Saturday 29 November 2008

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Five years after Georgia's Rose Revolution and weeks after the Russian-Georgian War, correspondent Sonja Pace visited the Caucasus nation to check on Georgia: Beyond the War. Our special report includes video, an interactive timeline, slideshows and more.  Follow economic news on our Global Economic Turmoil page. And, VOANews.com, with its new community site USAVotes2008.com, will continue to provide you with coverage on the transition from President Bush to President Obama. 


Indian PM Calls High-Level Meetings in Wake of Mumbai Attacks 

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Officials say Manmohan Singh wanted details on Mumbai terrorist attacks and responsive actions being taken
India's prime minister Saturday called together the country's top
military and intelligence chiefs. Officials say he wanted details on
the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the responsive actions being taken. In
New Delhi, VOA Correspondent Steve Herman reports the government is
finding itself under immediate pressure to show its resolve amid
political criticism. On the day local elections were held in
New Delhi, with polling underway in five other states and Mumbai
counting bodies from the terror attack, top government officials
huddled in the capital. Professor Brahma ChellaneyAn Indian academic security specialist
predicts little will result from the high-level meetings. Brahma
Chellaney of the Center for Policy Research believes Indians have
become accustomed to terrorism. He says officials lack the political
will to make fundamental changes, even after this attack, which he
considers the worst since September, 2001. "Just the way
people here have come to accept corruption they've come to accept a
high level of terrorism," said Chellaney. "It's like a part of life.
This is a kind of attitude which you will not see in most other parts
of the world. This is a terrorist siege of India. This is the whole
country being held hostage again and again by small bands of terrorists
who obviously have the backing of some important actors outside." Opposition
politicians are wasting no time portraying Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and his allies as soft. Some of the political voices on the right
also emphasize Pakistan and Islamic extremists as culprits, threatening
to worsen tensions between India's majority Hindu and minority Muslim
communities. BJP party newspaper adThe nationalist BJP party, for example, in Friday
newspapers, ran front-page advertisements illustrated with bloody
graphics. It called the government weak, unwilling and incapable of
fighting terror. India's science minister, speaking on behalf of the
governing coalition's top party, Congress, called the ads "a matter of
national shame." Some television news channels have been
running scrolling commentary from viewers calling for revenge against
the culprits and demanding harsher security measures. Strategic
studies professor Brahma Chellaney tells VOA News the government has
resisted tougher relevant laws, fearing their misuse. "There's
a big political controversy in India about counter-terror laws,"he
said. "I don't like special laws for the purpose of combating
terrorism. But the reality is when you are under siege you need certain
laws that will speedily bring perpetrators to justice." Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Prime Minister Singh wants a new federal investigation agency to combat terror. But that is being resisted by the states.The
states have been criticized for a lack of cooperation among themselves
and with the federal government in terror probes.  Rivalries among
numerous state and national agencies tasked with law enforcement,
border security and intelligence gathering have also stymied past
investigations. The prime minister met with military and
intelligence chiefs as commandos still were going room to room in the
Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel to secure the damaged Mumbai landmark.
Notably the man in charge of domestic security, Home Minister
Shivraj Patil, was not present. Opposition leaders have been calling
for his ouster for his alleged weak response to terrorist bombings even
before the Mumbai attacks. Patil also convened his own meeting of top officials of various military forces and law enforcement agencies. The
Home Ministry's special secretary for internal security, M.L. Kumawat,
says one immediate change after the Mumbai attacks will be improved
surveillance of India's 8,000 kilometers of coastline. "It
was decided that there's a need to have better coordination between the
navy, coast guard and police by an institutional mechanism and further
upgrade coastal security as expeditiously as possible," he said.Some of the terrorists used boats to infiltrate Mumbai's Colaba coast. Prime
Minister Singh has also called for all political party leaders to meet
Sunday in the capital to discuss the attack, which has shocked the
nation and prompted calls for a clear and quick response. 

 


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Mumbai Siege Over, Indian Forces Kill Last Militants

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Nearly 200 people killed in 60-hour siege
Indian security officials say they have regained control of Mumbai following the most extended terrorist assault in the country's history. Some 60 hours after a group of gunmen threw India's commercial capital into bloody chaos, officials say all of the suspected Islamic militants have been killed or captured. VOA correspondent Steve Herman reports from New Delhi on the end of the days of turmoil that has left nearly 200 people dead.Along the Colaba coastline, at the Gateway of India, gunfire punctuated the early morning hours Saturday. Inside and around the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, a building synonymous with modern Indian luxury, commandos tossed grenades and set fires to flush out the remaining terrorists. An Indian soldiers aims at Taj Mahal Hotel where suspected militants holed up during an assault in Mumbai, 28 Nov 2008Police forces had been overwhelmed. It took days of intense and prolonged battles between elite military squads and well-equipped, fiercely determined insurgents to end the siege at the Taj, the nearby Trident-Oberoi Hotel and the expatriate Jewish community center.

'Terrorists Killed'

The director-general of the National Security Guards, J.K. Dutt, said, "In the Taj, three terrorists have been killed."  The National Security Guards spearheaded the operation at the three locations. But Dutt told reporters at the Taj that he would not declare the last of the three urban combat sites secured until hundreds of rooms in the hotel had been cleared. Dutt says an unknown number of terrified guests still need to be persuaded that it is safe to leave the rooms where many had taken refuge since Wednesday evening. It had taken until Friday to eliminate the attackers from the two other sites where a number of civilians were found dead of gunshots. The Trident-Oberoi, like the Taj, had been stormed by the terrorists who made a systematic effort to capture foreigners, especially those holding American and British passports. At the third site, Nariman House, there had been a grim unprecedented assault where Islamic radicals took Jewish hostages. Commandos dropped by helicopter onto the roof of the Jewish community center early Friday engaged in a prolonged battle to free five Israeli hostages. All were found dead late in the day.

Death Toll Could RiseAuthorities say it could take many more days to make an accurate assessment of the carnage. What is clear, so far, is that about 200 people were killed in the attacks, including many foreigners. Hundreds more were wounded in as many as 12 separate assaults. 

Hundreds of millions of Indians were transfixed by televised images of burning luxury hotels and bloody carnage at rail stations and cafes where people of all classes and color mingled. Indian allegations of Pakistani ties to the attack threaten to set back recent progress in often tense relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.  Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks.While India has suffered a wave of terrorist bombings in recent years this attack has rocked the nation and is expected to color the country's political and diplomatic mood for an extended time.


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Thai Protesters Force Police from Airport Checkpoint

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Confrontation ended without violence
Protesters at main international airport in Bangkok, 26 Nov 2008Anti-government protesters in Thailand attacked a second police
checkpoint outside Bangkok's main airport Saturday as a police buildup
raised fears of a violent confrontation.About 150 riot police
withdrew when protesters armed with metal rods and hurling firecrackers
swarmed their position near Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international
airport.Earlier, about 1,000 of the protesters forced police to
abandon another checkpoint in a confrontation that ended without
violence.About 2,000 police supported by troops, some
carrying M-16 assault rifles, have set up a massive cordon around the
airport where protesters with the People's Alliance for Democracy have
shut down operations since Thursday.Thai authorities say the airport will remain closed until at least Monday evening.The
siege has stranded as many as 30,000 travelers per day since it
began and threatens to cost the Thai tourism industry more than $2 billion in coming months.Some airlines have begun
flights out of the U-Tapao naval base south of Bangkok, but the base is
overwhelmed by the numbers of people trying to leave the country.     Protests have also shut down operations at the Don Muang domestic airport outside Bangkok.Thailand's Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said Friday that security forces will use peaceful means to end the crisis.Mr.
Somchai said authorities will use negotiation and other means
appropriate to the situation.  He spoke from the northern city of
Chiang Mai, where he reportedly plans to remain as the crisis continues
in the capital.The founder of the main protest group, PAD,
Sondhi Limthongkul, said he had rejected a direct appeal to negotiate
from Mr. Somchai.  Protesters have insisted they will not leave the airports until the prime minister resigns. The United States on Friday urged the group to walk away from Bangkok airports peacefully.Mr.
Somchai declared a state of emergency around the two Bangkok airports
Thursday, a move that allows him to use security forces to clear the
protesters.  The current political crisis began after the 2006
coup that removed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra - Mr. Somchai's
brother-in-law.  Protesters accuse Mr. Somchai of being a proxy for Mr.
Thaksin.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.


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Hamas Claims Mortar Fire that Injured Israeli Soldiers

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Israeli officials say three mortar shells were fired across border from Gaza Strip Friday
Islamic militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on an Israeli army base that wounded eight soldiers.Israeli officials said three mortar shells were fired across the border from the Gaza Strip Friday.Earlier,
another Palestinian militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees,
claimed responsibility for the mortar fire. But Hamas later said it
was behind the attack.Violence has been increasing despite a truce between Israel and Hamas reached in June.Israel
has responded by tightening its blockade of Gaza, making it difficult
for food, supplies and other humanitarian aid to reach thousands of
Palestinians.Media reports say Egypt will open the Rafah border
crossing with Gaza Saturday to allow Palestinian pilgrims to set out on
the Hajj, or Muslim pilgrimage, to Mecca.The French news agency
quotes an Egyptian official saying only pilgrims will be allowed to
leave Gaza for Saudi Arabia. Some 3,000 Gazans are registered for the
pilgrimage.

 

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

 


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Bush Says He Will Miss Being Commander-in-Chief

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In last Thanksgiving address, Mr. Bush also says country gives thanks for generations of Americans who overcame hardships to create, sustain free nation
President George W. Bush walks across the South Lawn of the White House, 15 Nov 2008 U.S. President George Bush has delivered his last Thanksgiving address,
saying he will miss being commander-in-chief of those serving the
United States to defend its freedom.During his weekly radio
address, Mr. Bush Saturday said the country gives thanks for
generations of Americans who overcame hardships to create and sustain a
free nation, and those who continue to serve the poor, sick and elderly.Mr.
Bush also gave a special thanks to the American people for the
goodwill, kind words, and heartfelt prayers that have been offered
during his eight years as president.  He said he was blessed to
represent such decent, brave and caring people.President-elect Barack Obama answers reporter's question during press conference in Chicago, 25 Nov 2008U.S.
President-elect Barack Obama delivered his weekly address earlier this
week on Thursday,  encouraging Americans to come together to help renew
the U.S. economy and "make a new beginning" for the country.Mr. Obama said that his newly announced economic team is working hard to confront an economic crisis of historic proportions.But
the president-elect said policies alone will not revive the U.S.
economy.  He said it also will take "the hard work, innovation, service
and strength of the American people."Mr. Obama also thanked members of the armed forces and their families for their service and sacrifice.


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US Wants North Korean Verification Commitments on Paper

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US says it expects N. Korea to commit to allow inspectors to take samples from its nuclear sites
The United States said Friday it expects North Korea, during an international meeting in Beijing next month, to commit, in writing, to allow inspectors to take samples from its nuclear sites. North Korea contends it hasn't agreed to sampling as part of verification of its June nuclear declaration. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.The Bush administration is standing firm with its insistence that North Korea agreed to sampling last month, and it said it wants all the verification commitments Pyongyang made put down on paper at the six-party meeting in Beijing next month.China is convening the heads-of-delegation meeting of the Korea nuclear talks December 8 to codify U.S.-North Korea understandings reached last month on how the declaration of Pyongyang's nuclear program, made in June, is to be verified.A satellite image provided by Space Imaging Asia of the Yongbyon Nuclear Center, located north of Pyongyang, North Korea (file photo) U.S. officials have said they include standard provisions of recent disarmament accords, including site visits by inspectors, confirmation of documents, interviews with technicians and the removal of samples from North Korean nuclear sites for analysis elsewhere.North Korea has recently said it made no commitment on sampling, which it said would violate its sovereignty. U.S. officials have said North Korea did commit to sampling, even if it was only a verbal understanding in Pyongyang.In a talk with reporters Friday, acting State Department Spokesman Gordon Duguid said all North Korea promises will be in a written protocol adopted by the six parties in Beijing."Our position is that, at the six-party heads of delegation meeting, verification protocols will be 'six-party-ized,' if I can use a bad verb. And that, at that time, we'll have everything that was included in writing and in understanding formally down on paper," he said.The United States will be represented in Beijing by its chief delegate, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, and by its special envoy for the six-party talks, Sung Kim.Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy to six-nation talks on North Korean disarmament, 24 Nov 2008The State Department said Hill and Kim will leave Washington next Monday for consultations that will take them to Tokyo, Singapore and Bangkok before Beijing. An official said Hill and Kim will confer in advance of the verification meeting with counterparts from all parties to the nuclear talks including North Korea.In addition to the United States, North Korea and host China, the talks involve South Korea, Russia and Japan.North Korea has shut down, and is in the process of disabling its nuclear reactor complex in exchange for energy aid from the other parties. A verification protocol is to open the way to the next phase of the process under which North Korea is to scrap its nuclear program, including weapons, in return for diplomatic benefits.


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Witnesses Report More Fighting in Central Nigerian City

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Red Cross officials say at least 20 people killed, 300 injured in Jos on Friday
Fighting around the central Nigerian city of Jos continued Saturday, a day after President Umaru Yar'Adua deployed military troops and imposed a night-time curfew. Gilbert da Costa has been monitoring developments from Abuja and filed this report for VOA.Residents in Jos say sporadic shooting could still be heard on Saturday, and arsonists continued to loot and burn properties. Government troops are struggling to contain rival ethnic and religious groups armed with guns and machetes.Some trapped residents have continued to make distress phone calls for help.Local resident Jude Onwumanan told VOA the fighting seems to be spreading and the security forces are yet to make their presence felt."The situation has gotten out of control to the extent that the security agents don't seem to know how to start to handle it. Immediately after the announcement of the result [last night], Hell was let loose and it escalated the problem which started Friday morning. As we are speaking, corpses are being taken to the various hospitals; houses are being pulled down or burnt," Onwumanan said.The state government announced a 24-hour curfew on Saturday and ordered troops to shoot on sight to enforce the measure.The unrest is the most serious of its kind in Africa's most populous nation since President Yar'Adua took power in May 2007.Information Minister John Odey says security forces have been ordered to restore peace quickly."The president is sad; the federal government is very, very concerned about the lives and properties in Plateau state. We urge the security agencies in collaboration with the state governor to bring the situation under the control as much as possible," he said.Red Cross officials say at least 20 people were killed and 300 injured on Friday. Several more would have died on Saturday, eyewitnesses' say. Thousands had taken refuge in government buildings.The post-election violence was between indigenous Christians and Muslim and Hausa settlers. Rioters torched churches and mosques and burned tires in the middle of the streets.Hundreds were killed in sectarian street fighting in Jos in 2001. Three years later, hundreds died in clashes in the town of Yelwa, leading then-President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency and impose a curfew.


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UN Envoy in Eastern Congo in Bid to End Conflict

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Olusegun Obasanjo was to meet Saturday with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in rebel-held town of Jomba in volatile North Kivu province
A special U.N. envoy was in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday as part of a new bid to end the civil war in eastern Congo.Former Nigerian President and UN special envoy to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Olusegun Obasanjo (file photo)Olusegun Obasanjo was to meet Saturday with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in the rebel-held town of Jomba in volatile North Kivu province.Mr. Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president, met Friday with Congolese President Joseph Kabila in the capital, Kinshasa.The meetings come as rebels have advanced amid renewed fighting and a crumbling cease-fire in the east.U.N. officials Friday confirmed that Nkunda's forces have seized the town of Ishasha, near the Ugandan border, and some 13,000 refugees have fled into Uganda over the last few days to escape the fighting.Nkunda's forces have denied violating a cease-fire agreement.  They say their actions are targeted at Rwandan Hutu rebels, and not Congolese forces.Mr. Obasanjo's also met with Mr. Kabila and Nkunda in a trip to the DRC earlier this month.In related news, the top U.N. human rights official is calling for urgent action to stop killing, rape and other abuses being committed by government and rebel forces in eastern Congo.  Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay urged diplomats meeting in Vienna to make sure the U.N. mission in Congo gets the political backing it needs to respond to the crisis.At the same meeting, the European Union told the U.N. Human Rights Council there is clear evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by both sides in the DRC. It cited widespread cases of rape, summary execution, torture, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers by the warring factions.The U.N. Security Council this week approved a request to send three-thousand more peacekeepers to Congo to join the 17,000 already there.  But officials say it could be months before the troops are deployed.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.


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UNAIDS Urges More Transparency on HIV Reporting

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Study urges countries to adopt flexible policies that reflect how and why latest HIV infections are transmitted
A new report by UNAIDS urges countries to adopt flexible policies that
reflect how and why the latest HIV infections are transmitted. The
report coincides with the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. For VOA,
Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.An AIDS patient at a hospital in Dakar, Senegal (Nov 2007)The overall story of HIV/AIDS
is not as bleak as its numbers suggest. While an estimated 33 million
people worldwide live with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, the numbers
of new infections have been declining since 2001 and more HIV-infected
people are getting treatment and living longer.But a study
published Friday by UNAIDS suggests countries have much more to do to
fight the epidemic - in large part by adopting combined and flexible
HIV/AIDS-prevention policies - particularly since the pattern of the
epidemic may change over time. Some countries are also not targeting
the most vulnerable populations in fighting the virus - such as
intravenous drug users and men having sex with men. "The message is that
countries need to tailor their prevention programs to the epidemics in
their own specific countries," said Karen
Stanecki, a senior advisor for UNAIDS in Geneva. "And they need to know where
the new infections are occurring in order to do that. And we recommend
a combination-prevention process of doing this where one prevention
program isn't going to do it all." Stanecki says that message has registered in some countries. Namibia is a case in point. "They
have put various strategies into place and they are now seeing
reductions in new infections among young people," she said. "Young
people are delaying sexual activity . They're reducing the numbers of
multiple partners and we've seen increase use in condoms."The
global financial crisis may pose a new threat for cash-strapped
countries. But experts warn that cutting corners when it comes to
fighting HIV/AIDS will leave the world in worse shape in a few years
time than it is now.  


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Former UN Envoy and Playwright Team Up Against Rape, AIDS in DRC

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Stephen Lewis and Eve Ensler say women must be protected and included in peace process


One of the tragedies of
the war in the eastern DRC is the huge number of women who have been raped.


Playwright
Eve Ensler is the founder of V-Day – a global movement to end violence against
women and girls that has raised nearly $70 million dollars. She has made
several visits to Panzi Hospital in the DRC's South Kivu Province, where many
rape victims are brought. From Toronto, Canada, she spoke to VOA English to
Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about her impressions when she paid her
first visit to the hospital.


"Because of V-day…I've spent the last 10 years
traveling to probably 60 and I've spent a lot of time in what I call the rape
mines of the world. You know, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan and Haiti and Kosovo.
But I have to tell you nothing quite prepared me for the level of violence and
atrocities that I heard and witnessed in the Democratic Republic of Congo," she
says.


She says that the war has been allowed to
continue with impunity, describing the government as non-functional and UN
peacekeepers as ineffective. "Because it's gone on for so long, it's become
ordinary. It's become something that's now a part of everyday life. As an
activist said there, rape has become a country sport," she says.


Ensler says estimates put the number of women
raped in the eastern DRC in the last 10 years at up to 400,000. "But the kind
of violence that's going on – the gang rapings, the militias that are released
knowing that they have AIDS and released on communities knowing they have STDs…
Girls as young as four months, six months old, tons of eight year old girls,
teenagers, woman as old as 80…being raped with knives, being raped by guns,"
she says.


Many of the woman who've been raped have fistula
– holes in internal organs, such as the bladder. "I've been back (to Panzi)
three times and each time…there's another two to three hundred women there,
brand new women, who have been raped. And to see women who have been made
incontinent, who are peeing and pooping on themselves because of the kind of
punctures they have inside their bodies, to see women lined up for operations
as a result of sexual violation, it felt like being on the other side of
humanity," she says.


Ensler uses the term femicide to describe
widespread violence against women and girls.


Asked what could be done, Ensler says, "We have
started a huge campaign called Stop Raping Our Greatest resource – Power to the
Women and Girls of the DRC. And we're doing it in partnership with UNICEF and
17 (other) UN agencies, as well as many groups on the ground. We're doing
forums all over the eastern Congo where women are speaking out and breaking the
silence."


She says the campaign is behind the City of Joy,
"which will be the first center for a hundred women who have suffered these
atrocities, but where it becomes a leadership academy so we turn pain to power.
And then we're building an international movement this V-Day where at all the
thousands of events around the world people will be focused on the DRC.… If we
can change the situation in the Congo, we can do it everywhere."


Joining Ensler in calling for immediate action on
the DRC is Stephen Lewis, former UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa and
founder of the Stephen Lewis foundation.


He
says, "The most important thing is to talk with the women of the Congo,
particularly the women who have been raped and subject to sexual violence.
There is a tendency, particularly from the United Nations, to deal only with
the men with guns and think that if they can stop the shooting they've ended
the war. But there's another component to the war. And it's called rape. And
the raping has never ended (In the DRC) from 1996 to this day. And you're never
going to end the war in the Congo until you prevent the violence to the women.
And therefore you've got to involve the women in the peace negotiations. And
incredibly enough, they have never been involved," he says.


Lewis
says the UN special envoy to the DRC has not spoken to the women. "So when the
(UN) secretary-general appoints the former president of Nigeria, Obasanjo –
Obasanjo runs around and he speaks to the rebel head (Laurent) Nkunda and he
runs off to speak to the president of Congo, (Joseph) Kabila, and he'll speak
to (President Paul) Kagame of Rwanda, it's all wrong. The place you start is
with the women because they have been the most ferocious subjects of the war,"
Lewis says.


Lewis
says the sexual violence is fueling the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the DRC. "We all
know that the act of raping, particularly the violence of the sexual assaults,
create tears in the reproductive tracts of the women through which the AIDS
virus can be transmitted. So, inevitably, you have this dual horror. One the
one hand you are subject to a rape, frequently a gang rape, and on the other
hand you end up HIV positive…. And your life is ruined in both aspects. It
reminds me of Rwanda. It reminds me of Darfur. The international community just
stands and watches this happen. We have 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers in
the Congo, whose mandate it is to protect the women and they cannot protect the
women," he says.


The
former UN special envoy is calling for triple the number of peacekeeping troops
in the eastern DRC. "Three years ago, the entire world agreed on a new
international principle. The principle was called the responsibility to
protect. The leaders said to each other if a government is unable or unwilling
to protect its people from grotesque violations of human rights, then the
international community has the right to intervene," he says.


Lewis says that the intervention can
be done "politically, diplomatically, economically or we can send in troops.
And frankly what the Congo needs at this point is troops."


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