Africa

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

The International Rescue Committee created this short and catchy video to urge people to sign a petition calling on Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act. It’s very shareable, so pass it around in honor of International Women’s Day/Month.

Reporting from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times highlighted the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s innovative approach to nation building in a post-conflict setting. At 14 percent, women peacekeepers in the Liberia mission represent the largest proportion of women in missions worldwide.  Professor Gerard DeGroot, who has done extensive research on the influence of women in the military, explained the rationale:

“When female soldiers are present, the situation is closer to real life, and as a result the men tend to behave. Any conflict where you have an all-male army, it’s like a holiday from reality. If you inject women into that situation, they do have a civilizing effect.”

This State Department apology, covered by Foreign Policy, to the Libyan president is pretty funny.  Mr. Crowley, we knew what you meant, but now that you mention it, your assessment of President Qaddafi’s performance at the U.N. General Assembly wasn’t so diplomatic.

Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail blog Africa Diary offers an interesting discussion of the recent grenade attacks in Kigali, Rwanda through an interview with journalist Didas Gasana of the embattled weekly Umuseso. York describes one theory of the journalist:

Although he cannot prove it, [Gasana] believes there is a possibility that the grenade attacks were orchestrated by state intelligence agencies to justify a crackdown on electoral politics. It’s an uncomfortable question, but without the independent media in Rwanda there would be nobody to raise such questions.

Colum Lynch’s second edition of his new daily round-up over at Foreign Policy’s U.N. blog highlights a number of stories relevant to Enough, including coverage of the U.N.’s commemoration of International Women’s Day, Special Envoy Gration’s (distressing) suggestion that parties need to hustle through the Darfur peace process before full-time focus must be dedicated to Sudan’s elections, and a real zinger about my boss from the outgoing Sudanese ambassador to the U.N.

Technorati Tags: Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Peace Protection United Nations Violence Against Women

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

Not sure when Condition: Critical, MSF’s advocacy arm for Congo, posted these four new videos about displacement, but they are spectacularly done and very moving. The videos do an impressive job—with the use of vivid audio and raw photos—of providing an authentic glimpse into Congo. The common story throughout this series is particularly dramatic when you consider that, after all the hardships each person has endured, they are the lucky ones; they have made it to relative safety.

Nick Kristof, blogging from Congo, posted this update about the very admirable work of Valentino Deng, (whose story was the basis of Dave Eggers’s award-winning book What Is The What). After settling in the U.S. during Sudan’s civil war, Valentino recently decided to return to Sudan and get to work building the first secondary school in his hometown of Marial Bai. The project has taken off in recent months, as Eggers reports on Kristof’s blog.

Change.org’s Michelle (the Stop Genocide blogger) wrote an excellent reflection on the usefulness of speeches, published the morning after the State of the Union. Noting that President Obama has made public pronouncements about genocide and Darfur in the past, she aptly wonders: “Rather than asking for more public commitments, what will it take to make sure that those already made will be effectively and transparently implemented?”

It’s a bonus to hear a photographer describe his or her photographs and learn about the story taking place right outside the frame or in the moments before the shot. That’s what you get with this piece by CNN’s All Africa program featuring photographer Peter Biro of the International Rescue Committee and his recent work in eastern Congo.

The headline is certainly attention grabbing: “African leaders are finally solving African problems.” Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai’s op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor commends in particular the African Union’s panel on Darfur for developing “a road map for achieving a political resolution to not only conflict in Darfur, but also to the historically recognized root causes of conflict in Sudan, including in south Sudan.” AU leaders gathered this week in Ethiopia for their first summit of 2010, focused on ushering a year of ‘peace and security’ for Africa. It makes us feel hopeful to know that Wangari Maathai is hopeful.

Technorati Tags: Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Genocide Peace Prevention Protection

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

Have you heard the rumblings this week about how far fewer people may have died in Congo over the past decade than all of us thought? The statistics dispute spurred a heated back and forth between the International Rescue Committee (who led many of the initial studies to determine the death toll of Congo’s wars) and the authors of the 2009 Human Security Report published by Canada’s Simon Fraser University. The best overview of this controversy, and debunking of the new report, comes from longtime Congo watcher Jason Stearns.

Once again, the latest edition of the podcast series Voices on Genocide Prevention doesn’t disappoint. Host Bridget Conley-Zilkic interviews Jimmy Mulla from the coalition Voices for Sudan. The coalition draws together Sudanese organizations from all over the United States, and in Mulla’s words, “bring all Sudanese together, and so we can all sit down and then discuss how best we can integrate to resolve the conflict in Sudan.”

Don’t miss this excellent op-ed by Peter Daou on U.N. Dispatch questioning why the broad popular concern about the destruction in Haiti doesn’t translate into public fury over some of the world’s other horrific humanitarian situations. Here’s the gist:

“The world's response to Haiti is fully warranted - anything less would be reprehensible. But one thing about it frustrates me: why can't we muster the same sense of urgency, the same focus, the same acceptance that other lesser activities must be temporarily set aside; why can't we mobilize as quickly and react as fiercely and forcefully when it comes to similar calamities across the globe? Say, for instance, the monstrous sexual violence in Congo?”

Posted on his blog, Sudan expert Eric Reeves offers a (very) detailed look at the current situation in Darfur, opening with a discussion of why we’re hearing so much less about Darfur at the moment. The piece is also interesting in light of the fact that Reeves was recently quoted by the New York Times in a controversial piece suggesting that the a “fragile calm” has come to Darfur. Make no mistake, Reeves is unequivocal in his belief that the war is Darfur is far from over.

As President Obama passed his one-year mark, PRI’s The World ran this reflection on his policies toward Africa in a report from Accra, Ghana. The reviews are mixed, ranging from:

“Certainly Bush didn’t say much, but he did a lot more. Obama is saying much; a lot more is expected of him, but there’s very little to go on.”

To…

“You want to build a road, [African leaders] go for aid; you want to build a hospital, they go for aid; you want to do anything serious, they go for aid. Now they are thinking maybe we should look inward a bit more. […] I can assure you that [Obama’s call for self-reliance] made civil society voices stronger, and that will ultimately, hopefully, lead to physical changes on the ground.”

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Eastern Congo Genocide Peace Prevention Sexual Violence Sudan Now Violence Against Women

"During Sudan's half-century of independence, few spots on Earth have witnessed as much death and destruction, with 2 1/2 million war-related fatalities during the past two decades alone. Although the Darfur genocide that began in 2003 is only one of the conflicts raging in the country, they all stem from the same cause: the abuse of power. The ruling party represses independent voices and supports militias that have used genocide, child soldiers and rape as weapons of war. "

- Writes Enough Co-founder John Prendergast in this weekend's Outlook section of the Washington Post. Click to keep reading "Five Myths About Sudan"

Technorati Tags: Advocacy Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Sudan Now