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	UN envoy praises Burundi, Congo Democratic progress by Andrew Cawthorne Reuters   Nairobi, February 15, 2006   Democratic progress in Burundi and Congo is helping stability in Africa"s volatile Great Lakes region but the world must help build on early steps or risk a return to violence, the U.N. representative for the region said.   "These political, peaceful and democratic transitions in Burundi and DRC are very helpful in creating a more conducive climate," said Ibrahima Fall, United Nations special representative for one of the world"s most neglected and war-torn regions.   But the end of Burundi"s civil conflict and the election of a new government last year must now be complemented with funds to build all sectors of society shattered by more than a decade of fighting that killed 300,000 people, he told Reuters.   "From one standpoint, the political transition has been a success. The other standpoint is "what next?" in Burundi," Fall said at an interview in Nairobi late on Tuesday. "Unless and until the international community puts enough resources - together with the government - to create conditions for peace dividends to be seen by the population, the fear is that the country can go again to insecurity."   Echoing calls by former rebel leader and now Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza for outside aid with the mammoth task of rebuilding the small central African nation, Fall added: "Every sector in that country is an urgent issue."   Regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the U.N. official said more peacekeepers were urgently needed to ensure the success of forthcoming elections intended to draw a line under the 1998-2003 civil war and its messy aftermath. An estimated four million people have died in DRC.   CONGO "MIRACLE"   "We need more people," Fall said, applauding an agreement by the European Union (EU) this week to back up the U.N. peacekeeping mission, which at 17,000 personnel is the world body"s largest anywhere.   "DRC is a big country, 2,345,000 sq km, it is quite as large as Western Europe," Fall said. "So this idea of the largest U.N. mission in the world is somehow exaggerated. In numbers, yes. But in terms of density, if you compare the surface of the country and peacekeepers per square kilometer, it will certainly be the last."   Despite the enormity of the task of stabilizing DRC -- where 1,000 people still die every day from conflict-related causes -- just the fact that it was heading toward mid-year elections was itself grounds for optimism, Fall said."It is quite a miracle that those who were battling militarily in the field maybe two years ago have been since then in the same government and have been working together and now they are preparing for the general elections," he said.However, he added: "Of course it is still very fragile."   Heads of state from 11 African countries around the Great Lakes region are due to meet in Nairobi later this year to develop a strategy for securing peace and rebuilding Great Lakes countries shattered by instability throughout the 1990s.   As well as the Burundi conflict, the Rwanda genocide in 1994, the Congo conflict which at one point drew in six foreign armies, and a proliferation of arms and rebel groups around the region, have all contributed to years of bloodshed, chaos and mass refugee movements for a region at Africa"s heart.   But Fall said the 11 countries who make up the International Conference On the Great Lakes Region had been working since a 2004 meeting in Tanzania to achieve sustainable peace, political stability, and economic and social development.   "We need to go from firefighting to peace-building. This will need a kind of "Marshall Plan" for the Great Lakes," he said. "And unless the international community, together with countries of the region, work closely to implement it, the risk is that the region goes back to instability and insecurity."
	Korean Reunification is on the March by Christine Ahn International Herald Tribune Korea   February 9, 2006   The Bush administration is drawing up plans to further tighten the noose around North Korea by barring financial firms investing in Pyongyang from conducting business in the United States. Washington is moving fast to capitalize on Pyongyang"s alleged counterfeit dealings, but so fast that it is omitting a major factor: Korea is reunifying.   At Incheon International Airport in South Korea, flat-screen televisions beam a Samsung cellphone commercial of a concert with South Korea"s pop icon, Lee Hyo Ri, and the North Korean dancer Jo Myung Ae. Korea"s most popular female stars, they sing a song about parted lovers with the lyrics, "Someday we will meet again, although no one knows where we"re going, someday we will meet again, in this very image of us separated."   As they hold hands, the blue "One Korea" flag rolls down behind them, and as they turn to watch the flag, Lee Hyo Ri says, "That day I was so nervous because the story wasn"t just about the two of us."   Here was Samsung, one of Korea"s most powerful corporations, popularizing reunification. And the South Korean government was also sending a clear message to all foreigners landing on Korean soil: Reunification is happening, slowly, but surely.   Even before the commercial was aired, Koreans were buzzing about it on Internet. Nearly all blockbuster films in South Korea are about the Korean War, North Korea or reunification. North Korean characters are now humanized, compared with a few years ago when they only appeared as villains.   The Korea Institute for National Unification recently conducted a public opinion poll of 1,000 South Koreans and 300 leaders from political, media and civil organizations. It found that 84 percent of the public and 96 percent of opinion leaders believed that unification was an urgent task; 85 percent of the general public and 95 percent of opinion leaders approved of North-South economic cooperation.   In 2005, more than 275,000 South Korean tourists visited Mount Kumgang, bringing the total to have visited the North Korean resort to over 1.1 million since 2000. Last year, over 10,000 Koreans had social and cultural exchanges in the North, a doubling from 2002 to 2004, when an average of 5,000 Koreans met per year. Last year, 660 separated family members were reunited in person and 800 family members were able to see and speak to each other through Webcasts.   South Korean businesses are also investing in reunification. Economic exchange between North and South Korea grew almost 60 percent in one year, exceeding $875 million in 2005. This trade will only increase once the trans-Korean railway project is complete, and the trains won"t be only transporting goods. Koreans from Seoul will be able to travel through Pyongyang to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, where Koreans will play as a unified team.   Despite the progress between the two Koreas, the peninsula as understood by the international order is caught between the past and present.   Sour relations between Pyongyang and Washington are at a stalemate and are causing a rift between South Korea-U.S. relations. Koreans, seeing the significant gains in peace, are no longer willing to accept America"s Cold War mentality.   On Jan. 18, the Journalist Association of Korea, the largest journalist group, asked the U.S. ambassador, Alexander Vershbow, to "stop making anti-North Korean remarks that do more harm than good" and to apologize for his remarks. President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea also recently made clear that he did not endorse U.S. sanctions against North Korea. If the Bush administration continues hostile regime-change policies, Roh said, "There will be friction and disagreements between Seoul and Washington."   Just a few years ago, nobody imagined Korea"s phenomenal progress. Like Germany in the 1980s, nobody dreamed that East and West Germany would reunite. But it happened overnight. Strong popular desire for reunification was key, as were cultural ties that helped build trust between the two societies. Those who doubt Korean reunification should now be reminded that there were doubters back then too.   (Christine Ahn is a member of Korean-Americans United for Peace and a fellow with the Oakland Institute.)
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