By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Correspondent Michael Ruhl reports on the security and humanitarian crisis presently plaguing Somalia. Ruhl interviews Somalia’s Ambassador-At-Large to the U.S., Abdi Awaleh Jama, and also speaks with Joel Carny from Refugees International.

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By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

America must invest more time, money, and human resources to help those displaced by the ongoing Iraq War, according to human rights advocates from the Washington, D.C.-based Refugees International.

The presence of 2.6 million displaced Iraqis persons is overwhelming to neighboring Middle East countries and is “undermining” to the social fabric of Iraq, said Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International, at a speech made today at the National Press Club.

President Barack Obama talked about displacement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.

Bacon is happy at what is being seen as a distinct change from the “little attention” that the Bush Administration paid to Iraqi displacement.

It is estimated that since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, 2.6 million Iraqi’s have lost their homes and have fled other parts of the country. An additional 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Bacon said that greater American and international support in receiving refugees and providing financial-aid can help stop the crisis.

Displacement of that many people “affects the whole region”, said Bacon, which results in educated citizens and specialized workers fleeing the country.

There are only 18,000 practicing doctors in Iraq, down from 32,000 doctors in 2002. There are more Iraqi doctors in Jordan than in Iraq’s capitol city of Baghdad, Bacon said.

Last year Democratic Senators Robert Casey (PA) and Benjamin Cardin (MD) introduced a bill to increase aid to Iraqi refugees and allow more of them to enter the United States. Since the FY2010 Budget has been approved by Congress, any appropriated funds to help Iraqi citizens would have to come through additional legislation, Bacon said.

A spokesman for Senator Cardin said it has not been decided yet if similar legislation would be introduced in this Congress.

Refugee International’s Field Report on the Iraqi refugee situation said that the Iraqi government is trying to keep more of its citizens from fleeing their homeland. It is feared by the Iraqi government that the existence of so many refugees tarnishes the image of overall security within the country.

The report also said Iraq violated international refugee laws in 2007 by asking Syria not to accept any more Iraqi refugees.

Many refugees have fears of returning home, the report says, because many of those that returned already have been killed.

Kristele Younes, an advocate with Refugees International, says that security is a major issue in Iraqi neighborhoods, with each little borough acting as its own walled off “fiefdom”.

Younes said that the United Nations is trying to place a tourniquet on the flow of persons out of the country by the end of the year, but significant challenges remain in Iraq, including budgetary shortcomings due to low oil prices, corruption within the government and sectarianism.

The Refugees International’s report on Iraq can be found here.

On his visit to Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the UN’s commitment to ending sexual violence throughout the country. At Heal Africa, a holistic center set up to provide psychological and medical healing to rape victims –some as young as two years of age, he spoke about the every day ills women in the country suffer.

Many women and young girls have suffered at the hands of Ugandan LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and FDLR (Revolutionary Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) rebels who have fought over ownership of land thick with natural resources like gold and minerals. MONUC (The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) is dealing with these cases on a day by day basis as the increase of incidents citing brutal rape and other forms of sexual violence continue. TRNS sat down with Virginie Mumbre, a counselor at the Heal Africa center to find out the latest on these sex crimes.

Tala Dowlatshahi interviews Jon Bruton, the head of the delegation for the European Union and former Prime Minister of Ireland, on January 19, 2009 (08:44).

 

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A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) roundtable discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace discussed the future role of the United States in the global development process.

“We…can improve and strengthen our own interests as a country by helping to improve the lives of others all around the world,” said Reuben Brigety, Director of the Sustainable Security Program at the Center for American Progress. This is “quite revolutionary in the eyes of some people who consider themselves proper foreign policy experts or security experts.” Brigety spoke of the need for the United States to lead a multilateral effort with the UNDP in developing countries, avoiding natural disasters and strengthening national security. “I think that…there are enormous security challenges in many parts of the world, but I also think we are at a stage where we have the greatest political opportunity to address them,” said Brigety.

“There are thousands of people interested in this [foreign aid reform], and it’s not just the development community, it’s the foreign policy community, its the national security community that are not just supporting foreign aid reform and modernizing, they’re demanding it,” said George Ingram, Vice President & Executive Director of the Education Policy and Data Center at the Academy for Educational Development. “Obama has called for doubling the foreign assistance budget by 2021,” said Ingram, referring to the role the incoming administration has promised to embrace as a multilateral leader of global development.

“Multilateralism is…merged into some vague evil concept of supernationalism,” said Bruce Jenks, UN Assistant Secretary-General & Director of Partnership Bureau of the UNDP, “to me the irony is…it’s the opposite.” Jenks described that there was an enormous opportunity for the United States to lead a multilateral coalition. “Multilateralism needs to be seen as an instrument of choice in the national interest,” said Jenks. There’s “a myth…that multilateralism is an alternative to leadership…There’s no such thing as un-lead multilateralism or blind multilateralism, multilateralism must be lead.”

UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) organized a panel of Israeli and Palestinian women rights activists through the membership of the International Women’s Commission. The International Women’s Commission is a global organization that fights for a just and sustainable peace between Israel and Palestine. The panel of women activists and experts will meet with the Security Council today to promote United Nations Resolution 1325, on women’s peace and security. Women have long held a strong role in conflict resolution and the panel of women from several prominent activist organizations based in the region will ask the Security Council to 1) put on the agenda of the monthly briefings the progress of women’s issues, 2) organize a thematic mission and visit women’s programs to see what women are doing in the region, 3) establish a monitoring mechanism for stability with the guidance of UNIFEM and UN organizations underscoring the experiences of women in both the Israeli and Palestinian territories.

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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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?”

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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.

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

 

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