This powerpoint was created by one of the Darfuri refugees I interviewed in Cairo. He asked me to post it on my site so more people could see it. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment in a poor area with twelve family members, and does menial labor for 15 hours a day for the equivalent […]
Archives for June 2009
ICC Bemba decision: Under the Rome Statute, all rape is also torture as a crime against humanity (but you can’t charge it separately)
June 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Yesterday, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC issued its decision on the confirmation of charges laid by the Prosecutor against Congelese MLC leader (and former Vice-President), Jean-Pierre Bemba, for crimes committed in the Central African Republic, 2002-2003. The decision is 187 pages long, so please forgive the length of this blog post. To summarize, the […]
Podcast: It’s Our Turn to Read
June 15, 2009 by 3 Comments
I spent yesterday afternoon with an inspiring group of activists, writers, students and artists at the launch of It’s Our Turn to Read, at the Kenya National Theatre here in Nairobi. The project is a civil society response to the “informal ban” of Michela Wrong’s book It’s Our Turn To Eat: The story of a […]
When both SUNA & the NGOs say the same thing . . .
June 14, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I have been advised that my last vent, caused by having the same message delivered, on the same day, by both SUNA and the “new” NGOs for Darfur, MercyCorps Scotland and CARE (Switzerland), was misguided. Rather than it being a case of the NGOs repeating SUNA’s message in order to protect their re/entry, I am […]
The Sudanese government’s new business: NGO Press Release Dictation
June 13, 2009 by 1 Comment
So – I was about to get off the computer, but I just caught sight of these, and they warranted the creation of a new category: “WTF?” Press Release by CARE:
The work of others
June 13, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Hi everyone I got to Nairobi at about 4am this morning, and am now all set up with a roof over my head, a net connection, and a local SIM card – – the world is my oyster! Although I’ve spent many a month here before, I still got immense enjoyment from a morning spent […]
ICC will judge Katanga
June 12, 2009 by 3 Comments
In its oral decision handed down at 9am this morning (Hague time), Trial Chamber II dismissed Katanga’s challenge to the admissibility of his case before the ICC. There’s a few points of general interest: As a strictly legal matter, the judges could have side-stepped deciding this case on the merits In the oral decision, Judge […]
Montgomery vs. Galbraith
June 12, 2009 by 1 Comment
The Balkans is not my area of expertise, but the issue of territorial gains from genocidal policies is going to come up in the future of Darfur as it is today in Bosnia, which it why it seems relevant to highlight this recent interaction between former US diplomats in the Balkans, William Montgomery and Peter […]
From those with the most power to those with the least . . .
June 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Too tired and too many interview notes to go over to do a proper post, but just to say that today covered the extremes. I started the day interviewing the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and finished the day in the overcrowded lodgings of a Darfuri family of twelve who are struggling […]
Worth reading: ‘Beyond Janjaweed’ Understanding the militias of Darfur
This report, released this month by the Small Arms Survey, on the people who were recruited as proxy militias by the Sudanese government in Darfur, is well worth the read. Its author is Julie Flint (who wrote Darfur: A Short History of a Long War with Alex de Waal), and while I don’t agree with […]