Opinion | Editorials
Time to act decisively on Congo crisis
UN forces in troubled nation need support of Security Council to stop massacres.
- Gulf News
- Published: 23:41 November 15, 2008
The United Nations Security Council is dithering while people are dying in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 17,000 UN troops in eastern Congo are not enough and do not have a clear mandate to act effectively against the advances of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) led by dissident Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's rebels.
The commander of the UN forces, known by their acronym, Monuc, has requested 3,000 more troops, but the Security Council has refused to consider this request without more information and has deferred its discussion till November 26. Every day, dozens of civilians are being killed by Nkunda's forces, and he is continuing to extend his grip on the region around Goma, on the Rwanda border.
The CNDP was one of several well-armed and powerful groups led by warlords, who all agreed to stop fighting in 2003 but is the only group which has resumed fighting. It took up arms in late August when Nkunda's rebels captured the main army base in the region, and they have been taking away territory from the government forces ever since.
Congo needs a strong and determined international force to stop the drift into a new civil war. The UN Security Council needs to back its forces on the ground by at the very least doubling their number, and giving them full authority to enforce peace, which means authority to fight and to shoot to kill. Without this, the UN forces will be doomed to stand by and watch a growing massacre evolve in front of their eyes and the UN will find its whole purpose rightly questioned by the international community and the suffering people of Congo.
The dipping inflation rate may have come as a breath of fresh air to India's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, following charges of partiality while handing out election tickets, which were levelled by senior Congress party member Margaret Alva.
Alva's outburst of partiality while determining candidates has rocked the establishment with three months to go for elections. But her allegations are not isolated. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is coping with similar charges levelled by some of their members. Alva was removed from her key posts even as the Congress yesterday expelled another wayward member for levelling similar assertions.
This, however, does not re-seal the can of worms. It also paints a grim picture of inner-party culture in the country. Political parties in India are adopting a trend from Bollywood, where familial ties and not merit is the determining factor for a career.
Alva herself is guilty of this: she had an axe to grind because her son had not been given a ticket. But this is undemocratic and hinders the progress of youth. Selection of electoral candidates should be made strictly on merit in order to ensure that India's political future is determined without any compromise of any sort.
The World Health Organisation has recently reported that heart disease is the number one killer in high-income countries, accounting for 16 per cent of deaths. In the UAE, that global statistic is heightened to a mortality rate of 22 per cent.
Heart disease is a silent killer. Cholesterol slowly accumulates in arteries, building up layers of deadly plaque. Constricted arteries limit blood flow, shutting off supplies to the heart or forcing it to work under strain.
Smoking severely burdens the heart. Lifestyle choices increase the risk of heart disease. So too does a genetic predisposition to cardiac disease.
Education is key to lowering the mortality rate from cardiac failure. Opting to eat well, exercise regularity and stop smoking all have been proven to lower your risk of death from a heart attack.
The Ministry of Health is launching a campaign to promote healthy heart awareness. Any measure that helps cut mortality rates deserves our fullest support.
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