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The community remembers the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit of 1983 as brave troops who suffered great losses in Beirut in one of the most devastating non-nuclear bombings of all time. Retired Marine Col. Timothy Geraghty remembers them as “my men.” Geraghty will be in Jacksonville today to commemorate the anniversary of the bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed nearly 300 peacekeeping troops, 241 of whom were Marines and sailors under his command. Twenty-six years after the event, he has told the story of Beirut in his own words.

The Genocidal Islamic monster Al-Bashir warns to harm peacekeepers if 'arrest is issued'     Sudanese president is defiant in Darfur visitThe Associated Press - Jul 23, 2008... one day after a presidential adviser warned that aid workers and peacekeepers might not be safe in Darfur if an arrest warrant is issued for al-Bashir. ...http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5inqUzmH0M_JwO_wre74Z0-3h3-2gD923KSIG0   Warlord frequented local bar in disguiseThe Kingston Whig-Standard, Canada - Jul 24, 2008A senior Sudanese official is warning that aid workers and peacekeepers might not be safe in Darfur if an arrest warrant is issued for the country's ...http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1127571   They Said ItWednesday, July...

Charity: Aid workers raping, abusing children [http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/27/charity.aidworkers/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail] “LONDON, England (CNN) — Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said.” Circulation of the following pictures is encouraged. Please copy as opposed to linking, as it uses this site’s bandwidth. Children as young as 6 have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money, Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday. After interviewing hundreds of children, the charity said it found instances of rape, child...

...Detailed in the report were incidents of UN representatives denying food aid unless children granted sexual favors; exchanging food, money, cell phones, and even soap for sex; reports of children being physically forced to have sex (in the US we call that rape); and reports of children forced to participate in acts of child pornography...

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Gunmen have attacked police from the African Union and UN peacekeeping force in Darfur for the first time, injuring one officer by beating him with a rifle butt, a UN spokesman said Thursday. "Four gunmen attacked, yesterday afternoon, a UNAMID police patrol, two kilometres (one mile) from the Zam Zam camp for internally displaced persons, injuring one officer," said spokesman Noureddine Mezni from the UN African Mission in Darfur. The unarmed police were stopped at gunpoint as they returned from a routine patrol at the camp, which is near Darfur's political capital of Al-Fasher. The officers were...

You'll recall Hillary Clinton's recent speech in which she attempted to play up her foreign policy experience by recounting her "harrowing" 1996 trip to Bosnia. "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." Well, mainstream media has discounted that account, and such luminaries as comedian Sinbad have chimed in as well. It appears, however, that Clinton caved in too soon when she admitted overstating the dangers, as Barely Political...

France plays down Chad war claim Mr Sarkozy says the situation in Sudan and Chad is very complex French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said a declaration of war against foreign troops by rebels will not jeopardise an EU mission to Chad. Anti-government rebels have declared "a state of belligerence against the French army or any other foreign forces on national territory". They have accused French military planes of passing intelligence to the Chadian government. Austria has also said the rebel declaration will not stop the mission. The EU force, about half of which will be made up of French troops,...

Rebels in Chad have said they are at war with the French-led European Union peacekeeping force which is due to be deployed in the coming weeks. The rebels accused French military planes of flying over their positions and passing intelligence to the government during this week's fighting. France, the former colonial power, retains a military base in Chad. The EU force is to be sent to the area near the border with Sudan's Darfur, to protect refugees and aid workers. Chad says that Sudan is behind this week's attacks, because it did not want any western forces on its border....

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese military intelligence officials have detained members of a suspected "terrorist network" for plotting attacks against U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the army said Monday. The group had planted a bomb near the southern city of Tyre in an attempt to target a U.N. patrol, but it did not explode because of a problem with the trigger, the army said in a statement. The suspects also admitted they planned to plant two other bombs in the area and detonate them within a short period "in order to cause maximum casualties among the forces," the statement said. Two...

HASKANITA, Sudan: Rebel forces stormed a small African Union base in northern Darfur and killed 10 peacekeepers in an unprecedented attack on the beleaguered mission that threatened peace talks set for October. Several others were wounded and dozens were missing after about 1,000 rebels attacked the base in Haskanita late Saturday and eventually stormed it early Sunday, AU peacekeepers in Haskanita said. The remaining AU peacekeepers were evacuated from the base under the protection of the Sudanese Army, which drove the rebels from the area. Some government troops could be seen plundering goods from the burned-out camp as an AU...

BEIJING: China will deploy engineers and a medical unit to Sudan's troubled Darfur region next month as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, the military reported... Energy-hungry China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil output and sells weapons to the Khartoum regime. Critics say Beijing has not used its economic leverage to push Sudan's government more strongly for peace in Darfur, and have attempted to shame China into acting by linking the Darfur crisis to next year's Summer Olympics in the Chinese capital. Xinhua said the unit headed to Darfur has been trained in international law, the United Nations constitution...

Pristina - A United States soldier serving with a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo was killed in a traffic accident Sunday night, police sources in the province said. Two other US troops were injured in the crash, which occurred in Caglavica, a section of the capital Pristina, sources said. Neither official confirmation of the report nor any other details were immediately available. Peacekeepers of KFOR had been deployed in Kosovo since mid-1999, when NATO ousted Serbian security forces to end the repression of the majority Albanian population.

UN confirms inquiry of sexual abuse cases in Ivory Coast 23/07/2007 18:05 ABIDJAN, July 23 (AFP) The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast confirmed it was investigating cases of sexual abuse of Ivorian women, including young girls, by some Moroccan soldiers. "There was an internal investigation which proved the facts, but we are waiting the results of the full investigation led by our internal affairs services, which will confirm the facts," UN spokeswoman Margarita Amodeo told AFP. "There are minors among the victims concerned," she said. The United Nations at the weekend suspended a Moroccan peacekeeping unit based in...

BEIRUT, Lebanon AP) — A roadside bomb planted in Lebanon's coastal south exploded Monday near a U.N. post as a peacekeeping vehicle drove past, the second attack targeting the force in less than a month. No one was hurt. The bomb struck the U.N. jeep as it drove through a village near the southern port city of Tyre, according to a statement from the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon, known as UNIFIL. A U.N. official at the site of the explosion said the bomb was planted near a bridge on the road to Qassimiyeh. The official spoke on condition...

MONROVIA, Liberia - The United Nation's first women-only peacekeeping contingent — made up about 100 Indian policewomen — arrived in Liberia Tuesday, officials said. Ben Malor, spokesman for the U.N.'s 15,000-strong peacekeeping force in the West African country, said the force will be stationed in the capital. Women have served in many U.N. peacekeeping forces, but this is the first women-only group. Members of the group have said they hope their unit will be seen as more approachable by women and children in conflict zones. Last year relief groups in Liberia accused U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers of trading food...

LONDON (AFP) - A top ranking United Nations official admitted that the abuse of locals by peacekeepers was "going on" and expressed her "outrage" in an interview with the BBC. UN Assistant Secretary General for peacekeeping operations, Jane Holl Lute, speaking to the BBC after it aired a probe into allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti, said abuse "is going on ... and I don't challenge the facts as they were presented". She said that "at every level, I'm outraged. I'm outraged that this goes on." Lute insisted, however, that the United Nations was working to deal with...

The United States is lobbying to put an American, possibly a general, in charge of all UN peacekeeping operations in a move that could offer Washington an exit strategy in Iraq.The unprecedented US bid for the top UN peacekeeping post would place an American in command of the 95,000 UN peacekeepers in trouble spots from Lebanon to Sudan. The American lobbying effort is set to prove hugely controversial. If successful, the change would amount to a radical remaking of the organisation, bringing it closer to its origin in the Second World War as a US-led alliance. It is also stirring...

THE convoy of African Union (AU) peacekeepers lumbered out of its base on the edge of El-Fasher towards midday. As it passed through central Darfur’s ravaged villages, children playing by the road made thumbs down gestures.“We are a laughing stock here,” groaned a senior officer to accompanying newsmen. “We are completely blind to what is really going on.” The AU force — 5,000 soldiers and 2,000 civilian police and administrators drawn from more than a dozen of the AU’s 53 member states — was sent to Darfur to monitor last May’s “peace agreement” — a British-backed deal which split the...

UNITED NATIONS - Sudan will not allow the United Nations to take control of peacekeepers in Darfur under any circumstance, the president said Tuesday, claiming that rights groups have exaggerated the crisis there in a bid for more cash. Omar al-Bashir did say that the African Union, which now runs the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, should be allowed to augment its forces with more logistics, advisers and other support. "The picture that volunteer organizations try to give in order to solicit more assistance and more aid, have given a negative result," al-Bashir told a news conference. Speaking on the sidelines...

DURING THE RECENT month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel, U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon.UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF...

If the Bush administration is successful in cajoling major European nations into contributing peace keepers to southern Lebanon, it will have dealt a serious, perhaps fatal, blow to its efforts to peacefully curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Bush administration currently wants two things from Europe -- a "robust" peace keeping force to secure the uneasy cease fire in Lebanon and European (and Security Council) backing for sanctions and other punitive measures against Iran for its nuclear intransigence. But it cannot have both, particularly if France -- a permanent member of the Security Council and a member of the EU-3 negotiating...

PARIS - The French general who leads the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Monday he wants reinforcements quickly, warning that even one "stray act" could unravel a diplomatic effort to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, said a U.N. Security Council resolution approved Friday could give unprecedented new strength to the 28-year-old UNIFIL force that often has been criticized as ineffective in the past. Diplomats and military advisers were working Monday to decide which countries could help boost the 2,000-strong force to 15,000, as was approved...

PROMINENT Australian Muslims have written to Lebanon's Prime Minister asking him to reject any offer of Australian peacekeepers. Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad and Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali sent a letter on August 10 to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in which they said an Australian peacekeeping presence in Lebanon would not be in the best interest of Lebanon or Australia. "Should Australian troops go into Lebanon, Australia's current counter terrorism laws will severely hamper debate in Australia about Lebanon's right to defend itself and those protesting to support Lebanon's independence may find themselves liable to imprisonment," the letter said. "It's...

JERUSALEM - Israel is studying Lebanon's offer to deploy some 15,000 Lebanese troops along the Israel-Lebanon border to take control of the Hezbollah stronghold, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday. Israel has long demanded a deployment of Lebanese forces in southern Lebanon, along with the disarming of Hezbollah guerrillas. However, it appeared Israeli leaders were reluctant to embrace Lebanon's offer more strongly because of concern it might be a ploy to get Israeli troops out of south Lebanon. Olmert suggested Tuesday that Israel would want to see the deployment of Lebanese troops along with a strong multinational force in...

The Franco-American cease-fire plan looks good. Hizbullah, Iran and Syria want to sabotage it for precisely that reason. It should soon be apparent to the world that Israel prefers peace, and that the radical trio seeks continued strife within Lebanon and on the border. Among the cease-fire proposal's key points are the following: • a south Lebanon buffer zone which only Lebanon's army and an international force can enter; • all sides to respect the Lebanon-Israel border; • a procedure to disarm Hizbullah; • strengthening Lebanon's army to ensure it controls the south; • establishing an embargo on the supply...

Islamic countries, preparing to hold an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the Mideast crisis, want to ensure that Muslim countries participate in any multinational force deployed in Lebanon. The government of Malaysia, which chairs the 57-member Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), says the bloc will likely call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hizballah. It also will demand the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force that must include OIC members, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Representatives from at least 17 member states plan to attend the meeting in the Malaysian administrative capital of Putrajaya. They include...

Kofi Annan loves the cocktail, lecture and the smarmy soft sell circuit and eschews all pretenses when it comes to protecting his unarmed blue topped troops in the field. Pretenses, that is, meaning he doesn’t give a damn for them, their locations, or their missions.

The United Nations has decided to remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said today. The decision came after one of the posts of the observer force, known as UNTSO, was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, killing four. “These are unarmed people and this is for theirprotection,” said Milos Struger, a spokesman for Unifil, the peacekeeping force whose 2,000 members have light weapons for self-defence. Earlier, Israel’s UN ambassador has ruled out major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon,...

International military force to be placed in southern Lebanon, but where will the troops come from? The United States has ruled out its soldiers, NATO says it is overstretched, Britain feels its troops are overcommitted and Germany says it is willing to participate only if Hezbollah agrees .... Also see: http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/2006/07/nations-reluctant-to-commit-troops-to.html

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said overnight that his government would accept a peacekeeping force in Lebanon "made up of troops from European Union countries". "Israel is ready to see deployment of a force with military capabilities and combat experience made up of troops from European Union countries once its mandate has been fixed," Mr Olmert said during talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The mandate "will have to include control of the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, deployment in south Lebanon and support for the Lebanese army", he said. The force would also need to oversee...

ABU DHABI (AP)--France will participate in an international peacekeeping force for Lebanon under certain conditions, French Defense Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie said on Saturday. Such a force would have "no meaning," Alliot-Marie warned, without contributor countries identifying in advance its duties and how these would be carried out. She didn't say how large the force would be. Alliot-Marie made her comments at a press conference after meeting Abu Dhabi's crown prince Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed. While the fighting in Lebanon between Israeli and Hezbollah forces was part of a larger problem, Alliot-Marie added that a quick end to the clashes was...

Tense calm prevailed in the capital of East Timor as Australian troops took control of security to stop a bloodbath between the Timorese military and rebel soldiers. After a day that saw at least 15 people killed as houses were torched and unarmed men gunned down, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Friday that his own Timorese forces were being ordered back to their barracks. He said Australian troops that landed on Thursday would take over security in Dili, the capital of East Timor -- which has been independent only since 2002. "Now the Australian troops are the ones holding the...

THE voice of Osama bin Laden was heard across the world again yesterday with the broadcast of a new tape in which he sought to link al-Qaeda with both Palestinian militants and the brutal civil war in Sudan.In his first message for three months, bin Laden said that the West’s decision to cut off funds to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority proved that it was conducting “a Zionist crusader war on Islam�. He also spoke about the Darfur crisis in Sudan, which has caused 180,000 deaths, calling on “holy warriors� to defend Islam and “prepare for a long war� against a...

1. Report: China Selling Prisoners' Body Parts Chinese doctors are "harvesting" kidneys, corneas and other organs from live concentration camp inmates and selling them for up to $100,000 apiece. That's the shocking report from a former employee at Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, where the organ removal has allegedly been taking place. In an interview with The Epoch Times, the ex-employee said the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Shenyang City is part of the hospital and since 2001 has secretly detained approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners - none of whom has left the camp alive. "The...

Sexual abuse charges against U.N. peacekeepers remain unacceptably high due to a persistent "culture of dismissiveness" in field missions, a U.N. diplomat said on Thursday. It could take three to four more years for a reform program to fully take hold, Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, said in updating the U.N. Security Council on how the problem was being addressed. A spike in allegations was "not entirely unexpected" since a system was now in now place to facilitate complaints, he said, and all the reform elements had not yet been implemented. Al-Hussein was asked by the United...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The California prison system's use of some of its toughest, most feared inmates to help keep order behind bars led to the slaying of a guard, state investigators say. And the FBI is looking into whether the practice contributed to a second killing. Although the practice is banned in some states, California's top corrections official defends the limited use of "peacekeepers." These influential inmates are entrusted to help the staff, smooth racial tension and in some cases control fellow prisoners. Critics worry the freedom accorded peacekeepers lets them run drugs, order inmate assaults and commit other crimes....

A first group of UN peacekeepers expelled from Eritrea left the UN headquarters in Asmara enroute to Addis Ababa. The group of about 20, including a woman in tears, boarded a bus at the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) offices in Asmara that headed to the airport for a temporary relocation in the Ethiopian capital. A UN official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the team was relocating ahead of the Friday deadline imposed by Eritrean authorities. They are expected to board three flights, the first one taking off at 11:00 am (0800 GMT), then 11:30 am and...

UN peacekeepers kicked out as war threatens Horn of Africa By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 08/12/2005) Vital elements of a United Nations force on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea were expelled yesterday, raising tension in the region. Eritrea's move to force out American and European members of the force greatly increased the prospect of a military confrontation along one of the world's most dangerous frontiers. The UN mission will be effectively crippled and the expulsion could foreshadow a new war in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea is on a permanent war footing and has massed about 200,000 troops...

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo (Army News Service, Nov. 25, 2005) – For Soldiers of the 40th Infantry Division deployed as part of the Kosovo Forces 6B peacekeeping rotation, Thanksgiving Day provided not only an opportunity for rest and reflection, but also a chance to share one of their traditions with the people of Kosovo. While the mission went on as normal within the Multinational Brigade (East) area of responsibility – from patrolling city streets and rural towns, to providing medical check-ups in remote villages and conducting border and boundary patrols – Soldiers continued also fulfilled their role as peacekeepers in a...

One of four Swedish peacekeepers wounded in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan has died of his injuries, the Swedish military said late on Friday. The four Swedish troops, two of whom were said to be seriously injured in Friday's explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif, were from the NATO-led ISAF, which was set up in 2001, and were part of a British provincial reconstruction team. "Shortly after midnight local time (2100 Stockholm time) ISAF's military hospital in Kabul announced that one of the two seriously injured Swedes had died," the statement said. "The soldier was seriously injured in a bomb attack in...

U.N. wants Israeli peacekeepers World body approaches Israel with request for troops, military equipment; Jerusalem considering offer Itamar Eichner The United Nations has approached Israel with a request to send military units to troublesome parts of the globe under the world body’s peace keeping forces. Haiti, Kosovo, Congo, and Liberia are among the proposed destinations Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday. The U.N. has specifically asked for Israeli military medical units equipped with helicopters to serve in one of these hotspots. The world organization is also interested in purchasing advanced Israeli-made military equipment including night vision and telecommunication equipment....

PRISTINA/PRAGUE- A Czech soldier and an Albanian man suffered minor injuries in an exchange of fire with a group of Albanians in Kosovo, the Czech Defence Ministry said. The Czech soldier was airlifted to the local military hospital. A group of Czech soldiers, who are part of the Czech contingent within the KFOR mission, clashed with the armed men at a patrolling mission in northern Kosovo. The six Albanians were illegally cutting wood and after an appeal that they should stop with it, they put up resistance. The men were injured in the subsequent shoot-out, started by the Albanians after...

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 18 - The United Nations has developed procedures to curb sexual abuse by peacekeepers, but the measures are not being put into force because of a deep-seated culture of tolerating sexual exploitation, an independent review reported Tuesday.-snip-Ms. Martin said guidelines adopted at headquarters were not being taken seriously in the field....-snip-Among the changes called for were empowering local women, conducting public information campaigns to combat the "masculine culture that has developed," giving more importance to the so-called gender advisers who are now required on missions, giving victims access to the United Nations complaint system and guaranteeing that...

SUKHUMI, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - The president of Abkhazia, a self-proclaimed independent republic on Georgian territory, said he would not agree to the deployment of U.S. and EU peacekeeping forces in the region. "The CIS peacekeeping troops were sent to the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone in line with the May 14, 1994 agreement on a ceasefire and the disengagement of forces," Sergei Bagapsh said, responding to a proposal by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to involve the United States and the European Union in the peacemaking process. "Abkhazia does not plan on making any amendments to the document." "No other countries...

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22 - The United Nations, burdened by its inability to stave off the mass killings in Rwanda in 1994 and by failed missions in Bosnia and Somalia, is allowing its peacekeepers to mount some of the most aggressive operations in its history. The change has been evolving over the last decade, as the Security Council has adopted the notion of "robust peacekeeping" and rejected the idea that the mere presence of blue-helmeted soldiers on the ground helps quell combat. It is most obvious in Congo, which commands by far the largest deployment of United Nations troops in...

GLOBAL: UN deals with sexual abuse allegations against peacekeepers11 May 2005 17:56:16 GMT Source: IRIN JOHANNESBURG, 11 May (IRIN) - The United Nations has requested funds for hiring additional staff to beef up preventative measures aimed at tackling allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by some UN peacekeepers. In a report to the General Assembly this week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that the number of claims of sexual abuse and exploitation lodged against UN peacekeepers last year was more than double the number reported in 2003. In March the UN released a report by Annan's special adviser on the issue,...

[Free Republic Note: For those who missed the news story (buried by US media outlets) about the rape of children and animals in East Timor by UN Peacekeepers, I suggest you first read the following article published by "The Australian" on 26-Mar-2005: Hushed rape of Timor.] US Congressional Leaders Fight for Victim's Rights in East Timor By LEIF TEEST Associated Press Staff Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation in Congress today they hope will provide relief for Jordanian UN Peacekeepers currently embroiled in an international sex scandal in East Timor. Allegedly, Jordanian peacekeepers routinely engaged in lovemaking with...

UNITED NATIONS, A report on sexual abuse by peacekeepers recommended Thursday that offending soldiers and their commanders be punished by their home countries, that payments made to them be recovered and put into a fund for victims and that the United Nations make compliance with these measures a condition for taking part in its missions. Secretary General Kofi Annan commissioned the report from Prince Zeid Raad al Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the United Nations, after evidence emerged that blue helmeted peacekeepers and civilian staff members had had sex with women and girls in Congo in exchange for food and money,...

BUNIA, Congo — She's known in the community as a "one-dollar U.N. girl." At night, she sleeps on the cracked pavement outside a storefront. In the mornings, she sashays through the dusty streets, clutching a frayed parasol against the blinding sun. Yvette and her friends are also called kidogo usharatis, Swahili for small prostitutes. They loiter outside the camps of U.N. peacekeepers, hoping to sell their bodies for a mug of milk, a cold soda or — best of all — a single dollar. .....Yvette's story is not uncommon. The United Nations is investigating 150 instances in which 50 peacekeeping...

United Nations peacekeepers have gone on the offensive against a militia group in Congo, deploying helicopters and killing nearly 60 people in the biggest battle fought by the world body in more than a decade. But criticism of the operation was mounting yesterday when it emerged that up to a third of the dead could have been civilians used as human shields by the group that was the attackers' intended target. The latest hostilities began when a battalion of Pakistani soldiers advanced on the militia base in the Ituri district, the scene of some of the worst atrocities in the...