Author Peter Andreas explains the two sides of criminality in armed conflicts, and how it’s role is often misinterpreted.

 

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Have United Nations workers and other NGO volunteers always maintained peace, or have they been the central piece to a war economy?

Scholar and author Peter Andreas of “Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo” portrays in his new book the double-sided affects of the international involvement during the Siege of Sarajevo. Andreas stressed that the Unites Nations was a main player in the siege’s peacekeeping, but it also allowed an underground criminal economy to facilitate positive and negative forces in Sarajevo.

Andreas said, “criminality involved looting the city, but also saving it. It involved perpetuating the siege, but also ending the war. And it involved state deformation and formation at the same time”. Andreas said the criminal underground emerged in the absence of an organized army in Sarajevo, and became “overnight patriotic heroes.” In a secret tunnel beneath the Sarajevo Airport, these criminals served as profiteers—selling cigarettes, alcohol, and arms—as well as a lifeline, providing money, medical supplies and an escape for civilians.

The UN controlled the airport during the siege. It was through the airport that civilians and criminal leaders ran their market of aid and corruption. Although he recognized that NATO air strikes were significant in the siege’s conclusion, he says most of the war’s conclusion was due to the shifting military balance in the arms embargo under the UN controlled airport. International aid was significant in publicizing and aiding the siege, but Andreas’ “backstage” conclusions may be the reason there is now a new criminalized elite in Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia.

UN World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran speaks about the many benefits of school feeding programs and which particular countries are helped and why. (1:07)

 

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UN World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran speaks about the importance of the world hunger crisis, especially during this time of financial crisis. (1:00)

 

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According to the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, the food hunger crisis has become a “silent tsunami” causing violence, corruption, and starvation in more than 40 countries worldwide.

In her address to the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, Sheeran attributed this crisis to the increase in natural disasters as well as soaring food prices. “Hunger is not a solely humanitarian challenge,” said Sheeran, who explained the effect that unstable foreign governments have on the United States such as the export bans and trade restrictions passed in recent years.

Sheeran spoke of the World Food Programme’s efforts to establish school feeding programs to enable girls to attend schools their families would usually not let them attend. Also, the WFP has created similar programs for AIDS orphans that also gives them extra rations at the end of the week so families are more likely to take them home.

Specialists have helped WFP health workers develop “power packed food” for infants and toddlers to prevent undernutrition using locally grown crops, Sheeran said. In countries like Egypt, India, and Haiti, this has provided “the greatest impact for the least investment.”

Sheeran hopes that the World Food Programme will help supply the world with twice the amount of food currently produced by 2050 and will provide opportunities, specifically for African farmers, to make their move onto the world stage as major food producers.

Talk Radio News Service Bureau Chief Ellen Ratner interviews Ann Veneman, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). They speak about the biggest fundraising period for the fund, Trick or Treat for UNICEF, the goals of the fund, and the work in education, healthcare and feeding that the program does in Sudan and other underdeveloped places in the world. (4:39)

 

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Friends of Pakistanand United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice discuss the Bhutto Doctrine.  “People of Pakistan can rest assured that democracy does work and it is working”, the organization stated that the doctrine will delegate authority and allow for “regional ownership to the problems that Pakistan is having.”

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Secretary Rice added that the doctrine will help the region “more towards a more stable and prosperous Pakistan.”

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<a href=http://media.libsyn.com/media/talkradionews/20080926RiceandFriendsofPakistanatGA.mp3>Listen to Audio File</a>

 

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Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, discusses strategies for reducing pollution and environmental waste in relation to the Millennium Development Goals.

“When we talk about the green economy,” Steiner said, “it’s not necessarily a mathametic definition we’re kooking at.” He when on to say that in the UN’s analysis, UNEP looks at “where are, in our economy, sectors emerging, jobs being created, investments being mobilized … and essentially restructuring our economy?”

Listen to Audio File (5:18)

 

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In contrast to US president George Bush’s failure to conduct a press encounter at this week’s United Nations General Assembly, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took questions from the media during an hour-long press conference yesterday at UN headquarters in New York.

During the conversation, which was at times confrontational, Ahmadinejad retained a sense of relaxed composure. Though he skirted issues such as detention of dissidents, media transparency, and nuclear threats to Israel, Ahmadinejad was willing to engage on multiple, controversial topics.

Ahmadinejad spoke of his country’s willingness to allow IAEA inspectors in to Iran, and denied the possibility that Iran would preemptively attack Israel, stating that “[the world] is entering a post-nuclear” era. The president also discussed his willingness to cooperate with the Iraqi government, cautioned the West about it’s excursion in Afghanistan, and warned of the hazards of continued violence in the Middle East.

Listen to Audio File (5:06), via translation

Listen to Entire Press Conference (59:10), via translation

 

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Israeli president Shimon Peres discusses the distraction of Iran, as well as Israel’s goals in relation to the General Assembly: peace, poverty, and handling the dangers of environment. “Our enemies are not the Iranians but [the Iranian] system of government is the enemy of everyone,” Peres said. Israel would not capitulate to “sensational and empty speeches.”

Listen to Audio File - (3:22)

 

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