Asia

Pakistan has been a member of the UN since 1947 and has been actively involved in its peacekeeping missions in various conflict-torn countries. We are at the top of the list with our largest number of troop and observer deployments.  Pakistanis have made international headlines yet again for the wrong reasons. According to Reuters, “Two UN peacekeepers from Pakistan have been sentenced to a year in prison for raping a 14-year-old Haitian boy after being convicted in a Pakistani military trial in Haiti, authorities said on Monday.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday expressed strong optimism saying the future Bangladeshi peacekeepers would uphold the earned glory by improving the overall standard of training and thus brighten the image of the country.  She said out of a total of 66 UN peace missions since 1948, Bangladesh has successfully completed 45 Peacekeeping Operations across the world and are currently deployed in 11 ongoing peace missions in 11 countries.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Seeking to break an impasse on a broader strategic arrangement, the United States agreed on Friday to greatly accelerate its handover of detainees to Afghan government control but will retain a veto over which ones can be released, American officials said.  Gen. John R. Allen, the American military commander, and Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan defense minister, signed the compromise agreement in what diplomats described as a breakthrough in negotiations over a long-term military partnership.

Russia announced last month that it plans to withdraw its eight helicopters and the 120 personnel who service them from the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.  [Interview with Alexander Nikitin]

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said here Tuesday that China condemns the violence against UN peacekeeping forces and will continue to push for the early realization of peace, stability and development in the Darfur region of Sudan.  Hong made the remarks in response to a question about the abduction of 52 United Nations-African Union (UN-AU) peacekeepers by anti-government forces in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

As the Russian air group in South Sudan ends its mission all the equipment will be withdrawn within a week, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Drik said on Wednesday.

All Russian soldiers and helicopters will leave the African country by the end of this week, he added.

More than 3,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan during 2011, the deadliest year on record for residents of the war-torn country, according to a UN report.

A total of 3,021 civilians died last year, up eight per cent from 2,790, the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Saturday in its annual report. The toll marked the fifth year in a row that the number of civilian deaths had increased.

China has long adhered to a foreign policy of non-interventionism, where it tries to appear neutral in disputes outside its borders. As the country becomes more of a global power, however, it is less able to stay on the sidelines. China’s role in United Nations peacekeeping missions is changing, and the country may be compelled to play a greater role in peacekeeping policy.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president vowed Wednesday to confront the Pakistani government over a devastating suicide bombing against a Shiite shrine in Kabul that he said originated in Pakistan, putting further pressure on already strained relations between the two neighbors.

(Reuters) - A suicide attack killed dozens of Shi'ite Muslims at a crowded Kabul shrine on Tuesday, and four others died in a smaller blast in a key northern city, in the worst sectarian violence Afghanistan has seen since the fall of the Taliban.

The Kabul bomb was the deadliest in the capital since 2008, and punctured any lingering sense of optimism from a conference on Monday where Western allies made firm but not specific promises to support Afghanistan after troops leave in 2014.