building peace

dossier

Communalism Combat

Gujarat 2002-2007: Genocide’s Aftermath - Part I

Why we cannot forget To start with, our sincere apologies to all readers for the big time lag between the last issue of CC, "Minority Report", and the issue now in your hands. The main reason for this delay relates to the subject matter of this issue, where our prime concern has been to provide extensive information so that readers can better appreciate the nature of the "Vibrant Gujarat" over which chief minister, Narendra Modi, the "chief author and architect" of the carnage, still (...) read

date of on-line publication : 21 December 2007

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

dossier

Crisis Group

Ethiopia and Eritrea: Stopping the Slide to War

> Africa Briefing N°48

This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group warns of the real risk of renewed conflict and calls on the international community to move fast to stop it. The UN Security Council and the U.S. in particular must give both sides the clearest message that no destabilising unilateral action will be tolerated, and that the parties must comply with their obligations under international law, disengage on the ground and restore the demilitarised Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). Click here (...) read

date of on-line publication : 14 November 2007

Chanaa Jane

Buying arms; selling lives: critical roles in arms control

> id21 communicating development research

The world spends US$ 900 billion on defence each year, but only around US$ 50 billion on development aid. Across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, an average of US$ 22 billion is spent annually on arms. This sum would enable those regions to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of achieving universal primary education and reducing infant and maternal mortality. Instead one child in five does not complete primary school, more than 10 million children die each year, and (...) 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

Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Israel launches a new peace initiative

Muhamad Dahlan’s failed military takeover in June put an end to seven years of Israeli unilateralism in the region. This resulted in the creation of two Palestinian governments, one headed by Hamas and one by Fatah, both claiming legitimacy, and an agreement from the Fatah militias in the West Bank to disarm. With this as the present context, the peace process was back on the local and international agendas. At the moment, there are two propositions on the peace negotiations table. The Arab (...) read

date of on-line publication : 30 July 2007

HALPER Jeff

The Livni-Rice Plan: Towards a Just Peace or Apartheid

> International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC

For years I have been one of the doomsayers, arguing that the two-state solution is dead and that apartheid has become the only realistic political outcome of the Israel-Palestine conflict- at least until a full-blown anti-apartheid struggle arises that fundamentally changes the equation. I based my assessment on several seemingly incontrovertible realities. Over the past 40 years, Israel has laid a thick and irreversible Matrix of Control over the Occupied Territories, including some 300 (...) read

date of on-line publication : 9 May 2007

International Crisis Group

Guinea : change or chaos

> Africa Report n°121, 14 February 2007

The 12 February 2007 declaration of siege and establishment of a permanent curfew and martial law by President Lansana Conté after three days of renewed violence has brought Guinea to the verge of disaster. Towns throughout the country rallied to the general strike launched on 10 January, turning it into an unprecedented popular protest against the Conté regime. The repression of the demonstrations - over 100 dead in total since January - and the nomination of Eugène Camara, a close Conté (...) read

date of on-line publication : 5 April 2007

dossier

Transnational Institute (TNI)

Losing ground : drug control and war in Afghanistan

> « Drugs & Conflict », Debate Papers n°15, December 2006, 36 p. (pdf)

The worsening armed conflict and the all-time record opium production in Afghanistan have caused a wave of panic. Calls are being made for robust military action by NATO forces to destroy the opium industry in southern Afghanistan. But intensifying a war on drugs in Afghanistan now would further fuel the conflict, which is the last thing that the country needs. This « Drugs & Conflict » briefing focuses on opium elimination efforts and the controversy about involving military forces in (...) read

date of on-line publication : 21 March 2007

MAMDANI Mahmoud

The politics of naming : genocide, civil war, insurgency

> Essay first published by the London Review of Books on 8 March 2007

The similarities between Iraq and Darfur are remarkable. The estimate of the number of civilians killed over the past three years is roughly similar. The killers are mostly paramilitaries, closely linked to the official military, which is said to be their main source of arms. The victims too are by and large identified as members of groups, rather than targeted as individuals. But the violence in the two places is named differently. In Iraq, it is said to be a cycle of insurgency and (...) read

date of on-line publication : 21 March 2007