5 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan)

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that development aid would have to increase to 18 billion dollars a year if the world was to remain on track to achieving a set of anti-poverty goals by 2015, reported dpa.

Countries have committed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, and Ban’s comments came ahead of a high-level meeting on stepping up global efforts to reach the MDGs in New York on September 25. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, Democratization and Human Rights

5 September 2008
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• Author: Frederick Asiamah
• Source: All Africa

Sep 05, 2008 (Public Agenda/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) — World leaders have been told to gear up or miss international commitments and targets for effective aid by 2010.

According to the findings of the “2008 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration”, progress towards aid effectiveness is being made, “but not fast enough.” (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, Democratization and Human Rights

4 September 2008
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• Source: Reuters News

The world’s wealthiest countries are reneging on promises to boost development aid, threatening U.N. targets for drastically reducing poverty by 2015, according to a new U.N. report released on Thursday.

The report on progress on the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said there had been improvement in providing debt relief to the world’s poorest countries but not when it came to fulfilling trade and development commitments. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

4 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Ukrainian News

President Viktor Yuschenko has assured G7 ambassadors of constitutional and democratic settlement of the political crisis in the country, the presidential press service said.

During his meeting with the ambassadors, Yuschenko expressed his confidence that Ukraine will find constitutional way to settle current situation despite decisions taken on new coalition or new government. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

20 August 2008
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• Author: George Will
• Source: The Knoxville News Sentinel

Last August, John McCain’s campaign was out of money but flush with half-baked ideas that were unlikely to be improved by further baking. Anyway, to have many ideas is to have too many for a campaign’s concluding sprint, and McCain’s revival has not been robust enough to bring him even with Barack Obama. Now McCain’s rejuvenated hopes rest on his ability to recast this election, focusing it on who should lead America in a world suddenly darkened by Russia’s war of European conquest. To begin the recasting, he should weed from the unkempt garden of his political thinking the populism which often seems like mere attitudinizing redeemed by insincerity.Furthermore, his populism subverts his strength — the perception that although he is an acquired taste, he is serious. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Other, East-West Relations and Russia, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

20 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: States News Service

The following information was released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury:

G-7 Finance Ministers today issued the following statement on Georgia:

“G-7 Finance Ministers welcome the international mediation efforts to end the hostilities and to bring about a political solution to the conflict in Georgia. The loss of life, humanitarian suffering and wider destruction over recent days is considerable, and we welcome commitments to assist with the urgent humanitarian needs. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under East-West Relations and Russia, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

10 August 2008
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• Source: CNN: LATE EDITION W/WOLF BLITZER

BLITZER: Russian tanks roll into the neighboring Republic of Georgia. Thousands are reported dead and the conflict is growing. We’ll speak to both sides. What will impact be on U.S.-Russian relations? Two top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Cornyn and Carl Levin, weigh in on that and more. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, East-West Relations and Russia, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

10 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Russia’s ruthless attack on Georgia is a dramatic and depressing reminder of the willingness of the Soviet Union (and, before it, imperial Russia) to pursue its foreign policy across the borders of sovereign nations. It is true that Georgia - unlike, say Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 - walked into a trap. What did it imagine would be Moscow’s response to its own assault on Tskhinvali, the capital of the Russian-supported breakaway province of South Ossetia? Did the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, not realise that he was providing his enemy with an excuse not just to invade the rebel province but also to launch air strikes on central Georgia? Yet the excuse is not a valid one. Russia’s behaviour is indefensible. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, East-West Relations and Russia, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

10 August 2008
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• Author: Jitendra Joshi
• Source: Agence France Presse

Prominent supporters of White House runners John McCain and Barack Obama clashed Sunday over the crisis in Georgia as a McCain adviser came under fire for his links to the government in Tbilisi.

As the Russian military seized control of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, the campaign of Democratic hopeful Obama defended its attacks on McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, East-West Relations and Russia, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

10 August 2008
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• Author: STEVEN R. HURST
• Source: Associated Press Newswires

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first major U.S. foreign policy crisis of the presidential campaign saw Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama join in condemnation of Russian attacks on neighboring Georgia, with McCain warning the Kremlin of long-term consequences and Obama calling for immediate mediation. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

10 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Press Trust of India Limited

Washington, Aug 10 (PTI) A former American Ambassador to the UN has demanded a strong response from Washington to the escalating conflict between Russia and Georgia but rejected the idea of Republican Presidential nominee John McCain that Moscow ought to be thrown out of the G8. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, East-West Relations and Russia, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

10 August 2008
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• Source: Al Jazeera English

George Bush, the US president, has called on China’s leaders to allow greater freedom of religion after attending prayers at a church in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

Bush, who is in Beijing for the Olympic games, held one-on-one talks on Sunday with China’s president Hu Jintao at the sprawling Zhongnanhai government compound next to the ancient Forbidden City in central Beijing. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

6 August 2008
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• Author: Stephen Asiimwe
• Source: All Africa

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, risks causing more problems to the victims of the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

29 July 2008
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• Source: BBC Monitoring Africa

Laurence Caromba in his article in The Star of July 24 displays a significant failure to understand the various strands of South Africa’s foreign policy. While the article appears to have been written as a reaction to the vote in the United Nations Security Council on Zimbabwe, it also confuses other aspects of foreign policy. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

27 July 2008
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• Author: Vladimir Frolov
• Source: The Moscow Times

Whether by accident or design, a badly thought-out decision on an international issue of minor importance to Russia has renewed the confusion in Western capitals as to who is really in charge in Moscow.

The Group of Eight leaders are scratching their heads in bewilderment having seen President Dmitry Medvedev agreeing to a G8 statement on Zimbabwe, only to be followed several days later by a Russian veto in the United Nations Security Council of a resolution to impose sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s regime. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, East-West Relations and Russia, Democratization and Human Rights

27 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Mirror Group Ltd.

HERE is the latest in our series of Q&A sessions in which readers question the people who shape our lives. Oxfam’s Managing Director Barbara Stocking is quizzed by Rosie McElroy, 22, right, a teaching assistant from Preston, Lancs. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, Democratization and Human Rights

27 July 2008
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• Author: Stephen Robinson
• Source: The Sunday Times

One of the mysteries of Gordon Brown’s scattergun approach to foreign policy is his apparent belief that Zimbabwe is the most shaming conflict in Africa. Largely at his insistence, leaders at the G8 meeting in Japan this month spent much of the time fulminating against Robert Mugabe, only for Russia and China, predictably, to block any follow-up action at the United Nations. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, Conflict Prevention and Human Security, Democratization and Human Rights

22 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: International Herald Tribune

The brutality with which Robert Mugabe stole Zimbabwe’s elections last month embarrassed even his usual friends, allies and enablers. Unfortunately, it has not embarrassed them enough. Unless Russia, China and South Africa can be shamed into bringing real pressure against Mugabe and his henchmen, quickly, he will settle in for another term of disastrous misrule.

Talks in South Africa between Mugabe’s party and that of Morgan Tsvangirai, the first-round election winner, may be the best way to prevent that, provided they, unlike past efforts, are not conducted on the dictator’s chosen terms. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

22 July 2008
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• Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

Dmitriy Medvedev today commented on the situation in Zimbabwe.

[Medvedev] I thought and I think that the Security Council should occupy itself with somewhat different issues, in accordance with the United Nations’ Charter.

From the very beginning I said to my counterparts that we need to allow our African partners to work on this problem topic, in cooperation with the authorities and opposition of Zimbabwe. And the latest developments show exactly that this position was absolutely correct. Because when the meeting between President Mugabe and the opposition leader Tsvangirai took place several days ago, through the mediation of South African President Mbeki, an agreement was reached to overcome these disagreements, to establish, I hope, civil peace and to distribute possible powers. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights

22 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Singapore, Kyodo - Japan pledged Tuesday to give an additional $21 million in reconstruction aid to cyclone-hit Myanmar, but Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura also urged in talks with his counterpart Nyan Win that the junta move forward with democratization, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Komura stressed the need for the Myanmar government to involve all stakeholders in the political process and immediately release political detainees, including pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Education and Social Policy, Development, Democratization and Human Rights

22 July 2008
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• Author: Janice Tang
• Source: Kyodo News

SINGAPORE, July 22 — Food and energy security, economic conditions and political concerns such as Myanmar and a Cambodian-Thai border row will top the agenda when foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN nations begin a series of annual talks Tuesday with their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and other key dialogue partners in Singapore.

Meanwhile, an expected flurry of diplomacy on the sidelines among the six nations involved in talks on North Korea’s denuclearization will also be in the spotlight, including a number of bilateral meetings among the respective ministers before they gather for a six-way informal meeting that may take place Wednesday. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD, Democratization and Human Rights

22 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: International Herald Tribune

The brutality with which Robert Mugabe stole Zimbabwe’s elections last month embarrassed even his usual friends, allies and enablers. Unfortunately, it has not embarrassed them enough. Unless Russia, China and South Africa can be shamed into bringing real pressure against Mugabe and his henchmen, quickly, he will settle in for another term of disastrous misrule. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Democratization and Human Rights

22 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies

SINGAPORE, Kyodo - Japan pledged Tuesday to give an additional $21 million in reconstruction aid to cyclone-hit Myanmar, but Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura also urged in talks with his counterpart Nyan Win that the junta move forward with democratization, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said. Komura stressed the need for the Myanmar government to involve all stakeholders in the political process and immediately release political detainees, including pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The talks in Singapore came on the heels of a joint communique by ASEAN foreign ministers on Monday that urged Myanmar to free all political detainees and explicitly named Suu Kyi for the first time since 2003. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Democratization and Human Rights

20 July 2008
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• Source: The Zimbabwe Times

Mr. Thabo Mbeki came home from his trip to the G8 summit in Japan in a hurry. First he called for an immediate resumption of the dialogue between the MDC and Zanu-PF - suspended after the debacle last year when Mugabe simply put his foot down and said that he would not implement the agreement thrashed out over nine painstaking months by the negotiating teams under Mr. Mbeki’s mediation. MDC was reluctant to begin “talks” but eventually agreed to resume “talks about talks.” These got under way on Friday last week and after two days of fruitless arguing, the talks were suspended and the negotiators returned home. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, Democratization and Human Rights

15 July 2008
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• Source: Agence France Presse

US President George W. Bush said Tueday he was “displeased” with Russia and China for blocking UN sanctions against Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe and warned Washington could still act on its own.

Moscow and Beijing on Friday vetoed a US-sponsored draft at the UN Security Council that called for an assets freeze and a travel ban on President Mugabe and 13 of his associates as well as an arms embargo.

“I was displeased,” Bush told a news conference. “We spent a lot of time on this subject at the G8.” (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Democratization and Human Rights