National Rifle Association vows to fight arms trade treaty at U.N.

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The leading U.S. pro-gun group, the National Rifle Association, has vowed to fight a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global arms trade and dismissed suggestions that a recent U.S. school shooting bolstered the case for such a pact.

The U.N. General Assembly voted on Monday to restart negotiations in mid-March on the first international treaty to regulate conventional arms trade after a drafting conference in July collapsed because the U.S. and other nations wanted more time. Washington supported Monday's U.N. vote.

U.S. President Barack Obama has come under intense pressure to tighten domestic gun control laws after the December 14 shooting massacre of 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. His administration has since reiterated its support for a global arms treaty that does not curtail U.S. citizens' rights to own weapons.

Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies as a result of armed violence and a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities.

In an interview with Reuters, NRA President David Keene said the Newtown massacre has not changed the powerful U.S. gun lobby's position on the treaty. He also made clear that the Obama administration would have a fight on its hands if it brought the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification.

"We're as opposed to it today as we were when it first appeared," he said on Thursday. "We do not see anything in terms of the language and the preamble as being any kind of guarantee of the American people's rights under the Second Amendment."

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to bear arms. Keene said the pact could require the U.S. government to enact legislation to implement it, which the NRA fears could lead to tighter restrictions on gun ownership.

He added that such a treaty was unlikely to win the two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate necessary for approval.

"This treaty is as problematic today in terms of ratification in the Senate as it was six months ago or a year ago," Keene said. Earlier this year a majority of senators wrote to Obama urging him to oppose the treaty.

U.N. delegates and gun-control activists say the July treaty negotiations fell apart largely because Obama, fearing attacks from Republican rival Mitt Romney before the November 6 election if his administration was seen as supporting the pact, sought to kick the issue past the U.S. vote.

U.S. officials have denied those allegation.

The NRA claimed credit for the July failure, calling it at the time "a big victory for American gun owners."

NRA IS 'TELLING LIES'

The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms trader, which accounts for more than 40 percent of global transfers in conventional arms - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.

Supporters of the treaty accuse the NRA of deceiving the American public about the pact, which they say will have no impact on U.S. domestic gun ownership and would apply only to exports. Last week, Amnesty International launched a campaign to counter what it said were NRA distortions about the treaty.

"The NRA is telling lies about the arms treaty to try to block U.S. government support," Michelle Ringuette of Amnesty International USA said about the campaign. "The NRA's leadership must stop interfering in U.S. foreign policy on behalf of the arms industry."

Jeff Abramson of Control Arms said that as March approaches, "the NRA is going to be challenged in ways it never has before and that can affect the way things go" with the U.S. government.

The draft treaty under discussion specifically excludes arms-related "matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State."

Among its key provisions is a requirement that governments make compliance with human rights norms a condition for foreign arms sales. It would also have states ban arms transfers when there is reason to believe weapons or ammunition might be diverted to problematic recipients or end up on illicit markets.

Keene said the biggest problem with the treaty is that it regulates civilian arms, not just military weapons.

According to the Small Arms Survey, roughly 650 million of the 875 million weapons in the world are in the hands of civilians. That, arms control advocates say, is why any arms trade treaty must regulate both military and civilian weapons.

Keene said the NRA would actively participate in the fight against the arms trade treaty in the run-up to the March negotiations. "We will be involved," he warned, adding that it was not clear if the NRA would address U.N. delegates directly as the group did in July.

The NRA has successfully lobbied members of Congress to stop major new gun restrictions in the United States since the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. It also gives financial backing to pro-gun candidates.

EXPLOSIVE ISSUE

European and other U.N. delegates who support the arms trade treaty told Reuters on condition of anonymity they hoped Newtown would boost support for the convention in the United States, where gun control is an explosive political issue.

"Newtown has opened the debate within the United States on weapons controls in ways that it has not been opened in the past," Abramson said, adding that "the conversation within the U.S. will give the (Obama) administration more leeway."

Keene rejected the idea of bringing the Newtown tragedy into the discussion of an arms trade treaty.

"I find it interesting that some of the folks that advocate the treaty say it would have no impact whatever within the United States but that it needs to be passed to prevent another occurrence of a school shooting such as took place in Newtown," he said. "Both of those positions can't be correct."

Obama administration officials have tried to explain to U.S. opponents of the arms trade pact that the treaty under discussion would not affect domestic gun sales and ownership.

"Our objectives for the ATT (arms trade treaty) have not changed," a U.S. official told Reuters. "We seek a treaty that fights illicit arms trafficking and proliferation, protects the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade, and meets the concerns that we have articulated throughout."

"In particular, we will not accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens to bear arms," the official added.

Supporters of the treaty also worry that major arms producers like Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan and others could seek to render the treaty toothless by including loopholes and making key provisions voluntary, rather than mandatory.

The United States, like all other U.N. member states, can effectively veto the treaty since the negotiations will be conducted on the basis of consensus. That means the treaty must receive unanimous support in order to be approved in March.

But if it fails in March, U.N. delegations can put it to a vote in the 193-nation General Assembly, where diplomats say it would likely secure the required two-thirds majority.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

http://news.yahoo.co...-061206196.html

[Dakine10 5,452]

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Edited December 29, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Supporting the UN is like supporting a Terrorist organization from the bottom up. You should be tried, sentenced, and put to death.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Supporting the UN is like supporting a Terrorist organization from the bottom up. You should be tried, sentenced, and put to death.

[웃 910]

Supporting the UN is like supporting a Terrorist organization from the bottom up. You should be tried, sentenced, and put to death.

Is this a terrorist act in your humble opinion?

UN to seek $1.5 billion for Syrian needy

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will chair a pledging conference in late January seeking $1.5 billion to meet urgent humanitarian needs in Syria during the first half of 2013.

Ban is calling for donor countries to do more to alleviate the suffering of more than 5 million Syrians inside and outside the country, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Friday.

He said the conference, hosted by the government of Kuwait in Kuwait City on Jan. 30, "is a timely and much-needed opportunity to address the funding gap."

Over 2 million people are displaced inside Syria and more than 540,000 have fled to neighboring countries. The U.N. refugee agency has warned that the number of Syrian refugees could double to 1.1 million by June 2013.

http://www.miamihera...for-syrian.html

Edited December 29, 2012 by 웃

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Is this a terrorist act in your humble opinion?

You must be new to this. The UN has more skeletons in their closet than a mortuary. Google Srebrenica genocide, and if you have time google the UN resolution condemning Israel during this last spat with the Arabs in Gaza. The UN is nothing short of a criminal organization that nobody in their right mind would take serious.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Ya there you go again. Your pushing the 30 kids whacked in a school propaganda thing.

Let's talk UN. The UN troops allowed the Serbs to massacre over 7,000 Bosnians in the Srebenica massacre. Come on now, let's see you toot the UN horn. 7,000+ Bosnians handed over to the Serbs by UN troops.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Srebrenica Massacre brought to you by the UN and Serb Militia

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Srebrenica Massacre brought to you by the UN and Serb Militia

Lies all you got left? The UN did neither perpetrate nor enable these atrocities.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Lies all you got left? The UN did neither perpetrate nor enable these atrocities.

This coming from a European? What's a European have to say about it? We know what Europe did when that was going on. Europeans sat on their genocide loving arses and did nothing while genocide was being committed in their own back yard. Europeans have zilch to say about that massacre. How many massacres have taken place in Europe in the past 100 years? More than I care to count.

The blue helmet wearing UN troops (Dutch to be exact) handed over thousands of Bosnians to the Serb militia knowing what the fate of those people would be. Everyone here has internet and with internet comes Google search.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Bad_Daddy

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

U.N. 'PEACEKEEPERS' RAPE WOMEN, CHILDREN

Published: 12/24/2004 at 1:00 AM

With the United Nations already under fire for the Oil-for-Food mega-scandal and other corruption, sensational allegations of rampant sexual exploitation and rape of young girls and women by the U.N.’s so-called “peacekeepers” and civilian staffers in the Congo is dragging the global body’s reputation to an all-time low.

In a new report referring to the widespread sex scandal as “the U.N.’s Abu Ghraib,” the London Times provides some specific examples, including:

A French U.N. logistics expert in the Congo shot pornographic videos in his home, in which he had converted his bedroom into a photo studio for videotaping his sexual abuse of young girls. When police raided his home, the man was allegedly about to rape a 12-year-old girl sent to him in a law enforcement sting operation. As the Times reported, a senior Congolese police officer confirmed the bed was surrounded by large mirrors on three sides, with a remote control camera on the fourth side.

U.N. officials are worried that the scandal, which already has netted 150 allegations of sex crimes by U.N. staffers, will explode if the pornographic videos and photos, now on sale in Congo, becoming public.

“It would be a pretty big problem for the U.N. if these pictures come out,” one senior official told the Times.

Two Russian pilots paid young girls with jars of mayonnaise and jam to have sex with them, the report adds.

U.N. “peacekeepers” from Morocco based in Kisangani – a secluded town on the Congo River – are notorious for impregnating local women and girls. In March, an international group probing the scandal found 82 women and girls had been made pregnant by Moroccan U.N. staffers and 59 others by Uruguayan staffers. One U.N. soldier accused of rape was apparently hidden in the barracks for a year.

Congo’s Minister of Defense Maj.-Gen. Jean Pierre Ondekane told a top U.N. official that all U.N. “peacekeepers” in Kisangani would be remember for would be “for running after little girls,” the Times reported.

And at least two U.N. officials – a Ukrainian and a Canadian – have been forced to leave the African nation after getting local women pregnant.

Most of the sexual abuse and exploitation, says the report, involves trading sex for money, food or jobs. However, some victims say they were raped, but later given food or money to make the incident appear to have been consensual – “rape disguised as prostitution.”

U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno told the London paper: “The fact that these things happened is a blot on us. It’s awful. What is important is to get to the bottom of it and fight it and make sure that people who do that pay for what they have done.”

Despite the fact that the U.N.’s sexual code of conduct is prominently displayed on U.N. facilities Congo – forbidding sex with prostitutes or women under 18 – the U.N. continues to hand out free condoms to “peacekeepers” to protect them from AIDS.

The U.N. has promised to investigate and prosecute the widespread allegations. But, as WND reported last month, the global organization is not known for its forthrightness and candor in such internal investigations. The agency has been criticized for ignoring evidence or wrongdoing in the past – including accusations of rape and murder by “peacekeepers.”

In fact, previous revelations of peacekeeping abuses have only been revealed by news organizations. Such was the case in Cambodia in the early 1990s and later in Somalia, Bosnia and Ethiopia.

“I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan admitted. “This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it.”

Annan said the allegations concerned a small number of U.N. personnel and promised to hold those involved accountable.

“I have long made it clear that my attitude to sexual exploitation and abuse is one of zero tolerance, without exception, and I am determined to implement this policy in the most transparent manner,” Annan said.

But Jordan’s Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein, a special adviser to Annan and who led one investigative team, said in a confidential report obtained by The Times: “The situation appears to be one of ‘zero-compliance with zero-tolerance’ throughout the mission.”

The new charges of rape and pedophilia by U.N. troops and workers in Congo are not the first scandal involving U.N. workers and troops in Africa.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s tenure was marked by scandalous charges that he played a leading role in supplying weapons to the Hutu regime that carried out a campaign of genocide against the Tutsi tribe in 1994.

As minister of foreign affairs in Egypt, Boutros-Ghali facilitated an arms deal in 1990, which was to result in $26 million of mortar bombs, rocket launchers, grenades and ammunition being flown from Cairo to Rwanda. The arms were used by Hutus in attacks which led to up to a million deaths. The role of Boutros-Ghali, who was in charge at the U.N. when it turned its back on the killings in 1994, was revealed in a book by Linda Melvern. In “A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda’s Genocide,” Boutros-Ghali admits his role in approving an initial $5.8 million arms deal in 1990, which led to Egypt supplying arms to Rwanda until 1992. He says he approved it because it was his job as foreign minister to sell weapons for Egypt.

Back in 1997, there were reports Belgian U.N. troops roasted a Somali boy. A military court reportedly sentenced two paratroopers to a month in jail and a fine of 200 pounds for the offense.

Another Belgian soldier reportedly forced a young Somali to eat pork, drink salt water and then eat his own vomit. Another sergeant was accused of murdering a Somali whom he was photographed urinating upon. Another child, accused of stealing food from the paratroopers’ base, died after being locked in a storage container for 48 hours. Fifteen other members of the same regiment were investigated in 1995 for “acts of sadism and torture” against Somali civilians.

The pattern of abuse was not confined to Belgian troops. Belgium was actually the third country in the peacekeeping group to charge troops with serious crimes against Somali citizens — including rape, torture and murder. In 1995, a group of Canadian paratroopers were investigated for torturing a Somali to death and killing three others.

Gruesome photos were published in a Milan magazine of Italian soldiers torturing a Somali youth and abusing and raping a Somali girl. Paratroopers claim they were specifically trained in methods of torture to aid interrogation. According to one witness, Italian soldiers tied a young Somali girl to the front of an armored personnel carrier and raped her while officers looked on.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Bad_Daddy