Mexico held its midterm elections last week and while the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party regained control of the Congress for the first time since 2000, another story has begun to emerge: the surprise showing of the small Green Party, which garnered 10% of the vote. The reason why this may be significant? The Green […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ccTOaxG-7CQ” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] When Sri Lanka’s 26 year civil war ended in May 2009 with the final defeat of the insurgent Tamil Tigers rebel group (LTTE) by government forces, there were immediate concerns about the civilian death tolls and methods used by the government in the final months of the war. The […]
Mourners gathered in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica to honor the victims and mark the anniversary of the bloodiest massacres during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. War crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic led his troops in July 1995 into the U.N. safe-haven of Srebrenica and “stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and civilian, elderly and […]
Having a loving and caring family is something none of us should ever take for granted, unfortunately most do. We take it as right, we complain about out siblings, our parents, and often take little time to truly get to know the depth of those around us. Yes, of course we love our families without […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YECvWjZXSTE” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared the violence in China’s Xinjiang region against the minority Uighurs to genocide on Friday. Speaking about the violent protests that have taken place between ethnic Han Chinese and Uighurs he said, “The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide […]
In light of this week’s racially motivated violence and unrest in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Province it may be helpful to reassess China’s ethnic policies in the Autonomous Region. They have been called everything from “genocide” to “stability promotion” but what they really happen to be lies somewhere in between. Since the 1950s the Chinese government […]
A preliminary report from a review team for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) has found “horrific violence” on the part of the military against civilians in the diamond-rich Marange District in eastern Zimbabwe. The Kimberley Process was established in 2003 to thwart the trade of so-called conflict diamonds which funded numerous rebel movements in […]
At the summit in Gleneagles 2005, I remember the promises made – as I’m sure most in the developing world have as well. But the rich have forgotten; money is to be made not spent. Tony Blair was prime minister and had released a commission report on poverty in Africa. His message was clear, the […]
The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommended last week that Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf should be banned from government for 30 years for her previous support of former President Charles Taylor. Taylor is currently on trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone for his role in the civil war there, where tens […]
U.N. agency suspends food rations in Philippine south Hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the southern Philippines will go without food rations after the World Food Programme suspended deliveries in the midst of a series of bomb attacks that have killed eight and left dozens wounded. The United Nations and several diplomatic missions have […]
Climate change is inextricably linked to poverty. As the droughts continue and as the sea level rises, hundreds of thousands will be forced to resettle. The most recent conference on climate change in Copenhagen concluded that the climate is changing faster than previous models suggested. Rhetoric and fear mongering aside, these are serious issues with […]
As the American troops pull out from the everyday mayhem of trying to keep order in a country that seems tediously on the verge of implosion, Iraq’s gay and lesbian community have become prime targets for a new wave of violence. On the streets in the Shia strongholds of Sadr City, wanted posters of men are […]
On Friday the African Union (AU) announced it will not co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in enforcing its March decision to charge Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Under the Rome Statute establishing the court, any party to the statute is required to arrest al-Bashir if he enters […]
This past week at the UN-backed Tribunal in Cambodia, survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s infamous Tuol Sleng ‘S-21’ facility gave chilling accounts of the tortures they endured and witnessed – and in two cases, how their artwork saved them. The testimony comes as part of the trial of the former head of internal security and […]
Today we Americans gather and celebrate as a nation, our independence our freedom, taking pride in our country and our history. We honor those who have fought and died to give us the ability to walk this land without fear of persecution. A nation built on the back of injustice, a nation with dark slave […]