conflict

Amnesty International

Mali: Coup heralds period of uncertainty on human rights

Leaders of the military coup against President Amadou Toumani Touré’s Mali government must release the prime minister and other politicians from custody and take steps to protect human rights, Amnesty International said today. At least three members of the government including the prime minister, Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga, and the Minister of the Territorial administration, Kafougouna Koné, were arrested on Thursday. It is thought they (...) read

date of on-line publication : 27 March 2012

Daily Nation

Be ready for war, warns Gbagbo as Ecowas plans visit by Presidents

Cote d’Ivoire strongman Laurent Gbagbo today appeared bent on clinging to power, warning West African leaders any attempt to oust him could ruin the regional economy and trigger civil war. On Tuesday, three West African presidents will visit Abidjan in a bid to convince the defiant 65-year-old leader to step down, a last-ditch plea that comes backed by a threat of military intervention. But Mr Gbagbo, who claims to have won last month’s presidential election, is in no mood to stand aside (...) read

date of on-line publication : 10 January 2011

Alternative Information Center (AIC)

First Victory of BDS Campaign against Israel in Japan

On 1st December, the MUJI officially announced on their website cancellation of its plan to open a store in Israel. Since the 12 April 2010 release of the MUJI plan to open a store in Israel, and in order to respond to the BDS Campaign against Israel called upon by Palestinians to the people in the world, we, Palestine Forum along with other civil organizations and individuals, had appealed to the MUJI to cancel the plan. For over seven months, various nationwide actions such as appeal (...) read

date of on-line publication : 22 December 2010

The Guardian, Tomdispatch.com

Worldwide arms trade flourishing despite recession, report warns

The average volume of arms sales increased by 22% over the past five years, compared to the previous five-year period, says the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The last two of these years were marked by worldwide economic turbulence which has far from stabilised, yet the arms trade is booming, it finds. Read more Also read : Frida Berrigan, Pimping Weapons to the World, (...) read

date of on-line publication : 22 March 2010

Take action to control the arms trade

Every year, millions of people suffer as a result of the irresponsible and reckless arms trade. Over 1,000 people are killed by arms every day. Countless more are injured, bereaved, abused and displaced by state security forces, armed groups, criminal gangs and other armed individuals. Two years ago, 153 governments voted at the United Nations to start work on developing an international Arms Trade Treaty. We want as many people as possible to take action to control the arms trade. Tell (...) read

date of on-line publication : 23 September 2008

South Africa: The army is called in

> IRIN Africa

The South African army has been called in to bolster police efforts to end the xenophobic clashes that have gripped the country’s richest province. According to a statement by President Thabo Mbeki’s office on 21 May, "[He] has approved a request from the South African Police Service [SAPS] for the involvement of the South African National Defence Force [SANDF] in stopping ongoing attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng Province." Read (...) read

date of on-line publication : 22 May 2008

Gaza hours away from water and sewage crisis

Oxfam Release Gaza hours from water and sewage crisis as fuel for pumps run dry Gaza’s water and sewage systems are a matter of hours from almost total shut down as stocks of fuel to run vital pumps runs out according to international agency Oxfam. Only 37 of the 122 water supply pumps have fuel and most will run out of fuel within hours. Only six water pumps have fuel to run for more than a day. Oxfam fears the risks of an outbreak of water borne diseases if the water and sanitation (...) read

date of on-line publication : 23 January 2008

Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Refugees for the Second Time: The Forced Eviction of Palestinian Villagers from Khirbet Qassa

> by Ahmad Jaradat and Anahi Ayala Iacucci

Beit Jibrin was a small village with a long history, located in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Despite this, it was captured on 27 October 1948, by Israel’s Givati Brigade during the last stage of Operation Yoav, an Israeli offensive of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Beit Jibrin, which was already hosting many Palestinian refugees from neighboring villages that had been caught in earlier fighting, was attacked by Israeli forces from both the land and (...) read

date of on-line publication : 19 December 2007

Gujarat Chief Minister Endorses Unlawful Killings

Government Should Investigate Narendra Modi for Seeming Incitement to Violence Press realease : Human Rights Watch The Indian government should immediately order an investigation of Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, for statements apparently endorsing the extrajudicial execution of a terrorism suspect by the police, Human Rights Watch said today. Gujarat’s antiterrorism squad in November 2005 gunned down Sohrabuddin Sheikh, whom police claimed was a militant conspiring to kill (...) read

date of on-line publication : 11 December 2007

Somalia: Puntland warns of looming humanitarian crisis

Somalia’s northeastern self-declared autonomous region of Puntland has appealed for assistance for hundreds of displaced families from Sool region, which was overrun by forces loyal to the self-declared republic of Somaliland on 15 October. "We are issuing this appeal to assist the displaced from Sool who are scattered around Puntland," said Abdullahi Abdirahman, the head of Puntland Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Agency (HADMA). "We would like to alert our humanitarian (...) read

date of on-line publication : 25 October 2007

MIFTAH

A Quarter of a Century Later, Sabra and Shatilla Massacre Still Alive

September 16 marks the 25th anniversary of the massacre in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon. During the course of the two-day attack, a reported 2,000 Palestinians - mainly women, children and elderly - were slaughtered in their homes at the hands of the pro-Israeli Lebanese Maronite Phalangist militia under the direct eye of the occupying Israeli army. While Israel puts the death toll at 700, some Palestinian and Lebanese estimates put it as high as 3,500. The massacre took (...) read

date of on-line publication : 18 September 2007

Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict

Angola Report

According to UNICEF, Angola was among the worst places in the world to be a child, at least until 2002. One out of every three children used to die before the age of five. This was equal to one child dying every three minutes and 420 children dying every day. More than half of Angola’s population is under 18, yet little attention is paid to the urgent needs of youth and the consistent violations of their rights by the government and the opposition armed forces during the war. Both the (...) read

date of on-line publication : 14 February 2007

Sudan: Press Under Pressure

> Human Right Watch

While international media attention has been focused on Darfur, the Sudanese authorities in Khartoum have been stepping up their harassment of Sudanese journalists and newspapers,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The harassment is symptomatic of Khartoum’s fear of mounting popular dissent and frustration at government policies and actions.” In recent months government security forces have carried out numerous acts of censorship, arrests of journalists, and (...) read

date of on-line publication : 14 November 2006

CRAY Charlie

The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security (...)

The history of American war profiteering is rife with egregious examples of incompetence, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and misconduct. As war historian Stuart Brandes has suggested, each new war is infected with new forms of war profiteering. Iraq is no exception. From criminal mismanagement of Iraq’s oil revenues to armed private security contractors operating with virtual impunity, this war has created opportunities for an appalling amount of corruption. What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military’s mission.
In early 2005 CIA officials told the Washington Post that at least 50 percent of its estimated $40 billion budget for that year would go to private contractors, an astonishing figure that suggests that concerns raised about outsourcing intelligence have barely registered at the policymaking levels.
In 2004 the Orlando Sentinel reported on a case that illustrates what can go wrong: Titan employee Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, an Egyptian translator, was arrested for possessing classified information from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Critics say that the abuses at Abu Ghraib are another example of how the lines can get blurred when contractors are involved in intelligence work. CACI provided a total of 36 interrogators in Iraq, including up to 10 at Abu Ghraib at any one time, according to the company. Although neither CACI, Titan or their employees have yet been charged with a crime, a leaked Army investigation implicated CACI employee Stephen Stefanowicz in the abuse of prisoners.  read

date of on-line publication : 25 September 2006

Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Sudan: No Justice for Darfur Victims

Special Courts Failing to Prosecute War Crimes

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006 (...)

The Office of the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it had opened an investigation into the events in Darfur. The next day Sudan’s chief justice announced the establishment of the Special Criminal Courts on the Events in Darfur (SCCED), telling the Sudanese media that the court was “considered a substitute to the international criminal court.” “The cases before the court so far involve ordinary crimes like theft and receiving stolen goods, which don’t begin to reflect the massive scale of destruction in Darfur,” said Sara Darehshori, senior counsel to the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch and author of the briefing paper. “The Sudanese government must do more than pay lip service to the idea of justice.”  read

date of on-line publication : 22 June 2006

Research Guide on Internal Displacement

> FMO, October 2005, 30pp

http://www.forcedmigration.org/guide (...)

An introduction to some of the main debates regarding internal displacement, focusing mainly on conflict induced displaced.
"This research guide aims to summarise the challenge of internal displacement at a policy level, but also to address its social consequences and explore the experiences of many internally displaced persons (IDPs) of physical dislocation, separation from everyday practices and familiar environments, social disruption and material dispossession."

• [See also the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, formerly the "Global IDP Porject"]

date of on-line publication : 1 June 2006

BELTRAN Elizabeth Peredo

Water, privatization and conflict

> April 2004, Fundación Solon, 54 p., (pdf)

An analysis of the role of women in the struggle against water privatisation, with a focus on the events in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia, where the community was able to kick out the private water company Betchel. « In both city and rural areas, women are at the heart of managing water for their communities (...) In a district where water is scarce, women have been forced to develop strategies to provide water for daily life. Women are the ones who get up at 3 or 4am to collect water from (...) read

date of on-line publication : 5 December 2005

Roman Kupchinsky

Water Could Become Major Catalyst For Conflict

> 16 September 2005, RadioFreeEurope

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle (...)

"Throughout history, access to water has spawned and escalated both domestic and international conflicts. In recent decades, population growth and global warming have both played a major role in raising the demand for and availability of potable water. The U.S. government has predicted that by 2015 almost half of the world’s population will be "stressed" for water. Water — rather than oil — could become the world’s next biggest catalyst for conflict." This article explains the effects the coming "water crunch" will have on food supplies, the regions on which it will impact hardest and the different types of conflicts this could spark off.  read

date of on-line publication : 8 November 2005