UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22: Former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that the United Nations has succeeded in preventing another world war.

“Without the United Nations, the international community could have never succeeded in preventing another world war in the past 70-plus years,” Ban told a UN Security Council meeting on the role of the UN Charter in maintaining international peace and security.

Highlighting the UN’s role in a dramatically changing world, Ban said the world body’s efforts in maintaining world peace and security “are needed now more than ever.”

Thanks to the UN, the international community has made significant gains in eradicating extreme poverty, promoting public health, and scaling-up access to education, the former UN chief said.

The briefing was the third Security Council meeting on the UN Charter since 2015. On Feb. 23, 2015, a ministerial-level open debate on the charter was convened at the initiative of China, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations. AGENCIES

GENEVA, Nov 2: The Islamic State group executed 741 civilians in the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, the UN said Thursday, accusing the jihadists of perpetrating “international crimes” during the nine-month military campaign.

A total of 2,521 civilians were killed, mostly by IS attacks, during the fight between IS and the internationally-backed Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) that ended in July, the UN rights office said in a report.

“Those responsible must answer for their heinous crimes”, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said in a statement.
Mosul, Iraq’s second city, was captured by IS in 2014 and became the capital of the group’s self-styled “caliphate” in the country.

Following IS’s defeat in the city, the rights office said it had compiled witness testimony documenting “mass abductions of civilians, the use of thousands as human shields, the intentional shelling of civilian residences, and indiscriminate targeting of civilians trying to flee the city”.

More than 800,000 people were displaced by the fighting, the report said.
The rights office also called for investigations into alleged violations committed by the ISF and their allies, including militia groups.

The report “recorded 461 civilian deaths as a result of airstrikes during the most intensive phase of the ISF-led offensive from 19 February”, the UN said in a statement, noting that it was impossible to establish responsibility for the strikes “in almost all cases”.

The rights office urged the Iraqi government to invite the International Criminal Court to investigate the country’s situation “as an immediate step”.

“By prosecuting those responsible for ‘international crimes’ in Mosul the Iraqi authorities would be sending a message to the people of Iraq who have suffered, no matter when or where, that justice is eventually delivered,” the rights office said. AFP

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 12: The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously approved new sanctions on North Korea but not the toughest-ever measures sought by the Trump administration to ban all oil imports and freeze international assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong Un.

The resolution, responding to Pyongyang’s sixth and strongest nuclear test explosion on Sept. 3, does ban North Korea from importing all natural gas liquids and condensates. It also bans all textile exports and prohibits any country from authorizing new work permits for North Korean workers — two key sources of hard currency for the northeast Asian nation.

As for energy, it caps Pyongyang’s imports of crude oil at the level of the last 12 months, and it limits the import of refined petroleum products to 2 million barrels a year.

The watered-down resolution does not include sanctions that the U.S. wanted on North Korea’s national airline and the army.

Nonetheless, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the vote that “these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea.” But she stressed that “these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively.”

Haley noted that the council was meeting on the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack. In a clear message to North Korean threats to attack the U.S., she said: “We will never forget the lesson that those who have evil intentions must be confronted.”

“Today we are saying the world will never accept a nuclear armed North Korea,” she said. “We are done trying to prod the regime to do the right thing” and instead are taking steps to prevent it “from doing the wrong thing.”

Haley said the U.S. doesn’t take pleasure in strengthening sanctions and reiterated that the U.S. does not want war.

“The North Korean regime has not yet passed the point of no return,” she said. “If it agrees to stop its nuclear program it can reclaim its future. If it proves it can live in peace, the world will live in peace with it. … If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure.”

The final agreement was reached after negotiations between the U.S. and China, the North’s ally and major trading partner. Haley said the resolution never would have happened without the “strong relationship” between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But its provisions are a significant climb-down from the very tough sanctions the Trump administration proposed last Tuesday, especially on oil, where a complete ban could have crippled North Korea’s economy.

The cap on the import of petroleum products could have an impact, but North Korea will still be able to import the same amount of crude oil that it has this year.

The textile ban is significant. Textiles are North Korea’s main source of export revenue after coal, iron, seafood and other minerals that have already been severely restricted by previous U.N. resolutions. North Korean textile exports in 2016 totaled $752.5 million, accounting for about one-fourth of its total $3 billion in merchandise exports, according to South Korean government figures.

Haley said the Trump administration believes the new sanctions combined with previous measures would ban over 90 percent of North Korea’s exports reported in 2016.

As for North Koreans working overseas, the U.S. mission said a cutoff on new work permits will eventually cost North Korea about $500 million a year once current work permits expire. The U.S. estimates about 93,000 North Koreans are working abroad, the U.S. official said.

The original U.S. draft would have ordered all countries to impose an asset freeze and travel ban on Kim Jong Un and four other top party and government officials. The resolution adopted Monday adds only one person to the sanctions list — Pak Yong Sik, a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Military Commission, which controls the country’s military and helps direct its military industries.

The original U.S. draft would also have frozen the assets of North Korea’s state-owned airline Air Koryo, the Korean People’s Army and five other powerful military and party entities. The resolution adds only the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the party’s powerful Organization and Guidance Department and its Propaganda and Agitation Department to the sanctions blacklist.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement early Monday saying it was watching the United States’ moves closely and warned that it was “ready and willing” to respond with measures of its own. It said the U.S. would pay a heavy price if the sanctions proposed by Washington are adopted.

Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, told reporters who questioned the watering down of the initial U.S. text that “there is a significant prize in keeping the whole of the Security Council united.”

Rycroft called the resolution “a very significant set of additional sanctions,” declaring that “we are tightening the screw, and we stand prepared to tighten it further.”

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said, “We are facing not a regional but a global threat, not a virtual but an immediate threat, not a serious but an existential threat.”

“Make no mistake about it,” he said, “our firmness today is our best antidote to the risk of war, to the risk of confrontation, and our firmness today is our best tool for a political solution tomorrow.”

China and Russia had called for a resolution focused on a political solution to the escalating crisis over North Koreas nuclear program. They have proposed a freeze-for-freeze that would halt North Korean nuclear and missile tests in exchange for the U.S. and South Korea stopping their joint military exercises — but the Trump administration has rejected that.

China’s U.N. ambassador, Liu Jieyi, said Beijing has been making “unremitting efforts” to denuclearize and maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Liu again urged the council to adopt the freeze-for-freeze proposal and said talks with North Korea are needed “sooner rather than later.” He expressed hope that the United States will pledge not to seek regime change or North Korea’s collapse.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia went further, making clear that while Russia supported the resolution, it wasn’t entirely satisfied with the council’s approach.

He said the “unwillingness” of the U.S. to reaffirm pledges not to seek regime change or war in North Korea or to include the idea of having U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres use his good offices to try to resolve the dispute “gives rise to very serious questions in our minds.”

“We’re convinced that diverting the gathering menace from the Korean Peninsula could be done not through further and further sanctions, but by political means,” he said.

The resolution does add new language urging “further work to reduce tensions so as to advance the prospects for a comprehensive settlement.” It retains language reaffirming support for long-stalled six-party talks with that goal involving North Korea, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

South Korea and Japan welcomed the new sanctions, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe praising “a remarkably tough sanctions resolution.” A presidential spokesman in South Korea said he thinks it’s significant that China and Russia agreed on the measure.

Guterres welcomed the council’s “firm action” to send a clear message to North Korea that it must comply with its international obligations, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Guterres also reaffirmed his commitment to work with all parties to reduce tensions and promote a peaceful political solution “and to strengthening communications channels,” Dujarric said. AP

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 6: The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions Saturday to punish North Korea for its escalating nuclear and missile programs including a ban on coal and other exports worth over $1 billion — a huge bite in its total exports, valued at $3 billion last year.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the resolution “the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime” and “the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.”

But she warned that it is not enough and “we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem — not even close.”

“The threat of an outlaw nuclearized North Korean dictatorship remains … (and) is rapidly growing more dangerous,” Haley told council members after the vote.

The U.S.-drafted resolution, negotiated with North Korea’s neighbor and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs — a point stressed by all 15 council members in speeches after the vote.

President Donald Trump tweeted: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in Manila for talks with regional counterparts, called it “a good outcome.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for all sides in the nuclear dispute to return to negotiations and repeated Beijing’s proposal for a “double suspension,” or a halt to North Korean nuclear development and joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.

Haley told the Security Council that U.S.-South Korean military exercises have been carried out regularly and openly for nearly 40 years and “they will continue.”

The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of sanctions that have failed to halt North Korea’s drive to improve its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.

The resolution’s adoption follows North Korea’s first successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States on July 3 and July 27.

It condemns the launches “in the strongest terms” and reiterates previous calls for North Korea to suspend all ballistic missile launches and abandon its nuclear weapons and nuclear program “in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”

The centerpiece is a ban on North Korea exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood products — and a ban on all countries importing these products, estimated to be worth over $1 billion in hard currency.

According to a Security Council diplomat, coal has been North Korea’s largest export, earning $1.2 billion last year which was then restricted by the Security Council in November to a maximum $400 million. This year, Pyongyang was estimated to earn $251 million from iron and iron ore exports, $113 million from lead and lead ore exports, and $295 million from fish and seafood exports, the diplomat said.

The resolution also bans countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean laborers — another source of money for Kim Jong Un’s regime. And it prohibits all new joint ventures with North Korean companies and bans new foreign investment in existing ones.

It adds nine North Koreans, mainly officials or representatives of companies and banks, to the U.N. sanctions blacklist, banning their travel and freezing their assets. It also imposes an asset freeze on two companies and two banks.

The council diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity, called the newly sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank “a very critical clearing house for foreign exchange.”

The Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, which was also added to the blacklist, is described in the resolution as engaged in exporting workers for construction, including of monuments, in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The resolution asks the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea to ban the import of many more so-called dual-use items, which have commercial purposes but can also be used in conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

It also gives the committee a green light to designate specific vessels that are breaking sanctions from entering ports all over the world and to work with Interpol to enforce travel bans on North Koreans on the sanctions blacklist.

The resolution expresses regret at North Korea’s “massive diversion of its scarce resources toward its development of nuclear weapons and a number of expensive ballistic missile programs” — a point stressed by Haley.

It notes U.N. findings that well over half the population lacks sufficient food and medical care, while a quarter suffers from chronic malnutrition.

“These sanctions will cut deep, and in doing so will give the North Korean leadership a taste of the deprivations they have chosen to inflict on the North Korean people,” Haley said. “Revenues aren’t going toward feeding its people. Instead, the North Korean regime is literally starving its people and enslaving them in mines and factories in order to fund these illegal missile programs.”

Though the economic sanctions have teeth, Washington didn’t get everything it wanted.

In early July, Haley told the Security Council that if it was united, the international community could cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions and hold senior officials accountable.

Neither oil nor new air restrictions are included in the resolution.

Its adoption follows Tillerson’s comments Wednesday reassuring North Korea that Washington is not seeking regime change or an accelerated reunification of the Korean Peninsula — comments welcomed by China’s foreign minister.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow hopes Tillerson’s assurances “would be clear that the United States is not seeking to dismantle the existing … situation (in North Korea) or to force to reunite the country or militarily intervene in the country.”

Tillerson also said the United States wants to talk eventually with North Korea but thinks discussions would not be productive if Pyongyang comes with the intention of maintaining its nuclear weapons.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it sees as a guarantee of its security.

The resolution reiterates language from previous ones supporting a return to six-party talks with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula; expressing the Security Council’s commitment “to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation”; and stressing the importance of maintaining peace and stability in northeast Asia.-AP

Australia’s U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, who chairs the committee monitoring sanctions on Iran, did not identify which countries were opposed in his briefing to the council on Monday. But council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations were private, said Russia was most vocal in its opposition and was supported by China.

Quinlan told the council that a number of council members backed the panel’s view that Iran’s launch of Shahab-1 and Shahab-3 missiles in a war-game exercise in July 2012 “constituted a clear violation” of sanctions, and therefore all U.N. member states “should redouble efforts to implement ballistic missile-related sanctions on Iran.”

He said the sanctions committee — which includes all 15 council members — wrote to Iran on April 12 asking for comment within 15 days on the panel’s conclusion. Iran has not replied and “the committee is currently considering additional follow up actions,” he said.

The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran because of concerns it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. The division over the missile launches indicates a reluctance by Moscow and Beijing to take further action, especially as a new president, Hasan Rouhani, will be sworn in Aug. 4.

In another incident, Quinlan said the panel concluded that Iran violated — or probably violated — sanctions by shipping weapons to Yemeni insurgents in January that were seized by the government.

He said several council members stated that the panel’s evidence “was sufficient to assert that Iran was in violation of its obligations, illustrating a pattern of sanctions evasion through arms smuggling in the Middle East.” But he said others “stated that the lack of stronger evidence as to the provenance of the arms, such as documentation, justified the lack of a definitive conclusion.”

Quinlan said the sanctions committee sent a letter to Iran on May 21 “bringing to its attention the panel’s conclusion, expressing concern about the panel’s findings and asking for its comment … within 15 days.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied it exported the weapons. But to date the government has not responded to the committee, Quinlan said.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency “again shows Iran moving full speed ahead with its prohibited activities” and urged the sanctions committee and the Security Council to take action in response.

“Just last January, Iran was caught sending shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, high-grade explosives, and other arms to Yemen,” DiCarlo said. “This was more than just a sanctions violation. It was an aggressive act to undermine Yemen’s transition.”

The panel of experts, appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and approved by the council, investigates and reports to the committee on implementation and alleged violations of sanctions against Iran.

Quinlan told the council that the panel’s coordinator has stressed “that Iran continued to seek items for its prohibited activities from abroad by using complex procurement methods, including front companies, false documentation, and intermediaries.”

To deal with these practices, he said, the coordinator called for additional vigilance and expertise by all countries, especially in identifying dual-use items that can be used for civilian activities but also in producing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Quinlan’s report to the council, which was delayed because of the disputes, cited other activity related to Iran sanctions. It didn’t identify the countries but U.N. diplomats did, speaking on condition of anonymity because the names were not made public.

According to the report and the diplomats, the United Arab Emirates sent a report on March 4 on the confiscation of shipments to Iran suspected of containing prohibited items; France reported on April 12 that a third state returned a fiber optic gyroscope to which can be used in missile guidance to France after the discovery that it was to be re-exported to Iran; and Singapore reported on June 6 that it seized a shipment destined for Iran of carbon fiber, which is strong, light-weight and can be used in the aerospace industry.

Sweden reported on March 8 that an individual had been found guilty of exporting control valves — a prohibited dual-use item — and the United States on April 18 reported on court cases against two Iranian national accused of illegally exporting and attempting to export dual-use items to Iran, the report and diplomats said.

Quinlan said the committee continues to discuss whether and how to respond to the panel’s compilation of public statements by Iranian officials and alleged recipients of Iranian military assistance including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah which potentially violate U.N. bans on Iranian arms exports.

DiCarlo, the U.S. envoy, urged the council to tackle Iran’s supply of weapons to the Syrian government, Hezbollah and other armed terrorist groups “with renewed urgency.”

Sabina Lauber, in charge of Nepal at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said giving amnesty to anyone guilty of serious crimes runs counter to Nepal’s obligations to humanitarian law and would deny victims their right to justice.

“Nepal has an obligation to investigate the truth and prosecute those responsible for grave human rights violations,” Lauber, on a visit to Nepal, said. “Amnesty prevents genuine peace and risks new conflict,” she said after a meeting with conflict victims and human rights workers in Kathmandu. “Victims don’t forget these crimes,” she added.

The main political parties, including Maoist former rebels, finalised an order last month to set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as part of a Comprehensive Peace Accord aimed at healing wounds left by the war. As part of a deal, they included a clause allowing the panel to grant amnesty in some cases. Victim groups fear the vague wording is designed to let powerful rights abusers off the hook, possibly even those guilty of serious abuses.

Both the security forces and the Maoists have been accused of human rights violations, including unlawful killings, torture and rape during the conflict in which more than 16,000 were killed, hundreds disappeared and thousands injured.