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mcooka

The conviction of Radovan Karadzic has lessons for Syria's war | Middle East Eye - 0 views

  • Thursday saw the closure of a long and drawn out story for the victims of Bosnia’s bloody civil war as the guilty verdict was finally delivered in the trial of Radovan Karadzic.
  • of a 40-year jail sentence for Karadzic for genocide and war crimes.
  • Memory and justice are two themes
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  • So much of the strife afflicting Europe and the Middle East today has its roots in the Bosnian conflict, yet scant attention has been paid to the country in the years following the war.
  • Up to 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnia conflict between 1992 and 1995 when, following a referendum to secede from Yugoslavia, the country was plunged into an inter-ethnic war between Serbs, Croats and Muslims (or Bosniaks).
  • Karadzic and his Serb forces have long been considered the worst perpetrators of the violence - which nevertheless saw atrocities on all sides - and culminated in the brutal Srebrenica massacre in which over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in 1995 in full view of the UN peacekeeping forces. 
  • n forging notions of global Muslim solidarity and identity which has played such a major role in the conflicts of the Middle East.
  • Much as in Syria today, hundreds - potentially thousands - of foreigners travelled to Bosnia to join the mujahideen and protect Bosnian Muslims from the Bosnian Serb forces
  • It's hard not to draw parallels between such language and the language of anti-Muslim demagogues in Europe, India, Myanmar and America today.
  • When the dust settles in Syria, and should the war criminals survive long enough to be put on trial, the long-term work of reconstruction and reconciliation will begin
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    This article looks at the trial of the Bosnia war criminal. He was persecuted and given 40 years in prison after 20 years of being chased and waiting for trial. The Bosnia war has roots of strife which still exist in the Middle East today. 
natphan

Militants shell Aleppo, killing 16, injuring dozens amid fragile Syria ceasefire - 0 views

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    Al-Qaeda-linked militants have shelled the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 16 people and injuring 86, state news agency SANA reports, as the fragile ceasefire is being threatened by resurging violence. A source at Aleppo police command told SANA on Monday that shells fired by al-Nusra fighters landed in Aleppo's al-Sulaimaniyeh neighborhood, claiming lives of four, three of them children, and injuring 19 others, many in critical conditions.
diamond03

Egypt's post-Morsi constitution gets almost total voters' approval - RT News - 0 views

  • 98.1% of Egyptians said yes to the new constitution in this week’s referendum.
  • outlawed Muslim brotherhood says it does not recognize the vote
  • approving the constitution as the first step towards restoring stability.
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  • “unrivalled success
  • Now that God has supported us in legalizing our constitution, we ask for his aid in achieving the remaining two stages of the road map: the presidential and parliamentary elections," Salib
  • constitution was an article stipulating that Sharia law will be the main source of legislation,
  • insisted the reference to Sharia law remain, albeit in a watered-down version.
  • Egyptian Christians and liberals on the constitutional committee attempted to remove all mentions of Sharia law from the constitutio
  • seen as an improvemen
  • eliminates various articles that gave legal and political authority to Egypt’s highest Islamic Institution, the Al-Azhar University.
  • allows a presidential election to be held before parliamentary vote in a change to the transition plan announced by the army in July.
  • 55 percent, was still higher than in the 2012 referendum on the constitution, which was drafted while Mohamed Morsi was in powe
  • uslim Brotherhood boycotted the poll, saying it was illegitimate, as did several revolutionary groups and there were reports of low youth turnout in general.
  • charter has been approve
  • Morsi
  • is expected to win
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    Ninety-eight percent of Egyptians voted yes for a new constitution. Sharia law was debated by the Egyptian Christians. The new constitution is seen as an improvement to the Muslim Brotherhood constitution. 
nicolet1189

BBC News - Battle for Iraq and Syria in maps - 0 views

  • The US with Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched 14 strikes against IS in Syria, hitting a number of targets, including Raqqa, a stronghold in eastern Syria captured by the group in 2013.
  • al-Qaeda veterans named
  • These refineries are believed to be producing "between 300-500 barrels of refined petrolium per day", generating as much as $2 million (£1.2m) per day for the militants, a key source of revenue for IS.
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  • Khorasan
  • a caliphate, or Islamic state, stretching from Aleppo in Syria to the province of Diyala in Iraq.
  • more than 200 attacks on IS targets in Iraq since 8 August. F
  • concentrated on targets around the Mosul Dam -
  • killed 14 of the group's fighters and five civilians
  • Mosul
  • Ramadi
  • 12,000 fighters from almost 80 countries
  • Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
  • beneath him are four advisory councils:
  • 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria -
  • Falluja
  • foreign recruits - the number of whom has surged since IS declared itself a caliphate in the summer, international investigators say.
  • majority are from nearby Arab countries, such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
  • 16 "wilayats", or provinces, that IS claims to control,
  • match areas where its predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq
  • three million people have fled abroad to escape the fighting in Syria.
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    This article provides a detailed outline of the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria through the use of maps, charts, and photographs to allow readers to visualize areas where fighting is taking place. Several maps provide locations of ISIS controlled territory, locations of airstrikes, and locations of ISIS controlled oil refineries. It was really helpful to see different maps outlining this information because I often hear about this conflict on the radio or television programs and it can be hard to understand the scope of the conflict without any visual aids. I really appreciated the effort to show in detail the specific locations.
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    This article outlined the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq providing detailed maps, charts, and photos to present a more clear picture of where violence and air strikes are occurring.
fcastro2

Syria: Islamic State seizes control of refugee camp near Damascus | World news | The Gu... - 0 views

  • Aid agencies have warned of an urgent humanitarian crisis after Islamist militants seized control of a refugee camp, just a few miles from Damascus, the Syrian capital.
  • Fighters for the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s official Syria wing, advanced into the camp in the town of Yarmouk – home to 18,000 refugees – on Friday night
  • They now control 90% of the camp
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  • The Observatory, which monitors the conflict from the UK, also said jets from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s air forcebombed the camp on Saturday
  • called the crisis in Yarmouk “an affront to the humanity of all of us, a source of universal shame”.
  • He said Palestinian and Syrian refugees in the camp, which had previously been besieged by Assad’s forces, were already suffering from starvation and disease
  • Their main target was Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, an anti-Assad militia of Syrians and Palestinians from the camp.
  • Reuters that Isis fighters had killed 21 people including fighters and civilians since Friday
  • The evacuation of the camp had been made harder as Isis snipers were shooting refugees as they tried to leave the camp.
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    ISIS has taken over a refugee camp near Damascus, the Syrian capital. They say they are targeting opposition forces living in the camps. ISIS is making it nearly impossible to evacuate those inside the camp and the UN has called this a major "humanitarian crisis."
fcastro2

Putin brings China into Middle East strategy - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East - 0 views

    • fcastro2
       
      Russia & China's negotiations involving Syria
  • one of China’s main strategic regional projects was the economic region (or belt) of the 21st century Great Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, which intends to create a wide area of Chinese economic presence from China’s western borders to Europe
  • clearly comprises the countries of Western Asia (i.e., the Middle East)
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  • Chinese leader opened the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum on June 5 in Beijing
  • energy cooperation; infrastructure construction and creation of favorable conditions for trade and investment; and high-tech domains of nuclear energy, the space rocket sector and new energy sources
    • fcastro2
       
      China & Arabian cooperation
  • suggested that the creation of a free trade zone between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) be accelerated
  • China supports the peace process and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, "enjoying full sovereignty."
  • , why shouldn’t Russia and China in the current situation — given the proximity of their interests and positions — undertake joint initiatives to unblock the peace process, while initiating steps to "introduce this activity within an institutional framework?
  • , the unilateral efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to promote the Israeli-Palestinian peace process are not bearing fruit
  • Russia is interested in using this unprecedented convergence with China in its operations on the Middle East arena, where Moscow has in many ways already been acting in unison with Beijing
  • , the Middle East Quartet is one of few international platforms where Russia can constructively engage with the United States and the EU
  • China's growing economic cooperation with Arab countries not a cause for concern in Moscow, but it is also viewed in a very favorable light
  • will not one day replace the United States as the security guarantor for the transportation routes of these resources
  • Moscow’s and Beijing’s interests converge in the joint countering of terrorism, extremism and separatism
  • . Among the militants from radical groups fighting against government troops in Syria, there are people hailing not only from Russia and Central Asia (fewer in numbers to those coming from Arab and Islamic as well as Western countries), but also from the Uighur minority in China.
  • recently, Beijing came under harsh criticism from Ankara for its actions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region against the Uighur population, which the Turks believe to be their next of kin
  • . Disappointed by the failure of EU accession, the Turkish leadership has even started talking about the desire to join the SCO as an observer
  • Ankara expresses its willingness to cooperate with China in the fight against terrorists and condemns the separatism coming from some groups in Xinjiang
  • There is no doubt that a comprehensive strategic partnership, in which Russia and China would act in concert along the political consensus reached by their two leaders, would in the short term
  • According to both, this convergence is neither a union nor a tournament of predators, but a very pragmatic integrationist instrument of protection and projection of interests by the two powers, including in the Middle East.
  • the Middle East was not the focus of the talks between the two leaders
  • roughly 50 agreements ushering in a period of unprecedented convergence between the two countries
  • seems to allow the two parties to seek further coordination in their actions
  • Such consensus includes Syria, despite Beijing’s lesser involvement on this issue, relative to Moscow; Iran, within the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program; the fight against terrorism and extremism; the creation of a weapons of mass destruction-free Middle East; the condemnation of external intervention and the strategy of "regime change" as well as the push for "color revolutions;" the policy to reach a settlement in the Middle East; and relations with the new Egyptian regime and with respect to the Sudanese issues.
cramos8

ISIS militant \'Jihadi John\' identified, U.S. officials say - CNN.com - 0 views

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    But the identity of "Jihadi John" remained a mystery -- until Thursday, when two U.S. officials and two U.S. congressional sources confirmed it. The man, the officials said, is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Londoner. The officials, who've been briefed on the matter, spoke to CNN after a Washington Post report first revealed Emwazi's identity.
sgriffi2

The Changing Role of First Lady's in Egypt - 0 views

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/835/sc89.htmThis source is an article that looks at six different first ladies over the last century. It talks about how the women were once simply figureheads but h...

#women #womensrights #civilrights #world #history

started by sgriffi2 on 03 Mar 15 no follow-up yet
sgriffi2

Egyptian Women in Politics - 0 views

http://egypttoday.com/blog/2015/02/23/women-in-parliament-gender-justice-for-egyptian-women/This source is from the news "Egypt Today" and talks about the struggles women still face in trying to vo...

#women #womensrights #egypt #civilrights #vote

started by sgriffi2 on 04 Mar 15 no follow-up yet
tdford333

Daniel Byman | Why Drones Work | Foreign Affairs - 0 views

  • Whereas President George W. Bush oversaw fewer than 50 drone strikes during his tenure, Obama has signed off on over 400 of them in the last four years
  • And they have done so at little financial cost, at no risk to U.S. forces, and with fewer civilian casualties than many alternative methods would have caused.
  • So drone warfare is here to stay, and it is likely to expand in the years to come as other countries’ capabilities catch up with those of the United States.
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  • Critics of drone strikes often fail to take into account the fact that the alternatives are either too risky or unrealistic.
  • Even the most unfavorable estimates of drone casualties reveal that the ratio of civilian to militant deaths is lower than it would be for other forms of strikes.
  • signature strikes,” which target not specific individuals but instead groups engaged in suspicious activities.
  • After a strike in Pakistan, militants often cordon off the area, remove their dead, and admit only local reporters sympathetic to their cause or decide on a body count themselves. The U.S. media often then draw on such faulty reporting to give the illusion of having used multiple sources. As a result, statistics on civilians killed by drones are often inflated.
  • data show that drones are more discriminate than other types of force.
  • Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, also at times allowed drone strikes in his country and even covered for them by telling the public that they were conducted by the Yemeni air force.
  • As officials in both Pakistan and Yemen realize, U.S. drone strikes help their governments by targeting common enemies.
  • A 2012 poll found that 74 percent of Pakistanis viewed the United States as their enemy, likely in part because of the ongoing drone campaign. Similarly, in Yemen, as the scholar Gregory Johnsen has pointed out, drone strikes can win the enmity of entire tribes.
  • Many surveys of public opinion related to drones are conducted by anti-drone organizations, which results in biased samples.
  • And for most Pakistanis and Yemenis, the most important problems they struggle with are corruption, weak representative institutions, and poor economic growth; the drone program is only a small part of their overall anger, most of which is directed toward their own governments.
cramos8

Tripoli-backed fighters sent to Sirte to confront ISIL - 4 views

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    Libya's legally installed government has sent fighters to confront the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern city of Sirte. Sources told Al Jazeera that the Tripoli-based government deployed Misrata's 166 battalion, backed by rebels, to tackle ISIL in Sirte.
jreyesc

Who's Funding ISIS? Wealthy Gulf 'Angel Investors,' Officials Say - NBC News.com - 0 views

  • These rich individuals have long served as "angel investors,"
  • "These rich Arabs are like what 'angel investors' are to tech start-ups, except they are interested in starting up groups who want to stir up hatred,"
  • Once the groups are on their feet, they are perfectly capable of raising funds through other means, like kidnapping, oil smuggling, selling women into slavery, etc."
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  • ISIS and the most radical groups comes from Qatar rather than Saudi Arabia, and that the Qatari government has done less to stop the flow than its neighbors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
  • flow continues.
  • any outside funding represents a small fraction of ISIS’s total annual income.”
  • SIS is taking in about $1 million a day from all sources
  • oil smuggling along the Turkish border,
  • $25 a barrel
  • But U.S. officials suggest that as the group has expanded -- and its range of enemies has broadened – so have its costs, which could make the group vulnerable.
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    This article is about how the Islamic State is being funded by wealthy gulf. These investor are described to be like "angle investors".The money that they receive from these investors is just a jumping off point, then the group finds other ways to get money like "kidnapping, oil smuggling, selling women into slavery."
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