Congo War
gregladen | October 2, 2010Nazi Holocaust: 1939 - 1945
War crimes trials: Fall 1945
DR Congo genocide: 1996-1997
War crimes trials: Still thinking about it.
I guess that brackets the range of potential variation.
(Note: This does not refer to the other, related genocide of Tutsi, for which trials have taken place.)
gregladen | September 25, 2010The UN's human rights chief has said the "scale and viciousness" of mass rapes in DR Congo "defy belief", as a report into the attack was released.
Navi Pillay said that, even for the region, the incident stood out because of the "extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way" it was carried out.
Some 300 people were raped by armed militia in the attack in August.
Details here
gregladen | June 26, 2009 Actual missionaries As you may have noticed, I have written a series of posts about missionaries in eastern Zaire in the 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on my own personal experiences. These seven posts represent only a small number of these experiences, but they are more or less representative. They are meant to underscore the down side of missionary activities in Central Africa. To some extent, the negatives you may see in these essays are part of the reason for missionary activity being illegal in many countries (although the reasons for those laws varies considerably). It is my…
gregladen | June 2, 2009-Activists concerned by this year's escalation of sexual violence in eastern Congo are trying to turn up the heat on those benefitting--directly or indirectly--from illicit mineral extractions.
"Conflict minerals power our entire electronic industry," John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, told U.S. senators at a May 13 hearing on sexual violence in eastern Congo and Sudan.
The Enough Project is a Washington-based organization campaigning against genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape in eastern Congo.
Women's eNews
gregladen | June 1, 2009Please read the following vignette of an actual incident.
I am a scientist observing the culture of the Namoyoma people. I am sitting in a shady spot just outside the village, writing up some notes, and I observe a disturbing event. Four men are trying to drag a young woman from the road into the nearby forest, and from what I hear them saying, they intend to rape her. There are also four older women trying to drag the young woman back to the village, and they are yelling that she must go back to her father's house where she will be protected. The battle over this young woman continues…
gregladen | December 2, 2008One of Rwanda's most famous singers, Simon Bikindi, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting violence during the 1994 genocide.
His conviction stems from a speech he made from a vehicle equipped with a public address system encouraging ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis.
bbc
gregladen | November 25, 2008All sides in eastern DR Congo have committed serious human rights abuses, the UN secretary general has said.
Ban Ki-moon said both government forces and rebels loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda had carried out arbitrary executions, mass killings, rape and torture.
The report covers July to November, when the most recent fighting flared.
In a separate report, a rights group has accused the government of using violence to eliminate political opponents following polls in 2006.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Congolese security forces had deliberately killed more than 500 people in a campaign against…
gregladen | November 20, 2008The United Nations Security Council has voted to send 3,000 more troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo following renewed fighting in the country's east.
The increase means the peacekeeping mission, Monuc, will have about 20,000 troops and police on the ground - the biggest UN force of its kind.
bbc
gregladen | November 18, 2008The military chief of staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sacked after the army lost territory to rebel forces in the east.
The reason for Dieudonne Kayembe's dismissal was the urgency of the conflict, a TV statement said.
President Joseph Kabila named navy chief General Didier Etumba Longomba as the new head of the armed forces.
Meanwhile, a UN peacekeeping commander says he cannot defeat the rebels because of his rules of engagement.
General Bipin Rawat, who commands 6,000 troops, told the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper that his forces were denied any element of surprise by…
gregladen | November 17, 2008Amid calls by the rebel leader in the Congolese war, intensive fighting has broken out along the front lines among troops north of Goma, between Goma and Vitshumbi. This is a fairly large area of the Western Rift Valley nestled between the western rift wall and the Virunga Volcanoes (which is where the famous mountain gorillas live).
Details here.
I was once arrested for attempting to overthrow the government of Zaire in Vitshumbi, but was able to talk my way out of it pretty quickly. I was arrested by the Navy because, well, the Navy guy did not have a boat, and I did. In fact, I had…
gregladen | November 16, 2008DR Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has told UN peace envoy Olusegun Obasanjo he will support a peace process with the government.
Gen Nkunda also said he would respect a ceasefire if the Congolese government did. Mr Obasanjo said it would take effort from both sides to keep a truce.
We'll see.
BBC
gregladen | November 13, 2008UNISEF in the Congo:
NEW YORK (November 12, 2008) -- Insecurity persists in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes in the last two months alone, due to fighting between the army and a rebel group.
Today, two more planeloads of emergency supplies landed in Goma to help address critical health and humanitarian needs of the displaced. A total of 10 shipments are expected over the coming days; six have landed thus far.
"These supplies will help contain the spread of cholera and diarrhea, both extremely…
gregladen | November 13, 2008Evidence is increasing that foreign forces are being drawn into the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC Angolan and Zimbabwean troops were on the ground.
Meanwhile, journalists report that some of Laurent Nkunda's rebel fighters are in the pay of the Rwandan army.
This has renewed fears that the fighting will see a re-run of the five-year Congolese war, which involved nine nations, before it "ended" in 2003.
ironic quotes added by me.
Details here.
gregladen | November 12, 2008The head of UN peacekeeping has asked the UN Security Council for more than 3,000 extra troops to protect civilians in the eastern DR Congo.
Alain Le Roy said current peacekeeper numbers were not enough to protect civilians from violence perpetrated by rebel groups and the Congolese army.
There are 9,000 UN peacekeepers in the region, out of 17,000 nationwide.
The latest crisis began in August when rebels advanced towards Goma, which is now ringed with refugee camps.
Read the rest: BBC