|
|
|
About Links Contact |
REGARD |  |
| REGARD: DEMOCRACATISATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS 2002-08-16 Russian and Georgia at the top of their voices Russian and Abkhazia against Georgia and Chechnya. Such is the line-up in the conflict in the Caucasus. Russian has been on the Abkhaz side in the conflict against Georgia for a long time and have recently been giving out Russian passports to Abkhaz citizens. Now Russia is accusing Georgia of protecting Chechnian rebels hiding in the Pankisi gorge, an area situated in Georgia. A background as well as the latest development courtesy of Le figaro in French. 2002-08-10 The fundamentalists of Uganda The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is terrorising the people of northern Uganda and southern Sudan and have been doing so for years. The joint forces of the Ugandan government and the southern gerilla of Sudan have now joined forces to try to get rid of them but this have only made their attacks even fiercer. Thousands of refugees are at this moment on the run from the area. The LRA is a unusually dangerous group. They are just as much of fundamentalists as any islamist movement and they are just as militant. They say that they want to base their governing on the ten commandments of the bible. It is all off course an absurd idea and something that we hope will not spread to other christian groups. A background as well as the latest development is to be found on the BBC. 2002-08-02 Greek police proclaim victory over November 17 The Greek police stated today that Greece's foremost terrorist group November 17's 15th member had been captured. The group is now almost reduced to nothing, although at least one member remains at large. The group's members have all been leading a quiet and respectible life which has made it possible for them to avoid unnecessary interest in their persons. At the same time it would probably not been possible to hide this long without the support from key figures in the Greek state apparatus. The police forces in Greece have made a point out of not cooperating with the National Intelligence Agency (EYP) since it have not succeded in previous attempts to capture November 17 and officials now say that it have been obstructing previous investigations. The best place to find the latest developments is the english language greek magazine Ekathimerini. 2002-08-01 Will Russia finally be responsible about Chechnya? Perhaps the Russian leadership is finally becoming closer to realising that Chechnya needs to be dealt with in a civilized way. President Putin has recently made several moves that seems to isolate the hawks in the military who are largely responsible for the widespread human rights violations in Chechnya. The complete analysis of the situation is found on Institute for War and Peace Reporting. 2002-07-31 Mr. Milosevic sabotaging his own trial - and his own health The international court in the Hague have had numerous problems with getting former yugoslave president Slobodan Milosevic to behave lika a defendant. He has never recognised the court and is also doing his own defending because he refuses to accept appointing his own lawyer. The court have difficulties finding ways to protect Mr. Milosevic's right to a fair trial. Recently it has got even worse, since Mr. Milosevic have been ordered by doctors to rest because of a significant risk of a cardio-vascular event. Mr. Milosevic commented in court by telling the judges: "It's your problem", and continuing his defence. More details and an update on the trial by Institute for War and Peace Reporting. 2002-07-28 Human Development Report 2002: Central and Eastern Europe still lagging The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has presented its annual report on the so-called Human Development Index (HDI). The index is based on statistical data such as level of education, longevity and GDP per capita. The position of Latvia is one of the few changes on the list. The country is now officially among the most developed countries while most of the former Soviet republics are still lagging behind. The report is made available by UNDP. 2002-07-23 Rwanda finally accepting peace in DRC? The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have concluded a peace agreement yesterday in Durban. Rwanda is to redraw it's troops from RDC's territory while RDC agrees to disarm and reorganize the hutu rebels in RDC. These rebels where the main perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and have been on the loose in the Congolese jungle ever since. More details in the article in La Libre Belgique (in french). 2002-07-23 Iran caught between enemies Iran is almost entirely sorrounded by the US army, something that worries the leaders, according to an article in Le Figaro (in french). USA have troops positioned in Afghanistan, Georgia and several of the countries of Central Asia. Iran's foremost ally Russia is at the same time courting NATO and has become almost helpful whenever the Americans want to put more personnel in the region. To Iran, every day seems to be worse than the last one. 2002-07-22 Sudan still a long way from peace A peace deal has been struck in Sudan between the government and the southern gerilla movement SPLM/A. But the deal is not much of a deal, there isn't even a ceasefire. Yes, there has been some progress made in the peace negotiations but on the other hand they have been going on for a very long now and it was really about time they achieved anything at all. There is still a long way to go. Northern Sudan is still in the hands of islamists who have proven themselves to be extremly brutal both in war and towards their own people. 2002-07-18 Turkey's troubled background The military's strong position in Turkey have always been a reason for criticism from the west, mostly because of the atrocities commited against the kurds. But in Turkey a large portion of the population think of the military as a guarantee for order and even for - democracy! The military have on several occasions actually saved the democracy from being ruined by islamists and corrupt politicians. Still, Turkey of today is at a crossroad, where it need to decide to make the necessary changes to bring the country prosperity and welfare. In this the military do not have a role and the Turkish political system must stand on it's own. The Swedish Institute of International Affairs have published a very interesting introduction to the political background of the situation in Turkey. The publication is available on the internet as a pdf file. 2002-07-15 Mr Putin's Russia lethal for the media Russia has been the most dangerous country on earth for journalists during the two last years, according to french magazine Médias. No less than 34 of them have been killed in this period. Only in one case have there been a conviction of a responsible for a killing. Mr Putin has also recently chosen to take over several of the free medias in Russia, such as NTV and TV6. The freedom of the media is thus at risk and the doubts that many people have about whether the Russian presidents' really is that fond of democracy have certainly not died out. 2002-07-14 The worlds' worst war rages on DRC (Democratic republic of Congo) is the site of the most deadly war on earth. Estimations made states that up to three million people have been killed in only a few years. One main cause of the fighting is the action of the Rwandan government. In 1994 the genocide in Rwanda, neighboring DRC, ended in several hundred thousand dead. The hutu force that commited the genocide was forced out of Rwanda and instead flew to DRC where they continued there atrocities. The new Rwandan government used this as a pretext to invade DRC and have ever since continued to pillage the land. The hutu rebels are also still there as are several other forces and gerillas. Noone knows anymore who is attacking whom. The young leader of DRC, Joseph Kabila, have concluded a peace agreement to end the fighting but Rwanda refused to participate. It is a disgrace which could lead to the UN taking some sort of action against Rwanda. The Security Council will give out a report on the subject in August. 2002-07-14 The one good thing about the Taleban rule The UN organ ODCCP (United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention) have recently issued the report Global Illicit Drug Trends 2002. It has a massive amount of statistics about drug production and trade that very few people will read. Well at least I read the summaries and took a look at the graphs. And from that I learnt this: There was actually one good thing about the Talebans. The Taleban gouvernement of Afghanistan managed to do what quite a few have tried and failed at before them. They prohibited the growing of opium and actually managed to enforce it almost entirely. A 91% decrease in production was the stunning result, according to ODCCP. Meanwhile some democratic and "almost western" countries such as Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Thailand are still struggling. Everyone of them, except Colombia, have had a decrease in production, but Peru and Bolivia still have a long way to go. 2002-07-11 The ICC struck by populistic Bush George W. Bush and his administration have temporarily put to a halt the opening of the international criminal court (ICC) because of worries of the risk of Americans being prosecuted by it. The fear of the anti-american have thus struck again. It is unlikely that an American will ever be prosecuted by the ICC. The court will focus on extremly grave crimes, such as genocide, crimes for which Americans will be prosecuted in there own national courts of law. Only if this system will fail will the ICC be interested in persuing the case. Bush was elected by a part of the electorate which is not very interested in politics and who have a large distance, both geographical and cultural, between themselves and the power. They are frightened by the possiblity that a distant power, any power, could have an impact on their lives. This, incidently, is something that they have in common with quite a lot of people in the EU, who perceive a huge distance between themselves and Brussels. And the politicians of Europe and the USA both have difficulties dealing with these fears. | ||||||||||||||||
| This page is made for Internet Explorer 5 for MacIntosh. If it doesn't work well with other browsers or with your PC, please tell me about it.
|
||||||||||||||||