I met Bakit Musa in Goz Beida, Chad, when I traveled there with Mia in 2008. At that time Bakit was 7 years old. In January that year he had picked up an unexploded RPG when he and his friends had been out playing. It left him with only one eye, no arms from the […]
Quick update
March 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment
– just submitted first ten chapters of the book to my editor. Still a long haul ahead to get it into shape, but it feels like I’m moving the the right direction. Phew.
Karadzic trial: A view from Bosnia-Herzegovina
March 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment
So, Radovan Karadzic is having his day in court here in The Hague. I have been following his Opening Statement in between editing draft chapters all morning; his overall defense seems be to a pretty classic ‘blame the victim’ approach (Karadzic: “Their conduct gave rise to our conduct, and that is 100% true”). But the […]
Karadzic trial
March 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment
You can watch the live webstream of Radovan Karadzic’s Opening Statement at his genocide trial this morning at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Sorry?
February 25, 2010 by Leave a Comment
There was a serious error of judgment, a sort of blindness when we didn’t foresee the genocidal dimensions of the government” [French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Rwandans, February 2010] ” . . . all over the world there were people like me sitting in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully appreciate […]
Anyone care about Chad?
January 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment
I realise the advocacy focus today is on the Deputies meeting on Sudan, but while I’ve broken my blog-free commitment, let me take the opportunity to highlight a useful summary of unfolding events in Chad, following Chadian President Deby’s signal that he doesn’t want to UN to renew the mandate of the UN mission (MINURCAT) […]
Bankers beware
December 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Zurich-based financial giant, Credit Suisse, has just agreed to pay $536M to settle a suit brought against it by the U.S. government for violations of U.S. financial sanctions, with the bank having made $1.6 billion in illegal transactions to sanctioned countries including Sudan. The prosecution of cases such as this are an essential component in […]
Recurring themes
December 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I am currently immersing myself in the spectacularly useful (albeit 2217 pages long) compilation of the Travaux Preparatoires to the Genocide Convention, that the research endeavors of Hirad Abtahi and Philippa Webb have gifted the world. There are several gems in among it, and it is particularly interesting to see how close we got to […]
Bits & pieces
December 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I’m trying to stay offline as much as possible at the moment as I’m in self-imposed lock-down-drafting mode for the book. But a couple of things I can’t overlook. 1. Doha First, a useful post from Julie Flint over on the Making Sense of Darfur blog about Doha, serving to remind me that I never […]
Let’s not get played by the “Abdalhaleem tactic”
After the Secretary General’s Nov. 16 report hit the news headlines this week, Sudan Ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, told Reuters: “One big fact should be the focus of the report — that the war is over . . .With peace in sight, the U.N. should, in coordination with the African Union and Sudanese […]