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New York - The UN Security Council has Thursday demanded an end to persistent sexual violence during armed conflict, calling it a war crime and a component of genocide, in a resolution with recommendations and measures to fight sexual violence.

After hearing from more than 60 speakers, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, all 15 members approved Council Resolution 1820 that "demands the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians with immediate effect."

The one-day debate at UN headquarters was attended by seven female government ministers, including Rice, South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, Britain's Attorney General Baroness Patricia Scotland and France's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Rama Yade.

Some of them called on Myanmar's military government to set free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for more than 10 years.

Rice cited rapes of girls as young as 8-years-old in Myanmar and the continued detention of Suu Kyi, who celebrated her birthday Thursday under house arrest. Military authorities in Yangon arrested eight supporters who showed up to commemorate her birthday.

She cited the severe lack of women in the decision-making hierarchy at the United Nations, where only six women had occupied the rank of assistant secretary general or above, including in peacekeeping operations in the past 60 years.

"We are concerned about the issue of violence against women around the world, in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan," she said. "We have the special responsibility to punish perpetrators of sexual violence."

She called for measures against UN peacekeepers charged with sexual misconducts.

"The silence around sexual violence in conflict situations must be broken," said South Africa's Zuma. "Sexual violence is inextricably linked to gender inequality and we therefore advocate more strongly for the equal participation and full involvement of women in efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security."

Liberia's Foreign Minister Olubanke King-Akerele said her country has experienced widespread sexual violence and has adopted strict measures to fight them under the presidency of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the country's first female president.

|The council meeting on sexual violence was called for by the United States, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council in June. The US said sexual violence has become a security issue.

In a prepared document, the US said sexual violence against women and girls has become more widespread since the year 2000 when the council began taking measures against it. It said since UN tribunals were set up 15 years ago to prosecute genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, "widespread, organised and systematic rape has continued and, if anything, has become more severe."

Since 2000, "sexual violence as a weapon of war has been perpetrated with almost universal impunity," the document said.

It said more than 32,000 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence were registered in Congo's South Kivu province alone during the recent conflict. Some UN peacekeepers based in Kivu had been accused of sexual misconducts and discharged from the UN mission.// dpa

Bangkok's Independent Newspaper

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November Rain

Weapon of war? Isn't it more universally thought of as the 'spoils of war'? I hate to do a Jettie, but I think I agree in this case. The UN is toothless & (sadly) this resolution will be ignored & stomped into the ground. Nothing will change.

Thetyim

So it's still OK to rape military personnel male or female.