(1) <i>Peacekeeping</i> force of Religion of peace abused girls in Ivory Coast and UN has suspended them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070721/wl_nm/...ast_un_abuse_dc
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>U.N. suspends Moroccan contingent in Ivory Coast</b>
By Peter Murphy Sat Jul 21, 4:50 PM ET
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The United Nations has suspended a Moroccan military contingent from its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast while it investigates allegations of widespread sexual abuse, the world body said on Saturday.
Soldiers from the 734-strong battalion are alleged to have sexually abused large numbers of girls as young as 13 over a three-year period as units rotated through the West African country, U.N. officials said.
A statement from the world body said the entire battalion had been suspended pending an investigation and confined to their barracks in Bouake, the main city in the northern half of the country controlled by rebels since a 2002-2003 civil war.
One U.N. source in Abidjan who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters the girls had sought sex with the peacekeepers for money and some had since had children by them.
"They offered themselves for sexual favors to the Moroccans. This has been going on for a while. I think one of the babies is already over a year old. One of the girls is pregnant now but she was still offering her services," the source said.
Spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast (ONUCI), Hamadoun Toure, said the allegations had come to light after the mission ran a campaign against sexual exploitation in which it asked local people to inform it about abuses.
It then sent a team to carry out interviews and gather information after locals began to make complaints.
"(The suspension) means they don't participate in our operations," he said. "Those who are found guilty will be sent back home."
ZERO TOLERANCE
The Ivory Coast mission numbers just over 9,000 uniformed personnel from more than 40 countries. <b>Moroccans make up the bulk of the force in Bouake with some Bangladeshi police, Pakistani engineers and Ghanaian medical personnel.</b>
The peacekeepers, backed by troops from former colonial power France, are in the world's top cocoa grower to support a peace process that was revived in March by an agreement between President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro.
Over the last few years as peacekeeping has expanded, reports of abuse have mounted in various African nations, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite the "zero-tolerance" policy declared by the United Nations.
All U.N. Blue Helmets are banned from having sexual relations with locals and those serving in Ivory Coast attend training seminars on its code of conduct for peacekeepers.
Local residents in Bouake said they were unaware of the accusations against the Moroccan contingent or their suspension.
The U.N. mission has generally been well-accepted in the rebel-held north but civilian and military staff working in the government south have occasionally been attacked or obstructed in their work by youths loyal to President Gbagbo.
<b>The United Nations ignored sexual exploitation by peacekeepers and other field staff for decades, launching a crackdown only in recent years after reports of abuse in Congo.</b>
A 2005 U.N. report said soldiers should be punished for any abuse, their pay docked and a fund set up to assist any women and girls they impregnated. But member nations have not agreed.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(2) Over 20 <i>christian</i> Koreans and 2 German soldiers kidnapped by Afghani islamis. Islamis claimed they'd killed the Germans. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070722/ap_on_...6JGaJwALgH9xg8F
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Fate of Taliban hostages in dispute</b>
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago
A purported Taliban spokesman said Saturday that the Islamic militia had killed two German hostages, a claim disputed by both Afghanistan and Germany. He also offered to trade 23 captive South Koreans for imprisoned Taliban fighters.
The militant spokesman offered no proof of his claim on the kidnapped Germans. Afghan officials said one of the Germans appeared to have died from a heart attack, while the other was still alive.
"Everything indicates he was a victim of the stress of the kidnapping," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin.
Despite the competing claims, the separate seizures of the foreigners in southern provinces were vivid illustrations of the lack of government control over the region.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said the Afghan and South Korean governments had until Sunday evening to agree to release 23 Taliban militants or the Korean hostages would be killed.
"If the government of Afghanistan and the government of Korea are asking for the release of their hostages, then we believe the Taliban also have the right to ask for the release of their prisoners who are spending time in Afghan jails," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
It is not clear that Afghanistan would agree to such a deal. In March, President Hamid Karzai authorized the release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Italian reporter, but he called the trade a one-time deal. Karzai was also criticized by the United States and European nations who felt that trade would encourage more kidnappings.
Ahmadi claimed the Germans and five Afghans kidnapped along with them were shot to death because Germany did not withdraw its 3,000 troops from Afghanistan as demanded by the Taliban. The seven were kidnapped Wednesday in the southern province of Wardak while working on a dam project.
The Afghan government said it had information to the contrary.
"The information that we and our security forces have is that one of these two who were kidnapped died of a heart attack," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said. "The second hostage is alive, and we hope that he will be released soon, and we are trying our best to get him released."
He did not reveal the source of the information or say anything about the Afghan hostages.
The South Koreans were kidnapped at gunpoint from a bus Thursday in Ghazni province as they traveled on the main highway from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. It was the largest-scale abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
The Taliban roam freely through large swaths of southern Afghanistan. The South Koreans' bus was stopped on Highway 1, a road known to be risky, particularly Ghazni and Zabul provinces where the government has little control.
<b>Ahmadi initially said there were 18 South Korean hostages, but later revised the figure to 23, saying several Koreans spoke Dari and Pashtu and had been mistaken for Afghans.</b> Ahmadi also initially said the kidnapped Koreans, including 18 women, would be killed Saturday if South Korea didn't withdraw its 200 troops. Late Saturday he changed that demand.
(Note Korea's 200 soldiers are not those who are kidnapped.)
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged the Taliban to "send our people home quickly and safely." Roh also spoke with Karzai and asked for his cooperation to quickly win the hostages' release.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, himself a South Korean, also called Karzai and expressed "grave concern" over the abductions.
<b>It was unclear what the Koreans were doing in Afghanistan. The Yonhap news agency reported that most were members of the Saemmul Community Church in Bundang, just south of Seoul. A year ago, hundreds of South Korean Christians were ordered to leave Afghanistan amid rumors they were proselytizing in the deeply conservative Islamic nation.</b>
(Christos: illegal presence as always.)
Ahmadi warned the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO forces not to try to rescue the hostages or they would be killed.
"We have surrounded the area but are working very carefully. We don't want them to be killed," said Ali Shah Ahmadzai, the provincial police chief in Ghazni.
German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jeager, meanwhile, said a crisis team was pursuing "every clue" and was in close contact with the Afghan government.
Germany has 3,000 soldiers in NATO's International Security Assistance Force who are stationed in the mostly peaceful northern part of Afghanistan. South Korea's 200 soldiers in the U.S.-led coalition largely work on humanitarian projects, such as medical assistance and reconstruction.
<b>In South Korea, family members of kidnapped victims urged the government to accept Taliban trade, noting Seoul had already decided to bring its soldiers home this year. </b>
"We hope that the immediate withdrawal (of troops) is made," Cha Sung-min, a relative of one of the hostages, told reporters.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070721/wl_nm/...ast_un_abuse_dc
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>U.N. suspends Moroccan contingent in Ivory Coast</b>
By Peter Murphy Sat Jul 21, 4:50 PM ET
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The United Nations has suspended a Moroccan military contingent from its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast while it investigates allegations of widespread sexual abuse, the world body said on Saturday.
Soldiers from the 734-strong battalion are alleged to have sexually abused large numbers of girls as young as 13 over a three-year period as units rotated through the West African country, U.N. officials said.
A statement from the world body said the entire battalion had been suspended pending an investigation and confined to their barracks in Bouake, the main city in the northern half of the country controlled by rebels since a 2002-2003 civil war.
One U.N. source in Abidjan who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters the girls had sought sex with the peacekeepers for money and some had since had children by them.
"They offered themselves for sexual favors to the Moroccans. This has been going on for a while. I think one of the babies is already over a year old. One of the girls is pregnant now but she was still offering her services," the source said.
Spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast (ONUCI), Hamadoun Toure, said the allegations had come to light after the mission ran a campaign against sexual exploitation in which it asked local people to inform it about abuses.
It then sent a team to carry out interviews and gather information after locals began to make complaints.
"(The suspension) means they don't participate in our operations," he said. "Those who are found guilty will be sent back home."
ZERO TOLERANCE
The Ivory Coast mission numbers just over 9,000 uniformed personnel from more than 40 countries. <b>Moroccans make up the bulk of the force in Bouake with some Bangladeshi police, Pakistani engineers and Ghanaian medical personnel.</b>
The peacekeepers, backed by troops from former colonial power France, are in the world's top cocoa grower to support a peace process that was revived in March by an agreement between President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro.
Over the last few years as peacekeeping has expanded, reports of abuse have mounted in various African nations, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite the "zero-tolerance" policy declared by the United Nations.
All U.N. Blue Helmets are banned from having sexual relations with locals and those serving in Ivory Coast attend training seminars on its code of conduct for peacekeepers.
Local residents in Bouake said they were unaware of the accusations against the Moroccan contingent or their suspension.
The U.N. mission has generally been well-accepted in the rebel-held north but civilian and military staff working in the government south have occasionally been attacked or obstructed in their work by youths loyal to President Gbagbo.
<b>The United Nations ignored sexual exploitation by peacekeepers and other field staff for decades, launching a crackdown only in recent years after reports of abuse in Congo.</b>
A 2005 U.N. report said soldiers should be punished for any abuse, their pay docked and a fund set up to assist any women and girls they impregnated. But member nations have not agreed.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(2) Over 20 <i>christian</i> Koreans and 2 German soldiers kidnapped by Afghani islamis. Islamis claimed they'd killed the Germans. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070722/ap_on_...6JGaJwALgH9xg8F
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Fate of Taliban hostages in dispute</b>
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago
A purported Taliban spokesman said Saturday that the Islamic militia had killed two German hostages, a claim disputed by both Afghanistan and Germany. He also offered to trade 23 captive South Koreans for imprisoned Taliban fighters.
The militant spokesman offered no proof of his claim on the kidnapped Germans. Afghan officials said one of the Germans appeared to have died from a heart attack, while the other was still alive.
"Everything indicates he was a victim of the stress of the kidnapping," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin.
Despite the competing claims, the separate seizures of the foreigners in southern provinces were vivid illustrations of the lack of government control over the region.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said the Afghan and South Korean governments had until Sunday evening to agree to release 23 Taliban militants or the Korean hostages would be killed.
"If the government of Afghanistan and the government of Korea are asking for the release of their hostages, then we believe the Taliban also have the right to ask for the release of their prisoners who are spending time in Afghan jails," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
It is not clear that Afghanistan would agree to such a deal. In March, President Hamid Karzai authorized the release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Italian reporter, but he called the trade a one-time deal. Karzai was also criticized by the United States and European nations who felt that trade would encourage more kidnappings.
Ahmadi claimed the Germans and five Afghans kidnapped along with them were shot to death because Germany did not withdraw its 3,000 troops from Afghanistan as demanded by the Taliban. The seven were kidnapped Wednesday in the southern province of Wardak while working on a dam project.
The Afghan government said it had information to the contrary.
"The information that we and our security forces have is that one of these two who were kidnapped died of a heart attack," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said. "The second hostage is alive, and we hope that he will be released soon, and we are trying our best to get him released."
He did not reveal the source of the information or say anything about the Afghan hostages.
The South Koreans were kidnapped at gunpoint from a bus Thursday in Ghazni province as they traveled on the main highway from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. It was the largest-scale abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
The Taliban roam freely through large swaths of southern Afghanistan. The South Koreans' bus was stopped on Highway 1, a road known to be risky, particularly Ghazni and Zabul provinces where the government has little control.
<b>Ahmadi initially said there were 18 South Korean hostages, but later revised the figure to 23, saying several Koreans spoke Dari and Pashtu and had been mistaken for Afghans.</b> Ahmadi also initially said the kidnapped Koreans, including 18 women, would be killed Saturday if South Korea didn't withdraw its 200 troops. Late Saturday he changed that demand.
(Note Korea's 200 soldiers are not those who are kidnapped.)
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged the Taliban to "send our people home quickly and safely." Roh also spoke with Karzai and asked for his cooperation to quickly win the hostages' release.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, himself a South Korean, also called Karzai and expressed "grave concern" over the abductions.
<b>It was unclear what the Koreans were doing in Afghanistan. The Yonhap news agency reported that most were members of the Saemmul Community Church in Bundang, just south of Seoul. A year ago, hundreds of South Korean Christians were ordered to leave Afghanistan amid rumors they were proselytizing in the deeply conservative Islamic nation.</b>
(Christos: illegal presence as always.)
Ahmadi warned the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO forces not to try to rescue the hostages or they would be killed.
"We have surrounded the area but are working very carefully. We don't want them to be killed," said Ali Shah Ahmadzai, the provincial police chief in Ghazni.
German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jeager, meanwhile, said a crisis team was pursuing "every clue" and was in close contact with the Afghan government.
Germany has 3,000 soldiers in NATO's International Security Assistance Force who are stationed in the mostly peaceful northern part of Afghanistan. South Korea's 200 soldiers in the U.S.-led coalition largely work on humanitarian projects, such as medical assistance and reconstruction.
<b>In South Korea, family members of kidnapped victims urged the government to accept Taliban trade, noting Seoul had already decided to bring its soldiers home this year. </b>
"We hope that the immediate withdrawal (of troops) is made," Cha Sung-min, a relative of one of the hostages, told reporters.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->