Conduct AIDS awareness
prog for forces: UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 19: The UN Security Council has asked its member states to take measures to .....more

WFH, WHO to take up
joint research to find
haemophilia cure

MONTREAL, July 19: The World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) ......more

Japan battles for big
power status at UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 19: Japan, the second largest contributor to the ......more

Defence Ministers back
Jiang-Putin stand on NMD

BEIJING, July 19: Chinese and Russian Defence Ministers have expressed full support towards their Government’s clear-cut stand against US plans to establish anti-missile shields, the state media reported today. This was stated by Chinese Defence Minister General Chi Haotian and his visiting Russian counterpart Igor Dmitriyevich Sergeyev during official talks here......more

China, Russia sign
4 more agreements

BEIJING, July 19: China and Russia signed four more agreements today, including two on petroleum and gas, bringing the number of documents signed.....more

Conduct AIDS awareness prog for forces: UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 19: The UN Security Council has asked its member states to take measures to educate their military personnel on HIV and AIDS so that they are not infected while on peacekeeping missions abroad.

In a resolution, the Council called for "voluntary and confidential" testing and counselling and treatment of the personnel.

Some member countries, however, reacted guardedly to the resolution introduced on Monday as they felt the issue was being treated as an international security matter rather than a health concern.

Developing countries, especially the worst affected africa, argue that what is needed is inexpensive medical care and more funds for development of preventive vaccine.

US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who piloted the resolution, said it made sense to prepare and protect the troops from enemies like aids as it did from guns.

He said it was necessary to prevent the possibility of peacekeepers sent to prevent strife spreading a disease deadlier than the conflict.

To enlist the support of Russia which has Veto power, the US agreed to delete the clause that would have put the issue on the agenda of the Council.

Though the number of those infected while on missions abroad is relatively low till now, the world body is seeking preventive measures as the UN forces are being increasingly sent to countries with a high rate of AIDS and HIV infection.

In this context, the UN has decided to distribute one condom everyday to personnel this year but officials say additional awareness programmes should be undertaken by respective states to educate their armed forces. (PTI)

WFH, WHO to take up joint research to find haemophilia cure

MONTREAL, July 19: The World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) will take up a joint research project to find the optimum dosage of blood-derived factors needed for haemophilia treatment, WHF president Brian O’Mahony has said.

Research on the issue has assumed importance as high cost of these factors has resulted in rich nations giving more dosage to their patients than what is generally required whereas developing nations have to compromise with low dosage, Mahony, who is here to attend the on-going World Haemophilia Congress, told PTI.

He said the issue had led to debates between haemophilia experts from the developed and developing countries.

Describing the issue of lower dosage of factors which has been often raised by doctors of Christian Medical College in vellore as "justifiable", he said "we will have a meeting this year (with WHO) to discuss the project which may last three years".

Haemophilia, caused due to absence of certain clotting factors in blood, is treated by replacing the deficient factors using a product derived from donated blood or synthetically through genetic engineering.

Mahony said WFH will continue to lobby with pharmaceutical companies to provide factors to developing nations at reduced prices.

"We have already provided factors at reduced cost to a few developing nations by speaking to pharma companies," he said declining to divulge the names of the companies involved.

"My plea to the industry is that instead of making more products for haemophilics they should make existing products more affordable" he said.

On the technology front, gene therapy shows great promise in future but it has to be made affordable for haemophilics in developing countries, he said.

Asked about non-participation of Government representatives from developing nations at the conference, he said though Government representatives from some developing nations participate in the smaller meetings of WFH, "I will look into the issue of inviting Health Ministry representatives from developing nations to the next Congress".

Another crucial issue is the scarcity of factors due to insufficient production,closures because of inspections, regulatory requirements and changes in manufacturing processes, and fracnation of blood to derive only albumin and ivig - two other blood components used to treat immunity-related disorders.

"But that would be shortlived as three new plants are coming up in us soon which would bridge the gap," he said.

WFH would also try to involve more African countries in the next congress to be held in seville in Spain in 2002, he said. (PTI)

Japan battles for big power status at UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 19: Japan, the second largest contributor to the UN budget, is bitterly disappointed that its most ambitious goal at the UN - a permanent seat in the 15-member Security Council - still remains beyond its reach.

Despite its high-powered lobbying - and the tremendous influence it wields as the world’s biggest aid donor - Japan has failed to convince the majority of the remaining 187 member states that it richly deserves the title of a ‘veto-wielding, big power’.

‘The Japanese would give anything - and perhaps sacrifice everything they have - to get that elusive permanent seat in the Security Council,’ says an Asian diplomat, who is privy to the ongoing closed-door negotiations on the reform of the Security Council.

The world’s five big powers at the UN - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - are the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council.

The veto powers they wield elevate them to the ranks of the five most powerful countries in the world body giving them the ultimate authority to declare war and peace - and also decide on who should, and who shouldn’t, be subjected to international sanctions.

But the two countries feverishly knocking at the Security Council door, namely Japan and Germany, have so far been shut out because member states remain hopelessly deadlocked on whether they qualify to be big powers.

Unless there is a dramatic change in thinking - or a sheer political miracle - the proposed expansion of the Security Council may be confined only to an increase in the non-permanent members, from the current ten to about 15 or 20.

But this is not exactly what Japan is seeking: it wants an increase in the number of permanent seats so that it can join the exclusive ranks of the big five in the Council.

The reform of the Security Council, which has been on the UN agenda for nearly a decade, is expected to be one of the items for discussion at the summit meeting of the group of eight - namely, the US, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, Canada, Japan and Canada -meeting in Okinawa on July 21-23. But there is very little the group of eight could do - without strong support from the remaining 180 members of the UN General Assembly.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has indicated his sympathy towards Japan, says it is hard to imagine a nation that does more, across the breadth of the international agenda, than Japan.

‘Japan is unquestionably one of the world’s leading economic powers, and its performance remains crucial to the recovery of all the East Asian economies,’ he points out.

Mr Annan also says that Japan continues to have the largest programme for Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the world, with support reaching a ‘remarkable’ 160 countries.

‘And I need hardly remind you that Japan is the second largest contributor to the regular budget of the United Nations. Indeed, it is, at present, the first in terms of actual payments.’

But frankly, admits Mr Annan, a permanent seat in the Security Council is ‘a matter for the member states to decide’. ‘But I hope they will address this without further delay.’

But no one seems to be in a hurry to create permanent seats either for Germany or Japan. A working committee on the reform of the Security Council, comprising all 188 member states, has been labouring for over five years - but with hardly any success.

Although Japan has aggressively used its financial clout to push for high-ranking jobs in the UN system in the past - it has failed miserably to get the necessary support to clinch a permanent seat in the Security Council.

Last year, a Japanese diplomat campaigning on behalf of his countryman for the top job at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was quoted as saying: ‘no Japan, no UNESCO.’

After a bruising battle, Ambassador Koichiro Matsuura of Japan, beat out candidates from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Australia, Romania, France, Indonesia, Gungary, the Philippines and Trinidad and Tobago, for the top job at UNESCO.

Before the election, the New York Times said that UNESCO headquarters was ‘buzzing with rumours that the Japanese and Saudi Governments had promised generous aid packages to several third world countries in exchange for their votes.’

Currently, Japan accounts for 20 per cent of the 1.3 billion dollar annual UN budget, is the number one donor providing an average of about 11 billion dollars in ODA annually, and is the largest single contributor to UNESCO, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), among various other UN funds and programmes.

Since most high-ranking jobs in the UN system are now donor driven, Japan has been accused of resorting to ‘cheque book diplomacy.’

When Japan’s Hiroshi Nakajima ran for a second term as director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1993, the elections were marred by a vote-buying scandal.

Japan was accused of pressuring aid-recipients, mostly poorer developing nations in Africa, to cast their votes in favour of Japan. The trade-off was apparently increased Japanese aid. Mr Nakajima won by an overwhelming majority.

Besides who’s Nakajima, some of the distinguished Japanese who held high UN office include judge S. ODA of the international court of justice in the Hague and Mr Yashushi Akashi, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and the secretary-general’s special representative both in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia. Currently, some of the senior UN officials include UNESCO’s Matsuura, under-secretary-general Kensaku Hogen, who heads the UN’s department of public information, the UN high commissioner for refugees Sadako Ogata, and assistant secretary-general for central support services Niwa Toshiyuki.

Last year there were reports that some Japanese politicians were proposing to use the country’s economic power as leverage threatening to scale back Japan’s ODA and reducing its voluntary contributions to the UN.

‘I believe this would be counter-productive, and unworthy of Japan’s high standing in the world, not to mention its people’s generosity of heart,’ Mr Annan told a Japanese audience in Tokyo last year.

But one third world diplomat says that there is obviously a limit to what money can - and cannot buy. ‘Japan’s unsuccessful bid for a permanent seat is an indication of where one could draw the line,’ he notes. (IPS)