The News Review:

- Death Toll in Benin Tragedy Hits 138
- Feature Article of Sunday, 28 December 2003
- Benin plane crash kills 15 Bangladeshi peacekeepers
- WHO Global Health Report 2003

Death Toll in Benin Tragedy Hits 138
Arab News – Dec 28, 2003
Two of the corpses were those of Iranian citizens, said Mohammed Reza Samara, an Iranian diplomat based in neighboring Nigeria who came to the beach yesterday to identify the bodies. The Bangladeshi military announced that 15 of the dead were its own — Bangladeshi peacekeepers serving in missions in the war-ravaged West African nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia. The peacekeepers — 13 from Sierra Leone and two from Liberia — were returning home on holiday, Bangladesh’s military said in a statement from Dhaka. French investigators were expected to arrive in Benin yesterday to help search for the plane’s flight data recorder, Transport Minister Ahmed Akobi said. The cockpit voice recorder was recovered Friday. Huge chunks of the shattered Boeing 727 were still on the beach, including a smashed wing, two destroyed engines and the cockpit, laying on its side. The bulk of the plane was hauled out of the water with the help of tractors Friday.

Feature Article of Sunday, 28 December 2003
ghanaweb.com – Dec 28, 2003
” This were words reported by the Freetown-based Concord Times following the launch of a new national security policy for Sierra Leone, a country whose brutal decade long civil, the most horrible in Africa, is expected to generate interest in a West African sub-region prone to instabilities and that itching for a new regional security architecture because of the rate of civil wars, coup detat, armed robberies and general crime compared to other parts of Africa. While the identifiable security variables such as “government buildings and its employees” are laudable, Sierra Leone’s Office of Security Co-ordinator (OSC)’s blueprint is does not give detail explanation as to Sierra Leone and, in the face of new regional security developments, contemporary West Africa security history. Sierra Leone, like other West African states’ security, is tied to the entire region. UNAMSIL will one day leave Sierra Leone and, as it prepares to go to Liberia, leave Liberia also one day. What is lacking in the Sierra Leone’s OSC security policy is a deeper look at not only at Sierra Leone’s, and for that matter, West Africa’s, security history but some of the deep-seated cultural practices that have for long influenced insecurities in not only Sierra Leone but also the entire West Africa. Comparatively, there are more security problems in West Africa than other parts of Africa. It is, therefore, not for nothing that West African leaders, helpless in the face of overwhelming security troubles, through their regional group, ECOWAS, is asking the United Nations for peacekeepers to be stationed in Cote d’Ivoire a la Sierra Leone and Liberia (Liberia has so much security problems that international police force is being sent there).

Benin plane crash kills 15 Bangladeshi peacekeepers
Daily Star – The Daily Star – Dec 28, 2003
December 28, 2003 Front Page Benin plane crash kills 15 Bangladeshi peacekeepersStar ReportFifteen Bangladeshi army officers on UN peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia were among the 119 people killed in Thursday’s plane crash in the West African country of Benin, the army said. Thirteen of the officers served with Bangladesh Battalion 8 in Sierra Leone since last year and the two others were stationed in Liberia since October-November, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) directorate said. Those who served at Sierra Leone are Lieutenant Colonel SM Shamshul Arefin, Major Abdur Rahim Mia, Major Mirza Md A Baten, Major Imtiaz Uddin Ahmed, Major Mosharraf Hossain, Captain Arifur Rahman Talukder, Captain Farid Uddin Ahmed, Captain Alauddin Sardar, Captain Rakibul Hasan, Captain Zahidul Islam, Captain Rafiqul Islam, Captain Abdul Mabud and Senior Warrant Officer Shafiqul Islam. The officers serving in Liberia were Major M Rawnak Akhtar and Major Mustafizur Rahman Chowdhury. Both were initially with a battalion in Sierra Leone since March before the unit was mobilised to Liberia in October-November to serve the peacekeeping mission there. “They were on vacation and coming home aboard the Boeing 727 via Beirut. From there, they were to fly to Dhaka via Dubai,” said Lt Col Nazrul Islam, director of the ISPR directorate, confirming that no other Bangladeshi officers were on that plane…
Those who served at Sierra Leone are Lieutenant Colonel SM Shamshul Arefin, Major Abdur Rahim Mia, Major Mirza Md A Baten, Major Imtiaz Uddin Ahmed, Major Mosharraf Hossain, Captain Arifur Rahman Talukder, Captain Farid Uddin Ahmed, Captain Alauddin Sardar, Captain Rakibul Hasan, Captain Zahidul Islam, Captain Rafiqul Islam, Captain Abdul Mabud and Senior Warrant Officer Shafiqul Islam. The officers serving in Liberia were Major M Rawnak Akhtar and Major Mustafizur Rahman Chowdhury. Both were initially with a battalion in Sierra Leone since March before the unit was mobilised to Liberia in October-November to serve the peacekeeping mission there. “They were on vacation and coming home aboard the Boeing 727 via Beirut. From there, they were to fly to Dhaka via Dubai,” said Lt Col Nazrul Islam, director of the ISPR directorate, confirming that no other Bangladeshi officers were on that plane. The officers were scheduled to arrive in Dhaka today. This is the biggest casualty for Bangladeshi peacekeepers overseas.

WHO Global Health Report 2003
Medical News Today – Dec 28, 2003
If she becomes a mother she will benefit from high-quality maternity care. Growing older, she may eventually develop chronic diseases, but excellent treatment and rehabilitation services will be available; she can expect to receive, on average, medications worth about US$ 550 per year and much more if needed. Meanwhile, the girl in Sierra Leone has little chance of receiving immunizations and a high probability of being underweight throughout childhood. She will probably marry in adolescence and go on to give birth to six or more children without the assistance of a trained birth attendant. One or more of her babies will die in infancy, and she herself will be at high risk of death in childbirth. If she falls ill, she can expect, on average, medicines worth about US$ 3 per year. If she survives middle age she, too, will develop chronic diseases but, without access to adequate treatment, she will die prematurely…
This should be done across all levels of the health care system, with the aim of delivering quality services equitably and efficiently to the whole population. How can the young girl in Sierra Leone be given the same chances for a healthy life as the girl born in Japan? Many factors — such as poverty, armed conflict, institutional stability and the state of basic infrastructure — lie beyond the direct control of the health system. Understanding the importance of these factors, the World Health Organization (WHO) advocates aggressively for improvements in the underlying determinants of health. But there is much a well-functioning health care system can do to narrow health outcome gaps, even as the work of reducing poverty and socioeconomic injustice continues. For every child born today to have a good chance of a long and healthy life, there are minimum requirements which every health care system should meet equitably. These are: access to quality services for acute and chronic health needs; effective health promotion and disease prevention services; and appropriate responses to new threats as they emerge.