Canadian leader tells UN of plight of indigenous people – CP

Source: The Associated Press
Sep 21, 2017

The latest on the U.N. General Assembly meeting (all times local):

1:31 p.m.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has used his speech at the U.N. General Assembly to talk about the injustices that indigenous people face in his country.

Trudeau said Thursday their experience has been one of “humiliation, neglect, and abuse.” It is rare for a Canadian leader to talk about the plight of the country’s indigenous people in a global forum.

Trudeau says Canada is not a “wonderland,” but a work in progress. He says there are indigenous people who don’t have safe drinking water or who say goodnight to their children and then hope that the youths don’t run away or take their own lives in the night.

He spoke of Canada’s former residential schools _ government-sponsored religious institutions established to strip aboriginals of their native language and culture. He says his government is taking steps to improve the plight of indigenous people and noted that more than two dozen long-term drinking water advisories in indigenous communities have been eliminated.

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12:59 p.m.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise has rebuked the U.N. over two scandals that will leave a dark cloud over the peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country when it leaves next month.

Moise thanked the U.N. mission for helping to stabilize Haiti but said Thursday he lamented the “the odious acts of sexual violence and exploitation committed” by some peacekeepers against Haitian children.

He also told the General Assembly that the U.N. should follow through on its promise to help victims of a cholera outbreak that U.N. troops from Nepal are widely blamed for introducing.

The cholera outbreak has afflicted over 800,000 people and killed more than 9,000 since 2010.

An AP investigation detailed how at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers sexually abused and exploited nine Haitian children between 2004 and 2007. Sri Lanka never jailed any soldiers implicated in the abuse. This week, Sri Lanka joined a new U.N. “circle of leadership” aimed at preventing more abuses.

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10:30 a.m.

Adopting a less confrontational stance than key allies, South Korea’s president has urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and seek dialogue to prevent conflict breaking out on the divided peninsula.

President Moon Jae-in voiced support Thursday for stronger sanctions in response to the North’s recent weapons tests, but his tone was in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s dark warning at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that North Korea would be “totally destroyed” if it attacked.

Another U.S. ally, Japan, said Wednesday that pressure, not dialogue, was needed.

Moon cautioned that North Korean nuclear issues need to be “managed stably” to prevent a spike in tensions and military clashes _ a prospect that has overshadowed this year’s gathering of world leaders.

INDEX: INTERNATIONAL