoon.

Taliban infiltration among the Afghan police and army is still a major concern despite efforts by Afghan and coalition forces to more thoroughly vet recruits, recently implementing biometric registration to weed out possible insurgents and criminals.

But last month, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two U.S. civilian army trainers and one Afghan during a training exercise, one of several similar incidents throughout the country.

The deaths Wednesday bring to 30 the number of Spanish fatalities in the nine-year U.S.-led war, out of 2,030 international troops, according to icasualties.org. So far this month, 52 members of coalition forces have died, with 30 of those fatalities American.

Violence has picked up in northern and western Afghanistan, which were considered to be quiet by coalition forces who have focused the majority of their troop surge in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered for 30,000 U.S. troops to be deployed in the country in December as U.S. forces draw down from Iraq.

—Habib Zahori and Habib Totakhil contributed to this article.

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Declare the Sarkozy Outlines G-20 Priorities

Sarkozy Outlines G-20 Priorities

By NATHALIE BOSCHAT And DAVID PEARSON

PARIS—French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the world's 20 largest economies to work together to reform global monetary order.

"We must define a new framework for discussing currency movements," Mr. Sarkozy said, adding that it is "nonsense" to talk about exchange rates without including China, which has accumulated huge foreign exchange reserves.

He said stabilizing erratic foreign exchange and commodities markets will feature high on France's agenda when it heads the Group of 20 from November. He added there is a need to reduce the U.S. dollar's dominance as the reserve currency of choice and called for a greater role for alternative currencies.

Mr. Sarkozy was speaking in front of the nation's ambassadors to outline France's priorities for the G-20 and the G-8 meetings. France starts presiding over the G-20 in November and will be head of both the G-20 and G-8 summits as of next year.

Better coordination of global economic policies aimed at unwinding world imbalances is key to reducing foreign exchange volatility, Mr. Sarkozy said. Another way to achieve better currency stability will be for the G-20 to try to prevent the accumulation of excessive foreign-exchange reserves among its members, particularly in emerging countries, he added.


South Korea, which currently is chair of the G-20, is pushing for the institution of financial safety nets aimed at preventing massive capital outflows such as the those witnessed in emerging countries during the recent financial crisis and the Asian crisis of the late 1990s.

This involves strengthening some of the International Monetary Fund's existing insurance mechanisms in order to deter emerging countries from accumulating excessive foreign-exchange reserves with a view to protecting themselves against potential financial crises, and should in turn contribute to currency stability.

Mr. Sarkozy said he wants the G-20 to deepen South Korea's work when France heads the group and added the G-20 should also examine ways to allow countries that are highly reliant on outside capital flows to "temporarily regulate their capital markets" in times of trouble.

Foreign exchange volatility is a "real threat" to world economic growth, Mr. Sarkozy stressed, echoing a long-held French view that there is a need to introduce guard rails to prevent rates from getting out of kilter.

Mr. Sarkozy said he isn't calling for a reversal to a global monetary system based on fixed rates, which existed before the Bretton Woods agreement, the conference held in the U.S. town of the same name that moved the world economy off fixed exchange rates after the second World War.

But he suggested that a conference of experts could be held, possibly in China, to discuss the future of the monetary system without "taboos."

"Since the 1970s, we've been living in a nonexistent international monetary system," he said. Monitoring global exchange rates has until now been the exclusive remit of the group of the world's seven most industrialized countries, which doesn't include China.

The global monetary system should also be more multipolar and not rely solely on the U.S. dollar as the world's main reserve currency, Mr. Sarkozy added. Noting increased interest in the Special Drawing Right, a monetary unit used by countries in their transactions with the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Sarkozy said the international monetary system would be reinforced if countries could use an international reserve asset that isn't issued by only one nation, as is the case with the U.S. dollar.
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Watch Chilean miners told of rescue delay

Chilean miners told of rescue delay


Engineers say it will take up to 4 months to complete a narrow escape tunnel to free the miners

A group of workers trapped in a collapsed mine have been told they may be stuck underground for months before rescuers can free them.

Officials on Wednesday said it could take up to four months before the 33 men can be freed, saying until then they will get oxygen, food, water and medical supplies.

The news was delivered as the government prepared a special programme to help the miners cope mentally and physically with their prolonged captivity.

Chilean engineers said they needed at least 120 days using a hydraulic bore to dig a narrow escape shaft measuring just 66 centimetres in diameter, or roughly the size of a mountain bicycle wheel, to get the men out.

Rescuers on Tuesday began sending down emergency food, water and oxygen supplies to the miners trapped alive after the gold and copper mine collapsed on August 5.

The mine runs like a corkscrew for more than seven kilometres under a barren mountain in northern Chile's Atacama Desert.

Long rescue

"We were able to tell them... they would not be rescued before the Fiestas Patrias [Chile's September 18 Independence Day celebrations], and that we hoped to get them out before Christmas," Jaime Manalich, the Chilean health minister, said.


The 33 miners will be stuck half a mile below the surface until the end of the year [EPA]
Manalich said the men, trapped 700 metres below ground, took the information calmly, but he warned "a period of depression, anguish and severe malaise" could ensue.

Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean president, earlier assured anxious families that their loved ones "will be with us for Christmas and New Year".

Rodrigo Hinzpeter, the Chilean interior minister, said the men have a general idea that the rescue will take time but have not been told how long they will remain stuck nearly half a mile below the surface.

"I hope that nobody commits the imprudence of telling them something like this. We have asked the families to be careful in the letters they write," Hinzpeter said.

"It's going to be very hard. We're going to have to give them a great deal of attention, care and psychological support."

Families sent letters in an attempt to minimise the psychological impact on the men
Psychological impact

Officials say they are concerned about the psychological impact of being trapped in close proximity in a hot, dank shelter with their only lifeline a tiny hole to the surface providing sustenance, water and communication.
Family members holding a vigil on the surface used an eight-centimetre wide drill hole to the men to send written notes to buoy the men's spirits.

Health minister Manalich said the first stage of the preparation plan calls for the miners to receive "nutritional recuperation" and occupational therapy.

He said they had been sent chocolate- and raspberry-flavoured milkshakes, which would be followed by solid food in the coming days, when their metabolisms could cope.

The men have been told to split their living area for sleeping, working, and for bodily waste, with tiny lamps illuminating the cramped space.

"Then they will start a daily exercise routine," Manalich said. "The programme includes singing, games involving movement, card games, pencils and anything that they can use."

The US space agency NASA has also offered to help sustain the trapped men, based on its long experience with keeping astronauts healthy during long, isolated missions.
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President Barack Obama's Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy says General

Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy says General
By Phil Stewart and Sue Pleming, Reuters



President Barack Obama's July 2011 date to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan has given a morale boost to Taliban insurgents, who believe they can wait out Nato forces, the top US Marine said yesterday.

But retiring General James Conway said he believed Marines would not be in a position to withdraw from the fight in southern Afghanistan for years, even though he acknowledged that Americans were growing "tired" of the 9-year-old war.

Conway's unusually blunt assessment is likely to fan criticism of Obama's war strategy ahead of US congressional elections in November, as public opinion of the conflict sours further and casualties rise.

"In some ways, we think right now it is probably giving our enemy sustenance," Conway, the Marine Corps' commandant, said of the July 2011 deadline.

"In fact we've intercepted communications that say, 'Hey, you know, we only need to hold out for so long.'"

Supporters of Obama's July 2011 date to start withdrawing forces from Afghanistan, conditions permitting, say it conveys a needed sense of urgency to Kabul. Afghans must quickly ramp up the size of their security forces for a gradual handover.

But critics say the strategy backfired, sending a signal to the Taliban that the United States was preparing to wind down the war while setting unrealistic expectations among Americans about the pace of progress in Afghanistan.

Conway, quoting one of his own commanders, told reporters: "We can either lose fast or win slow."

The timetable for withdrawal is certain to come under close scrutiny in a White House strategy review in December, which Obama called for last year when he announced the July 2011 deadline and 30,000 additional forces.

"We know the president was talking to several audiences at the same time when he made his comments on July 2011," Conway told reporters at the Pentagon.

"Though I certainly believe that some American units somewhere in Afghanistan will turn over responsibilities to Afghanistan security forces in 2011, I do not think they will be Marines."

Violence across Afghanistan has reached record levels despite the presence of almost 150,000 US and Nato troops. US and Nato forces have also stepped up operations after the Taliban insurgency spread out of the South and East into once relatively peaceful areas of the North and West.

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Enjoy Philippines Criticized Over Hostage Standoff

Forensic examiners looked for evidence inside the tourist bus in Manila on Tuesday.
MANILA — In the face of growing Chinese anger, Philippine officials acknowledged failings in how the police handled a 12-hour hostage standoff on a tourist bus, which unfolded on live television and ended with the deaths of eight passengers from Hong Kong and the armed captor, a former police officer.


The growing criticism of the police response underscored what may be an early test for President Benigno S. Aquino III, who was elected in a landslide this spring. Chinese officials said they were appalled by the killings, and the chief executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, complained that he had been unable to reach Mr. Aquino throughout the crisis.
Relatives of slain tourists on Tuesday at the scene of a hostage standoff in Manila, a day after eight bus passengers were killed.
In Beijing, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the government demanded a “thorough investigation” and full disclosure of the results as soon as possible.

Philippines Criticized Over Hostage Standoff
In Hong Kong, flags flew at half-staff on Tuesday, and protesters gathered outside the Philippine Consulate near the downtown financial center. Much of the fiercest criticism was focused on the length of time the police allowed the situation to continue before raiding the bus, and the extensive live news coverage, which the gunman was able to watch on a monitor inside the bus, robbing the police of any element of surprise.

“It was the mishandling of the situation that caused this to happen,” Alberto Lim, the Philippine secretary of tourism, acknowledged in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It is really tragic for the country as a whole.”

The Philippine interior secretary, Jesse Robredo, told the newspaper The Inquirer that the authorities and the Philippine National Police, or P.N.P., shared responsibility for the failings.

“We should be very forthright,” Mr. Robredo said. “We — not only P.N.P., it’s everyone involved in the incident — recognize that we lack equipment. We could have been better trained, better equipped, and there should have been better response.”

A police spokesman, Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, also admitted that the force was inadequately trained and equipped, and said that relations with the news media had broken down, according to the

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