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.
On a mission to get a first-hand look at the contribution of U.S. military advisors to the effort to fight the Lord’s Resistance Army, McClatchy correspondent Alan Boswell met strong resistance from the Americans in the remote corner of southeastern Central African Republic. But Boswell did come away with an engaging account of how their presence is impacting the outlook among locals toward the terrifying, shadowy, and inexplicable threat they have endured since 2008.
Enough researchers in Juba report that the effect of the oil shutdown in South Sudan has not yet been fully felt. But IRIN offers a comprehensive look at how the decision—which jeopardizes 98 percent of the new country’s budget—could exacerbate existing challenges South Sudanese face, from the potential threats of legions of employees on the government payroll (including the security services) enduring salary cuts, to food shortages.
Bloomberg’s seasoned Congo correspondent Michael Kavanagh examines the impact of the death of close Kabila advisor and gatekeeper for mining Augustin Katumba, who was killed in a plane crash near Bukavu. Katumba was “the power behind the throne,” according to Wikileaks, Kavanagh points out, and as such, Congo could see a power struggle as other close advisors vie for the coveted role in dealing with lucrative mining contracts.
In a Washington Post oped, Sudan scholar Eric Reeves offers a scathing reaction to the Obama administration’s inaction in the face of government-led violence targeting civilians in Sudan. “Frankly, we do not want to see the ouster of the [Sudanese] regime, nor regime change,” said Special Envoy Princeton Lyman recently, Lyman writes. “We want to see the regime carrying out reform via constitutional democratic measures”—to which Reeves responds:
The notion that Khartoum’s genocidal National Congress Party regime will “carry out reform via constitutional democratic measures” is both preposterous and painfully revealing of the administration’s disingenuousness.
Angelina Jolie’s film “In the Land of Blood and Honey” premiered in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo this week. The BBC’s Allan Little covers the reaction to the story in the still-divided country and captures Jolie’s own thoughts on this highly charged screening that drew an audience of 5,000.